Tuesday Day 2

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Tuesday all the kinks were out and we settled in to work at our respective sites. There was painting to do, sheetrock to put up, molding to cut, and New Orleans history to catalog.

One team (Diana, Glory, Margaret, Nancy, Pat and Sue) has been working at the Amistad Research Center. The Amistad Research Center maintains the oldest and largest archives of documents, original manuscripts, and primary sources chronicling the history of African Americans and other ethnic minorities. The collection housed on the Tulane campus was not damaged by Katrina, however, the Center was closed for six months after the storm. Many potential collections that could have added to the Center were lost in the flooding of homes throughout New Orleans. The staff at the Center has been collecting oral histories to determine the extent of the document losses due to Katrina and to fill the gaps. We have talked to the staff about their experiences during and after Katrina and have gotten a sense of the continuing trauma and distress that they are feeling. One example of the concern that they have for the center is demonstrated by the action of one member who returned early after Katrina to check on the condition of the material that is held in storage (it had survived).

The team is helping to organize the documents and photographs included in several collections that have been donated to the center. One collection includes the correspondence of Joseph Himes who was the first African American Fulbright Scholar and a Sociology Professor at various southern colleges. A second collection includes the photographs taken by Tom Dent, a New Orleans native, best known as a writer and poet. His photographs show many of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement. The team is also helping organize the Center's large collection of magazines.



But it can't be all work. We have taken advantage of some of the wonderful restaurants and musical venues here in Crescent City and haven't been disappointed.