Video Interview, Franklin Robinson, August 2, 2012
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Well, you know what?
- And if you say something and you get a loss for words,
- you just say, "Let me start that again."
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: Alright.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Are you rolling?
- OK, first of all, give me the correct spelling
- of your first and last name.
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: F-R-A-N-K-L-I-N.
- R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N. Junior, J-R.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK, and your title?
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: I'm an Archive Specialist
- with the National Museum of American History Archive
- Center.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK, Frank, why don't you
- first tell me what are you doing here today
- and the significance of that?
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: Well, the Helping People
- with AIDS Records were donated to the Archive Center
- this year.
- And Evelyn Bailey and the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley
- invited me up to do a donation ceremony.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK, and can you talk to me
- a little bit about the significance
- of having a local collection of AIDS related material
- being transported down to a National Archive?
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: Alright, well,
- the importance of not only this collection but many collections
- like it is that we are the National
- Museum of American History.
- We're not the National Museum of Washington D.C. History,
- San Francisco History, Texas History.
- So therefore, our charge is to actually go out
- into the country and collect collections
- that reflect the nation as a whole,
- to add to that thread of American history
- so everybody is represented.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: A sensitive question here-- why AIDS?
- Why is it important for AIDS to be included
- in our national history?
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: Absolutely.
- Well, of course, it was a defining moment
- for not only the LGBT community, but America as a whole.
- I mean, if you look back at that period in history through,
- let's say, a play like The Normal Heart
- or any sort of literature, art, plays of the time,
- you see so many divergent opinions.
- I mean, you have the Reagan presidency and their response
- to the epidemic.
- You have the LGBT community and their response to the epidemic.
- And it was just this defining moment for many, many people.
- And therefore, it needs to be documented.
- And as those of us that remember those times get older and pass
- away, these things need to be remembered and put somewhere
- where historians one hundred years from now
- can go back and see exactly what was going on at the time
- through primary sources.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And can you kind of
- walk me through the brief timeline
- of how did you become aware of the HPA's collection
- and why you made that decision, we need
- to get this for our archive?
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: We were contacted by Pat Finnerty, who
- had worked through a grant here in New York State
- to find different record groups and what we call process them,
- get them ready for going to an archive.
- And then, part of her charge was to actually find repositories.
- She contacted us.
- And I am actively looking for LGBT records, material
- for the Archive Center to build up
- our collections in that area.
- And so she came at a perfect time.
- Because last year was the thirtieth anniversary
- of the discovery of the HIV virus.
- And this year is the year that the International AIDS
- Conference was in Washington D.C. for the first time
- in twenty-five years.
- So it's very appropriate that they found us at this time.
- And it's a wonderful collection that
- reflects Rochester, a smaller community and their response
- to the crisis right from the get-go.
- So it was attractive on many levels.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: I'm just going to expand on that--
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: Sure.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: --with a little bit
- about what you've seen in these records.
- What do you think it says for a community like Rochester?
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: Well, to me,
- it says that there was the initiative
- by a group of people to say, we're going to take this on.
- We're going to make this better.
- Instead of waiting for a governmental response,
- a public health response, we're going to step in.
- And we're going to actually start
- to try to make these people's lives,
- short as they were at that time I think a lot of people
- have forgotten that, better for them.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Alright, thank you.
- FRANKLIN ROBINSON JR.: Thank you.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Appreciate it.