The Archive Project

Generation after generation, those without wealth and power are drawn into the fight for productive, sustainable lives. The American Revolution and Civil War, the Gilded Age and Depression, the Second World War and its aftermath, all have connected to a global context and given birth to important thinkers who fought for the goals of their day.  Each wave of such struggle benefits from an understanding of the approaches and tactics, the maneuvers, and compromises, the vision and long-term strategy of those who came before. Such a wave is clearly cresting today. 

The history and ideas of larger, better funded, more “successful” efforts are more likely to be preserved, researched, and broadly written about.  Less prominent individuals, communities, and organizations – those with fewer funds and less status – find it difficult to get their stories told, the lessons of their history preserved for future study.

Views and perspectives that may have been ignored, marginalized, or suppressed in the past can be a font of knowledge for those in struggle today.  The memory and records of many who participated in, studied, and wrote about the battles of the 20^th Century are in danger of being lost.  Their political and intellectual contributions need to be preserved and made accessible for younger generations being drawn into struggle.

That is why a group of veterans of the wave of social and political struggle remembered today as “the Sixties” have organized and funded The Archive Project.  With roots in the early 20th Century and a focus on poor and working-class communities, they wish the limited funds at their disposal to continue to promote unity across race, geography, and circumstance.