How to Archive a Protest: A Field Guide For Southern Memory Workers

Introduction

A useful guide for those who would like to tell the stories of social change. This guide includes a checklist and tips of what to think about before, during and after a protest.

The How to Archive a Protest: A Field Guide For Southern Memory Workers was produced for Invisible Histories a nonprofit dedicated to researching, preserving, and making accessible LGBTQ+ southern history in the United States and although it was created with queer southerners in mind, its tools and tips will benefit anyone looking to document and preserve their protests, direct actions, and community organizing.

Here is a snippet of the guide below.

Note to the Reader

If you are reading this zine, chances are that you are interested in preserving the activism and organizing work happening in your community. So first and foremost, thank you for your work, and I hope this guide will be useful to you and your endeavours because our movements need memory workers now more than ever.

Before we get started, I want to be very clear about what this guide is and is not. This guide is written to help community activists, organizers, cultural workers, and memory workers who are directly involved in a cause.

This guide is not written for people exclusively working in archives and institutions, and it is not an archiving 101 course. Although this guide will be informed by archival methods, techniques, and tools, it will not be constrained by them.

I believe that the best archival methods are the ones you’ll actually use, and too often I’ve seen important history get lost or thrown away because there are too many barriers (cost, time, expertise, etc.) in front of movement workers who are interested in preserving their work. I hope this guide will take the often inaccessible and out of touch tools and techniques from the fields of archiving and history and adapt them for folks on the ground.

This guide is meant to be a starting point, so please do NOT let even these pages limit your own creativity and resourcefulness.

Take what’s useful to you, and throw away the rest. You are the one on  the ground. You are the one alongside the marches, protests, and direct actions. You are the one potentially putting your life, wellbeing, and safety  at risk for your cause, so if a piece of paper gets wrinkled or wet or accidentally marked up, that’s okay. Actually, it’s more than okay. It’s a richer, deeper, and more beautiful history of our movements.

It’s history in real-time, not disconnected and sanitized for the sake of a university archive.  Always remember, we aren’t just here to hoard objects. We are telling people’s stories. That’s precious work. That’s needed work.

Let’s get started!

Before the Protest

Before you get to the protest, there are some things  you need to consider. First, talk with folks about community and  individual consent to be archived. If you are already a part of a group, talk together about  what saving materials from your action could look like. Some questions to go over as a group are:

1. Who is going to do the collecting?

  • Is it you?
  • Is it multiple people?
  • Would it be useful  to have a designated community memory worker?
  • Do you need to plan for transportation of materials?

2. What types of materials do we want to collect?

Plan for what types of materials, objects, and ephemera you want to preserve. This is the fun part!! Use this table to help you brainstorm.

Table with the following text broken up into the title and then four different boxes. 'List As Many Items As You Can For The Following Categories Printed Materials (photos, flyers, signs, books, zines, newspapers, organizational documents, etc.): Textiles, Objects, and Ephemera (tshirts, buttons, stickers, tote bags, banners, etc.): Audio and Visual Materials (photographs, songs, chants, dances, and performances): Digital Artifacts (social media, websites, emails, and born-digital materials)'.
See pg 6

As you think about the different mediums and materials you want to preserve, ask yourself:

  • What are people using to effectively organize for this event?
  • What types of materials or objects are people prioritizing for this action?
    • Is it digital products?
    • Flyers?
    • Posters?
    • Signs?
    • Banners?
    • Are some things more central than others?

3. How and where do we want to store these materials?

Both digital and physical materials will need a home. If you can, make a plan before you start.

There’s no right or wrong answer, and your answer can evolve over time! I encourage y’all to think about this question together and to be transparent with your organization and community about where and how they can access the materials you save.

4. What are the security risks to  documenting and preserving this history?

Your answer to this question will inform how you approach documenting your actions. Ask your group if there are safety measures you need to take  collectively to protect your people. That might look like being careful not to record people’s faces or names and/or allowing folks to contribute anonymously to your project. It could look like only saving paper copies of materials and storing documents in a secure location. It could also look  like waiting a certain time period before releasing photos and videos of an event.

This guide will not go into depth about security measures for community archiving. We will provide  general tips for saving information, but you do not have to follow what we say directly, and you are ENCOURAGED to adjust and modify our recommendations to best fit your specific needs and circumstances. And always, talk with your community and see what will work best for you all.

