Sherita Johnson Appointed Director of the Africana Research Center at Pennsylvania State University
Sherita Johnson is a scholar of nineteenth-century African American literature and print culture. She has conducted extensive archival research on the experiences of Black writers, activists, and public intellectuals.
Gene Jarrett Receives Award for His Biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Gene Jarrett's book, Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird, tells the story of Dunbar's life as an African American writer in the late 1800s.
Gerald McWorter Donates Archival Materials to the University of Illinois
Dr. McWorter - also known as Abdul Alkalimat - has donated a collection of his papers to the archives at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he is a professor emeritus of African American studies. The donation includes materials on the history of the Black studies field and the civil rights movement, as well as personal family records.
Grinnell College Dedicates Building in Honor of First Black Alumna Edith Renfrow Smith
Renfrow Smith, who recently celebrated her 110th birthday, is Grinnell College's first Black alumna and oldest living alum. The newly established Renfrow Hall will serve as a space for the college and local community to collaborate on civic engagement projects.
In Memoriam: Sybil Haydel Morial, 1932-2024
When pursuing her graduate education in the 1950s, Haydel Morial was denied enrollment at Tulane University and Loyola University because of her race. She went on to become an active member of the civil rights movement and advocate for voting rights in New Orleans and held administrative posts at Xavier University of Louisiana.
Florida State University Adds New Documents to Emmett Till Archives Collection
Currently, the Emmett Till Archives contains hundreds of materials documenting Till's case, as well as scholarly research and documentation surrounding the case that has been conducted over the past 70 years.
Three Black Authors Named Finalists for Yale’s 2024 Frederick Douglass Book Prize
The finalists are Kerri Greenidge, professor at Tufts University; Sarah Johnson, professor at the University of California, San Diego; and Emily Owens, professor at Brown University.
VCU Acquires Film Collection Documenting the Civil Rights Movement in Richmond
The Richmond Police Department has provided VCU Libraries with the Surveillance Media Collection, a collection of video and audio materials documenting local protests, meetings, and marches from the civil rights movement.
AUC Acquires Archival Collection From Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Clarke Franklin
In November 2001, Franklin became the first Black woman mayor of any major city in the southern United States. She served in this role for two-terms, focusing her efforts on supporting the local arts and improving the city's infrastructure.
Counties With Historical Ties to Lynching Associated With Low Economic Mobility Among Blacks
A new study has found an association between counties in the southern United States with a high incidence of historical lynchings and current poor economic opportunities for those counties' Black residents.
Vanderbilt University Launches Digital Collection of Papers From Rev. James M. Lawson
Lawson enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School in the 1950s, and was soon expelled for organizing peaceful protests in the downtown Nashville. Since then, Vanderbilt has recognized Lawson's contributions to the civil rights movement through several awards and university initiatives named in his honor.
Four HBCUs Receive Funding to Revitalize On-Campus Buildings Designed by Black Architects
Meharry Medical College, Howard University, Morehouse College, and Virginia State University have received grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to revitalize historical on-campus buildings designed by Black architects.
Two Black Historians in Higher Education Receive Prestigious Dan David Prize
Keisha Blain of Brown University and Cécile Fromont of Harvard University have received 2024 Dan David Prizes for their outstanding achievements as academic historians.
Institute of Museum and Library Services Awards $6 Million in Grants to African American...
Since its establishment in 2006, the Institute's African American museum grant program has awarded nearly $36 million to institutions across the country. This year, three grants were awarded to projects in higher education.
Getty Images to Preserve Digital Photo Archives at Delaware State University
Currently, Delaware State University's photo archives contain thousands of photographs taken over the course of the university's 133-year history. Thanks to a new partnership with Getty Images, those images will be digitized and made available on gettyimages.com.
In Memoriam: Nathan Hare, 1933-2024
Dr. Hare was a prominent figure in the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s and was a strong advocate for equal educational opportunities for Black Americans. In 1968, he founded the country's first Black studies program at San Francisco State University.
Geleve Grice Photo Archive Can Now Be Accessed at the University of Arkansas
Originally donated in 2005, The Geleve Grice Photography Collection has been fully processed and made available by the University of Arkansas. The collection features numerous materials documenting daily life for Black Americans in southeastern Arkansas during the mid-20th century.
National Park Service Awards African American Historical Preservation Grants to Five Universities
The African American Civil Rights grant program from the National Park Service has awarded grants to Auburn University, the University of Northern Colorado, Eastern Michigan University, Clemson University, and the University of South Carolina aimed at preserving sites and history relating to African Americans.
Collection from American Banjo Player Otis Taylor Acquired by University of Colorado Boulder
"I know my collection is in good hands," says Otis Taylor. "My hope is that future students and scholars will continue to learn about the evolution of American blues and its significance in world music."
