Bowdoin College Renovates Home of Harriet Beecher Stowe
The author of Uncle Tom's Cabin lived in the home from 1850 to 1852 during which time she wrote the book that became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century.
Vanderbilt Honors the Man Who Integrated Southeastern Conference Athletics
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is establishing the Perry E. Wallace Scholarship to honor the first African American to play a varsity sport in the Southeastern Conference.
Emory Offering a MOOC on the Strategies of the Civil Rights Movement
The course, "From Freedom Rides to Ferguson: Narratives of Nonviolence in the American Civil Rights Movement," will be taught by Bernard LaFayette Jr., a distinguished scholar in residence at Emory University.
Emory University Professor Resurrects the History of America’s Great Black Jockey
Pellom McDaniels III, an assistant professor of African American studies, is the author of a biography of Isaac Burns Murphy, one of the greatest jockeys in horse racing history. Largely due to Dr. Daniels' efforts, the City of Lexington, Kentucky, recently held a five-day celebration honoring Murphy.
Conference on Preserving Slave Records Held at Vanderbilt University
The scholars who work on digital preservation projects in Cuba, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Haiti, and the United States gathered to discuss strategies and methods for preserving records pertaining to slavery and making them available to researchers and the general public.
The University of Montana’s “Six-Word Essays” on Race
Students in the School of Journalism at the University of Montana are asking all 47,000 students at the 16 state university campuses and seven tribal colleges to submit a six-word essay on the topic of race.
Colleges Removing Reminders of the Confederacy From Campus
The University of Mississippi has taken down the official flag of the State of Mississippi because it has a Confederate battle flag in one corner. Bowdoin College in Maine is ending a scholarship honoring Jefferson Davis and returning the endowed fund to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Middlebury College Names New Intercultural Center After Two Early Black Alumni
The new Anderson Freeman Resource Center was named after Mary Annette Anderson, the valedictorian of the Class of 1889 and Martin Henry Freeman of the Class of 1849 who later became president of Liberia College.
A Haunting Photographic Essay on Morris Brown College
The University of Georgia Press has published a striking new book chronicling the troubles of historically Black Morris Brown College in Atlanta.
Task Force Considers Changing Name of the Stadium at the University of Maryland
Student groups have called on the university to strip the name of H.C. Byrd from the on-campus stadium. The students say that Byrd, who was president of the university from 1935 to 1954, "barred Blacks from participating in sports and enrolling into the University until 1951."
University of Nebraska Upgrades Its Website on Slaves in 1860s Washington, D.C.
The University of Nebraska's online project documenting nineteenth-century slaves' efforts to win their freedom through the District of Columbia's court system has been upgraded with new tools and information.
Southern University’s Slave Narrative Archives Are Now Available Online
The archives are a series of letters and documents of interviews with slaves that focus on the thoughts of slaves about slave owners, abuse, clothing, religious life, superstitions and religion in their communities.
University of Louisville Honors Its First Black Educator
The University of Louisville has renamed its Freedom Park to honor Dr. Charles H. Parrish Jr. In 1951, Professor Parrish, who held a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago, became the first Black educator to teach at the university.
Oral History Interviews of 1960s Graduates of Alcorn State University Are Now Available
The oral history interviews were conducted in 2015 with 13 individuals who graduated from the university between 1960 and 1969. The topics discussed are academic and residence life, athletics, and the students participation in the civil rights movement.
Middlebury College Houses a Vast Archive of Abolitionist Letters
The archive contains the letters of four generations of the Robinson family. Rowland Thomas Robinson and Rachel Gilpin Robinson were devout Quakers, who were among the earliest abolitionists in the state of Vermont.
Civil Rights Is a Key Element of an Archival Project of Sermons Given at...
Many of the sermons given at the Duke University Chapel dating from the 1950s and 1960s touch on issues of race and the civil rights movement. Recordings and transcripts of these sermons are now being digitized for researchers.
Bryn Mawr College Honors Its First Black Alumna
Bryn Mawr College in suburban Philadelphia has named its new residence hall to honor Enid Cook. Cook was not permitted to live on campus but graduated in 1931 with degrees in chemistry and biology.
New Historical Archive of Materials Concerning the Murder of Emmett Till
David W. Houck, a professor in the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University has created an archive of materials concerning the Emmett Till case. The archive will be available to researchers in 2016.
