MCL GOALS & OBJECTIVES

The Clayton Collection is endangered.  It is improperly housed and threatened by fire, water, theft, pests mold and mildew.  Additionally, overcrowded conditions have made the collection inaccessible for public use. 

Urgency:  As of the publication of this page, January 2007:  The National Weather Service predicted that Southern California will experience El Niño weather conditions this winter (extremely heavy rains).  Such weather conditions may cause significant damage to the collection in the conditions in which it is currently housed.  Your help is needed to move the collection to the safety of its new home, immediately.  Please make an on-line contribution in the Membership section of this website or send a tax-deductible check or money order to:  WSBREC (Western States Black Research & Education Center) 3617 Montclair Street, Los Angeles, CA 90018.

For years the Clayton Collection has languished without a home.  Now with the help of the City of Culver City and the County of Los Angeles, a former Los Angeles County Superior Court building located at 4130 Overland Avenue in Culver City (next door to Sony Pictures) has been leased to MCL and will become home to the collection.  

 

MCL in Culver City: a research library and education center, a museum for contemporary

art, a repository and media center for film and live performances

 

At 23,470 sq ft the collection’s new home is sufficiently large and secure to bring it out of storage and consolidate it under a single roof to facilitate its organization and care. 

 

Panoramic photo shows the crowded and unsafe conditions in which the collection is housed.  About 40% of the Literary Collection is stored in a renovated garage at the rear of Dr. Clayton’s Los Angeles area home.  The remaining parts of the collection are in storage facilities throughout Los Angeles County and inaccessible to the public.  The film collection is stored with environmental controls at Kodak’s Protek Labs in Burbank along with the music and photograph collections.

 

MCL's IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE

MCL’s most immediate objective is to get the collection to the safety of its new home.  Once that is accomplished MCL will establish an office in the Culver City building and launch a capital campaign to hire personnel, renovate the facility, organize the collection for public use and implement programs and activities

        

Interior photos of the Culver City facility show that a significant amount of work needs to be done to renovate the courthouse building to accommodate the collection and the public. 

The Steps to Save and Share the Collection and Services that MCL will Provide

  • Relocate the collection to the Culver City facility
  • Conduct an Conservation Assessment of the collection and the facility
  • Perform a conservation treatment of the collection to ensure its good health
  • Hire staff and provide training for board members and volunteers
  • Renovate the facility to accommodate the collection and the public
  • Equip and furnish the facility
  • Inventory, catalog, conserve and digitize the collection so it can be made available to school districts, libraries, cultural centers and the general public, worldwide
  • Establish an affiliate relationship with the Smithsonian Institute’s National African American Museum to identify, collect and preserve significant collections of black history and culture in the eleven Western States
  • Offer classes, workshops, seminars and community meetings
  • Provide education programs for the general public and in-service training for education professionals
  • Offer research for students, scholars, industry professionals, government and private entities
  • Mount exhibitions of contemporary art by artists of the international African Diaspora; domestic African American artists representing various States; and contemporary art by artists of differing nationalities and ethnic backgrounds; and children’s art, ages 13 – 18.
  • Present film programs featuring vintage and contemporary films with discussion groups
  • Present live performances to include lectures, literary readings, music and dance recitals, oral histories 
  • Offer genealogical services and DNA analysis
  • Provide environmentally-controlled storage for the repository  

To make our goals possible, MCL has three fundamental elements:  A) an existing collection of cultural and academic substance; B) a facility in which to operate; and C) strong institutional and community relationships.

WHAT IS AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE?

Culture is the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings that is transmitted from generation to generation.  Culture is also the intellectual and artistic activity of a group and the works produced by it.  Culture is a product of history and is made up of the music, speech, dance, writings, cooking, paintings, dress, and ways of socializing; the thoughts, ideas, beliefs and ways of being of any group.

WHY IS SAVING AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE & HISTORY IMPORTANT?

Knowledge of history and culture is central, critical and crucial to human flourishing.  Without a sense of history and culture it is difficult to impossible to truly have sustaining esteem for oneself and one’s people.   Our histories and cultures like our families give us individual identity and validity.  Our history and culture like our families define how we see ourselves based on knowledge of our family’s and community’s past.

 

Without the sense of belonging history and culture provide the individual finds him or herself adrift in a sea of meaningless pursuits and vain attempts to gain purpose.  Without evidence of history and culture it is as if the group or individual never existed.  History and culture are evidence of life.

 

The Civil Rights Movement Actualized American Democratic Ideals for All

MCL will stand as an important institutional reminder of the role African Americans have played in improving the quality of life for all people. The African American Civil Rights Struggle for freedom and equality revolutionized the world's understanding of justice, equality, and human dignity and constructed a doorway through which untold oppressed groups have walked. We must never forget that without Emmett Till there may well not have been a Gloria Steinem.  

Phone (626) 794-4677 :: Email aclayton@wsbrec.org