Invisible Histories has been awarded a grant of $2.2 million from the Mellon Foundation to support the location, preservation, and research of LGBTQ history in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle.
Invisible Histories, founded and managed by Joshua Burford and Maigen Sullivan, PhD, seeks to create a counter narrative to the “lacking South” and provide a sense of community and heritage for Southern LGBTQ people. Invisible Histories locates, preserves, researches and creates educational programs around Southern LGBTQ history.
"This grant is so important to both the sustainability of Invisible Histories as an organization, but also to our ability to provide support to the existing and undiscovered collections of LGBTQ Southern people whose stories we haven't yet begun to tell,” said Josh Burford, Co-Executive Director. The grant specifically focuses on:
● Sustainability & Growth: this funding will allow Invisible Histories to focus on diversifying fiscal support for the organization particularly through recurrent and planned giving as well as programmatic sponsorships. Further, this funding presents an opportunity to assess if expansion of Invisible Histories into additional Southern states is possible and sustainable. Invisible Histories administration will be evaluating the soundness of expanding into additional Southern states which is a critical need as attacks on LGBTQ history, education, and peoples increases in the region.
● Collections Diversity: Invisible Histories collection database can be seen at https://invisiblehistory.org/collections-database/. This grant will provide the ability for Invisible Histories staff to focus more resources and time on collaboratively partnering with People of Color and Transgender/Nonbinary individuals and organizations across the South in order to further increase representation of those communities within our collections and the overall historical record. People of Color and Transgender/Nonbinary people are underrepresented even within LGBTQ collections and historical research so these efforts are the primary priority for the coming years. Some of these efforts include:
○ Queer History Field Kits which are backpacks filled with supplies to help facilitate community archiving and oral histories. Individuals and organizations from across the Deep South are selected to receive a kit and participate in an online training on how to best preserve their local community’s narratives. The first cohort of Field Kits consists of 11 individuals and organizations. Field Kits can be sponsored by individuals, organizations, and businesses who would like to increase the accessibility of community archiving across the South.
○ Invisible Histories is currently fundraising for and developing a community organizer and leader institute that will focus on 1) educating LGBTQ community organizers and leaders on their local histories and 2) developing skills for participants to practically preserve their own historical records so that they may be saved for generations to come.
● Safety & Accessibility of Collections: Invisible Histories will be working with partner community archiving and traditional institutions across the South to create policies, resources, and plans for the safety of collections. As state legislatures increase their censorship of marginalized history, literature, and education, these efforts will address ways to ensure that materials remain secure and available to the public regardless of political changes at the local and state level.
● Education & Outreach: Invisible Histories is a one-stop shop for Southern LGBTQ history. As such, we not only collect archival materials, we research local history, work with students and scholars across the world, and create educational talks, exhibits, and online media. Some of these efforts include:
—Graduate Internships: Invisible Histories have hosted over 70 student interns. Interns receive course credit through their university and engage in projects like exhibit curation, metadata creation, digital preservation, and numerous research projects.
—Website & Blog: Invisible Histories has recently launched a new website that provides in-depth information on the organization as well as educational resources for the public. Part of this includes instructions for how to archive your own materials, a packet for new donors, virtual exhibits, digital collections, and a blog that is contributed to by Invisible Histories staff, interns, and partner scholars.
—Queer History South: Queer History South (QHS) is a network of over 700 people across the US who are invested in the preservation, research, and education pertaining to Southern LGBTQ history. QHS meets for a conference every two years at varying locations across the South. This March 23-24, nearly 200 people met in Charlotte, NC to discuss issues in LGBTQ archiving, history, and education and created plans on how to address rising anti-LGBTQ socio-political sentiments in our region and elsewhere.
—Exhibits: Invisible Histories have created a number of in-person and online exhibits. The organization is in the process of creating two additional in-person exhibits and several small online exhibits that will premiere over the next few years.
As state legislatures across the South continue their relentless attacks on marginalized history and people, LGBTQ communities have become central in a battle to maintain public access to their own histories, literature, rights, and healthcare. “In the current socio-political climate, the need to both preserve our histories and learn from them is more important than ever. Having resources for communities to learn about their struggles and triumphs is an invaluable tool in the fight for liberation, equity, and justice. Archiving is power and we want to give that back to our folks,” said Dr. Maigen Sullivan, Co-Executive Director.
Invisible Histories is a fully incorporated 501C3 effective Oct. 12, 2016. Donors can deduct contributions that they make under IRS Section 170. Invisible Histories is listed as a public charity as determined by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of America and has the public charity status 170 (b) (1) (A) (vi). For more information, please email contact@invisiblehistory.org.