LINKS, Inc Donates Organization's Archives to Center for History
August 8, 2012 — The South Bend Area Chapter of LINKS, Inc., has donated their organization’s archives to the Center for History. The deed of gift was signed by LINKS President Tina M. Patton in the Center for History’s Vincent Bendix Reading Room. Virginia Calvin, Janice Hall, Imogene Harris, Otha Reese, and Myrtle Wilson witnessed the signing event.
The donation includes the organization’s original Certificate of Charter, meeting minutes, handbooks, directories, photographs, reports, Follow the North Star and other films, “Resolutions and Recommendations Adopted by the National Assembly of LINKS Incorporated” and other catalogs, as well as other documents.
Said Randy Ray, the Center for History’s executive director, “A donation of this magnitude is extraordinary. One of the important facets of our history museum’s mission is to preserve our community’s heritage. Materials and photographs such as those included in the LINKS’ donation are precisely what we rely upon to accurately interpret and teach history to future generations. These documents will help tell the LINKS’ story for decades and decades to come. We are so grateful to the LINKS members for entrusting their most important collection to us.”
According to Virginia Calvin, the idea to establish the South Bend Area Chapter of LINKS, Inc., was first discussed in the fall of 1987, when a group of five women met to talk about ways to improve conditions of African Americans in the South Bend area. Realizing that severe problems existed, the group determined that organizing a local LINKS Chapter might serve as an effective way to begin meeting cultural, educational and civic needs. By the meeting’s end, a letter expressing interest in establishing a local LINKS chapter had been written and was soon submitted to the national office. The charter became official on April 21, 1990.
The LINKS, Inc., is an international, not-for-profit corporation. Established in 1946, the organization’s membership consists of 12,000 professional women of color in 274 chapters located across the United States as well as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.
For information, call (574) 235-9664 or visit www.centerforhistory.org
