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The papers, letters, and documents collected during an important person's life are often donated to an institution for archiving and preservation. However, the family of Marlon Green, who was the first African American commercial airline pilot in the US, was not ready to take that step. The Green family had not decided where the collection's final home would be, but they knew they wanted organizational help with their materials in order to give access to a biographer working on a book about Mr Green. In August 2004, the Green family contacted Emporia State University's School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) for assistance. Two graduate students interested in archives and preservation were offered the opportunity to work with the collection to gain experience with archival material and earn course credit.
The students immediately recognized the collection's historical significance. Marlon Green, a United States Air Force officer from 1948 to 1957, quit his job with the military to look for work as a commercial airline pilot. Green received help from the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission after his employment applications were rejected by countless airlines. Unfortunately, the Colorado Supreme Court decided against Marlon Green's employment discrimination suit. The legal setbacks that followed were softened by the tireless persistence of Green's legal counsel and eventual friend, T. Raber Taylor, a Denver attorney and devout Catholic who was active in local and national charitable organizations. With Taylor as counsel, Green took his case to the US Supreme Court. Finally, in April 1963, the Supreme Court found in favor of Mr Green, and Continental Airlines was forced to hire him on the basis of his merit and experience alone ([9] US Supreme Court Reporter, 2005). Green's victory opened new doors for African American pilots and he became a pioneer in commercial aviation.
When they were offered the chance to work with Marlon Green's records, Rebecca Baird and Abigail Hoverstock were only beginning their library school program through Emporia State University's Library and Information Management program in Denver, and their credentials and experience were meager. While both students were enthusiastic about working on the Green collection, they had limited professional knowledge about archival collections. Abigail Hoverstock worked as a cataloger in a photo-digitization project at the Denver Public Library, and she had...