[Genealib] Ethics of digitizing embarrassing material

[James Jeffrey]

Cynthia

Who is your intended audience?  What choices are you making in identifying this item as opposed to another for consideration in digitizing?  By your subject line you have declared something embarrassing.

The Colorado Historical Society houses the membership directories of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado. As well as the material collections artifacts for the Gano Senter family collections.  These extensive lists identify families by name and address.  From a demographic perspective I await the study of the "geography of hate" article or some such by an academic.  There have been terrific books and articles written about the KKK in Colorado and the West.  Denver's government and political scene was controlled by the Klan for several decades.


The Senter collection is housed at the Denver Public Library and is comprised of about 67 linear feet of material which included the Gano Senter family "sheets or robes", photographs, etc.  Mrs. Senter was very active in DAR.  This collection is heavily used.
 
The Denver Public Library has recently received a terrific grant to digitize some of our neighborhood materials.  I feel strongly that some of these items from the various collections touching on the role of the KKK in Colorado and Denver in particular need to be digitized. They will offer a deeper understanding of the target neighborhoods and carry the project beyond brick and mortar.

So, get it out there for students, academics, neighborhood associations, genealogists, and your user base to see and use.


James K. Jeffrey
Collection Specialist in Genealogy
Western History and Genealogy
Denver Public Library

>>> "Sandy Day" <daysa at oplin.org> 1/8/2008 9:07 AM >>>
Cynthia
I realize this is a touchy subject and you have to be careful of what you 
get digitized. However, this is part of your local history-good, bad or 
indifferent. We can't judge our past history and its mistakes by leaving it 
out of our current attempts at preserving history so I think it should be 
preserved. Whether you digitize it is another question. I would most likely 
have it done.
Sandy Day
Genealogy librarian
Schiappa Library
Steubenville, OH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cynthia Van Ness" <bettybarcode at yahoo.com>
To: "genealib" <genealib at lists.acomp.usf.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 2:24 PM
Subject: [Genealib] Ethics of digitizing embarrassing material


> Hi, all,
>
> In my new job, I have a startling document--the membership list
> of the short-lived KKK chapter in Buffalo, ca. 1924.  How we
> booted the Klan out of town is a great story told in this book,
> which is based in part on the author's use of this list:
>
> http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.cgi?path=19515850795724 
>
> As part of fighting the Klan, the membership list was stolen and
> published.  We have perhaps the sole surviving newsprint copy
> ca. 1924.  So these names were already published once, though
> not in Lay's book.
>
> Excerpts appear here:
>
> http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/1901-50/kkk/kkk.html 
>
> What are the ethics of digitizing it in full and putting it
> online?  To compare with other privacy restrictions, it is past
> the 72-year rule of the Federal Census, which also has the
> potential to surprise or embarrass people.  (Grandpa was
> mulatto?  Or, Grandma lived in the red light district?)
>
> A 21-year old KKK member in 1924 would be 104 now.  Chances are
> good that everyone is deceased.
>
>
> *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-*
> Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, bettybarcode AT yahoo DOT com
> http://www.BuffaloResearch.com 
>
> "Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living.  City 
> living by its definition is crowded.  It is tolerant of other people.  It 
> is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a hundred 
> compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective energy that 
> a city generates."     --Robert N. Davis, Jr. (1955-2007)
> _______________________________________________
> genealib mailing list
> genealib at mailman.acomp.usf.edu 
> http://mailman.acomp.usf.edu/mailman/listinfo/genealib 
> 

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