Archivist in a Backpack is the signature project of the Southern Historical Collection’s Community Driven Archives (CDA) program. In this second, post-grant iteration of Archivist in a Backpack, the project retains its roots in accessibility, reckoning, and expansion via community partnerships, while nourishing new roots inspired by Michelle Caswell’s concept of “activating records” in service of the social justice goals of existing and new community partners. Archivist in a Backpack is grounded among several outward and inward-facing projects undertaken by the UNC Libraries Reckoning Initiatives, begun 2020 by former UNC University Librarian Elaine Westbrooks. Still in the midst of local and national, state and federal injustices, archivists and librarians in the Southern Historical Collection are engaging in CDA that partners with communities outside of the university, and critically engages our own culpability and responsibility in filling archival voids and silences.