“Preserving the American Black Journal African-American History through Detroit’s People, Pictures and Words”

“Preserving the American Black Journal: African-American History through Detroit’s People, Pictures and Words” Proposal Summary Detroit Public Television DPTV requests $350,000 to preser

“Preserving the American Black Journal:

African-American History through Detroit’s People, Pictures and Words”

Proposal Summary Detroit Public Television (DPTV) requests $350,000 to preserve and provide public access to 33 years of

historic American Black Journal (ABJ) television programs Building upon two years of planning and

initial consultation, this project will move forward the complete cataloguing, analog migration, and digital

preservation of all existing ABJ programs Moreover, the project will develop public and scholarly access

through online availability of both the rich catalog information and a portion of the actual programs in streaming video Currently, the shows exist in various videotape formats and physical conditions, from molding two-inch Quadraplex tape in open reels to pristine BetacamSP cassettes This project will

support expert evaluation, cleaning and cataloging of the ABJ tapes, followed by migration of all playable ABJ programs to digital Beta videotape and transfer of selected programs to OMF video files These

robust and widely used formats will make the content of ABJ equally accessible for the public television

production studio and for research and educational purposes It is urgent to preserve this rich multimedia archive of African-American history and culture now before the physical condition and image quality ages and deteriorates any further Without intervention, this unique chronicle of 20 th century African- American experience will be lost to future generations

American Black Journal, originally titled Colored People’s Time, went on the air in 1968 as a forum for

black citizens of Detroit during a time of racial unrest The show has continued on the air consistently since then, documenting over thirty years of Detroit history from African-American perspectives It is a national treasure as one of the most extensive video records of local African-American history and culture

in a city with the third largest black population in the nation The collection includes interviews, table discussions, field-produced features and artistic performances featuring African-Americans, many

round-of whom are among the nation's most recognized figures While many collections focus on the

contributions of African-Americans specifically to music or science or politics, ABJ explores the full

range of African-American experiences The collection includes in-studio interviews and on-location footage that documents attitudes, issues and events ranging from labor unrest in the automobile industry,

to the Detroit and nation-wide urban civil disturbances of 1967, to the emergence of outspoken American political leaders, to the explosion of Motown music.

African-The ABJ collection also ties events occurring in Detroit to national issues and showcases the significance

of Detroit in African-American politics throughout the country About half of the shows are devoted to national issues and themes Many high-profile African-Americans were interviewed while in Detroit to support and participate in a local event Because Detroit is home to the largest chapter of the NAACP and a black population exceeded only by New York and Chicago, many leaders come here to secure local support for a national issue, or “test the waters” prior to delivering any message nationwide

Support from the Preservation and Access Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities will enable DPTV both to preserve this historic video record and to work with humanities scholars to assess the content of the programs and to deepen the understanding of humanities issues and scholarship relevant

to the diverse African-American perspectives represented in the ABJ programs Funds will support

consultation with experts in online access, public programming, and humanities computing at MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University DPTV will work with MATRIX to preserve the programs in digital format and develop and implement appropriate metadata and archive cataloging MATRIX will also design and host the interface framing and delivery structures necessary for presenting DPTV’s television archives for long-term public use via the Internet

In general, DPTV owns the rights to all these programs (with the exception of some performances) including the right to rebroadcast them in any manner and to present them on the Internet The station intends to take this opportunity to use these materials in accordance with its public mission and create access to these materials

“Preserving the American Black Journal:

African-American History through Detroit’s People, Pictures and Words”

Proposal Narrative

Detroit Public Television (DPTV) requests $350,000 to preserve and provide public access to 33

years of historic American Black Journal (ABJ) television programs Building upon two years of

planning and initial consultation, this project will move forward the complete cataloguing,

analog migration, and digital preservation of all existing ABJ programs Moreover, the project

will develop public and scholarly access through online availability of both the rich catalog information and a portion of the programs in streaming video Currently, the programs exist in various videotape formats and physical conditions, from molding two-inch Quadraplex tape in open reels to pristine BetacamSP cassettes This project will support expert evaluation, cleaning

and cataloging of the ABJ tapes, followed by migration of all playable ABJ programs to digital

