“The stories of black Bethlehemites have hardly been told,” said M. Rayah Levy, head of Adult Services at Bethlehem Area Public Library. Levy and a team of local professors and their students may be about to change that. She is leading a team that will collect, catalog and store materials “from the African Diaspora.”

Levy met with two members of her team at a BAPL community room recently to start the organizing process for the project. There she met with Dr. Seth Moglen, a professor of English at Lehigh University, and with Dr. Sholomo B. Levy, an associate professor of history at Northampton Community College. Levy plans to also have on the team Dr. Charlotte Nunes, head of the Digital Scholarship Program at Lafayette College.

“The stories of black Bethlehemites have hardly been told,” Levy said. “Soon it may be impossible to understand their struggle, appreciate their sacrifices, and acknowledge the contributions of the black residents of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.”

One of the interesting lines of research starts with the Moravian Church and the founders of Bethlehem.

Team Leader Levy’s background paper for the project includes reference to a book by Charles L. Blockson which describes “Several Black families living today in Bethlehem [that] can trace their genealogy to slaves freed by the Moravians.”

In a notable arc of justice, according to Levy, “Two years ago, a group of Moravian students walked into the Bethlehem Area Public Library looking for historical information about African Americans in Bethlehem. Not much was found on the subject. Their disappointment began the quest to find this information.

“Moravian archivists will train students and volunteers on archival methods and materials,” said Levy.

“The purpose of this project is to collect, digitize, and record the history of Black Bethlehem,” said Levy. “While our focus is on the last 50 years, we will make every effort to preserved older documents when they are accessible to us.”

Levy’s team plans to target churches, lodges, the NAACP, and the James F. Goodwin Scholarship Club. Recently the BAPL received the papers of Goodwin (a medical doctor and a major figure in Black Bethlehem).

“We hope to fill a void that has been missing from the history pages of the city. We want to educate and inform the community and others about our findings,” said Rayah Levy. She said she hope sto have the first phase of the project done by April 1.