University of South Carolina to Digitize Collection of Early Twentieth-Century African-American Portraits
In the 1970s, researchers from the University of South Carolina discovered a cache of over 3,000 portraits of Black Columbia, South Carolina residents taken by photographer Richard Samuel Roberts in the 1920s and 30s. Those photos will now be digitized and made available to the public.
Interactive Map at Indiana University-Purdue University Charts Frederick Douglass’ Travels in the United States
"The map is a great way to find where the Black community was actually located," says Dr. John Kaufman-McKivigan. "Douglass traveled to obscure communities and not by accident. He knew where his audience would be, and he became a way to connect the scattered free Black population of the North."
Baylor University Breaks Ground on New Memorial to Enslaved Persons
The new Memorial to Enslaved Persons will recognize the enslaved people who were instrumental in building the original Baylor University campus in Independence, Texas.
Yale Issues Formal Apology After Research Finds Historic Ties to Slavery
"Today, on behalf of Yale University, we recognize our university’s historical role in and associations with slavery, as well as the labor, the experiences, and the contributions of enslaved people to our university’s history, and we apologize for the ways that Yale’s leaders, over the course of our early history, participated in slavery," says Yale University President Peter Salovey, and Josh Bekenstein, senior trustee of the Yale Corporation.
Yale Library Acquires Digital Collection of Langston Hughes Papers
In a recent December upload, the Yale University Library added a collection of papers from Black poet Langston Hughes to the school's online archive. The collection contains correspondence between Hughes and other authors and civil rights activists of his time.
Global Black Writers in Translation Series Is Launched by Vanderbilt University Press
Global Black Writers in Translation, a new trade series launched by Vanderbilt University Press, will publish works by African-descended authors translated into English in an effort to expand public knowledge of Black literature.
Collection of Papers by Elijah E. Cummings Is Bequeathed to Morgan State University Library
The estate of Congressman Elijah E. Cummings has gifted Morgan State University with a large collection of Cummings' personal belongings. The collection will be showcased and studied by archivists at the university's library.
Loyola University of Maryland Publishes Report on Its Ties to Slavery
Over the past two decades, many of the nation's leading university's have issued reports on their historical ties to slavery. Now, Loyola University of Maryland in Baltimore has issued its findings.
New Online Database Exposes the Horrors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The collection consists of more than 3,000 reproduced copies of correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, reports, and scientific articles regarding the 40-year U.S Public Health Service Study that withheld treatment from Black men with syphilis so researchers could track the progression of the disease.
Vanderbilt University Acquires the Dom Flemons Collection
The collection includes research materials on Black cowboys, musical instruments, an Edison phonograph with several playable wax cylinders, historical sheet music, art pieces, memorabilia, personal gifts, autographed records, and materials documenting Flemons’ 20-year professional music career.
Duke University Acquires Major Collection of Civil Rights Photographer Danny Lyon
The collection encompasses Lyon’s work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and his continued documentation of the movement up to the present day. The collection includes nearly 8,500 individual images, most of which have never been published or seen outside of Lyon’s studio.
Harvard Announces a Grant Program to Address Systemic Inequities for Descendants of Slavery
The Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative will offer annual funding up to $350,000 for long-term projects and $25,000 for smaller projects that address systemic inequities for descendants of slavery.
Davidson College Decides to Keep the Name of an Enslaver on a Main Campus...
Davidson College in North Carolina has decided not to rename Chambers Building, the main academic structure on campus. The building is named for Maxwell Chambers who made a contribution to the college in 1855 that allowed the educational institution to continue operations. He also donated five enslaved people to the college.
Harvard University Establishes the Black Teacher Archive
The archive consists of journals and newsletters created by members of Colored Teachers Associations that captured the political and social efforts of Black educators’ activism from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights Movement. The old journals and bulletins chronicle the acts of resistance in places where Black educators fought against injustice in education under Jim Crow.
Black Students Who Integrated the Mississippi University for Women Honored
African American undergraduate students Diane Hardy, Barbara Turner and Laverne Greene, and graduate students Jacqueline Edwards, Mary Flowers and Eula Houser, stepped foot on the campus of Mississippi University for Women in 1966, facing all manner of ridicule to open the door for future generations of African American students.
University of South Carolina Celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the Enrollment of Its First...
Most people believe that the first Black students admitted to flagship state universities in the South occurred in the early 1960s. But this is not the case. Henry E. Hayne, the son of an enslaved woman and a White planter, enrolled at the University of South Carolina in 1873.
Berkeley Professor to Design Emory University’s Memorial to the Enslaved
In 2021, Emory University announced plans to develop memorials on its Atlanta and Oxford campuses to honor the enslaved individuals who are part of Emory’s history. The university has selected the Hood Design Studio of Oakland, California to develop plans for the memorials.
