Preserving OUR History

By Lauren Means • Photos Courtesy Sarah Calise for the Albert Gore Research Center

There’s been a push to start recognizing and honoring our history in the LGBTQ+ community. There’s also been legislation passed in many states, including Tennessee, to prohibit or limit the teaching of diverse history like that of LGBTQ+. Much like other parts of history, we’ll be doomed to repeat it if we don’t learn from it. 

In Middle Tennessee, the Nashville Public Library houses The Brooks Fund History Project — an ongoing archival record of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) life in Middle Tennessee — and the Larry Romans Papers. Vanderbilt University also has LGBTQ+ history collections. 

Middle Tennessee State University’s (MTSU) Albert Gore Research Center (AGRC) is adding to these archives with their acquisition of the OutCentral collection.

The AGRC is under the College of Liberal Arts at MTSU and focuses its archival collecting on the political, social, and cultural history of Middle Tennessee in the 20th and 21st centuries. The AGRC was named after Albert Gore Sr. because he donated his congressional papers to his alma mater MTSU in 1970. They also have several major collections from politicians like Bart Gordon, Richard Fulton, Jim Cummings, and John Bragg. Many collections focus on politics, World War II, MTSU history, and Rutherford County and its residents. As one might assume, this has led to a less-than-diverse collection of history. 

Sarah Calise (they/them), is one of two full-time archivists on staff and they have taken the lead on diversifying those collections. We spoke with them about the AGRC, the Middle Tennessee LGBTQ+ History Project, what it takes to run the center, and their push to safeguard all histories. 

Preserving Inclusive Experiences

An archivist’s job holds a lot of responsibility. Many people don’t realize how an archivist can dictate what parts of history are preserved and what parts fall by the wayside. Sarah doesn’t take that responsibility lightly. “Early in my career at the Gore Center, I started making plans to diversify our collections. The voices of white, straight men fill our archives, and that’s a problem that needs reconciliation, so that’s been my main job,” Sarah explains. 

It’s also something that the AGRC acknowledges. On their website, they clearly state they recognize the current collection has documented and preserved mostly white, heterosexual male history of MTSU, Rutherford County, and the surrounding communities. They acknowledge this practice has created many “gaps and silences” in the collections and the updated collections policy demonstrates their goals to collect and preserve historical records and oral histories from people of color, women, disabled people, and people in the LGBTQ+ community.

“Archivists have a lot of power in determining our nation’s collective memory and whose history gets validated and remembered. The archives field also has deep roots in white supremacy,” says Sarah. The earliest government archives were built by white men for white men about white men’s history. 

They also note that archivists are human beings that come with their own biases and agendas. “Our work is far from politically neutral,” Sarah expresses. “My work is inherently political and the personal is political. I’m an openly queer, non-binary, disabled white person, and therefore it was pertinent to me that the Gore Center turn its resources toward preserving more inclusive experiences, especially when local and state governments are passing laws to ban or whitewash Black and queer history in particular.”

Flying Under the Radar

With progress, most times you can expect some push-back. Luckily, Sarah says, they haven’t had much direct pushback for their efforts in collecting, highlighting, and archiving the history of minority groups. They credit that to the fact the general public isn’t sure exactly what the AGRC does and often people get confused by the name of the center. “They are not quite sure what we do. Many people mistakenly think we work for Al Gore, Jr., but we have very minimal interaction with him and his resources. Being somewhat unknown has also worked to our advantage, though, when it comes to pushing the boundaries,” they say. 

Social media is a different story. Sarah is the AGRCs social media manager and they say there have been some racist and homophobic responses on posts highlighting items from the various collections. “Just this week we shared a photograph from a kiss-in protest at the 1988 Republican National Convention. Two men were passionately making out in the photograph, and someone let us know in the comments that they did not appreciate it. Acting as the Gore Center, I let them know they can unfollow us if they want, but we will not hide this crucial history,” says Sarah.

According to Sarah, the MTSU community has responded quite positively to the work they’ve done over the past couple of years and has enabled them to partner with local community organizations. “We have an exhibit up all summer at Bradley Academy Museum, which is our local Black history institution, and we are participating in Boro Pride for the first time later this year,” they note.

And it’s the community that always pushes progress. Sarah already knew no matter where you live, there’s a history of people who dissented, who fought back, who forged families and networks that moved the bar forward to freedom and equality. They say their time at AGRC has affirmed this — “Yes, we may have literally thousands of letters written to Senator Gore asking him to vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which he did), but we also have letters from people both Black and white who firmly believed in the principles of the bill and pleaded with Gore to support it. The times change, the oppressors shift, but you can always find your people. And, hey, social media has its cons, but it makes it a lot easier to find community, too.”

These Places Matter Too

Sarah says they are currently in the early stages of a documentation project where they are locating former and current Nashville sites connected to LGBTQ+ history. Back in June, a small group drove around the city taking photographs of 13 different places significant to the LGBTQ+ community. “Everything from the Berry Hill house where the Gay & Lesbian Community Center was to Nissan Stadium, which is the same site of Boots, a former men’s only leather bar,” says Sarah. 

The AGRC posted these photographs along with their stories throughout the summer on their Instagram and Facebook pages leading up to Boro Pride. They had a booth there with a pop-up exhibit, photograph binders that attendees could look through and add their own captions, and LGBTQ+ history-inspired swag.

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To view the digital collections or find out how to view documents in person, visit https://mtsu.edu/gorecenter/index.php. If you have a story to share or items to add to the collection, you can call Sarah at 615-898-2869 or e-mail them at [email protected].