Beta videotape and transfer of selected programs to OMF video files These robust and widely

used formats will make the content of ABJ equally accessible for the public television production

studio and for research and educational purposes It is urgent to preserve this rich multimedia archive of African-American history and culture now before the physical condition and image quality ages and deteriorates any further Without intervention, this unique chronicle of 20thcentury African-American experience will be lost to future generations

I Significance

Explain the importance of the project and justify its need and priority on the basis of its value for

research, education, or public programming in the humanities Applicants proposing projects that preserve, stabilize, and/or provide intellectual access to collections should provide information about the nature, size, intellectual content, current and past use, level of description, the relation of the collection

to similar holdings in the U.S., and the physical condition of the materials Applicants proposing

digitization projects should make a cogent argument that the creation of digital surrogates would

significantly enhance access to and use of the materials.

American Black Journal, originally titled Colored People’s Time, went on the air in 1968 as a

public media forum for black citizens during a time of racial unrest The show has continued on the air consistently since then, shifting format-styles and titles over 30 years while documenting Detroit history from African-American perspectives It is a national treasure as one of the most extensive records of local African-American history and culture in a city with the third largest black population in the nation The collection includes interviews, round-table discussions, field-produced features and artistic performances featuring African-Americans, many of whom are among the nation's most recognized and controversial figures While many collections focus

on the contributions of African-Americans specifically to music or science or politics, ABJ

explores the full range of African-American experiences The collection includes in-studio interviews and on-location footage that explores issues and events ranging from labor unrest in the automobile industry, to the Detroit and nation-wide urban civil disturbances of 1967, to the emergence of outspoken African-American political leaders, to the explosion of Motown music

It is hoped that the preservation of this collection would further the original mission of CPT, by

increasing the availability and accessibility of media relating to African-American experiences The show was intended to explore the history and issues of the black community in order to encourage greater involvement from Detroit citizens in working to resolve community problems and mobilize positive action As stated in the original DPTV proposal for the 1968 program,

“Detroit must assume its share of responsibility for meaningful public communication in this neglected area,” (see p.4 of original proposal attached in Appendix) Similarly, this restoration

project is a valuable and necessary tool for public education and research purposes The ABJ

collection would undoubtedly further the initial vision of promoting African-American

representation in communications and media, and would assist teachers, students, community members and scholars with research on African-American culture, history, music and other

issues relating to life in Detroit and the nation as it has been documented in the ABJ collection The ABJ collection also ties events occurring in Detroit to the national scene and showcases the

significance of Detroit in African-American politics throughout the country About half of the shows are devoted to national issues and themes Many high-profile African-Americans were interviewed while in Detroit to promote and support a local event Because Detroit is home to the largest chapter of the NAACP and boasts a black population exceeded only by New York andChicago, many leaders came here to secure local support for a national issue, or “test the waters”prior to delivering any message nationwide For example, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech actually was delivered for the first time in Detroit

While commercial television provided sound bytes and cursory interviews when an event or

issue was deemed topical, ABJ acted as a microscope for Detroit’s African-American population.

