Gate on Haverford College Campus Linked to Black Architectural Pioneer Julian Abele
New research by a faculty member at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, has found that one of famed architect Julian Abele's first creations was the Edward B. Conklin Gate on the Haverford campus. Abele designed the gate while he was still a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tape of Lost Martin Luther King Jr. Speech Found in the Amherst College Archives
On February 6, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the New School in New York City. Until recently, it was believed that there was no recording of the speech. But a tape of the speech was recently found in the archives of the student radio station at Amherst College in Massachusetts.
University of Minnesota to Digitize Its Vast African American Collections
The University of Minnesota's collections on African American history and culture include nearly a half million pages of documents as well as photographs and videos. The materials range from the sixteenth century to the present.
The Role of Geography and Race in Remembrances of the Murder of Emmett Till
David Tell, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, is working on a book project on how questions of geography and race have altered remembrances of the Emmett Till murder case.
Yale Bestows Further Honors on the First Black Person to Donate Money to the...
Mary K. Goodman, a Black laundry woman in New Haven, Connecticut, died in 1872. She left her life savings of $5,000 to Yale University to support the education of African American divinity students.
Yale University Removes Portraits of John Calhoun, a Proponent of Slavery
John C. Calhoun graduated from Yale University in 1804. He went on to become vice president of the United States, serving under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. A native of South Carolina, Calhoun was a major defender of the institution of slavery.
Student Researcher Learns More About the First Black Graduate of Pomona College
In 1904, Winston M.C. Dickson became the first African American graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California. He later had a successful law practice in Houston, Texas.
Spalding University Honors Its First Black Graduates
The new Patricia Lauderdale and Barbara Miller Endowed Scholarship honors the first two African Americans who graduated from what was then Nazareth College in 1951.
Emory University Students Find the Grave of a Civil Rights-Era Martyr
Undergraduate students enrolled in a course on civil rights cold cases at Emory University in Atlanta, discovered the grave of a Black man who violated the rules of Jim Crow in 1948 by casting a vote in a primary election. This act cost him his life.
Columbia University Makes David Dinkins Archive Available to Researchers
The archives includes 10 hours of oral history interviews with Professor Dinkins as well as speeches, fundraising letters, campaign materials, position papers, and correspondence. He was the first and only African American mayor of New York City.
Yale Scholar Edits the Earliest-Known Manuscript of an African American Prison Inmate
Austin Reed, an indentured servant who was born free in Rochester, New York, describes his experiences in the 1830s through 1858 in New York's House of Refuge, a juvenile reformatory.
Historian Seeks Information on the First Black Applicant to the College of William and...
In 1807, John Wallace De Rozaro, a 20-year-old African American man, sought to take classes at the college. He was born free in Virginia and worked as a gunsmith. The president of the college urged him to work in a local armory instead of pursuing higher education.
University of Scranton Recognizes Its First Black Graduate by Renaming a Building in His...
Louis Stanley Brown was born in 1902 in Scranton. At the age of 17 he earned a commercial degree from what was then St. Thomas College, later renamed the University of Scranton. Recently, the university renamed a campus building in honor of Louis Stanley Brown.
Oregon State University to Digitize Oral Histories of Black Railroad Porters
The archive includes 29 reel-to-reel tapes of interviews conducted by filmmaker Michael Grice that were used as background for his documentary Black Families and the Railroad in Oregon and the Northwest.
Virginia Commonwealth University Acquires Rare Copy of All-Negro Comics No. 1
The 48-page comic book was published in 1947 and features characters such as police detective Ace Harlem and Lion Man, a college-educated scientist and superhero. It was the first comic book written and draw solely by African American writers and artists.
George Washington Carver Fungi Collection Found at the University of Wisconsin
Recently researchers at the Wisconsin State Herbarium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison came across of 25 specimens of fungi that were collected by George Washington Carver more than a century ago.
University to Rename Auditorium That Honored a White Supremacist
The board of trustees of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has voted to rename Aycock Auditorium on its campus. Charles Brantley Aycock, a former governor of North Carolina, was a staunch segregationist and led efforts to disenfranchise Black voters in the state.
University of Oregon Receives Collection of Photographs of Famous Black Women
The art museum at the University of Oregon has received a donation of 75 photographs from Pultizer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker's collection "I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America."
Toni Morisson Delivering the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University
The lecture series was endowed in 1925 with the honoree designated as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry for the duration of the six-lecture series. Toni Morrison, the Nobel laureate and professor emerita at Princeton University, is this year's honoree.
