ASU Library

Black Collections at ASU Library

Black Collections at ASU Library

Learn more about your impact

As part of the award-winning Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative, Black Collections at the ASU Library seeks to establish and implement programs and services that will engage, educate and empower Arizona’s Black community to preserve currently silenced narratives and history. Building this infrastructure and relationships with historically marginalized communities takes time and patience, a deep desire and passion to create change and highly trained students, staff and professionals.

You can help the Community-Driven Archives and Black Collections by donating to events like the annual Juneteenth Celebration and the Black Memory and Storytelling Symposium. These events provide a forum for the sharing of stories and history from Arizona's Black community, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding. Your generosity directly contributes to the recovery of ASU's Black history, ensuring that it accurately reflects the Black community's scholarship and academic achievements. By supporting these initiatives, you are actively preserving and disseminating Arizona's rich cultural heritage.

It is critical we understand the long and connected history that Black and African American people have had in shaping the history of the Southwest. When I get to see communities share their stories or help them start them on a preservation journey, it makes a huge impact that helps inform who they are and why their story matters."

Jessica Salow, Curator of Black Collections, ASU Library

Impact of Donor Support

  • Donors help create intergenerational and intersectional safe spaces that support life-long learning and reimagine archives as spaces of inclusion.
  • Center the lived experiences and knowledge of marginalized communities and traditional memory keepers who are breaking cycles of erasure through the collaborative development of programs, collections, and services.
  • Enhance teaching and learning experiences by supporting ASU students, staff, faculty and existing university-wide programs with culturally- appropriate information resources, programs, and services.

Supporting Black Collections at the ASU Library is a meaningful way for me to contribute to the preservation of the diverse history of Arizona. I am so thrilled to support this initiative at ASU Library!”

Lorrie McAllister

ASU Library donor

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