ABJ offered (and continues to provide) a full half hour each week of in-depth coverage of areas

of concern to Detroit’s African-American audience The spontaneous, unrehearsed dialogue

delivered on ABJ was often far more candid than what was prepared for public presentation or

expressed to mainstream media Interview hosts asked pointed questions, interaction between the guest and host was dynamic, and frequently the discussion deviated from the intended topic

in surprising ways Hosts developed dynamic, ongoing and public relationships with key

political figures, such as the relationships developed between host Ron Scott and Detroit mayor Coleman Young and between host Ed Gordon and Jesse Jackson

These 33 years of television programming about African-American issues and culture are a valuable resource that need to be made accessible to a broad popular as well as academic

audience African-American history is often presented in a single dimension, from a single

perspective and featured during a specific time of the year In contrast, the ABJ programs

represent a wide variety of African-American viewpoints on culture, history, and issues

important to the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan, and the nation as whole

Without a doubt, many of the individual shows that aired on the ABJ have lasting humanities

interest as multimedia documentations of African-American history, using the images and voices

of both prominent international newsmakers and local citizens The collection can be used to illustrate the pluralism and diversity of voices within African-American communities; highlight the changing nature of African-American social, civic, and political history over time; and demonstrate the culturally diverse contributions of African-American artists, entertainers,

promoters, and business people This project will support efforts to explore and elaborate on these humanities themes by fully cataloging the collection, by preserving the video and

peripheral materials, and by presenting ABJ catalog and content online for research, education

and public use

The rise of U.S interest in African-American studies roughly parallels the civil rights movement

in this country As universities across the U.S developed programs in African-American

studies, colleges, museums and private individuals collected cultural and historical artifacts In

1967, as ABJ was being developed, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C opened the Anacostia Museum and Center for African-American History and Culture Sorry, Brother was

developed in Boston during the same era This show has recently been archived at WGBH Media Archives and Preservation Center Results of this NEH funded project are available

online However, as noted on the Sorry, Brother website, detailed content descriptions are only

available in-house

The ABJ collection, unique in both content and accessibility, will make an important contribution

to existing African-American archives in Detroit and the nation The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research library of the New York Public Libraries, probably has the most extensive collection of material related to African-American culture in the US The

Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division is a repository of documentary and dramatic films, public affairs television broadcasts, recorded music and oral history interviews It does not, however, include materials specific to Detroit history and only a small amount of written,

photographic, and video material is available online Most sound recordings and videos are accessible only in person at the New York Public Library; motion picture films are shown only

by appointment There is also an extensive collection of personal papers, photographs,

scrapbooks and sheet music on African-American culture housed within the Smithsonian in Washington, DC Access to audio and videotapes is limited to scholars by appointment only at the museum

Once preserved and accessible, the ABJ archive will complement other regional collections that

contain information about black life in the city and the country In Detroit, information and materials about African-American life are scattered in various archives The only substantial archive located in Detroit is the E Azalia Hackley Collection of Negro Music, Dance and Dramathat focuses on performing artists The E Azalia Hackley Collection of Negro Music, Dance andDrama, located at the Detroit Public Library, was the first collection of its kind in the world when it was started in 1943 The archives include materials on the Motown Recording

Company, the National Association of Negro Musicians, renowned dancers and concert and opera singers The Photographic and Print Collection contains items dating from the mid-19th century to the present, including portraits of performers, organizations, vocal and instrumental groups and still photographs from black films and stage productions The Recorded Sound Collection contains music either performed or composed by black musicians Documenting the development of black music, recordings include African chant, Negro spirituals, ragtime, jazz, gospel, opera, orchestral music, soul and rhythm & blues Hundreds of examples of "popular music," produced in the middle to late 19th century and based on Negro themes, are similarly preserved in the Sheet Music Collection

The Burton Collection is a repository of records also housed at the Detroit Public Library Its focus is the history of Detroit and Michigan from the time of settlement in the 17th century to thepresent The background history encompasses the Great Lakes region as well as New England and New France, areas that are inextricably linked with Detroit history Noted for its source material and its extensive genealogy resources, the Collection contains books, pamphlets, bound newspapers, atlases, maps, pictures, photographs, personal papers, archives, business records, and ephemeral items such newspaper clippings, broadsides, and scrapbooks Within the Burton collection various records of African-American life in the region can be found

At Wayne State University in Detroit, the Walter Reuther Library’s Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs were established in 1960 to collect and preserve records of the American labor movement The collection maintains a special emphasis on industrial unionism and related social, economic and political organizations in the United States It also collects historical records related to urban affairs, with particular focus upon metropolitan Detroit Damon Keith Law Collection contains the accomplishments of African-American lawyers and judges; and the Harry W Flannery Collection contains research files that focus on labor union issues, including

10 folders on African-Americans in the labor movement The library also holds a collection on the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists The Reuther Library also contains records of African-American life in the region, including the original proposals that contain the history of the

conception and development of Colored People’s Time at DPTV.

