By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
In her role as president of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State (BHS), a volunteer-led, non-profit organization that preserves and shares the history and culture of African Americans in Washington State, Stephanie Johnson Toliver works closely with the organizations collections team and volunteers to maintain and grow their archives of Black people and Black organizations in Washington State.
Founded in 1977, the Black Heritage Society (BHS) is dedicated to acquiring, preserving, and sharing historical collections that highlight the legacy of Black communities across Washington State. Central to its mission, BHS actively advocates for the preservation of culturally significant heritage sites statewide.
As President, Toliver said that working with the collections teams apart of BHS that is physically in the archive weekly and managing the whole collection process is a huge part of the work that she oversees.
As president, Toliver manages BHS’s collections team, which works weekly to maintain and catalog artifacts. It’s a huge task for an organization with limited resources, especially with the recent acquisition of several very large collections, but Toliver maintains that while the work can be a bit tedious at times, the value of preserving the history of the state’s Black community is well worth the effort.
“There is a lot of intentional work that goes into preserving these items, so that when they come to our collections team they are packed properly into archival packages and then entered into our collections data management system,” says Toliver.
“We are soliciting for volunteers to support the collections team right now because there is a lot going on there,” adds Toliver. “Anyone who has interest in archiving the Black history, supporting the grassroots of it meaning handling documents, photographs and helping preserve the assets that come to us can help fill where we see gaps in our archives.”
With records dating back to the 1880s, BHS maintains its archive in a controlled environment, thanks in part to a longstanding partnership with the Museum of History.
“We’ve been institutional partners with the Museum of History for 40 years,” Toliver said. “They have really embraced the vision of BHS.”
Toliver likens BHS’s archives to a “rabbit hole” that reveals the vast and interconnected story of Black communities across the state.
“Some of the early migration was to Roslyn, Eastern Washington, Yakima Valley and then eventually to Seattle, so I always say it is like a rabbit hole because once you are introduced to the archive and begin your research focused on one area, before you know it you have gone down that hole and are introduced to so much rich history of Black people from all over this state,” says Toliver.
While there are many large institutions that have helped archive Black history in the state, Toliver believes that it is important that our community be able to manage its own collections, because oftentimes other institutions determine what is significant to them personally and may not recognize the broader scope of the entire collection.
“Being able to come together collectively and in the community with other organizations that are working towards that effort of preserving Black history has allowed us to share more broadly how important it is to manage our own history and the legacies that we hold,” Toliver said. “It is really beautiful that some of the larger institutions hold our history, but oftentimes they determine the significance of the history and how they will share it.”
“Right now, we are looking to really embrace this digital space that we are moving into, and if we can do that, our goal is to provide the assets that we hold and prioritize to be in a digital format so that we can share them more broadly to spaces like large classrooms of students or people,” she added.
Carol Peoples-Procter, Vice President of the Black Heritage Society (BHS), didn’t expect her connection to the organization to grow into a lifelong commitment. Yet her dedication remains unwavering, rooted in family and personal history.
“I have been involved with the society since 1993. My dad is a part of the original membership, and I was taking my dad to BHS,” Peoples-Procter said. “At that time, Jacqueline Lawson, one of the original founders, was working on a project with my father and having him identify photos taken by a very renowned photographer, Al Smith. These photos documented the Jackson Street jazz scene and other community events.”
She shared that her father was a dedicated Washington Huskies fan, and eventually, he asked her to take his place at BHS so he could prioritize game days.
“With me being a daddy’s girl, I agreed and stepped into the role,” says Peoples-Procter.
“It’s that type of organization—you can make it personal and showcase who we are and all the achievements we’ve made in the city and the state,” she added.
For Peoples-Procter, BHS serves as an essential “treasure chest” for Black history in Washington, a resource she believes each state should have to preserve the stories of diverse communities.
“I can’t even begin [to talk] about the importance of [BHS]; I can talk for days,” says Peoples-Procter. “We are really a place that teaches and includes our Black history, which is very deep, and helps folks understand why we are doing this work. It’s all history, but the subject is, it is our history.”
Peoples-Procter’s hope is that once people in the Black community are exposed to their heritage and culture through BHS that they will feel the same amount of pride for BHS as they would a national museum.
“For us to take what our founding members worked so hard to do and continue it on, we are like the Black Smithsonian,” she said. “When you borrow something from the Smithsonian, you’re proud to say, ‘This is from the Smithsonian,’ and we want you to be proud to say, ‘This is from the Black Heritage Society.’”
Peoples-Procter says that the organization encourages people to donate items that they feel may be an important part of Black history and culture of the state to BHS, where the items can be preserved safely rather than risk being forgotten or damaged.
“If you don’t donate it, then it’s likely we won’t have it. Aside from the Quincy Joneses, there are different people in society known on a national level where it’s easy to get those artifacts. But the everyday people—the politicians, the accountants, those making history today or who pioneered before—we want that information,” Peoples-Procter said.
“We want people to know we are a safe place. Do you want it just tossed out by someone who doesn’t understand the significance of that photo or that article? Let us help you decide if it belongs at BHS, where we can share it with researchers or display it for the public,” she added. “Whether you’re 5 years old or 105 years old, you’ve made some type of history, and we want it all. It’s such an honor to be a part of our treasure chest.”