African-American History

University of Pennsylvania’s New Initiative to Preserve Black Heritage Sites

The University of Pennsylvania's Stuart Weitzman School of Design is launching a new initiative to advance the understanding and sustainable conservation of heritage sites relating to African American struggles for equality, from before the passage of the 14th Amendment to the present day.

American University Project to Examine Slavery in the Nation’s Capital

Mia Owens is the inaugural fellow for a new, two-year Public History Graduate Fellowship in the History of Slavery and Its Legacies in Washington, D.C. The fellowship is a partnership between The White House Historical Association and Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University.

College of William and Mary Students Participate in Archaeological Dig for Historic Black Church

Ground-penetrating radar indicates that remains of an early structure used by members of First Baptist Church — originally founded in secret by free and enslaved Blacks at the start of America’s Revolution — may lie buried in Colonial Williamsburg.

The University of the South Reckons With Its Past Ties to Slavery and Jim Crow

The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, enrolls nearly 1,700 undergraduate students and less than 100 graduate students, according to date supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 4 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Loras College Removes a Statue of Its Slave-Owning Founder

Recently the college learned from a researcher who studied the bishop's financial ledgers that Mathias Loras, the first Catholic bishop of Dubuque, Iowa, purchased an enslaved woman named Marie Louise in Mobile, Alabama. Loras enslaved the woman from 1836 to 1852.

University of Maryland Names Women’s Studies Department After Harriet Tubman

This is the first time that an academic department at the University of Maryland will be named after someone honorifically. The women’s studies department is the only one in the country that offers a Black women’s studies minor.

Emory University Acquires the Personal Papers of Kathleen Cleaver

Kathleen Cleaver served as the communications secretary of the Black Panther Party. Later in her career, she served on the faculty at the Emory University School of Law.

Columbia University to Remove the Name of a Slave Owner From a Campus Building

Samuel Bard was a significant physician in the 18th century, a pioneer in obstetrics and treating diphtheria, who served as George Washington’s doctor. Dr. Bard also owned at least three slaves.

Roper Center at Cornell University Debuts Historical Archives on Polling of Blacks

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has launched “Say Their Names, Hear Their Voices," a publicly available collection of more than 80 years of public opinion surveys of Black Americans and U.S. attitudes about Black America.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro Creates Black Lives Matter Archive

Collecting for the project is ongoing, and the archive is particularly interested in photographs, video, protest signs, clothing, flyers, posters, and creative works. The material can be historic, originating with the founding of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, as well as current.

The Amazing Woman Who Was the First Black Graduate of New Mexico State University

Clara Belle Drisdale Williams' professors did not allow her inside the lecture room because she was African American. She took notes while standing in the hallway. When she graduated in 1937 at the age of 51, she was not permitted to participate in the graduation ceremony.

California State University, Dominguez Hills Acquires Massive Archive of Black History

The collection from the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum contains more than 2 million rare books, films, documents, photographs artifacts, and works of art related to the history and culture of African-Americans in the United States, with a significant focus on Southern California and the American West.

Harvard University Launches the Black Teacher Archives

The first phase of the project will archive and digitize the state journals of “Colored Teachers Associations,” which operated for more than 100 years, from 1861 through 1970.

The Archives of Architect Paul Revere Williams Find a New Home

The archives, which include approximately 35,000 plans, 10,000 original drawings, photographs, and other materials, were jointly acquired by the University of Southern California School of Architecture and the Getty Research Institute.

Roanoke College in Virginia Creates the Center for Studying Structures of Race

Roanoke College was founded in 1842. While Roanoke College did not own slaves, the College’s earliest buildings — the Administration Building and Miller Hall — were constructed using the labor of enslaved people. Black students were not admitted until 1964.

Princeton Removes Names of Woodrow Wilson From Its School of Public and International Affairs

As president of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson refused to consider the admission of Black students. Wilson who went on to become the 28th president of the United States, racially segregated the federal government workforce and appointed White supremacists to his cabinet.

University of Kentucky to Remove a Large Mural With Demeaning Racial Images

Amidst the nationwide protests in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, Eli Capilouto, president of the University of Kentucky said that the university would remove a Depression-era mural that contains demeaning images of African Americans.

Three Universities in Charlotte Team Up to Promote Racial Justice

The University of North Carolina at  Charlotte, historically Black Johnson C. Smith University, and Queens University of Charlotte have formed the Charlotte Racial Justice Consortium to support racial healing and transformation in the community.

Texas A&M University’s Africana Archive

Rebecca Hankins, a Texas A&M professor and archivist at Cushing Library, has been building the collection since she joined the university in 2003. She has focused her research and acquisitions involving organizations such as the Black Panthers and Students for a Democratic Society.

Brown University Students Explore the History of a Local African American Cemetery

Three graduate students in archaeology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, worked with the Historic Cemetery Advisory Commission in Newport, Rhode Island, to create an interactive map of God’s Little Acre, one of the oldest African and African American burial grounds in the United States.
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