This project will contribute ABJ videotape and program documentation to this set of cultural and

historic materials about African-Americans DPTV and MSU will make these important

educational and historical resources available to the public via the Internet and on DVD Once the website is completed, streaming video will be easily accessible from home, school, business

or kiosk computers to people the world over seeking primary source information of 20th century African-American history

Description of Collection

Conditions and Storage

American Black Journal used the most common tape formats at the time and utilized tape usage

practices common to weekly television production While footage of significant people was often saved for reuse (or even personal staff use), field material and some master tapes not deemed important were probably often re-recorded to reduce tape costs for the station The

remaining ABJ tapes and materials are currently stored in three places at DPTV: 1) an offsite

storage facility, 2) in the DPTV production building in the original basement archive, and 3) on the 3rd floor of the production building in a climate and temperature controlled and monitored room with an adjustable metal shelving system From a visual inspection, the general condition

of the tapes ranges from excellent to fair, though dropout and more serious problems may emerge when we first play (and simultaneously record) the older tapes The tapes in the

excellent category are in the higher image quality formats (1”, BetaSP), and these were stored under relatively dry, safe conditions above ground The tapes in the fair category are in the comparatively low image quality formats (3/4” and 2”) and were normally stored under

relatively dry, safe conditions below ground Unfortunately, a great deal of this material was ruined and immediately discarded after a broken city water pipe flooded the basement in 1997.The following chart represents an analysis of the numbers of tapes and percentage of the

collection by dates and formats A complete listing by year is included in the Appendix

Number of tapes % of Collection Format Dates

The material still stored in the basement includes approximately 100 videotapes and

approximately 40 cubic feet of program documentation materials in boxes 2” tapes (dating as early as 1968), ¾”, 1”, beta and betaSP tapes have been stored on the floor and on wooden shelves The boxes on the floor and on wooden shelves contain information, logs, notes, stories and telephone notes from the producers, pictures, press information, research papers, documents and reports This large amount of ephemeral material will likely be of great use for research purposes, once it is carefully catalogued and can be made accessible The videotapes are

generally labeled, either on the case exterior or on the reel inside or both However these labels are not necessarily thoroughly descriptive of the actual content Thus they must be viewed and fully catalogued during the restoration process

On visual examination, there are at least four tape condition problems on these tapes that were stored in the basement:

1) white crustaceous powder on some 2” and 1” tape rolls

2) yellowish powder on some 2” and 1” tape rolls

3) crumbling foam, insulation and sealing from cases that fill tape cassettes with fine and medium powder

4) physical damage, such as wrinkles and creased tape, particularly on outer quarter of 1”and 2” reels

The materials stored in the 3rd floor archive include the most recent BetaSP and ¾” tapes These tapes remain in good condition, however some ¾” tapes exhibit crumbling foam contamination

as well These materials will be catalogued and cleaned However, because of their relative stability compared to other tapes in the collection, they will be on lower priority for migration to digital Beta and DVD formats, which will ensure long-term access and ability to migrate to future media The materials stored in the off-site storage facility include about ten boxes of

peripheral materials related to American Black Journal programs These boxes of field notes,

logs, photographs and program research were saved after the flood in 1997, but have not been catalogued This project will support the restoration and complete cataloguing of all these

materials, as well as the migration of the most critical videotapes to digital beta and DVD format,chosen according to the project selection criteria

