Call to Action: Archiving State-Sanctioned Violence Against Black People
All Black Lives Matter
Tony McDade should still be alive
Breonna Taylor should still be alive
George Floyd should still be alive
Ahmaud Arbery should still be alive
Nina Pop should still be alive
Jamel Floyd should still be alive
All the Black people who have died from Covid-19 should still be alive
They were all killed by state-sanctioned violence carried out by racist police and the racist systems that prop up our healthcare, education, economic, social, and cultural infrastructure.
We Love Black People. We affirm the value of ALL Black people’s lives and we commit to doing memory work both in our personal and professional lives that will lead to dismantling systems that continue to harm Black people. Our work must support efforts to defund the police, abolish prisons, and redirect resources to the communities that have suffered the most under these racist structures that exist and thrive solely because Black people’s lives are consistently devalued around the world.
We are Black memory workers committed to documenting the Black experience during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the current uprisings brought about by racist police violence against Black people. Our work is imperative, especially as we witness this dual assault white supremacy has unleashed on Black people. We offer this call to action to ethically and comprehensively archive during this moment, to ensure that we shine light onto the oppressive systems that disproportionately subject Black people to generational pain and suffering.
We offer this call to action because we know moments of crisis and Black suffering are also opportunities ripe for institutional exploitation and professional opportunism in the cultural memory sector, where harmful activities involved with building collections for institutions that don’t care about Black people, become more important than documenting the root causes of why Black people are suffering in the first place. We do not offer this call to action on behalf of our affiliated cultural memory institutions. Instead, we offer this call in solidarity with our Black communities all over the world.
We reject attempts to document this moment that fails to center the Black experience or that fails to document the facts about the State’s role in inflicting Black pain. We commit to modeling care in our memory work because Black people deserve care. We commit to doing ethical memory work that protects Black people because racist state-sanction violence also resists documentation. We commit to archival practices that support accountability and historical accuracy because when the dust settles attempts will be made to rewrite the history. We commit to an intersectional archival practice that also presents a global perspective of Black suffering and the response to it because we acknowledge that Black people with disabilities, and from working-class, queer and immigrant communities have suffered negative and disproportionate harm due to white supremacy and capitalism. We believe that Black memory workers should lead the documentation response when Black people are suffering. And we believe Black memory workers should be supported and given the space and resources to do this work.
We invite anyone to complete this form to sign onto this call to action in solidarity with Black memory workers. We are also organizing efforts based on this call to action. If you are a Black memory worker interested in joining our efforts, please identify yourself as such in the form.
Join Us!
Stacie Williams
Jarrett Drake
Trevor Watkins
Lae’l Hughes Watkins
Skyla S. Hearn
Petrina Jackson
Barrye Brown
Derek Mosely
Jessica C. Neal
Micha Broadnax
Cheryl Beredo
Rachel Winston
Holly Smith
Jina DuVernay
Steven Fullwood
Zakiya Collier
Bergis Jules
Kimberly Springer
Makiba Foster
Steven Booth
Tonia Sutherland
Erin Glasco
Raquel Flores-Clemons
Tracy Drake
Miranda Mims
Harvey Long
Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski
Tianni Graham
Sed Miles
LaVerne Gray
Tej Adeleye
Camile Lawrence
Gail Lewis
Sierra King
Michelle Moyd
Jacqueline Stewart
Andrea L. Battleground
Marciano Jeremie
Jessica Ballard
Dorothy Berry
Tatiana Bryant
Sony Prosper
Terri Francis
Rachel Finn
Zenzele Isoke
megan renée williams
Traci Mark
Anita sharma
Kenvi Phillips
Monique Lassere
Aaisha Haykal
Tiffany Atwater Lee
Anthony Sanchez
Alexandria Lockett
Kai Alexis Smith
Sommer McCoy
Jasmine Sykes-Kunk
Oriana E. Gonzales
Catherine Feliz
Margarita Vargas-Betancourt
Natiba Guy-Clement
Krystal Tribbett
Mori Anderson Hitchcock
Brendon Jobs
Nerea Ganzarain
ReJenai Cloy
Janay Garrett
Brittany Newberry
Deanna Irizarry-Fields
Brianna Jones
Valencia L. Johnson
Elena Colón-Marrero
Lea Osborne
Madeline Allen-Sandoz
Tara Hart
Gail Lewis
Vidya Lala
Cheryl Ferguson
Jasmine Clark
Alesia Montgomery
Obden Mondésir
Syreeta Gates
Bridgett Kathryn Pride
Lynda Grace
Arike Oke
Joy Bennett
Samantha Greco
Bailey Culpepper
Laken Smith
Virginia Marshall
Kayla Heslin
Miriam Young
lex barlowe
Hannah Ishmael
Crystal Rodgers
Amye McCarther
Shola Lynch
Tammi Lawson
Maira Liriano
Elizabeth Parker
Mark Gabriel Little
Eshe Sherley
Marlee Newman
Emily Moore
Maggie McCready
Ellen Holt-Werle
Erin Lawrimore
Alexis Antracoli
Candace Ming
Caitlin McCarthy
Nirupa Umapathy
Brad Bailey
LeRoy LaFleur
Daria Wingreen-Mason
Pamela Hopkins
Angel Diaz
Hannah Claire Somerville
Emily Minehart
Cassidy Haight
Stacey Ference
Terra Graziani
Joshua Quan
Tor Loney
Blair Talbot
Merisa Martínez
Jessika Drmacich
Liz Beckman
Jenn Parent
Jessica Geiser
John Diefenderfer
Autumn Cuddy
Ariel Bacon
Amy C. Vo
Leah Kerr
Dawn Schmitz
Jamila Ghaddar
Kate Irvin
Jacob Zaborowski
Jillian Staniec
Laura Uglean Jackson
Lauren McDaniel
Nicole Welsh
Patricia Glowinski
Caitlin Christian-Lamb
Christine Calvo
Jeremy Ferris
Zachary Tumlin
Dante Hussein
Micah Hoggatt
Conor Casey
Amy Rushing
Riley Linebaugh
Josue Hurtado
Adreonna Bennett
Heather Mumford
Warren Watson
Schillica Howard
Amy Sloper
Lindsey Young
Paige Roberts
Laura-Ioana Luca
Mindy Simmons
Yharnet Browne
Althea Greenan
Stephanie Becker
Yik Wan Karen Ng
Rebekah McFarland
kate mcmanus
Ayshea Khan
Krista Jamieson
stacy dawson stearns
Tamara Rayan
Christine Jacobson
Kate Philipson
Jessica Lynn Gottsleben
Arianna Calabrese
Annie Reid
Mary Jo Fairchild
vashti dubois
Malikah Berry Rogers
Serena Torres
A.J. Muhammad
Stacy R. Williams
Marcia Black
Quadrese’ M. Glass
April Hathcock
Steve Duckworth
Kelly Foster
Kayla Henry-Griffin
Claire Fox
Gina Murrell
Ana Roeschley
Eli Boyne
Rhoda Boateng
Ben Blake
Anya Dani
Nylah Byrd
Heather Hart
lauren craig
Tyree Boyd Pates
Kelly Wooten
eliza myrie
Rehana Zaman
Taylor Le Melle
Fia Friskie
CJ Pentland
maya tomkiewicz
Gwynneth Malin
Sydney Augustine
Lydia
Monet Timmons
Jessica Bitely
Andrea Spencer
Darby Witek
Melissa Benbow
Kim Kiesewetter
