The Slave Theater is where the past collides with the present. How can an archive capture this collision? Can an archive be a form of activism? How does community history, activist scholarship, and public memory function in archival form? The practice of community history, archive-based work, is about enriching public memory. Community-based, co-created social memory involves civic agency. We can think of public history as community history. We can think of public history as a form of activism. And we can begin to work with history in a different way, in an activist way. The investment in independent collaborative work allows but us to create communities. As we engage communities, we form crowds within crowds. But how are we positioned as scholars in art and activism? The civic necessity of public scholarship is grounded in reciprocity and dialogue.