SOAL’s Action 4 Heritage 2025
SOAL’s Action 4 Heritage 2025
In the face of changing tides and an increasingly fraught political landscape, there are moments that demand clarity, unity, and decisive action. Today, we find ourselves in one of those moments. To this end, we are organizing SOAL’s Action 4 Heritage 2025, an event dedicated to mobilizing our community to safeguard our historical memory. This event will bring together historians, archivists, community activists, and volunteers to strategize and take concrete steps towards preserving our collective heritage. We invite you to join us by attending the event, which will take place both online and in person. You can learn more and register here: Action 4 Heritage 2025 Event.
As the nation prepares for a significant political shift—we are reminded of the immense power wielded by those who shape our collective memory.
It is with this context that we, at Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy (SOAL), reach out to you, our community. The stakes are high. As we continue our mission to restore and protect the legacies of our ancestors, we must be vigilant against the renewed threats to our shared history. The time for action is now—to protect the stories that define us, and to ensure that the voices of our ancestors, marginalized peoples, and communities whose histories have long been sidelined are not silenced again.
Below is an important letter that outlines the challenges we face and the actions we must take to preserve our historical memory. We invite you to read it and join us in this crucial work.
Dear SOAL Community,
We are writing today to address an urgent matter that is central to the mission of Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy (SOAL): the preservation of our collective historical memory. On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump is scheduled to take office again as President.
This timing is deeply significant, as it symbolizes the stark contrast between Trump’s nationalist agenda and Dr. King’s vision of equality, justice, and unity. In a time where far-right political leaders and ideologies, particularly those aligned with the MAGA movement and nationalist agendas, seeking to reshape history to fit their own exclusionary narrative are actively threatening the very core of what we value, it is crucial to speak clearly and directly about the risks facing the stories that must be protected.
Our ancestors’ voices, their resilience, and their struggles for justice are all contained within archives—but these archives are vulnerable, and so too are many other narratives that have been pushed to the margins.
The threat we face today is distinct from those in the past. We are confronting political leaders within far-right factions who are determined to reshape our collective memory to fit a nationalist and exclusionary agenda, including those seeking a return to Trump-era policies. This is not just about neglect or oversight; it is a deliberate attempt to erase narratives that challenge power.
The groups most at risk are those whose very existence challenges simplistic or exclusionary ideas of our shared history. These are the communities that have fought, resisted, survived, and insisted on their place in the story of this country and the world. Their contributions to society, their resilience in the face of oppression, and their ongoing fight for recognition are parts of our collective memory that we must protect, lest they be silenced.
To start, Black history—particularly stories of the Civil Rights movement and the archives that preserve enslaved peoples’ experiences—faces a renewed and intensified threat of erasure. For generations, these histories were systematically marginalized, hidden from public consciousness, and stripped of their rightful context. Today, we are witnessing renewed efforts to strip funding from community-based initiatives and remove these truths from our educational systems and archival records, driven by those who find these stories inconvenient to their vision of America.
Find more information on Rachael’s TikTok
Indigenous histories are also in serious danger. These are stories of dispossession, resistance, and profound resilience. The experiences of Native communities reveal uncomfortable truths about how this country was built, about broken treaties, forced displacement, and ongoing struggles for sovereignty. These truths are being systematically targeted for elimination to promote a sanitized version of history that ignores the cost borne by Native peoples. Without active resistance, the silence that many have fought against will descend once more.
The LGBTQ community—another group whose archives hold stories of oppression, courage, and the fight for equal rights—is likewise at risk (visit Invisible Histories to help). There is an effort to erase these histories through censorship, defunding, and restricting access to records that document persecution. This is not abstract; it is happening now, as policies and decisions are made to silence the voices of LGBTQ people. These histories matter; they remind us of the fight for dignity and rights, and how fragile those rights can be.
Similarly, immigrant communities, Muslim Americans, and those who have experienced systemic discrimination have stories that challenge a monolithic view of America. The histories of immigrants, the contributions they have made, and the struggles they have endured in pursuit of a better life are foundational to understanding who we are as a people. Yet, these narratives are increasingly threatened by xenophobic policies and rhetoric that seek to erase their presence and paint their contributions as “un-American.” Their archives must be protected to ensure we understand our diversity as a strength.
