Effective date: 6 August 2026
Last updated: 6 August 2026
These Terms and Conditions govern your use of blackmalearchives.org (the “Archive”), operated by Reminisce Preservation LLC, a Florida limited liability company (“we,” “us”). By using the Archive, creating an account, or submitting anything to us, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Archive. These terms replace all earlier versions.
1. What this Archive is
The Black Male Archives preserves and presents a holistic record of Black men: their history, work, culture and contributions. Our holdings are of two different kinds, and the difference matters.
Primary source material that we hold or have been entrusted with directly, including personal papers, wartime journals, photographs, oral history interviews, narrated speeches and recorded conversations. Some of this material was donated or lent by families and individuals.
Secondary material that describes, indexes or excerpts work published elsewhere, including news articles and reference entries. For this material we are not the original publisher, we say who is, and we link to the original where we can.
The Archive is offered for research, education, remembrance and public interest. It is not comprehensive, and absence from it says nothing about significance.
2. Member accounts
Some features require an account. You must be at least thirteen years old to create one. You agree to give accurate information, to keep your password confidential, and to tell us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised. You are responsible for activity under your account.
Member profiles are private and are not published on the site. You may edit or clear your profile at any time, and you may ask us to delete your account. We may suspend or terminate an account that breaches these terms, and we may decline registration at our discretion.
3. Your content, and the licence you give us
“Your Content” means anything you submit: comments, profile details and photographs, directory suggestions, contact and evaluation form submissions, and any material you offer to the Archive.
You keep ownership of Your Content. By submitting it you grant Reminisce Preservation LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable licence to host, store, reproduce, publish, adapt for formatting, and display it in connection with the Archive and its preservation. This licence is perpetual because an archive that must delete its record on request cannot function as a record. Removing published material remains at our discretion under section 7.
You promise that Your Content is yours to give, that it does not infringe anyone’s rights, and that it is not unlawful. Do not submit other people’s personal information without their knowledge and agreement.
4. Offering material to the Archive
If you offer papers, photographs, recordings or other material for preservation, nothing becomes part of the Archive until we agree in writing what is being transferred, on what terms, and what rights come with it. Sending us something does not by itself transfer ownership, grant publication rights, or oblige us to accept, digitise, publish or keep it. Where donated material carries conditions from the donor or a family, we honour those conditions.
5. Community conduct
Comments and submissions are welcome. They are moderated. We remove, without obligation to explain, anything that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, hateful, sexually explicit, deceptive, spam, or that publishes another person’s private information. We may close comments on any item and may bar anyone who abuses these features.
Comments are the views of the people who write them, not of the Archive or Reminisce Preservation LLC.
6. Acceptable use
You may read, search, quote, link to and cite the Archive freely, including for research, teaching and journalism. You may not:
- scrape, harvest or systematically download the Archive, in whole or in substantial part, by automated means without our written permission;
- republish substantial portions as your own collection, or present our descriptive, curatorial and indexing work as yours;
- use the Archive to harass, defame or endanger anyone, including the people documented here;
- interfere with the operation or security of the site, probe it for vulnerabilities, or attempt unauthorised access to any account or system;
- remove, obscure or falsify attribution, credits, source links or copyright notices; or
- use the Archive in any way that violates applicable law or infringes third-party rights.
Reasonable, well-behaved indexing by search engines is welcome.
7. Intellectual property
Our material
The design of this site, its structure, its collections and exhibits as arranged, its descriptive and curatorial writing, and the selection and arrangement of the whole are the work of Reminisce Preservation LLC and are protected by copyright. The names The Black Male Archives and Reminisce Preservation, and our logos, are our marks and may not be used without permission.
Third-party and donated material
Copyright in donated papers, photographs, recordings and in third-party articles remains with the owners of those works. Custody of a physical or digital item is not ownership of its copyright. If you want to reuse an item beyond fair use, it is your responsibility to identify and clear rights with the owner. We will help where we can, but we cannot grant permission we do not hold.
Where we reproduce third-party material we attribute the publisher and link to the source. Its inclusion is for reference, commentary, criticism, teaching, scholarship and archiving.
