During the summer of 2022, I was able to work with Legacy Keepers of Old East McKinney, a non-profit centered on the Black and Mexican American communities in McKinney Texas. My time with Legacy Keepers was both culturally rich and professionally educational. We focused on compiling, organizing, and displaying the history of Black and Mexican American Communities of McKinney going back to the creation of the city. We developed and hosted a pop-up Museum on Juneteenth at Holy Family School which was the original Black high school called Doty High School. Members of the community and Doty High School Alumni were able to come and learn about the Doty and the work done in McKinney by people of color. We included exhibits on Doty High School, Holy Family School run by Maria Vega, and United Day Nursery. I was able to help prepare the artifacts and the exhibit for the pop-up museum as well as virtually scan them after completion of the event in order to develop an electronic collection.
I also helped Legacy Keepers begin to compile information on the Texas Historical Commission’s Undertold Marker Program. I began by getting background information on the sites around McKinney, which had significance to the Mexican and Black community members. This will help to make their history visible and documented. Overall, I was able to see how a small non-profit works in and for a community and the importance of groups like Legacy Keepers existing. I am lucky to have met all the people I did and given the opportunity to learn and work through the Center for Southwestern and Mexican Studies.
All of these experiences have given me more clarity about the areas I want to go into as an Anthropology Student and just how passionate I am about people.