Community Archives & Resources

Community & advocacy organization

Black German Heritage & Research Association (BGHRA)

BGHRA is a community, research and advocacy organization connecting Black Germans, adoptees, families, scholars and the wider African diaspora. Its work combines heritage preservation, community education, conferences and public scholarship with advocacy for Black German adoptees, access to adoption histories, citizenship and recognition. Founded and led by Dr. Rosemarie Peña, BGHRA is housed in Africana Studies at Rutgers University–Camden and works with the Paul Robeson Library on the Black German and Adoption Studies special collection.

Archival research guide

Adoption records in Denmark

Rigsarkivet (Danish National Archives)

An archival research guide to adoption files, useful alongside BGHRA’s existing work on Black German adoptees in Denmark. These are personal-record access instructions, not an openly downloadable collection of adoptee case files.

1918 · Organization

Afrikanischer Hilfsverein: organizing in Hamburg, 1918

BGHRA historical resource guide

The Afrikanischer Hilfsverein was founded in Hamburg in 1918. Louis Brody was among its founding members. The association belongs to an early history of Black social and political organizing in Germany. Read alongside the profiles of Brody and Martin Dibobe, its history helps trace community action across generations; the evidence for each organization and petition remains distinct.

Mr. Adomako, descendant of Louis Brody · Image source ↗

Community history

Afro-Austrian history

Black Austria

A community history resource gathering references to Black Austrian histories and self-organization, including Pamoja.

Community publication

Afroféminas

Afroféminas

A Spain-based Black feminist, antiracist publication and organization sharing voices across the Spanish-speaking diaspora.

Community organization

Afrosvenskarnas Riksorganisation

Afrosvenskarnas Riksorganisation

The organization’s own history documents its formation in 1990 and its work for Afro-Swedish rights and equality.

Community publication

Afryka.org / Fundacja Afryka Inaczej

Fundacja Afryka Inaczej

A Polish portal and foundation publishing on African histories, culture and African experiences in Poland.

Identifying artwork: Afryka.org / Fundacja Afryka Inaczej, Poland. Rights remain with the originating organization. · Image source ↗

Filmmaker / oral-history profile

Amandine Gay: adoption, archives and filmmaking

Amandine Gay / Concordia Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling

A filmmaker and researcher profile connecting Ouvrir la voix, Une histoire à soi and the Mois des Adopté·es across France, Switzerland, Belgium and Quebec. Links the Black French and transnational adoptee collections.

Audio / interview

Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur: Pamoja and counter-memory

Cultural Broadcasting Archive / Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur

An interview with the Pamoja cofounder connecting Black Austrian organizing, research, cultural work and diasporic memory.

2023-02-23 · BGHRA conference recording

BGHRA 2023 Lions Roaring Far from Home: A Global Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees

Kassaye MacDonald; Maureen McCauley; Leyla Angelidis

Lions Roaring Far from Home: A Global Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees. Existing BGHRA 2023 recording connecting the Ethiopian adoptee writing already recommended by BGHRA.

Community organization

Black & Irish

Black & Irish

Community advocacy, education and storytelling connecting Black lives and experiences with wider Irish society.

2024 · Resource / exhibition

Black Archives Berlin: recovering activism before 1985

BGHRA historical resource guide

In February 2024, Each One Teach One presented an exhibition on Black activism in Berlin and divided Germany during the 1960s and 1970s, together with a lecture on the Black Information Center. Flyers, photographs, and contemporary documents offered evidence of organizing before the better-known movements of the 1980s. This resource gives researchers a direct route to the community institution preserving and interpreting that material.

Each One Teach One / Black Ourstory Month 2024 programme graphic · Image source ↗

Community archive

Black Archives Sweden

Black Archives Sweden

A contemporary community archive centered on Afro-Swedish and Black experiences, cultural production, activism and queerfeminist diasporic perspectives.

2026-02-27 · BGHRA conference recording

Black Archives, Black Futures: queer identity, national belonging and archives

Priscilla Layne; Kasturi Chatterjee; Araba Johnston-Arthur

Queer Black German identity, Afrosurrealism, national belonging, archives, and mattering. BGHRA 2026 — Black Archives, Black Futures: Enfleshment. Existing BGHRA recording, cross-listed here for discovery.

Community archive

Black Cultural Archives

Black Cultural Archives

A community-rooted archive preserving the histories and cultural heritage of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain. External catalogue access and collection guidance remain with the originating archive.

Identifying artwork: Black Cultural Archives, Britain. Rights remain with Black Cultural Archives. · Image source ↗

Research guide

Black Europe: regional research guide

ACRL European Studies Section

A librarian-curated starting point covering European regions and communities, with resources for archives, community organizations, scholarship and primary sources. Supports expansion into countries not yet represented by individual BGHRA records.

