January 23, 2025
Meghan O'Toole
Courtney Joseph, RL Watson lead students in preserving Black history of Lake Forest
A grant from the National Archives has enabled Associate Professor of History and African American Studies Courtney Joseph and Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies RL Watson to lead students in researching the Black history of Lake Forest, Illinois. Halfway through the grant cycle, the team has already accomplished a noteworthy amount of work.
The grant has enabled the hiring of three paid student researchers, who are gaining valuable hands-on experience through the project.
“As a liberal arts school, we are tasked with giving our students the best of a well-rounded education, and the humanities are essential to that,” Joseph said. “Our students have been able to engage firsthand with humanities-based research while being able to collaborate with each other and learn from professional archivists and researchers as well as faculty mentors.”
This research is giving the students the opportunity to learn more about their school and current home. Much of the work has consisted of connecting with Black alumni of Lake Forest College.
The students currently involved are Payton Ross ’27, who conducted oral histories with Black alumni of Lake Forest College; Emilce Fabian ’27, who researched and organized newspapers that addressed Black life in Lake Forest and at the College; and Josh Marchbanks ’26, who researched within Lake Forest College’s archives and engaged with Black alumni.
“The most interesting thing I've learned in doing the oral histories with alumni is that there is not much difference between what was going on in the past and what is going on now,” Ross said of his experience through the project. “We hang out and play games in the same way, even if they're different games and different hangout spots on campus since the College has grown over the decades."
Last semester, students took part in a panel session at the History Center of Lake Forest- Lake Bluff. The grant will enable further community engagement events in addition to the creation of the digital edition, Deeply Rooted and Rising High: African American Experiences in Lake Forest, from 1860 to present day. The edition gathers together an extensive collection of historical materials and will provide access to primary sources, including personal interviews, images, interactive maps, and digitized material culture.
Last year, Watson said the National Archives grant “represents a wonderful opportunity to continue to heal our shared archives, which have suffered from neglect and erasure of Black presence and experiences.”