Mud Creek Archive receives $6,000 grant for creation of Huntsville Black Business District archive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (June 29, 2021) - A $6,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville will allow local historic preservation organization Mud Creek Archive to develop an archive of Huntsville Black Business District history.

Mud Creek Archive seeks to collect information about the historic Black businesses that were located on Holmes Avenue, Church Street, and Jefferson Street in Huntsville, Alabama from the period of Reconstruction to the late 1970s.

Stakeholder interviews will help inform a research process that investigates interviews, government records, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, and more. The resulting information will be collated, uploaded into a database, and made available to the public through an interactive website created to document the district’s history and educate the public. It is anticipated this will become a repository for all information related to this area and an important part of Black history.

“For much of the 20th century, Church Street, Holmes Avenue and Jefferson Street formed a special place for Huntsville’s Black community as its Black Business District. By the late 1970s, most Black businesses and churches here were displaced,” noted Chauncey Robinson, Founder of Mud Creek Archive. “A gap in public, accessible information about this significant time in history exists. We’re hoping to fill that gap.”

The research process will begin immediately and Robinson hopes to make the website available by Spring of 2022. The archive will be updated regularly based on ongoing research, public feedback, and website analytics.

About Mud Creek Archive

Founded by Chauncey Robinson, with a goal of providing members of his community with an opportunity to identify their roots and ancestry, Mud Creek Archive provides African-American genealogical study and education in Northern Alabama. More information can be found online at mudcreekarchive.org.

Contact:
Chauncey Robinson, Founder, Mud Creek Archive
312-213-2536, info@mudcreekarchive.org

Mud Creek Archive receives $8,500 grant from Alabama Historical Commission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (February 6, 2020) - Mud Creek Archive is pleased to announce that it has received a $8,500 grant from the Alabama Historical Commission.

Mud Creek Archive’s mission is to educate others on African-American ancestry in Northern Alabama through its efforts to promote scholarly research and provide resources for historical and genealogical studies.

The funding will allow the organization to focus on a number of historical preservation endeavors, including:

• Grave Marker Cleaning & Repair and Fence Repair in Jackson County

  • Mud Creek Archive will work with the Jackson County community and hire a specialist to take the lead on this project. Repairs will follow good preservation practice as listed in the Alabama Burial Act, including using the Alabama's Historic Cemeteries: A Basic Guide to Preservation outlined by the Alabama Historical Commission’s Cemetery Program.

• Alabama Historical Commission Historical Marker for Old Baptist Cemetery

  • To assist Alabama historians and historic preservationists in educating the public about this historically significant cemetery, Mud Creek Archive will work directly with the manufacturer of AHC markers and plaques, Sewah Studios in Marietta, Ohio, to arrange for the production, delivery, and installation of the marker at Old Baptist Cemetery in Hollywood.

• Pre-Restoration Survey of Old Baptist Cemetery

  • Historic African-American burial traditions utilized natural markers like wood, shrubbery, or flowers, which have been lost through the passage of time, leaving sections of Old Baptist Cemetery bereft of headstones or other visual markers. This creates unique opportunities and challenges for restoration. To determine what lies beneath, Mud Creek Archive will partner with a remote sensing firm for a technologically advanced survey of the cemetery as part of the restoration project. The goal of the survey is to find unmarked burials and cross-reference the flagged locations with the cemetery's burial records to verify the data.

“I have a long personal history in this area, as I know many of us in this region do, and the work of our organization is focused on preserving that rich history, particularly in Jackson and Madison Counties,” noted Chauncey Robinson, Founder of Mud Creek Archive. “This grant will allow us to continue our efforts of preserving the traditions of our African-American community by protecting the places that represent significant milestones in our collective past.”

The grant was awarded as part of the Alabama Historical Commission’s 2020 Grant Program, which will administer $900,000 in grants during this fiscal year to support improvements and educational programming at historic sites in Alabama to help preserve them for future generations.

About Mud Creek Archive

Founded by Chauncey Robinson, with a goal of providing members of his community with an opportunity to identify their roots and ancestry, Mud Creek Archive provides African-American genealogical study and education in Northern Alabama. More information can be found online at mudcreekarchive.org.