Seeing is Believing: Archival Imagery and Counter-Narratives

Abstract

One by one, they emerge from the local archives. Singular black and brown faces, mixed among the seas of whiteness in class photographs, yearbook entries, black-owned newspapers, personal diaries, and more. Local historians had warned that these stories could not be found. And yet, there we were. One by one, two by two, church group by community picnic. The irony and tensions of being conspicuously unseen defines part of the black diasporic experience. This article employs archival photographs to construct a historical counter-narrative about the experiences of black communities in upstate New York. Using Ithaca, New York as a case study, I situate a “local” experience within African diaspora history.

Keywords:

• critical race theory
• archival photographs
• New York State history
• African diaspora history

Notes

1 This project was inspired by a call for papers for the Third Annual African Diaspora Studies Symposium hosted by North Carolina Central University. The phrase “conspicuously unseen” is borrowed from the conference theme of “Conspicuously Unseen: Invisibility and Denial in Diasporic Communities.” In this article, I use the terms black and brown to refer to individuals of African descent, and white to refer to individuals primarily of European descent. I employ the terms diaspora and diasporic to address the voluntary migrations as well as the legacies of abduction and the transatlantic slave trade, and the dynamics of their descendants residing within racialized societies.

2 In addition to preserving the value of archival texts, defending against intellectual chauvinism, and generating new knowledge and research, Turner (2000: 60) emphasized a fourth task: “to disseminate (teach and publish) Black Studies social theory and analysis, criticism and historiography.” I look forward to disseminating the substance of this article and visual essay in college classrooms, community centers, and beyond.

3 This phrase is borrowed from a family elder, Ashfield Eversley DeVent. Uncle “Buster” retells his younger Bermudian days and recalls overhearing the remark in reference to a front-page newspaper photograph of a single black face among a group of white faces.

4 The singularly collective experience might also inform US legal policy. Recent US Supreme Court cases (2003a; 2003b) about the role of so-called affirmative action programs include protracted debates around (1) diversity as a “compelling state interest;” (2) implementing programs that are “narrowly tailored;” and (3) the benefits of achieving a “critical mass.”

5 This phrase is borrowed from a book by Tobin and Dobard (1999) entitled Hidden in Plain View: The Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad. There is ongoing debate about the factuality of using quilt design as a secret code. Still, while quilts may or may not have been used in this manner, there were plenty of other codes used in the escape routes called the Underground Railroad that were, in fact, hidden in plain view.