Brown University Renovates the Home of African American Artist Edward Mitchell Bannister
The home at 93 Benevolent Street, originally built in 1854 near the Brown University campus, was purchased by the university in 1989. At the time, the house was in disrepair. Now the renovated home will be sold to a member of the Brown University community.
A New Anthology of the Writings of Former Slave Peter Randolph
Katherine Bassard, a professor of English and senior vice provost for faculty affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, is the editor of a new book on the writings of a former slave who became a leading abolitionist and religious figure.
Duke University to Further Honor the Black Man Who Designed Much of Its Campus
Duke University has announced that the main quadrangle with the university's initial academic and residential buildings will be named Abele Quad. An African American architect, Julian Francis Abele, designed many of the buildings on the quadrangle.
Laboratory Used by Edward Bouchet Designated a Historic Site by the American Physical Society
Edward A. Bouchet was the first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university when he received a Ph.D. in physics at Yale University in 1876. The laboratory where he did much of his research has been named the 37th historic site in the history of physics.
Howard University’s Founders Library Designated a “National Treasure”
The university and the National Trust for Historic Preservation will now cooperate in efforts to improve the facility as a 21st-century learning environment while protecting its historical significance.
Oberlin College Acquires a Collection of Papers of Mary Church Terrell
Mary Church Terrell was the daughter of former slaves. She was a 1884 graduate of Oberlin College and went on to become an educator, civil rights activist, and a proponent of women's suffrage.
The Discovery of a Poem Written by Indiana University’s First Black Woman Student
Carrie Parker Taylor, the daughter of former slaves, enrolled at Indiana University in 1898. Taylor dropped out of college after one year, got married, and raised six children. Recently, a poem penned by Taylor in 1915 was discovered.
University of Wyoming Debuts Online Its Liz Byrd Archival Collection
Liz Byrd was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1926. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from what is now West Virginia State University in 1949. In 1980, she became the first African American to be elected to the Wyoming state legislature.
Emory Acquires Rare First Edition of David Walker’s 1829 Book Appeal
The book was written and published in 1829 by Walker, a self-educated African American merchant. It is one of the earliest known written indictments of the institution of slavery. The first-edition acquired by Emory, one of only six known to exist, was owned and signed by W.E.B. Du Bois.
Harvard Law School Seeks to Distance Itself From a Legacy Tied to Slavery
The current seal is modeled after the family crest of Isaac Royall, the son of an Antiguan slave owner. Funds from Royall's estate were used to established Harvard Law School.
University of Mississippi Adding a New Plaque to Statue of Confederate Soldier
The University of Mississippi is proceeding with plans to add a new plaque explaining the historical context of a statue of a Confederate soldier on the Oxford campus.
Harvard University President Commits to Studying the University’s Ties to Slavery
As a first step, President Faust said that the university is installing a plaque on Wadsworth House on the Harvard campus. The plaque recognizes four enslaved persons who lived and worked in the building for two Harvard presidents during the eighteenth century.
University Project Is Creating a Database of Runaway Slave Advertisements
Researchers at Cornell University, the University of New Orleans, and the University of Alabama are collaborating on a project to digitize as many as 100,000 runaway slave advertisements that appeared in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century newspapers.
Virginia Commonwealth University Completes Oral History Project of Rosenwald School Students
More than 360 Rosenwald Schools were built in Virginia, including 10 in Goochland County. The Goochland County Rosenwald Schools Oral History Project features 19 video interviews with 18 participants who were students at these schools.
Woodrow Wilson’s Name Will Live On at Princeton University
Critics had called for name changes due to Wilson's actions in denying the admission of Black students to Princeton while he served as the educational institution's president and for his resegregation of the federal workforce in Washington, D.C. after he became president of the United States.
Washington and Lee University Recognizes Its Ties to Slavery
In 1826, a local landowner bequeathed 84 slaves to what was then Washington College. For at least 30 years the college owned slaves. Recently, a historical marker was unveiled on campus listing the names of all the slaves that were owned by the college.
The First Portrait of a Person of Color in Harvard’s Faculty Room
Peter J. Gomes was pastor of Memorial Church at Harvard University for more than 40 years before his death in 2011. Among the nearly 40 notable figures from Harvard's past whose portraits now hang in the Faculty Room, Gomes is the first person of color among the esteemed group.
