The 'Keeper of the Walls' project stands out as a unique endeavor, aiming to create a digital humanities repository of contemporary visual art, digital mapping, family archives, and oral histories that bridge the gap between the past and present, empowering Black communities to reclaim their stories and celebrate their cultural heritage. This comprehensive collection is dedicated to documenting and preserving the rich history of Black families in the rural Deep South, particularly in the underserved Gulf Coast region of Texas, and making it accessible to a global audience. Using visual art and family archives as resistance and narrative reclamation tools, this project fosters stronger connections within descendant communities throughout the rural Deep South.
The potential loss of family archives as the last generation of black community members who experienced the archaic Jim Crow Laws and unheralded Civil Rights heroes reflects the broader threat to historical records and cultural knowledge faced today—particularly in the Southern states, where the echoes of disenfranchisement persist. Photographs and digital media that chronicle African diasporic family history in the Deep South will be used to reconceptualize, educate, and decolonize knowledge by challenging ideas about race, representation, and critical practice.