My last note here, the threat of state violence is meant to deter and silence us. When state violence prevents us from documenting our work, they succeed in erasing our stories for future generations. They make it harder to pass along our strategies for survival.

Archiving is an act of resistance, and it is vital to our movements.

Try to anticipate the materials that will be used and come prepared to gather and preserve those. Keep in mind that you don’t need every archiving tool for every job. If you are lugging around 20 pounds of equipment, then you are less able to keep up, move through a crowd, and respond to changing situations.

Once you have an idea of the types of materials you want to preserve, now you can start preparing for how you want to gather and save those materials.

During the Protest

Tip 1: Advertise!! Communicate!! Participate!!

Advertise!! Communicate!! Be bold and outgoing!! Have a sign that says “please donate protest signs!” For  the love of all that is queer, tell people around you what you are doing. Ask people to donate their signs and materials.

Set up a designated time for folks to come talk to you, “After the march, please come visit me at X location to donate signs.” Set up ways for people to reach you after the march. You can even set up a way for folks to submit materials days, weeks, or months after the event. Creating clear channels of
communication is crucial to gathering materials and their context. You could even create bracelets with your social media handle on it to hand out to people.

Tip 2: Label as you Go

If someone hands you a flier or object, label it as  soon as you get it. Whether that’s an index card, a form, writing on the folder or bag, some things you might want to record are

1) the name of the person and contact info of the person who donated the material,
2) what the object is, and
3) where you received it.

If you can’t write things down, then record a voice memo on your phone. Trust me, I always think I’ll remember, but I inevitably forget  things. Do your best! But also you can’t record everything, and that’s okay, anything you record will be valuable.

Tip 3: Ground Yourself in the Moment

As you gather objects, signs, and materials from a protest try to photograph and record those objects in use at the event. If you know that you will be preserving a certain sign, then photograph that sign in use. Take photos of people using the objects and be aware of key people and landmarks around you. Do your best to capture images, video, and audio that showcase how these artifacts were actually being used. Ground them in the moment. Tie the landscapes and sources together.

Think about what would help someone 100 years from now look at this photo or video and instantly recognize where it is and what’s happening.

Tip 4: Group Signatures on a Protest Sign

A fun and easy archiving activity is to get everyone in your group to sign a protest sign or banner. These are such cool artefacts of the march and serve as a record of those who attended.

After the Protest

Now that you’re done with the initial collecting, get those items OUT! Get your materials to Invisible Histories or into another library or archive. Upload materials to a shared drive, mail out items, or drop them off.

  • Sort and label materials (this can be as simple as putting everything into one box with a date and a name of the protest).
  • Save copies of any press or media coverage of your event, physical papers are preferred, but digital articles should be saved as PDFs.
  • Upload photos and videos. Ask people who attended the event to submit photos, videos, and other materials to you. Set up a clear way for them to send those to you.
  • Group Debrief. Hold a debrief session with your group and build community archiving into your debrief. Let people help you label and describe photos, videos, and gathered materials.
  • Interview yourself. Do an interview or journal about how you’re feeling about this protest. Don’t worry about being formal, allow yourself to ramble, cuss, reflect, and delight in the experience!
    • Give your name, pronouns, & your location
    • How did you feel about the event and preserving it?
    • What are your biggest takeaways from being at this event?
    • What do you hope future generations remember about this event?
  • Send materials to a library or archive partner!

Checklist

Title reads 'Summary Checklist'. This is a one page checklist with checkboxes about archiving a protest. Text in the checklist reads 'Before the Protest Discuss Consent, Community Agreements, and Safety Brainstorm Types of Materials You Want to Preserve Pack Supplies & Build an Archiving Toolkit Pencils, Pens, Sharpies Small Folders Protest Sign Folder Ziploc Bags or Cloth Bags Equipment Chargers Recording Device (phone, camera, recorder) Notebook / Paper / Index Cards Clipboard Water, Sunscreen, and Masks During the Protest Gather Materials! Take pictures, videos, and audio recording of materials in use Label materials as you go Give people your contact information After the Protest Group Debrief Sort and Label Materials Upload materials to a shared drive Reach out to Invisible Histories or other library and archiving groups in your area!'

See pg 24

Download Resource

How to Archive a Protest: A Field Guide For Southern Memory Workers (PDF)

About the Author

This zine was authored and designed by Margaret Lawson (they/them) a queer Mississippian who is passionate about preserving the stories of southern resistance movements for future generations.

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