Telling Our Story

FAIN: PY-258684-18

African American Heritage Foundation, Inc. (Louisville, KY 40203-1656)
Aukram Burton (Project Director: June 2017 to present)

Two digitization days and four outreach events for the public, with a focus on the African American community and history in West Louisville, Kentucky. The project would conclude with a genealogy symposium and exhibition of the digitized materials. The Center for African American Heritage has strong ties to the community and would solicit a variety of heritage materials, including audiovisual items (to be digitized separately), photographs, slides, letters, and other items in family collections.

In March 2017, four neighborhoods in the predominately black West Louisville experienced death from gun violence within 5 hours. However, all West Louisville residents must not be painted as victim or criminal. This funding will enable the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage (KCAAH) to create a new narrative for West Louisville, highlighting family histories and legacies of cooperative economics through oral history and material preservation. KCAAH will host 2 community collection days and 4 events that will expand the understanding of the community’s heritage. There will be 2 digitization and 2 oral history stations available to receive contributions from up to 64 people. The community events include a kick-off community dialogue, a preview event that will showcase a sample of materials digitized during Community Collection Day #1, the Community Genealogy Summit, and the culminating show of a larger sample of all digitized materials and launch of the online collection.