Publication Date

January 13, 2025

Perspectives Section

News

Post Type

Advocacy

In the fall of 2024, the AHA advocated for the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine by writing a letter in support of the division as an important part of the library’s mission. The Association also wrote to the president of Azerbaijan in support of a historian at risk. After advocacy efforts from the National Coalition for History, which includes the AHA, the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board announced the release of records regarding the 1945 killing of Hattie DeBardelaben.

AHA Letter Regarding Elimination of NLM’s History of Medicine Division

On October 9, the AHA sent a letter to National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli and National Library of Medicine (NLM) acting director Dr. Steve Sherry expressing “concern regarding the recent reorganization of the National Library of Medicine, which has resulted in the elimination of the History of Medicine Division and signals a departure from the library’s previous commitments to collection, preservation, and study of materials related to the history of medicine.” The current NLM strategic plan, the AHA wrote, “suggests that the NLM is no longer dedicated to maintaining, preserving, and making accessible the nation’s historical efforts in advancing biomedical research and medicine [and] is setting aside its commitment to being a vital national resource that supports scholarship, education, and public knowledge of medicine and public health issues, both historical and contemporary.”

Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board Releases Records on the Killing of Hattie DeBardelaben

On November 4, the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board announced the release of FBI and Department of Justice records regarding Hattie DeBardelaben, an African American woman beaten to death by law enforcement authorities in Autauga County, Alabama, in 1945. The records are available on the National Archives website. Margaret Burnham, co-chair of the review board, stated, “But as was too often the case involving the death of a Black person at the hands of white men, no one was ever indicted. Still, while the perpetrators may have escaped judgment in a court of law, the judgment of history has no expiration date.” The review board was created as part of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018. The National Coalition for History (of which the AHA is a member) advocated for the creation of the board, adequate funding, and related efforts to support its ongoing work. Everything has a history, and “the judgment of history has no expiration date” indeed.

AHA Sends Letter to the President of Azerbaijan Expressing Concern for Jailed Historian

On November 24, the AHA wrote to President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan expressing “grave concern for the personal safety and freedom of Igbal Abilov,” an ethnic Talysh scholar who was arrested while visiting Azerbaijan in July 2024. “Abilov has been charged and remanded to pretrial detention in Baku for his peaceful exercise of the right to academic freedom—conduct that is expressly protected under international human rights instruments,” the AHA wrote. “We demand the release of Igbal Abilov and others arbitrarily detained or imprisoned for their dissenting or critical views in Azerbaijan.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Attribution must provide author name, article title, Perspectives on History, date of publication, and a link to this page. This license applies only to the article, not to text or images used here by permission.

Becky West
Rebecca L. West

American Historical Association