Content

American Black Journal/Detroit Black Journal/Colored Peoples Time has explored current and

critical topics through interviews with African-American citizens and leaders as well as through on-location footage Over the course of the show’s history, program format style and content has shifted with the times and with the producers The show’s original host in 1967 was Tony

Brown, who went on to produce Tony Brown’s Journal, currently the second longest running public affairs show on PBS After Brown left CPT, the series was retitled Detroit Black Journal

and host George Martin continued to cover critical issue topics as well as increasing the musical content of the programming Ron Scott was the next host (approx 1975-1978) Scott, a former black panther and social justice activist in Detroit, brought a hard-hitting slant to the program From 1979-1984, under the leadership of producer Juanita Anderson and host Ben Frazier, the program took a more documentary style featuring monthly topical documentaries rather than in-

studio interviews and performances Ed Gordon, host from 1984-1988, returned DBJ to an

interview-style format Gordon’s tenacious interviewing style developed a tough but friendly relationship with his interviewees, most noted in his numerous interviews with Jesse Jackson

during that period The current host, Darrell Wood has been leading the show for ten years

under the title American Black Journal His shows have brought an exploration of the skills and

talents of many of the nation’s leading African-American business people to public television These shifts in programming style and content also reflect the historical changes in the role of media and of African-Americans since the late 1960s

Guests and topics featured on the show reflect a wide range of issues of interest to humanities fields of History, African-American Studies, Music, Jazz Studies, Ethnomusicology, American studies, Media studies, cultural studies, literature, urban studies, women’s studies, and political science

Throughout the course of the series, ABJ has taken advantage of the national traffic through the

city of Detroit and to universities and locations in the environs For example, Alex Haley,

historian and author of Roots, was interviewed before a public lecture he held at Eastern

Michigan University Dr Benjamin Carson, a neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins University,

appeared on ABJ when visiting his Detroit home after the tour for his inspirational book, Gifted

Hands Cornel West, Harvard professor and philosopher, appeared on ABJ during his book tour

for Race Matters His powerful yet down-to-earth discussion illuminated the ways that the entire

country was still deeply affected by the issues and politics of race Also interviewed was Lerone

Bennett, a prominent journalist, historian, and author of Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s

White Dream, a polarizing critique of the foundation of Lincoln’s abolitionist actions

ABJ shows feature a wide range of musicians and music industry professionals Berry Gordy,

founder of Motown Records, reflected on the creation of Motown and on his background and family life, including his childhood in black neighborhoods of Detroit in the early part of this century Entertainer Eartha Kitt performed and was interviewed on one of the earliest program tapes that still exists in the archives Appearing during the height of her career during a tour to Detroit, Kitt reflects on the place of Detroit as a black music center of America James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” appeared on the show several times In an extensive interview,

conducted at local Rhythm and Blues Station WCHB, Brown discussed his philosophy as an early musician and businessman When mainstream stations were not playing R&B music, Brown began to invest in radio stations in his home state of Georgia so that he could have more control of the music that was being played, thus promoting his own music

Jazz vocalist and Detroit native Anita Baker reflected on the role of music throughout her family life Rhythm and Blues group The Spinners performed on a stage custom built in the DPTV studio Host Ron Scott interviewed them and learned their dance steps Jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson brought out a softer side of the usually business-minded Darrell Wood Wynton Marsalis,interviewed in the mid-1990s, reflects on his hero Louis Armstrong and on the vicissitudes of fame, critics and popular American music

This period of documentary-style production produced other unique and important video footage

as well Renowned poet, librarian and pioneering publisher Dudley Randall was interviewed at

his home where he wrote and published Detroit’s Broadside Press Interviews with classic Jazz

vocalist Betty Carter and avante garde jazzman Sun Ra also represent this documentary-style

phase of DBJ Carter, interviewed in the tight quarters of her dressing room at Detroit’s Music

