A team of scholars from several partnering organizations has identified the names of 2 million Black Americans born before emancipation who were included in the 1900 census. The database opens the door for numerous future research applications and could serve as a resource for people seeking to discover their family history.
In the 1880s, a New Orleans physician sent the skulls of 19 deceased African Americans to a German scientist to be used in racially biased research. Now, the remains have been returned to New Orleans and memorialized by Dillard University.
Throughout his long career in academia, Dr. Gates has made groundbreaking contributions to understanding the genealogical history of African Americans. His work has resulted in dozens of books, documentaries, and the popular "Finding Your Roots" series on PBS.
Percival Everett of the University of Southern California, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins of Yale University, and Edda Fields-Black of Carnegie Mellon University have received Pulitzer Prizes in fiction, drama, and history, respectively.
The University of New Mexico has launched two archival collections featuring materials from Charles Becknell, Sr., founder of the university's Africana studies department, and Harold Bailey, an alumnus and former director of the Afro-American studies program.
Crystal Sanders' award-winning book, A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs, explores Black southerners' efforts to secure post-baccalaureate education during the era of legal segregation.
The University of Louisville has housed Simmons College of Kentucky's institutional archives for over 50 years. Recently the physical collection has been returned to the HBCU, where it will remain and be developed into an accessible digital archive.
The project was made possible through Getty Images' HBCU Photo Archive Grant Program. Since the initiative was launched in 2021, Getty Images has supported nine historically Black colleges and universities in digitizing and restoring fragile archival materials.
Roanoke College's new memorial sculpture, "Authors and Architects," is dedicated to the enslaved people who constructed some of the college's original campus buildings. The installation is the latest effort from the Virginia-based college's work to recognize its historic ties to slavery.
“SlaveVoyages’ databases build on the curiosity of Harvard students who catalyzed the University’s ongoing reckoning with its ties to slavery. The initiative can help amplify knowledge-sharing and visibility, empower scholars and students worldwide, while also reaffirming our commitment to truth," said Sarah Bleich, head of the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative
The Virtual Curation Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University is in the midst of an ongoing project that involves 3D-scanning grave markers in historically Black cemeteries throughout Richmond.
Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Deondra Rose, endowed professor at Duke University and author of The Power of Black Excellence: HBCUs and the Fight for American Democracy, has pledged 50 percent of the book's royalties to support the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Robin Proudie, executive director of the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, stated the university's plan to reconcile for its historic ties to slavery "was completely dismissive of [DSLUE's] efforts and priorities. Their plans showed a blatant disregard for the descendant-led process we had worked so hard to establish."
"For many Black soldiers, the Great War entailed a battle not only against German aggression abroad, but also against racial oppression at home," the study authors write.
The Data Mining and Mapping Antebellum Georgia project, led by Elizabeth West, the John B. and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters at Georgia State University, aims to create an online, public database of the names and locations of thousands of enslaved people across the state of Georgia.
The film, "Hearing Silences: 50 Years of Black Women Faculty at Northwestern," documents the history and experiences of Black women scholars at Northwestern, beginning with the institution's first Black women tenured professor, Joyce Hughes.
“The Hampton University Museum is not just a repository of art; it’s a living testament to the resilience of Black artists and the power of storytelling through art,” said museum director Vanessa Thaxton-Ward.
Nearly 160 years after its original publication, the University of Michigan has released a new edition of Malinda Russell's A Domestic Cookbook, the oldest known cookbook authored by a Black American woman.
John Chase graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin in 1952, making him the school's first-ever Black graduate. Over seven decades later, the university has established the John S. Chase Architecture and Planning Library in his honor.