Universities in St. Louis Establish Online Resource on Ferguson Protests
The Regional Collecting Initiative on Ferguson is assembling information, oral histories, photographs, new stories, and other items to document the people and events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer.
University Professor Finds an Audio Tape of an Early “I Have a Dream” Speech
On November 27, 1962, nine months before Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a huge crowd at the Lincoln Memorial, he used the words "I have a dream" in a speech at a segregated high school in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. A recording of the speech will soon be available online.
Southern Illinois University Research Finds That “Old Slave House” Is Probably a Misnomer
Archaeological research conducted by scholars at Southern Illinois University Carbondale at the Hickory Hill State Historic Site in Gallitan County, Illinois, dispels local legends that a nineteenth-century estate home was the hub of a Reverse Underground Railroad.
Morgan State and West Virginia University Students Team Up for Journalism Project
Students from each school traveled with faculty members to Selma, Alabama, and used photographs, videos, and the written word to tell stories from the city past as well as investigating the community's present and hopes for the future.
University of Texas to Move Statue of Jefferson Davis to an Educational Exhibit
On the Main Mall of the University of Texas at Austin are seven statues. Along with George Washington, there are statues of several Confederate officials. University of Texas President Gregory Fenves has decided to remove the Jefferson Davis statue.
Virginia Colleges and Universities Join Together to Discuss Their Shared Historical Legacies
A new consortium of 12 colleges and universities in Virginia recently held its first meeting to discuss how the educational institutions have dealt with and will deal with the issue of slavery.
Archive of African American Women Soldiers’ Letters Donated to Harvard University
Maryline Morris Whitaker sent 1,000 packages of hair care products to African American women serving in combat areas overseas. The letters she received in return from the soldiers have been donated to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
Sojourner-Douglass College Loses Accreditation, Files Lawsuit Against Accrediting Agency
On June 30, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education revoked the accreditation of predominantly Black Sojourner-Douglass College in Baltimore. Now the college has filed a federal lawsuit against the accrediting body.
East Carolina University Honors Its First African American Bachelor’s Degree Recipient
Laura Marie Leary earned a bachelor's degree at East Carolina University in 1966. A scholarship named in her honor will be awarded to students who are majoring in fields where minorities have traditionally been underrepresented.
Records of 4 Million Former Slaves to Soon Be Available Online
FamilySearch, a nonprofit genealogy organization operated by the Mormon Church, has announced that it will soon make available online the millions of records of former slaves that were collected by the Freedmen's Bureau.
Universities Create Historical Online Archive of Recent Baltimore Protests
The University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County are teaming up with the Maryland Historical Society to create an archive to document the history of the Baltimore protests surrounding the death of Freddie Gray in April.
University of Pittsburgh Acquires the Archives of Jazz Pianist Erroll Garner
Garner was born in Pittsburgh in 1921. He began playing piano at age 3 and by the age of seven was performing on the radio. In 1944, Garner moved to New York City where he became a leading performer and composer.
New Book Explores the History of Storer College in West Virginia
Storer College was founded in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1865 by the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society. It was the first college in West Virginia that admitted African Americans.
University Students Uncover the Secrets of Old African American Photo Albums
Professor Martha Jones at the University of Michigan made it a project of her class on African American's women history to find out as much as they could about Arabella Chapman whose photographic albums were found in the university's archives.
Amherst College Receives the Papers of Hugh Price
Price, who graduated from Amherst in 1963, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. From 1994 to 2003, Price was president of the National Urban League.
University of Virginia’s Holsinger Collection Offers a Look at Early 20th-Century African Americans
The University of Virginia has digitized the work of studio photographer Rufus W. Holsinger, who worked in Charlottesville, Virginia, from the late 19th century through World War I. The collection includes 500 portraits of African Americans.
University of Kansas Institute to Examine Modern Black Poetry
This July, 21 faculty members and four graduate students from colleges and universities across the country will come to the campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence for an institute entitled "Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement."
Emory University Students Explore Cold Case Files From the Civil Rights Era
Since 2011, Emory University in Atlanta has offered a course on the cold case murder files from the civil rights era. Students are instructed on investigative journalism techniques and then pursue leads on cold case files from Georgia's past.
