ACTIVITY SHEET #2

"In Service"

Many black families have histories of service to community (churches, greek letter organizations, community organizations, military, etc.). Tell your story of who in your family (past and current) have made their marks in community service.

1. Find your family photos. Look through them and remember to use the photo preservation processes discussed in meetings with instructor and from any library or photo archive visits.

2. Talk with family members about what you see in the photos and ask questions. Sample questions to use:
  • When were the photos taken, who took them and who's in them?
  • Military - What branch of the military was that person in? What was their rank and what did they do? Were they in a war? How did you feel why they were away? Did you want them to be in the military?, etc.
  • Churches - What kind of church did this person/our family, etc. belong to? Did they do more than just go to church to worship? (In the choir? Deacon boards, Sunday school, etc.)
  • Community Centers - What kind of center was it? What did the family member do at the center? How long were they at the center? Did this person join another center when they moved?
  • Sorority/Fraternity - What the name of the organization? When did the person join? Where did they join? What is a sorority/fraternity? Are there other members in our family and do they have pictures? What did they do after joining the organization? Are there any more pictures of them?
Plan to discuss this and encourage them to tell you stories of family members. They may actually still have some of the items or mementos from their service.. Ask them to pull them out and remember to take photos of those mementos with the owner talking about them.

3. Take good notes of the answers your family members give you. Select one or two photos to bring to the next session. You will discuss these photos and the answers to your questions during the next session.

4. Come to the next session prepared to take photos of yourself with photos you bring to the session.