More than 'reviving the past'

Files, photographs, digital content, cassettes, VHS tapes: these are just a few of the resources housed in the African American Research and Services Institute (AARSI). The treasures date back at least two centuries and tell the stories of African Americans who lived in the Southeast Ohio region and beyond.

Pictured above: From AARSI's collection, a postcard sent to Ethel Stevens in Waterford, Ohio. The Stevenses were a family of color who moved from Maryland to the Waterford area. Martha Hunley Blackburn is pictured fourth from the right. OHIO's first Black female graduate (class of 1916), Blackburn is a partial namesake of the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium on the Athens campus.  

AARSI’s mission, as published on the intitute's website, is threefold: to encourage interdisciplinary and community-based research related to the experiences of people of African descent; to build strategic partnerships across the campus, institutions and global community; and to conduct primary research focused on African American experiences in rural America, especially the Ohio River Valley.

Part of the African American Studies Department, AARSI is located in Bentley Hall Annex, room 360. The institute is ready to re-open with the combined efforts of its director Dr. Andrea Frohne, a professor of African art history, and Dr. Gary Holcomb, professor and chair of the African American Studies Department.

Frohne and Holcomb see this as more than just a re-opening. It's an opportunity to educate, assist, and engage the community.

“It’s not just reviving the past; it’s starting something fresh," Holcomb said. 

Community members will be encouraged to take advantage of AARSI’s resources. The institute is developing connections with community organizations including Mount Zion Black Cultural Center, Tablertown People of Color Museum, Multicultural Genealogical Center, and John Gee Black Historical Center.

"Community engagement is incredibly important to us," Frohne said. 

AARSI also strives to be a resource for students, who can use the archive materials for research assignments by making individual appointments. In addition to being a resource for materials, AARSI also plans to help students further develop their projects outside of the archive through academic research, community work and other efforts.

AARSI’s reading room is the meat and potatoes of the institute. Archival materials from all over Southeast Ohio, spanning centuries, are housed in this space. From photographs to cassette tapes to digital material, the institute offers content that students and community members are sure to find engrossing.  

The institute is currently in the process of digitizing many of their physical files, including the postcard featuring Martha Hunley Blackburn.

The institute was established in 2003 as an extension of the African American Studies Department. Dr. Vibert Cambridge began the institute, and Dr. Déanda Johnson served as its director until 2010. When Johnson left the University, AARSI became inactive.