A partnership between Shorefront Legacy Center and Northwestern University supported by a Racial Equity and Community Partnership Grant, this project aims to further Shorefront’s work of preserving, interpreting, and publicizing the history of Black people in Evanston and the North Shore. A portion of the project grant will be used to hire archival staff at Shorefront to facilitate processing of the collections.
Another important part of the grant is activating Shorefront’s collections – this means getting people into the archive to explore what’s there, analyze materials, and publicize their findings. By forming a research board of NU and community researchers, we hope to activate some of the essential collections in Shorefront’s archives, spread the word about their meaning and significance, and lay the foundation for further collaboration between Shorefront, Northwestern, and the wider Evanston community.