Resilience and Care in Black Communities: The COVID-19 pandemic in East St. Louis, Illinois

FAIN: PN-295970-24

Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Champaign, IL 61801-3620)
Karen Flynn (Project Director: May 2023 to present)

The collection of twenty oral histories with African American elders and first responders, and the facilitation of three community archive creation events, to document participants’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The oral histories and digitized objects would be made available online via the University of Illinois Library.

Rooted in the principles of community-based research – working reciprocally, respectfully, and ethically – this project aims to collaborate with East St. Louis residents to build an archive of experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving beyond numbers and data, the project centers the community as knowledge producers through two components: oral histories with elder stalwarts and first responders and archive content creation events for families. East St. Louis is identified as a disadvantaged community under the Justice40 Initiative framework, and residents are aware of the inextricable link between structural inequalities and how COVID-19 impacted their city and their families. While this project is about memorializing and memory, it is also about community care, Black futurities, and how Black people redefine resilience, paying attention to their hopes and aspirations for themselves and their city in the aftermath of COVID-19.