Black Archives and Archivist Matter!
Therefore, archives are essential to the scholarship of the black Atlantic. Schwartz and Cook argue that access to archives represents power. Their assessment ring true as many archives is under paywalls. Also, Schwartz and Cook point out that preserving archives takes funding. Then, black archivists, who may not have funding, cannot access archives crucial to their research. Furthermore, the black archivist endures Westernized expectations of archives, which decenters the black experience.
To this end, an accessible free database for black archivists and researchers of the black experience is needed. This database will not only include archives, but chat rooms and forums will be available to users. From this, researchers will be able to communicate and share resources. Forums entail forum topics such as safe meet-up groups, question and answer, and general help. The subforum would consist of different black archivist associations and their events, rules, and regulations. A4BLiP gives me the idea of including a forum for historical and contemporary record. For contemporary record, they focus on recording police violence, which can attract researchers and non-researchers alike. Most of all, they center black voices, past and present, which is important when creating a database with records similar to Sancho’s letter to records of police violence.