City of Clemson (Clemson Area African American Museum)

The Clemson Area African American Museum (CAAAM) will expand staff capacity and support paid internships to collect, preserve and make available oral histories from African Americans in Pickens County, South Carolina. The project activities include hosting two workshops on family legacy preservation and five open forum discussions designed to encourage community engagement and ownership of the oral history project. The project will result in a digitized and transcribed set of oral histories documenting African Americans in Upstate, SC. Staff will use these oral histories as the core of a new traveling exhibit, publish selections as a booklet of the stories collected and make these resources available to researchers. CAAAM hopes to inspire and encourage community members to preserve their history by providing fundamental knowledge and understanding of best practices for the preservation of their families legacy.