NEH Grant Supports the Struggle and Progress Project

Knox College has received a grant ($10,700) from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project Struggle and Progress: Documenting African-American History in Galesburg, Illinois. The project aims to further document the experience of African American citizens in Galesburg, and builds on our existing digital collection of materials related to African-American history.

The existing digital collection, Struggle and Progress-African Americans in Knox County, Illinois, was created in 2012 and reflects materials held in the Knox College Archives. Galesburg's Support Group for African-American Affairs provided important support for this project.

The NEH funded project will offer several community digitization days; the resulting digital objects and associated metadata will enrich the publicly accessible digital repository. Five associated humanities events will be offered over the grant period, from the screening of video from the community digitization days, to a lecture on the history of African Americans in Galesburg, to an Oral History Story Day, at which community members who contributed objects for digitization will discuss their particular experiences, personal and family stories of struggle and progress. Themes about African Americans to be explored include civic, social, religious and business life; participation in wars; prejudice, discrimination; segregation, integration; public education; and voting rights.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.