Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Brandon Nightingale

Brandon Nightingale, former senior project manager of the Black Press Archives Digitization Project at Howard University, is the 2026 recipient of the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Created in 2017, the award honors SAA Fellow and Past President Brenda S. Banks, who co-founded the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color Section. The award, which recognizes individuals of color who are employed in archives and show an interest in becoming active members of SAA, provides attendance to the SAA Annual Meeting, as well as a complimentary one-year membership in SAA.

Nightingale is currently pursuing his PhD in history at Howard University after earning an MLIS at Florida State University and a BA and MA in history at the University of Central Florida. His work involves digitizing, describing, and publicly releasing historic Black newspapers spanning the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, a comprehensive repository of books, documents, and ephemera on the global Black experience at Howard University. He recognizes the importance of preserving and making these newspapers, created by and for Black communities, accessible to researchers, students, journalists, and the public. Nightingale is committed to diversity and inclusion in both the collections he works with as well as how he approaches his relationships in the field. He trains and mentors students and early-career professionals from underrepresented communities, “emphasizing ethical stewardship, transparency, and the importance of community-engaged archival work.”

In his application, Nightingale recognized the impact Brenda S. Banks has had on the archival field: “Her work reflects the values that guide my own professional path: building structures that support archivists of color; challenging exclusionary practices; and ensuring that archives serve as tools for education, accountability, and empowerment. Participation in the SAA Annual Meeting would be a formative step in my professional development and a foundation for sustained involvement in the organization and the broader archival community.”