Louisiana Racial Violence Archive

Details

Taking up the call to create archives that center Black people’s experiences, voices, and history, Courtney spearheaded the development of the Louisiana Racial Violence Archive (LRVA), under the tutelage of Dr. Geoff Ward, who has mentored and advised Courtney for over a decade. The LRVA is a digital archive that is part of, and was inspired by, a larger project, the Racial Violence Archive (RVA), initiated by Dr. Geoff Ward. The RVA documents racial violence across the United States and records, acknowledges, and facilitates redress for legacies of historical anti-Blackness. The RVA addresses limitations in existing archives, such as access, that were identified through a focus group study. Meanwhile, the LRVA documents historical racist violence in Louisiana.

The LRVA collection currently focuses on incidents that targeted Black people in America during the twentieth century. Such incidents include acts of violence or other harm, reprisal, or intimidation that functioned to discourage or punish the expression of Black individuals’ civil and human rights. The LRVA documents these events, as well as resistance to such violence, and endeavors to provide redress for these violent histories. The LRVA compiles previously published accounts, as well as original research, in a digital archive. It is a collection of collections, aggregated from newspapers, books, organizational records, government reports, and other sources.

For example, the LRVA incorporates and extends existing records such as lynching data collected by Ida B. Wells and Tolnay and Beck. In 2015, Courtney also began conducting archival work at numerous locations throughout Louisiana and combed through books written about anti-Black violence in the state. The information gleaned from these materials was then incorporated into the LRVA. The aid of numerous research assistants, who scoured digitized archival collections, has also been integral to the development of the LRVA.

Most data in the LRVA were culled from records belonging to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the two largest civil rights organizations in Louisiana during the twentieth century. Although the documents describing violent events take various forms, including internal correspondence, press releases, field reports, and incident summaries, most of the records are letters that Black individuals sent to these organizations. Letters provided first person accounts of anti-Black violence experienced within Louisiana.

These documents include personal letters that were sent to local NAACP chapters, as well as those submitted to A.P. Tureaud, the principal attorney for the Louisiana NAACP. These letters were written by individuals who either directly experienced anti-Black violence or on behalf of someone else who experienced such violence. Often, this was a mother writing on behalf of her son or another family member writing on behalf of their loved one.

The LRVA incorporates such accounts culled from CORE, NAACP, and other repositories. Unlike these repositories, the LRVA is centered specifically on accounts of anti-Black violence and Black resistance. These letters solicited assistance in obtaining redress for the racial violence experienced, and these documents, therefore, provide key insights into what justice meant to those who were harmed by anti-Black violence. Further, these narratives elucidate the nuanced, multifaceted interactions between oppression and agency, depicting how encounters with anti-Blackness also function as sites of resistance. While the letters themselves constitute a form of Black resistance, they also detail the various ways Black people resisted oppression and pursued remedy through other avenue(s) prior to seeking the assistance of organizations like the NAACP. These letters reveal various resistance strategies within and outside of the legal system that Black people employed as they attempted to navigate white supremacy. Depicting an array of tactics ranging from “acts” of deference to lawsuits, these accounts demonstrate that Black resistance to whites’ oppressive tactics was not limited to organized protests but could often be located in the everyday actions, words, and even gestures of Black individuals.

Purpose

Many past instances of anti-Blackness and Black resistance, particularly encounters that were not fatal, were never documented, rendering it impossible that there will ever be a complete record of anti-Blackness and Black resistance in the United States. In addition, obtaining a full record of such violence is unlikely due, in part, to the challenges associated with accessing and making accessible such data. While histories of anti-Black violence cannot be reduced to discrete events, documenting these events remains important for collective memory.

Further, the pervasive whiteness in institutional archives has led to calls for archives that center the stories of Black people in America. As Jarrett Drake states, “The unbearable whiteness and patriarchy of traditional archives demand that new archives for [B]lack lives emerge and sustain themselves as spaces and sites for trauma, transcendence, and transformation.”

Black people should not have to experience anti-Blackness and also do the labor of documenting and educating non-Black people about anti-Blackness.

Relatedly, Black people should not have to experience racism and also do the labor of dismantling the structures that oppress them.

Black people should not have to experience racism and also do the labor of dismantling the structures that oppress them.

Non-Black people, especially those who are privileged, have a duty to fight for Black liberation, which, is also a fight for the liberation of all people. Impacted communities whose voices and stories have been historically marginalized should feel empowered to “make decisions regarding how their histories are documented and preserved as well as their stories are collected and used,” as Yvonne Ng put it. I see it as important for white people to follow the lead of Black memory workers and support the work they are already doing.

Dismantling systemic racism and achieving redress for past injustices requires acknowledging the history of anti-Black violence and its legacies. Detailed records of anti-Blackness and Black resistance can serve as a useful resource in that endeavor. By sharing stories that are otherwise erased from the public record, the archive serves as a form of counter-memory.

The LRVA provides a more extensive and accessible record of anti-Blackness and Black resistance than traditional archives. In doing so, the archive counters the silences and erasures of white violence and Black experiences that plague traditional archives by amplifying the voices and experiences of those who are disempowered and preserving the dignity and memory of those harmed. The archive also supports research, education, and advocacy around redressing histories of anti-Black violence and their legacies. For example, studies have found that past anti-Black violence informs subsequent patterns of inequality, including police violence, racist violence, Black victim homicide, and capital punishment and incarceration, among others. The archive can foster a better understanding of these relationships and intervene in those legacies.

As a public history initiative, the web-based archive includes interactive components that will eventually enable users to view information about events of racial violence through narratives and maps. Viewers will be able to contribute new event information or supplement existing records with additional information and supporting documentation. The interactive component of the archive will allow community members, particularly those whose voices have been historically marginalized, to cocreate knowledge, which in turn will provide valuable insight, perspectives, and narratives that might otherwise be excluded. Moreover, the LRVA and RVA more broadly support community healing and empowerment by providing a platform for Black people to reclaim their history.