An Activist Archive: Community and Oral History for Environmental Justice

Abstract

Building an archive and oral history project for the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN) illuminated some of the challenges and possibilities of creating systems of institutional memory for grassroots movements. Traditional archival practices had to be adapted to cater to the specific needs of this user community, who use the historical information for ongoing advocacy and activism efforts. For several decades, community-based archives have documented the histories of social movements and provided vital resources to grassroots activists. This article adds to the existing literature by offering a case study on the construction of a community archive and oral history project that centers environmental justice activists as archival users. Rejecting neutrality was key in the construction of this activist archive, which modified traditional archival techniques to improve activists’ access to information needed for their current struggles for environmental justice. NCEJN and its community partners expressed excitement about the resources provided by the archive, as well as the opportunity to expand their historical documentation efforts in the future.