In all of my presentations, what I do on black history, I say before I leave to the audience,

no matter what your race is, no matter who your family is, your history is important.

Please go and get with older members of your family and have them identify photographs

and people within your family because black, white, Polish, Jewish, whatever your family

background is, know it, embrace it, and that will buffer you against all of the attacks

and ill judgments that will come your way in life. You will not be jealous and

envious of others because you will know how rich and great your history is. So that's

kind of why I do this is that I want people to respect themselves and that would, in my

opinion, make them less likely to be envious and hateful of others.

That was activist and community archivist Cal Williams. Cal sees his involvement in

activism as more of a pull than a draw. He didn't plan it, it just happened. Seven days

after he was born, Pearl Harbor was bombed and most of the men in his life went to war.

So the influences he had at those early stages came from the women in his life and he saw

how they did what they could to help the war effort.

He's 80 now and his list of achievements are extensive. They include the president of

the NAACP of Alaska, the recipient of the St. Francis of a CC award, and working with

history makers, an organization that collects and preserves the well-known and unsung stories

of African Americans. Considering his work with history makers and the

Anchorage Museum, Cal says that he chases the dead. He reads obituaries and attends funerals

in order to collect the stories that would otherwise be lost forever.

So here he is, Cal Williams.

Welcome to chatter marks. A podcast of the Anchorage Museum, dedicated to exploring Alaska's

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