Hall, reflected on the history of jazz and her jazz heroes, particularly Sarah Vaughn Sun Ra, on the other hand, was recorded on-location in a small club, a Detroit jazz hot spot at the time

ABJ hosts have also interviewed numerous black actors, such as actor Danny Glover; Dick

Gregory, comedian and social activist; Arthur Mitchell, founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem;and Ossie Davis, whose summer high school acting workshop has been a yearly inspiration to Detroit’s black youth Davis discussed his life history, particularly his early years as a black actor in an exclusively black theater circuit

Coleman A Young, the long powerful mayor of Detroit, appeared on the show many times discussing his efforts to shape Detroit, confront critics and fight for racial justice Young’s dynamic manner makes for several lively appearances, particularly in his early years as mayor in the late 1970s and early 1980s These programs delved into the city politics and his philosophiesand obstacles as mayor Louis Farrakhan, religious leader of the Nation of Islam, made a

typically intense appearance in the mid 1980s Civil rights leader and politician Rev Jesse L Jackson also appeared on the program several times

Interviews on ABJ also include a wide range of leaders from the United States Civil Rights

Movement and from black protest movements in the U.S and abroad Julian Bond, chairman of NAACP, discussed black history and the intellectual and political roots of the NAACP Ken

Cockrel, attorney and Detroit activist, has appeared on ABJ numerous times In one instance,

Cockrel had a brilliant exchange with host Ed Gordon about the rights and limits of free speech and the domestic surveillance conducted by U.S groups; Rev Joseph E Lowery, founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Bobby Seale, former Black Panther and politician; Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers; Lani Guinier, nationallyknown civil rights attorney; Carl T Rowan, journalist; Dr Yosef ben-Jochannon, historian and author; Bishop Desmond Tutu, religious leader of South Africa; and Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr

The range of ABJ guests also included leading black professionals such as: Earl Graves,

publisher of Black Enterprise and Essence magazines; Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos Cookies; Les Brown, motivational speaker; Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Olympic track champion; NBA star Isaiah Thomas; Dave Bing, businessman and former Detroit Pistons basketball star; and broadcaster Greg Gumbel In addition to this broad range of guests, the hosts and producers

for ABJ include media personalities who have gone on to host a variety of other television programs A list of the ABJ hosts and producers with approximate dates of service to DPTV is

located in the Appendix

This original material is ripe for scholarly uses in many humanities and social science fields The programs, once well cataloged and transferred to accessible materials, will be available for

use in DPTV production In addition, ABJ staff will re-broadcast some of the historic programs

on ABJ Other preserved shows will form the basis for retrospective review programs as well as

the basis for the development of new programs that will revisit the issues, topics, and locations ofearlier programs in order to assess change (or stasis) These materials will also be of interest to other media producers The increased accessibility and accurate cataloguing, rights and guest contact information in the database will facilitate the process for other media outlets and

independent media makers

While right clearance issues can become very complicated and costly, the advantage of this collection is that DPTV knows the provenance of all media In preparation for this project, DPTV staff members have undertaken detailed rights research in program files (see History section below for more detail) In most cases the station has full rights to use the media for DPTV use and rebroadcast, with some significant (but not problematic) limitations on some

musical and dance performances Since the beginning of ABJ, DPTV policy has been to obtain

signed releases for the programs from the show guests These releases have changed over the 30 year period to detail increasingly more specific uses However, in general, DPTV owns the rights to all these programs (with the exception of some performances) including the right to rebroadcast them in any manner and to present them on the Internet The station intends to take this opportunity to use these materials in accordance with its public mission and create access to these materials

Need for Digitization

The creation of digital surrogates on AVID formatted OMF files and delivery of these segments

on DVD and online and will significantly enhance access to and use of the ABJ materials

Digital technology opens a wealth of opportunities for the arts and humanities, one of which is the ability to transfer obsolete media such as certain videotape formats to a more state-of-the-art (and more easily transferable) mass storage material

