Mythos. Memory. and History 507 CHAPTER 17 tory within the United States. There were both Native American and occasional European slaves at some points in American history, but slavery was an overwhelmingly African American experience. 2 That enslavement has fueled a powerful debate over the fundamental civil rights and appropriate governmental relationships laid out in docu­ Mythos, Memory, and ments such as the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Constitution's Bill of Rights, to name only the History: African American most important. While conflict among ethnic groups and classes may characterize many aspects of American history, the Civil War had to be Preservation Efforts. , fought to resolve the issues relevant to Afro-Americans. Moreover, no 1820-1990 other ethnic group has been victimized by state constitutional amend­ ments denying them the right to vote and to share public facilities, as were African American people in the late-nineteenth-century South. FATH DAVIS RUFFINS While discrimination existed within many areas of American life against certain religious groups and people of foreign origins, at the same time segregation laws were formally enacted in many states for the specific purpose of controlling the social and political access and economic opportunities of one ethnic group: African Americans. Fur­ n 1968 a major television network aired thermore, the modern civil rights movement, which changed Ameri­ an extraordinarily popular documentary can life and has proven inspirational to activists around the world, entitled Black History: Lost, Stolen, or was initiated and led by African Americans. In these ways (and in IStrayed? Narrated by Bill Cosby, this others too detailed to mention) the history of Black people is deeply program sought to show the public the state of historical research and intertwined with the more general history of this country. African thought on African Americans. Although the documentary was al­ Americans have a unique history, connected at the root with virtually ready somewhat outdated at the time of its airing, the title captures the all aspects of the American experience. This uniqueness should be feelings that many people, Black and white, shared in the late 1960s: .> remembered as we separate the historical experience itself from the that the history of African Americans was simply absent-whether out record of its preservation. of willful action on the part of some or benign neglect on the part of Since the 1890s, academically trained African American histo­ others. rians such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Lorenzo Greene, Since the 1960s there has been a revolution in the study of African and others have published works detailing this history. But because of American life, history, and culture. Over the last twenty years, segregation in the professions, the work of these pioneering historians scholars in a variety of disciplines have enlarged and in some cases was not read widely outside Black universities.3 Since 1965, however, radically changed our view of the American social landscape and the there has been an explosion of scholarly interest in African American fundamental role of African Americans within it. Black people were topics. As evidence has mounted of the enormous complexity of that once thought to be marginal to the main story of the American past, American culture, scholars in various fields have debated and worked but now we know that they are central to it. African Americans were to determine the precise elements of African American life, history, once thought only to be reactive victims of the American experiment; .> and culture. In musicology, archaeology, folklore, anthropology, liter­ we now know them to have been catalysts for change since the repub­ ature, history and other disciplines, extraordinary volumes have been lic's earliest days. 1 .> published that document the rich cultural life, complex political and While the experience of every ethnic group is distinctive and de­ social traditions, and convoluted history of African Americans. Before serves celebration and analysis, African Americans have a unique his- 1965, many academically trained historians did not believe that there 506 508 FATH DAVIS RUFFINS Mythos. Memory. and History 509 were enough primary sources even to study African Americans, but Black museums, who are more aware of what might have been saved since then both Black and white scholars have mined the national and from earlier times. 7 university libraries and state and local history archives and unearthed Though uneven, these patterns of preservation are not random, new information. In other cases, scholars have developed new but rather reflect selectivity. That which has been preserved reflects 4 sources, often by eliciting oral histories and doing fieldwork. the preservers' interpretations of what was important about the Afri­ Such research has identified (or in some cases rediscovered) pub­ can American past. These different interpretations developed over the lications, manuscripts, letters, and other documents that for years had course of decades, under different institutional structures, and at dif­ resided in both public and private collections. Some institutions, such i ferent points in the history of particular institutions; as a result, collec­ as the Library of Congress and the National Archives, turned out to • tors preserved certain parts of Black history and culture while leaving have important holdings. Historically Black institutions had preserved out other elements. Informed by collective as well as idiosyncratic a wealth of information for decades. Scholars have recently begun to interpretations of the African American past, individuals and institu­ utilize Black church archives and college and university libraries, as tions have helped shape the evidence of that past by their selective well as family and private collections. Few of the scholars who began preservation efforts. This essay documents some of the types and to tap these rich resources questioned how and why these particular outcomes of distinct preservation strategies through the last two materials had come to be saved. centuries. At first glance, research materials appear to be spotty in all pre­ servation locations. But a deeper look reveals a complex pattern of • preservation. In general, historically Black colleges have some very MEMORY, MYTHOS, AND HISTORY important archival and library collections that date from the 1850s and earlier; a good example is the Moorland-Spingarn Research Cen­ Within all cultures, various versions of the past exist simultaneously. ter at Howard University. Some institutions, such as Hampton Univer­ To better investigate the ways in which views of the past shaped pre­ sity, have well-known museums, and others, such as Fisk University, servation activities, let me suggest definitions of some terms that will have important art collections. However, historically white mu­ help me to refer consistently to visions of the past. seums-whether art museums, cultural-history museums, or natural­ history museums-have either no relevant material or relatively small The Past collections, most acquired within the past ten or fifteen years.5 The only exceptions are a few early historical societies, such as the Penn­ What most Americans colloquially refer to as "history" is probably 6 sylvania Historical Society in Philadelphia. Black museums hold by more accurately called "the past." By this I mean the enormous body of far the greatest wealth of African American material culture. Although events and movements, debates and ideas, migrations and discov­ some of these institutions are more than one hundred years old, most eries-in short, literally everything that happened before the present. were founded during the 1960s and later. In short, documentary and Yet not everything has become a part of recorded history; it is impos­ archival materials abound, and music and oral history collections have sible for every single person's life and every local, regional, national, been growing over the last fifty years, but material culture collections and international event to be taken account of this way. Only some are recent and slim. portion of these events and experiences has been actively collected and This brief overview suggests how uneven the preservation of Afri­ • preserved; this process involves the meaningful reconstruction and can American materials has been. Although the history and culture of analysis of the past. In this sense, all history is an interpretation of the Blacks are deeply embedded in American life, the sense that they have past. been lost or stolen or have strayed remains strong, especially with the One way to think about the past as being different from history is general public, to whom this new scholarship has not penetrated. This to see historical interpretation as a snapshot of the past. In a snapshot, sense of loss is particularly sharp among the staffs and supporters of the photographer records what he or she thinks is interesting or im- • r I 510 FATH DAVIS RUFFINS Mythos. Memory. and History 511 portant about a given scene. By including certain elements and screen­ ferent. In this qualitative sense, memory emerges from personal expe­ ing out others, the photographer creates a picture of a scene. But the rience, mythos emerges as the symbolic/ spiritual! expressive elements total scene is always much larger and more complex than any photo­ produced by groups of people