8. Copyright complaints and takedown
We respect copyright and respond to valid notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512.
How to send a notice
Send written notice to rodneyfreeman@reminiscepreservation.com with the subject line “DMCA Notice”, including all of the following:
- a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorised to act on their behalf;
- identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
- identification of the material claimed to be infringing, with enough detail for us to locate it, including the URL on this site;
- your name, mailing address, telephone number and email address;
- a statement that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
- a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.
Incomplete notices may delay our response. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), a person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing may be liable for damages.
What we do
On receiving a valid notice we will remove or disable access to the material promptly and make a reasonable effort to notify whoever posted it.
Counter-notice
If you believe material was removed by mistake or misidentification, send a counter-notice to the same address containing your signature; identification of the removed material and where it appeared; a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief it was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; and your name, address and telephone number, together with consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district in which you live, or if you live outside the United States, of any judicial district in which we may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who gave the original notice. We may restore the material in ten to fourteen business days unless we are told the complaining party has filed an action seeking a court order.
Repeat infringers
We will, in appropriate circumstances, terminate accounts and access for anyone who repeatedly infringes copyright.
9. Corrections, and requests from people documented here
If you are the subject of material here, or a family member, and something is wrong, out of date or causing harm, write to us. We will look at it properly. We may correct the record, add context, restrict an item from search engines, close public access while keeping the item preserved, or remove it.
We weigh two things that genuinely compete: the public interest in an accurate and durable record, and the effect of that record on a living person or a family. We will not pretend the first always wins. Where material originated with another publisher, correcting our entry does not correct theirs, and we will say so.
10. Archival material and historical language
This Archive documents a long and often brutal history, and it preserves material as it was created and published. Some items reflect the attitudes, terminology and editorial judgement of their time. Some contain language, images or descriptions that are outdated, prejudiced, or painful to encounter.
We do not alter historical material to make it more comfortable. Preserving it as created is what makes an archive usable as evidence. Including an item is a record of what was said or done, not an endorsement of it, and our descriptions are not endorsements of the views in the material described.
11. Directories and listings
Our directory pages list businesses, organisations and services as a public resource. A listing is information, not a recommendation, endorsement, certification or guarantee. We do not vet, inspect or monitor listed parties, and details go out of date. Any dealing you have with a listed party is between you and them. Tell us about anything inaccurate and we will correct or remove it.
12. Links to other sites
The Archive links widely to third parties. We do not control those sites, do not endorse them, and are not responsible for their content, accuracy, availability or practices. A link is a citation, not a recommendation. Links may break over time as others reorganise or remove their material.
13. Availability, and material not yet online
Parts of the Archive are still being restored, digitised or rebuilt, and some items described here may be temporarily unavailable. We give no assurance that any particular item is or will remain accessible, and we may add, change or withdraw features and holdings at any time.
14. Disclaimers
The Archive is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Archive will be uninterrupted, secure or error free, or that descriptions, dates, attributions or classifications are complete or accurate.
Nothing here is legal, medical, financial or professional advice. Verify anything you intend to rely on against the original source.
15. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Reminisce Preservation LLC and its members, managers, employees and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill or business opportunity, arising out of or relating to your use of the Archive, whether based in contract, tort, strict liability or any other theory, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Archive will not exceed one hundred United States dollars (US$100). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.
16. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Reminisce Preservation LLC and its members, managers, employees and contractors from any claim, demand, loss or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of Your Content, your use of the Archive, your breach of these terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.
17. Governing law and venue
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to its conflict of law rules. The exclusive venue for any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or the Archive will be the state or federal courts located in the State of Florida, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Nothing in this section deprives a consumer of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of their country of residence.
18. Changes to these terms
We may revise these terms from time to time. We will update the date at the top and, for material changes, post a notice on the site. Continuing to use the Archive after a change means you accept the revised terms.
19. General
If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest will remain in force. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Archive. You may not assign these terms; we may assign them to a successor to the Archive.
20. Contact
Reminisce Preservation LLC
The Black Male Archives
rodneyfreeman@reminiscepreservation.com
These terms are provided for transparency and are not legal advice. Reminisce Preservation LLC recommends review by your own counsel before relying on them.