Using Photos to Tell The Narrative of African American History in California

By using the “Guide to the Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection,” I would be able to begin to tell the narrative of African American History in California, both a political narrative and a societal/cultural narrative. The archive contains photographs of African American politicians as well as regular people doing regular things, such as standing in front of railroads, playing football, or working at a dentist’s office. By including realistic photos of everyday life, the photographs tell a narrative of the diverse role of African Americans in California culture and society, rather than silencing them as mainstream archives might do. In our readings last week we learned about how South Asian American voices are often erased from archives and in turn erased from history. As a result, minority groups such as South Asian Americans and African Americans grow up without seeing people that look like themselves in history. Mathews photography archive counters this, making a space dedicated to African American history. However, both a political and societal/cultural narrative based only on these photos would be incomplete because they do not provide enough historical background information. Without this information, we can only make a hypotheses about what we are seeing without any tangible evidence to support our point. In order to truly understand the images and make meaning of them for an academic context, one needs to read books and articles about the time period and where African American communities fit within that period. For instance, there is a photo of Martin Luther King in 1964 standing by a pulpit. In order to talk about this photo in detail, one must research the year 1964 and understand the political climate of that time as well as research Martin Luther King’s role in the Civil Rights Movement. Even the photos that do not represent a political moment in time, require textual information. For instance, for the photo of two men standing by a wooden wagon in front of a stable, one needs to understand the socioeconomic implications of being a stable worker or living in rural areas in that time period. In order to address these gaps in necessary background information, one might consult an African American library. I think it is important to read works from African American authors, rather than the works of white authors that one might find in a general library, because the Mathews collection focuses on telling the African American experience from the a culturally aware point of view. It would be helpful to consult both primary sources or books and articles written during the time period as well as secondary sources or books and articles written about the time period. Autobiographies are also a great source to enhance the information one can get from the portraits of important political figures. It might also be helpful to look at graphs that detail economic position by race per time period in California.