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A Decade of Progress:  Uncrowned Queens will observe 10th Anniversary in 2009

“Uncovering the Past to Preserve the Future:  A Decade of Progress” is the title of a series of events being planned by the Institute to commemorate our tenth anniversary.  Founded in 1999 as a focus group of the Women’s Pavilion 2001, the goal of the focus group was to develop a program to commemorate and celebrate the activities of African American women from the time of the Pan American Exposition to 2001.  The Uncrowned Queens website was initially launched on February 15, 2001.  The community response to this event and subsequent activities, focused on gathering, preserving and sharing the histories of African American community builders of Western New York convinced Drs. Brooks-Bertram and Seals Nevergold that a permanent organization was needed.  The Uncrowned Queens Institute was founded in 2002 and became a non-profit in 2003.  We are grateful to our founding Board members:  Dr. John Staley, Ms. Pashion Marshall, Ms. Lillian Bertram, Ms. Alanna Marrow, Ms. Sylvia Wright, and Mr. Derrick M. Byrd, Jr., who have been our stalwart supporters from the beginning.  Read more about the extensive programs that we have developed in the last ten years on the Uncrowned Community Builders:  About Us page.

Of course, we always encourage members of our community and communities across this country to submit biographies of community builders to us.  But we especially want to collect and post hundreds of bios in 2009 in recognition of the hundreds and hundreds of community builders whose stories should be documented and preserved as part of the history of this nation.  We also invite community builders who already have histories posted on our site to update them.   One of the major advantages of this technology is that it is dynamic, not static!

Our new interactive tool makes it possible to log on, become a member and upload new additions to existing biographies as well as to upload new biographies. 

Help us to make 2009 a year of celebration and a year to rededicate ourselves to the mission and vision of the Institute:  “collecting, preserving and disseminating the individual and collective histories of African American community builders.”  Contact us at uqi@buffalo.edu .