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The Big Night!

Tonight was the Justice Freeman event at the CSU archive that we had been working on, and I would say it was a success. There were probably about 50 people there, and a lot of them were justices or people from the university. And Fox News was there too. Did I mention they had a jazz band and refreshments? I was not expecting that!

During the day I did some last minute tag changes, added some signs around the archive that Kheir was hoping to get done and did some last minute cleaning. I think we did Charles Freeman, um, justice! Ha! Does everybody make that joke when you're a judge?

The event started around 5, and after a cocktail hour there were some speeches. Then everybody came into the exhibit, and it was great to see how into it people were. It made me glad we had picked the objects we did to highlight.

 


Current Chief Justice of the Illinois
 Supreme Court P. Scott Neville Jr. (left)
talks with Kevin Freeman (right)
at the event

We really got to see the impact it made! Kevin Freeman, who is Justice Freeman's son, who was the one that gifted the materials of his father's archive to CSU, was there. He gave a really great speech about his father, a moving story about how he helped a woman who he then later then ended up introducing to Harold Washington and working on his campaign. Kevin talked glowingly about the exhibit we put together, and one of the nice things he said (among many) was that the display had a cohesive timeline. And seeing as how I put the timeline together, I took that as a point of pride. There were also speeches given by the president of the university and a other judges who knew Freeman or who understood his legacy. It was all very moving, and I was proud to be part of the event and the exhibit. But what really stood out for me, was when Kevin and his wife came in with their children, looked at the materials and how we had them laid out, as well as the videos we had playing and the hero portraits we had enlarged. And Mrs. Freeman was so moved she turned to me and was a little choked up. She said, "He was a great man. And a great father-in-law." And she thanked us. I was so moved by her being moved by what we had done. It got me a little choked up. Also, I enjoyed that I saw her teenage daughter get her cell phone out and take a few photos on the sly of some of the stuff we had on display of her grandfather. These were probably things she had never seen of him. I loved that.

Here are just a few pictures of the exhibit. I'm so proud of us!














Also it was fun to see the printed brochure we had made to go with the exhibit.




Anyway, I think we did a great job, and it was obvious that the family and the community appreciated it. I really see an archive has the power to move people. It was a great experience.

--

Today's standards fulfilled as per the Society of American Archivists Curriculum:

A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 2. Knowledge of the Profession, c) Professional Ethics and Values (p. 7)

A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 1. Knowledge of Archival Material and Functions, f) Outreach, Instruction, and Advocacy (p. 6)

A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 3. Contextual knowledge, a) Social and Cultural Context, d) Underserved & Underrepresented Communities (pp. 7-8)


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