The history of labor movements—particularly those led by people of color, women, and immigrants—is another area at risk. Labor movements have challenged systemic inequalities and demanded humane working conditions. These stories are inconvenient for those who wish to diminish the power of collective action and glorify unregulated corporate power. By erasing these records, the contributions of laborers, often from marginalized backgrounds, are minimized, erasing the true cost and effort behind gains we take for granted today.
Women’s histories, especially those focused on reproductive rights and feminist movements, are also in the crosshairs. Attacks on reproductive rights are being paired with efforts to erase the history of women’s struggle for autonomy. The history of feminism is complex and intersectional, involving women from various backgrounds pushing for not just gender equality but also racial and social justice. These records must not be lost, for they remind us of the cost of silence and the ongoing fight for equality.
The preservation of these diverse stories is not only about protecting the past; it is about shaping the future. The current threat is explicit, organized, and backed by political leaders at both state and federal levels, including those influenced by nationalist agendas, who are actively seeking to redefine whose stories are worth telling. It is our duty to resist these efforts and to stand as defenders of truth and memory. SOAL was created to ensure that these voices, these legacies, are never lost. But we cannot do it alone.
We urge each of you, our community members, to take an active role in preserving these vital records. Support archival initiatives, volunteer to help digitize historical documents, and raise awareness about these urgent threats. We must act with urgency, as our collective history depends on it. Together, we can ensure that our ancestors’ stories—and the stories of all marginalized peoples—remain visible, accessible, and alive.
Thank you for standing with us in this work. Let us continue to honor our ancestors by protecting the legacies they fought so hard to build.
In solidarity,
Rachael Keri Williams, Founder, Descendant, Executive Director of SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy
Join Us At Action 4 Heritage 2025
Location:
Zoom
Date:
November 15-17, 2024
Mobilizing the SOAL Community: Agenda for Action 4 Heritage
Day 1: Defining Our Purpose and Building Connections
Objective: Establish a shared understanding of the threats, identify diverse perspectives, and lay the foundation for a cohesive, action-oriented community.
- Welcome and Purpose Statement: A brief opening that frames the gathering’s purpose, with a focus on urgency and the need for broad-based action.
- Introductions and Networking: Each attendee (or representative from a group) introduces themselves, highlighting relevant experience, interests, and any specific skills (e.g., digital archiving, community organizing, programming).
- Mapping the Challenges: Breakout sessions or open brainstorming to identify the primary threats to marginalized histories. Topics could include digital/analog threats, accessibility, institutional erasure, and funding.
- Group Synthesis: Reconvene to share insights, compiling a collective “problem map” to clarify the scope of the challenge. This map becomes a working document that can be updated throughout the event.
Day 2: Brainstorming Solutions and Assembling Resources
Objective: Shift from identifying challenges to discussing and documenting solutions, tools, and available resources.
- Skill & Resource Sharing: Kick-off with brief demos or discussions on specific tools, strategies, or funding sources that participants use in their own preservation work. Encourage people to share methods for digital archiving, securing funding, and community engagement.
- Collaborative Brainstorming: In breakout groups or a guided open forum, brainstorm potential solutions, resource networks, and tools. Key questions might include:
- What are the most pressing needs in terms of technology, funding, or training?
- What local or online resources can we pool together?
- What strategies have worked in similar grassroots efforts?
- Leadership Development and Task Identification: As groups brainstorm, participants identify leaders or volunteers to take charge of specific areas, such as technology, outreach, or funding strategies.
Day 3: Developing the Action Plan and Mobilizing the Movement
Objective: Create a preliminary action plan with clear next steps, responsibilities, and timelines.
- Strategic Planning and Role Assignments: Begin by refining ideas from Day 2, assigning leaders or points of contact for each major area (e.g., resource development, digital preservation, public engagement).
- Timeline and Milestone Setting: Define immediate next steps, including a short-term action plan and longer-term goals. Set initial milestones to keep momentum beyond the event.
- Coalition Launch and Public Statement: Draft a brief public statement or mission for Action 4 Heritage 2025 that can be shared on social media and with media outlets, outlining our collective purpose and plans.
- Wrap-Up and Call to Action: Conclude with a powerful call to action, reinforcing each attendee’s role in the movement. Share next steps for staying connected, tracking progress, and coordinating follow-up meetings or check-ins.
