CURRENT POSITION Archives Division Manager, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, GA DEGREE MS, Archives Management, Simmons University FOLLOW linkedin.com/in/dtmosley; dlg.usg.edu/collection/aarl_afpc Photo by Priscilla Dickerson

Black Archives Preserver

As an archivist and division manager at Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Derek Mosley sees his work as an opportunity to preserve the stories of everyday people, ensuring that diverse records fill our cultural context and contributing to a more extensive portrait of African American life. “I’ve spent my career making sure that African Americans were documented in all forms,” he notes.

Since joining the library in 2016, Mosley’s focus on bringing awareness to the necessity of accessing the past and “documenting the now” has powered his work documenting Black digital culture and digitizing African American funeral programs. “Archiving the Black Web,” a project initiated in 2020 through an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant and now in its second iteration through funding from the Mellon Foundation in 2023, aims to catalog the cyberspace Black people occupy and the impact their conversations create. It’s work Mosley enjoys because, as he says, “Being an archivist is so much fun, especially if you’re a nosy person!”

In an ongoing partnership with the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Metro Atlanta Chapter, Wesley Chapel Genealogy, and the Georgia Public Library Service, Mosley spearheaded a program to digitize more than 11,500 pages of printed funeral programs dating back to 1886. The collection opened for public research in 2020, enlivening public interest and garnering media recognition.

He is also the cofounder of the Atlanta Black Archives Alliance, an informal group of Atlanta area archivists and librarians dedicated to sharing the city’s unique resources on Black history and culture—an initiative that first interested him when he noticed the lack of archival records for people of color. A large part of the collection’s value, Mosley feels, is in the individuals whose lives are represented. “We’re making sure that people are documented—not just famous people or people who made some major contribution to history,” he says. “You should be able to see what life was like for average, everyday people.” He points to one item in the collection with particular impact: Two pairs of slave shackles, one sized for an adult and one for a child.

Through his work with the alliance, Mosley also volunteers to educate community members about preserving their archives, hosting virtual and in-person workshops and local site-specific presentations. His purpose in developing, maintaining, and encouraging the preservation of these archives is clear: “I spent my career making sure that African Americans were documented in all forms.”