Documenting Religious Activity in Nonreligious Repositories Available to Purchase

In 1981, when I was a reference librarian at the University of Florida, the lack of adequate African‐American primary resources provoked me to initiate the National African‐American Pentecostal Project. Subsequently, I have collected a vast store of records, including obituaries, photographs, scrapbooks, souvenir booklets, books, and newspaper clippings. While collecting this material, I learned four things: First, private individuals possess scores of records pertaining to the lives and experiences of black Pentecostals. Second, many black and white Pentecostals are willing and eager to contribute their records if they are approached diplomatically. Third, many black Pentecostals, especially older members, have a strong sense of history and feel the pain of having been omitted from historical scholarship. And fourth, since I have returned some of these records to their owners, there is a need to permanently preserve the records of black Pentecostals.