Community history / culture

Black History Month Belgium

Black History Month Belgium

Community cultural and educational work increasing the visibility of Black and Afrodescendant lives, histories and achievements in Belgium.

Community archive

Black Switzerland Online Archive

Black Switzerland Online Archive

An archive for and by Black people in Switzerland, with records of organizations, publications, films and Black histories.

Identifying artwork: Black Switzerland Online Archive / Schwarze Schweiz. Rights remain with the originating archive. · Image source ↗

2022-02-17 · BGHRA conference recording

Conference Keynote: Araba Johnston-Arthur

Araba Johnston-Arthur

Unokanma Okonjo and Black Austrian history. BGHRA 2022 — All Black Lives Matter: Black Germany & Beyond. Existing BGHRA recording, cross-listed here for discovery.

2022-02-18 · BGHRA conference recording

Conference Keynote: Vanessa Spanbauer

Vanessa Spanbauer

Black Austrian Resistance and Protest. BGHRA 2022 — All Black Lives Matter: Black Germany & Beyond. Existing BGHRA recording, cross-listed here for discovery.

Digital archive

Digital Black European Archive

Digital Black European Archive

A transnational, multilingual archive centering Black knowledge production. Includes the Afrogerman magazine Afrekete (1988–1990), connecting Black feminist periodical histories to the broader European record.

Community organization

Djass – Associação de Afrodescendentes

Djass

An Afrodescendant association in Portugal whose mission centers Black rights, antiracism and a critical engagement with Portuguese colonial histories.

Community library / archive

Each One Teach One: library and archive

Each One Teach One e.V.

A community library and archive connecting Black writing, knowledge, cultural work and education in Berlin.

2026 · Magazine issue / profile

Florida Sun 3/2026 — Breaking News und Brezeln: Constance Jones

Daniela Boettcher (article); Constance Jones (profile subject)

German-language magazine profile of NBC 6 South Florida anchor and BGHRA keynote speaker Constance Jones Simmons. The article, on page 20 of the July–September 2026 issue, explores her Stuttgart and Swabian roots, German-American life, journalism and connection to home through bread and baking. The publication link opens the article in the publisher’s free full-issue reader; Source & context opens the complete issue from its beginning.

Article: Daniela Boettcher. Photograph credited in the magazine: Constance Jones / privat. Publication: Florida Sun Magazine, issue 3/2026, page 20.

Community organization

Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland

ISD Bund e.V.

A national Black self-organization whose own history and public resources document community organizing, empowerment and political participation.

Research / oral-history project

Lost in Administration

University of Salzburg / Vienna Wiesenthal Institute

Research using life-history interviews and archival records to document children of Black American soldiers and Austrian women, including welfare administration and adoption. Connects the Austrian postwar cohort with BGHRA’s German and transatlantic adoption histories.

2003 · Place / memorial

Marcus Omofuma memorial: Black memory in Vienna’s public space

BGHRA historical resource guide

Ulrike Truger created a granite memorial to Marcus Omofuma, who died during deportation from Austria. Installed near the Vienna State Opera without authorization in 2003, the memorial was later moved to a site near the MuseumsQuartier. Its history opens a discussion of who can claim public space for remembrance and how individual lives become part of a city’s account of racism and human dignity.

Ulli Wagendorfer, 2009 / KÖR Wien; sculpture by Ulrike Truger · Image source ↗

Museum history

PASUA: Black student organizing in 1961

Haus der Geschichte Österreich

A museum account of the Pan-African Students Union in Austria and early Black self-organization in Vienna. A historical record, rather than a current membership organization.

1520 · Artwork / teaching object

Saint Maurice in Cranach’s workshop: representation and historical evidence

BGHRA historical resource guide

This painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop depicts Saint Maurice as a Black armoured figure. It provides an opportunity to study the visual place of Blackness in German religious culture. The museum relates the image to a reliquary statue in Halle. The painting is catalogued here as a representation. Its subject, possible models, and evidence about historical individuals must be distinguished.

Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop, Saint Maurice, c. 1520–25. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Eva F. Kollsman, 2005, object 2006.469. · Image source ↗

Community organization

Schwarze Frauen Community

Schwarze Frauen Community

A Black women’s community organization in Austria providing education, support and spaces for women and girls.

Community archive

The Black Archives

The Black Archives / New Urban Collective

Collections documenting Black emancipation movements, writers, scholars and cultural life in the Netherlands, with links across Suriname, the Caribbean and Africa.

Lecture record

Unruly (re)memberances: Black Austrian movement histories

Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur / University of Applied Arts Vienna

A 2025 lecture description connecting suppressed Black Austrian movement histories, PASUA and Pamoja. Links contemporary memory work with earlier organizing.