By Sarah Habeeb, Library Memory Lab Coordinator
Every year, US citizens take time to celebrate black voices of history, from MLK day in January to Black History Month in February. Here in the Hill Country, it is no different.
This year the Patrick Heath Public Library is working to uplift even more voices from the past and present alongside the San Antonio African American Community Archives and Museum (SAAACAM), Camp Founder Girls, and Black Outside, Inc.
Library Exhibits
Join us Feb. 7-21 in the library gallery for an exhibit titled “Honoring the Black Voices of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.” We are excited to have on display the “Honoring Lincoln Elementary” exhibit on loan from SAAACAM, as well as a supplemental exhibit that we created here at the library which highlights the black schools, churches, and clubs of Kendall, Gillespie, and Kerr counties.
Documentary Screening
On Feb. 22 at 1 p.m., the library will host Black Outside, Inc. and Camp Founder Girls for a special screening of “Founder Girls,” a documentary directed by Contessa Gayles that highlights the importance of Camp Founder Girls as a place of resilience, confidence, and strength.
The 2023 documentary celebrates the legacy and future of Camp Founder Girls, which is heralded as the first summer camp for black girls in the United States. The camp was founded right here in Boerne back in 1924 by Mattie Wilson Landry after she was denied entry into the Camp Fire Girls organization due to the racial segregation of the time.
Landry created Camp Founder Girls at Camp Elvira, named after her mother, which started with 75 girls in their first year. Landry designed the camp as a place for black girls to come together to learn important skills while promoting safety and inclusion in the outdoors and in their own lives.
After four decades of growth accommodating hundreds of campers, Landry retired in 1964 and the camp shut down, but 50 years later, in 2019, Alex Bailey with Black Outside, Inc. helped to revive Camp Founder Girls.
After the screening there will be a Q&A session with some of the campers, Alex Bailey of Black Outside, Inc., and Natalynn Masters, the current director of Camp Founder Girls.