First, digitizing the programs into high resolution Avid format and storage on Digital Tape back

up will make these programs accessible to DPTV for production and programming use DPTV has a number of linear editing systems and excellent quality playback equipment for BetaSP, 1”,

¾”, and D3 tapes as well as two AVID edit suites that utilize these formats In addition, DPTV

is in the process of installing a digital tape back up system for the AVID which will keep

digitized media in a digital form for storage and quick retrieval in the AVID While these digitaltapes do pose long-term problems such as dropout, the advantage of maintaining DPTV’s tapes

in the highest resolution AVID format is that they will then be available for easy use by DPTV intheir non-linear editing system To counter the tape degradation problem, this project will store the tapes in optimal conditions and develop and follow a tape exercise and migration plan The public access via DVD will enable physical access and portability for the programs

Researchers and public citizens will be able to view these tapes on a viewing station on-site at DPTV

Online access to the entire catalog and to selected programs allows a broad national and

international presentation of ABJ programs The Internet is the ideal medium for such a

presentation Bandwidth and public as well as private access to the Internet has rapidly expanded

in the U.S and the world, making delivery of full-motion video a reality in much of the country While this technology has advanced, there is still a gap in diverse content that appeals to multiple

audiences The ABJ project will help close the digital divide by adding a rich resource of varied

African-American voices to the World Wide Web The multi-media capabilities of the online environment enable combinations of text, audio, video, graphics and photographs that will enrich

and deepen the ABJ presentations

Much conceptual work is needed to understand how best to present this unique resource on the

Internet Each American Black Journal episode was produced at a particular historical, political,

and social moment in time They were envisioned as episodic broadcasts rather than as ongoing exhibits To translate these shows to the Internet where they will be continually available, they must be reconceptualized and framed for public use For example, interviews with a long-haired Jesse Jackson in the early shows speaking with sixties-era colloquialisms present quite a

different picture from interviews with him in the 1990s when he was working with the Clinton administration These interviews will be more meaningful if they are contextualized in terms of the historical and political moments when they were produced The Internet is the ideal medium for creating wide-ranging access to the collection and for framing such material with metadata, text and visual information to situate the archival materials in their historical context Yet the medium also allows items to be viewed alone so that scholars and researchers can make their own connections and draw their own conclusions

II History

Provide a concise history of the project, including information about preliminary research or planning that has been conducted If a project (other than stabilization) requires more than two years to complete, applicants should describe the intended scope and duration of the entire project as well as the specific accomplishments or products of the grant period for which funding is requested

Preserving the American Black Journal: African-American History through Detroit’s People, Pictures and Words is part of a larger project to develop ongoing on-line access to the American Black Journal, to continue to produce DVDs of a subset of ABJ programs, and to create topical

segments drawn from different productions, featuring retrospective programs with panels

remembering and evaluating the social, economic, artistic and cultural situations of the past in light of history In September 2000, Detroit Public Television and Michigan State University

(MSU) began meeting to discuss the use of digital technology to preserve the ABJ tapes and

create a significant archive of African-American history Detroit Public Television is moving in

a new direction by consulting with Michigan State University to digitize and make accessible these important historical and cultural programs As the first major Internet venture of DPTV, the project also represents a new direction in developing television archives for long-term use viathe Internet DPTV has worked with individual university experts in the past to produce

individual shows Now, in partnering with MATRIX, DPTV will take advantage of the

humanities technology expertise of MSU and develop an ongoing consultancy, which will benefit the station’s continuing program development

Preliminary research and planning for ABJ Online to date includes:

 Finalization of a cooperative agreement between DPTV and MSU outlining roles and

responsibilities

 Review of similar projects for content, format, etc

 Consideration of the various methodologies and technologies

 Assessment and preliminary inventory of tape collections

 Cataloguing (in progress) of ephemeral materials

 Legal background work in releases and rights clearance

 Development of a timeline

 Hosted a citizen’s focus group