Identification Day

African American Photograph Identification Day
at the California African American Museum

In October 2014, the Institute held two African American Photograph Identification Days at the California African American Museum (CAAM). Community members were invited to participate to help identify Civil Rights leaders, local city politicians, community activist and residents in images from the Charles Williams Collection. Special thanks to Denise McIver, Research Librarian at CAAM, for allowing us to host the event. We were fortunate to have City Archivist, Michael Holland, former Congresswomen Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Dr. Diane Watson, Community and Civil Rights activists Gwen Green and Vicki Phillips, Producer and Research Director Alison Sotomayor from Bridging the Divide, Tom Bradley & the Politics of Race, Dr. Betty Smith Williams, co-founder of the National Black Nurses Association, and Journalist Larry Aubry. We thank everyone who participated!

The Institute is in the process of digitizing over 17,000 images that document the African American community in post-World War II Los Angeles. We are in the first year of a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, digitizing images from photographers Charles Williams, Harry Adams, and Guy Crowder. The images document social, political, civil rights, religious, and sports personalities and events that are significant to the history of Los Angeles. Over 10,000 images from the Harry Adams and Charles Williams collections have been digitized. The images will be made available online through the CSUN University Library’s Digital Collections to students, researchers, scholars, and the community.

 African American Photograph Identification Day  at the California African American Museum, October 15, 2014

Left to right: Lucy Hernandez (Processing Archivist, Institute for Arts & Media), Vicki Phillips (Community Activist), Michael Holland (L.A. City Archivist), Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (former Congresswoman and L.A. County Board of Supervisors), Gwendolyn Green (Civil Rights Activist, former Executive Secretary SCLC, and member of Dr. King’s staff), Alison Sotomayor (Producer and Research Director for Bridging the Divide, Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race), Dr. Betty Smith Williams (co-founder of the National Black Nurses Association and Council of Black Nurses), Dr. Diane Watson (Congresswoman retired, former State Senator, and Ambassador to Micronesia), and Keith Rice (Research Historian, Institute for Arts & Media).

 African American Photograph Identification Day at the California African American Museum, October 8, 2014

Left to right: Gwendolyn Green (Civil Rights Activist, former Executive Secretary SCLC, and member of Dr. King’s staff), Larry Aubry (Civil Rights Activist and Los Angeles area Journalist), Vicki Phillips (Community Activist).