Project: The Minnesota Human Rights Archive

The Minnesota Human Rights Archive is a new initiative for acquiring and preserving the collections of key human rights actors for future generations. Its purpose is to inspire, educate, and empower human rights defenders and scholars. The Human Rights Program (CLA), the Human Rights Center (LAW), the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice (The Humphrey School), the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CLA), and Archives and Special Collections (UMN Libraries) will make accessible new and existing archival materials, as well as create a blueprint for a future exhibition.

Minnesota Transform supported the work of two undergraduate interns, Kathleen Zhang (Human Rights Program) and David Nelson (Human Rights Program). Nelson, with funding support from MNT, was able to receive parity in salary with Zhang after having worked on the Minnesota Human Rights Archive Project during the prior academic year. Both Zhang and Nelson helped in the design of the upcoming 2024 exhibition (to be displayed in Andersen Library in February 2024), “The Local Roots of Global Activism: Minnesota’s Human Rights Stories.” Zhang researched and help draft exhibition copy for various panels of the exhibition that highlighted anti-torture initiatives originating in Minnesota among local NGO’s (including the founding of Center for Victims of Torture). Nelson helped with initial archival processing of collections at the Roy Wilkins Center (Humphrey School), while also researching the role of the Minnesota Coalition for Human Rights which, with the People’s Law Office, brought justice to victims of torture, most of whom were Black men who had been brutalized by the Chicago Police Department. Zhang and Nelson worked throughout the course of the 2022-23 academic year to uncover stories of activists, who shaped policy decisions for local and national nonprofits and NGOs. Nelson will continue to work on the exhibit until it opens in 2024.