Introduction to Public History - Spring 2024

Week Two: The History Harvest as Community-Engaged, "Hands-On" History The History Harvest: Origins & Methodology     The "History Harvest" and it's origins have been in debate since the first one originated in the early 2000s, with Dr. Patrick D. Jones and Dr. William G. Thomas, III, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln coining the term in 2010. The History Harvest began out of a teaching goal to educate students on the collection of the people's history. Educators came up with a solution to begin a collaborative relationship with communities and their history that wasn't on the basis of extracting information, but rather on the collection and digitalization of communal memory and history (University of Nebraska at Lincoln, 2010).      Emerging into the 21st century, we live in a world that is increasingly marked by the evolution of the digital age and experience a narrative of the victors and popular, minimizing the story of the communal experienc...

Week One: Historic Eatonville and the Fight to Preserve"America's First Incorporated Black Town" in the 21st Century Eatonville: The Creation      Following the American Civil War, many freedmen continued to live in the deep South and form their own communities. This was evident in central Florida, where Black freemen gathered to form the historic community of Eatonville, the first black settlement in the Southern states. Eatonville, since  1887, has culturally and demographically been a black settlement. Eatonville stands as an anomaly in comparison to other Black communities settled in the late 19th century. Black freedmen flocked to territories like Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma, yet eventually were abandoned as the 20th century appeared; Black cities became subject to statehood and democratic rule, quickly demoting and demoralizing their chance at equal citizenship and equating them to second-class citizens ("Black Towns," 283). On top of the move from terr...