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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alice Randall’s Class at Vanderbilt University Explores the History of Blacks in Country Music
Alice Randall, the award-winning author, songwriter, and writer-in-residence in African American and diaspora studies, taught a class that used mapping technology to trace the progress of African Americans in country music.
University of Maryland Renames Stadium That Had Honored an Opponent of Racial Integration
The board of regents of the University of Maryland System has agreed to rename Byrd Stadium as Maryland Stadium. Student protesters noted that during Byrd’s tenure as president of the university he barred Blacks from enrolling at the University until 1951.
Duke to Further Recognize the Black Man Who Designed Many Buildings on Its Campus
Julian Abele designed many of the Gothic buildings on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. But because of his race, the university did not originally celebrate the architect of many of its most important structures.
Tufts University Opens Archives of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter to Researchers
Carter was a middleweight boxer who spent 19 years in prison after being convicted of a triple murder in Paterson, New Jersey. The convictions were later overturned by a federal court.
Winthrop University Will No Longer Give Out the Tillman Award
Winthrop University has announced that the university's top academic prize for students will no longer be named after "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, a former segregationist governor of South Carolina and U.S. Senator.
The Fordham Bronx African American History Project Is Now Available Online
The Fordham Bronx African American History Project includes downloadable audio files and verbatim transcripts of 300 oral history interviews conducted between 2002 and 2013.
University of Kentucky Covers a Mural Showing Slaves in a Tobacco Field
The University of Kentucky has decided to cover up a mural in the atrium of Memorial Hall that shows slaves working in a tobacco field. The mural, which is 38 feet wide and 11 feet tall, will remain covered until the university decides how and where the artwork will be preserved.
University of Iowa Receives Archives of a Veteran of Freedom Summer
Eric Morton, who was a coordinator for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi during the 1964 Freedom Summer voter registration drive, became friends with students from the University of Iowa who came South to help in the effort.
When Harvard President Drew Faust Used Morehouse College as a Safe Haven
In 1965 Drew Gilpin Faust, now president of Harvard University, traveled south to participate in the civil rights movement. Apprehensive about driving a car with northern license plates during tumultuous times, she spent the night in a parking lot at Morehouse College.
New Online Archive to Document History of Black World War I Veterans
The new website being put together by faculty and students at the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University will allow users to visit memorials to Black veterans around the world through virtual reality.
Duke University Acquires Marcus Garvey Papers Collection
The collection includes the papers and research documents used by Professor Robert A. Hill to compose the 12-volume Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers.
University of North Carolina Asheville Acquires African American Photographic Archive
The Special Collections and University Archives has acquired an archive of more than 1,000 photographs of the African American community in Asheville from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Harvard Law Students Protest the School’s Seal
The students say that the seal, depicting three bushels of wheat, is an image taken from the family seal of Isaac Royall Jr. who donated his estate to endow the first professorship in law at Harvard. Royall owned slaves and was a slave trader.
Frederick Douglass Statue Placed on University of Maryland Campus
The statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass is eight-feet tall and is mounted on a three-foot tall base. It weighs about 1,000 pounds. The statue was designed in Ireland and cast in bronze in Wales.
Rutgers University to Examine Its History Relating to Race
Richard Edwards, chancellor of the flagship campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, announced that in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the educational institution's founding, the university has formed a "Committee on Enslaved and Disenfranchised Populations in Rutgers History."
Georgetown Renames Two Buildings on Campus That Honored Men With Ties to Slavery
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., has announced that it is changing the names of two buildings on campus. Mulledy Hall and McSherry Hall were both named after former presidents of the university who had participated in the slave trade.
Mississippi State Debuts New Website on Civil Rights Era in Starkville
The website, entitled "A Shaky Truce: Starkville Civil Rights Struggles, 1960-1980," includes oral history interviews, photographs, and documents on the history of the university and the city, school desegregation, and the civil rights movement.
