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.