The Community Within collection traces it origin to the American Studies Senior Seminar taught by Professor Howard Sacks and Professor Ric Sheffield at Kenyon College during the 1991-1992 academic year in which students embarked upon a community study that focused upon the black experience in Knox County, Ohio. What quickly became clear was how African Americans in this predominantly white rural community felt at one and the same time both a part of and separate from the small town. Even though visually conspicuous as individuals, they also felt relatively unnoticed as a group. They experienced being “hypervisible” – always standing out - while on the other hand being culturally invisible. These archives chronicle the life experiences of Black people and other minority groups that reside within the larger racially and culturally dominant community...[read more]