LEGACY PROJECT STUDIES
This section holds the long-form, research-based work I’ve committed to over time. Each project is rooted in family history and built from interviews, archival material, photographs, and personal reflection.
These are ongoing efforts to document the lives of my ancestors and preserve the legacy they left behind. Some are active, others are just beginning — but each one represents a deeper journey into where I come from.
Mattie Legacy Project
This project documents the life and legacy of my late grandmother, Mattie Bell Kinney — a mother of eight, activist, cancer awareness advocate, and community leader.
Through interviews, over 50 newspaper articles, archival records, and oral history, I’ve worked to preserve her story in full — not just what she did, but who she was.
The William Lacy Relief Garden Research Initiative
The William Lacy Relief Garden Research Initiative is an ongoing archival research effort centered around a 1935 letter written by William Lacy while living in Cincinnati, Ohio during the Great Depression. Through historical newspapers, maps, photographs, and public records, the initiative explores Cincinnati’s Depression-era welfare garden system, urban land use, environmental conditions, and community survival within the Mill Creek corridor. The research offers a rare firsthand look into everyday life, resilience, and public assistance in Black and working-class Cincinnati during the 1930s.
In Their Image
Echoes of Lineage
This project began after the birth of my first child, when I started to see the faces of my ancestors reflected in my family—my father, my uncle, even myself.
In Black families, it’s tradition to search for those who came before us in every new face. Through side-by-side portraits, In Their Image honors that ritual of recognition, reminding us that our lineage lives on.
The Life of
Edward “Doc” Crawford
This project explores the life of Edward “Doc” Crawford, my paternal great-grandfather, whose early years as a bootlegger in Newport, Kentucky intersected with the Prohibition-era underworld. Later in life, he became a reverend and community figure. Through family photos, newspaper archives, oral history and personal reflection, I’m reclaiming his story as part of my ongoing Keeper of All Sides family history series.
Hudson Crawford Headstone Restoration
This is an early-stage preservation effort focused on restoring the headstone of Hudson Crawford — a respected ancestor in my family line.
This project reflects the importance of physical memory, site-based care, and honoring those whose lives deserve to be remembered beyond the records.
The Life and History of
Thomas Lee Crawford Sr.
This project focuses on documenting the life of my maternal grandfather, Thomas Lee Crawford Sr., who at 99 years old continues to carry generations of memory.
Through saved interviews, family stories, and historical context, I’ll be working to preserve his life experiences — including his firsthand account of the 1937 Ohio River flood — and the legacy he’s built through family, work, and resilience.
