Identity elements
Reference code
ASM0084
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Max Rameau Papers
Date(s)
- 1992-2011 (Creation)
Extent
17 Boxes
Name of creator
Biographical history
Max Rameau is the foremost and most publically known activist with Take Back the Land. He also leads the Center for Pan-African Development, and has worked extensively with Brothers of the Same Mind and Cop Watch in the past. At the cusp of the housing crisis, Rameau invited several other South Florida-based black activists to meetings held at Marleine Bastien's office, a group that later became known as the Black Response to the Crisis Group. The group decided on taking action in the form of taking over public land and asserting black political leadership over that land. The first action taken was the erecting of the Umoja Village Shantytown, and later housing liberations and eviction defenses. As Take Back the Land progressed to the national level and took on the shape of a movement, Rameau remained its most vocal proponent and figurehead. He has since relocated to Washington D.C. to take on the role as an alternative voice on the housing crisis more strongly. Rameau is a Pan-Africanist by worldview and in political theory, although he no longer frames Take Back the Land as a Pan-Africanist or Black nationalist project.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The Max Rameau papers (1992-2010) document his extensive activism for the homeless and the poor within the South Florida communities of the African diaspora. The collection will be of interest to scholars and students of movements such as the Umoja Village, the Scott-Carver Tenant Council, Miami Dade Election Reform and Take Back the Land. The materials document advocacy work on behalf of people displaced from their homes as a result of low income housing policies, gentrification, and the U.S. foreclosure crisis at the beginning of the 21st century. The Max Rameau papers also point to connections between activist groups promoting the economic rights of the diverse constituency of the African diaspora which reside in Liberty City and Little Haiti. Finally, the collection serves as a record of Mr. Rameau's work with organizations such as Brothers of the Same Mind, the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition and the Center for Pan African Development.
System of arrangement
I. Activism (various)
II. Brothers of the Same Mind
III. Umoja Village
IV. Take Back the Land
V. Audio-Visual Materials
VI. Posters/Banners
VII. Interviews (oral history)
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
The collection is open for research.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
- English
- French
- Haitian
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Archiving the Fringe by UM Libraries
Information about related materials is available at http://vimeo.com/23267802
Related descriptions
Notes element
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Rameau, Max (Creator)