ACTIVATING DEMOCRACY

With a transformative investment from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the Library will launch the Boston Community History Project.

The Boston Public Library (BPL) has long worked with communities in the city to explore and share their local histories. Most recently, the BPL partnered with the Boston Research Center at Northeastern University to develop community-driven, co-designed projects, from the Harriet Tubman House Memory Project to the East Boston History Portal.

Now, with a $500,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the Library will launch the Boston Community History Project, to bring existing efforts to scale and fundamentally advance equity in the historical narrative of the city of Boston.

The new funding enables the BPL to establish a Community History Department, which will work throughout the city at its 26 locations, to support and platform the stories of Boston's diverse and historically underrepresented communities. BPL staff will work with communities to support the creation of oral histories, memoirs, and other ways of telling and preserving history.

“This pioneering initiative will dramatically expand the Library’s community-history efforts and sends an important message to all Boston residents that they’re part of the city’s ever-unfolding story,” said David Leonard, President of the Boston Public Library. “Library staff are eager to lead this robust effort to connect with communities.”

For the Library’s Community History and Digitization Specialist Dory Klein, this is one way to democratize history. “By supporting and collaborating with Boston residents in the gathering and telling of personal histories, we can gain a deeper understanding of our shared past,” she says. “Shifting our focus from the narratives told by history’s most powerful figures and instead amplifying the stories of historically marginalized communities enables us to grapple with the full range of our history, recognize that we’re continually making history, and imagine a more just future.”

“We’re incredibly grateful to Bank of America for playing a pivotal role in helping create a community where every voice is recognized and valued,” said Paula Sakey, Executive Director of the Boston Public Library Fund. “This forward-thinking investment speaks to the importance of documenting stories that represent the full breadth of Boston’s diversity so that researchers, scholars, and students can learn from this amazing resource for generations to come.”

Library staff will begin work on Boston Community History projects in early 2023. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, founder and director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, will serve as the first member of the advisory council.

What is community history?

Community history seeks to make history a collaborative process and diversify the voices that are present in historical narratives.