New Online Archive of the Papers of Klan Infiltrator Stetson Kennedy
During the 1940s, Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia and exposed their rituals and beliefs in a 1954 book. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, files, fliers, pamphlets, and photographs.
New Mexico State University Honors Its President and an Early Black Football Star
Pervis Atkins' number 27 football uniform was retired but was briefly "unretired" on Saturday so the university could present a uniform jersey to Garrey Carruthers, the 27th president of the university.
Historical Milestone at St. Augustine’s University
Nita Charlene Johnson Byrd is the first woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in St. Augustine University's chapel and the first woman to serve as chaplain of the university.
University of South Carolina Creates Exhibit to Honor Its First Black Faculty Member
The University of South Carolina has recently acquired and placed on displayed the law school diploma of Richard Theodore Greener its first Black faculty member who taught philosophy, Greek, and Latin during the Reconstruction period.
Honoring a Key Figure in Efforts to Racially Integrate the University of Delaware
The University of Delaware recently held a ceremony on campus to dedicate a dormitory to honor the memory of Louis L. Redding. He successfully argued the 1950 court case that led to the admission of African American students to the university.
Florida State University Artisans Honor Local Civil Rights Heroes
Artists at the Master Craftsman Studio at Florida State University made 16 terrazzo panels, weighing between 800 and 2,000 pounds, that have been embedded in a city sidewalk to honor local civil rights activists of the 1950s and 1960s.
MIT Scholar Examines Colleges’ Ties to Slavery
Craig S. Wilder, a professor of history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the author of a fascinating new book that details the relationships of American colleges and universities with the institution of slavery.
Winthrop University Scholar Discovers the Identity of an Early Black Woman Novelist
Gregg Hecimovich, chair of the English department at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, has discovered new evidence on the identity of the author who is believe to have written the earliest novel by an African American woman.
University of South Carolina Exhibit Documents Early Black History on Campus
Included in the exhibit are documents that show how slaves were used on campus during the antebellum period and photographs and other materials on a brief period during Reconstruction when Blacks students and faculty were on campus.
Slave Cabin Reopens for Visitors on the Campus of Sweet Briar College
The cabin is one of about two dozen structures that housed slaves on the Sweet Briar Plantation in the pre-Civil War period. It is the only one that remains.
The University of Virginia to Examine Its Ties to Slavery
The University of Virginia has announced the formation of a commission that will investigate the university's historical relationship with slavery. The commission is made up of 27 faculty and staff, students, alumni, and members of the local community.
Chicago State University Receives the Archives of Thomas N. Todd
Thomas N. Todd, known as TNT, for his dynamic speaking skills, was appointed in 1970 as the first full-time Black professor at the Northwestern University School of Law.
Texas Christian University Mounts an Oral History Project of the Civil Rights Era
The Texas Communities Oral History project seeks to recover, preserve and make openly accessible the history of racial, ethnic, gender and economic groups traditionally underrepresented in historical archives.
Mary Baldwin College Students Preparing a Documentary on Black History of Staunton, Virginia
Once the students began collecting stories they found that there as such a rich history of undocumented experiences that the effort has been expanded and will now include a documentary film.
University of Virginia Debuts an Online Archive of TV News Footage From the Civil...
The archive includes 20 years of news broadcasts from WSLS-TV in Roanoke during the period 1951 to 1971. According to the Library of Congress, only about 10 percent of the television news footage from this period has been saved.
University Project Creating a Database of Runaway Slave Advertisements
Christian Friar, a student at the Mississippi University for Women, is spending the summer chronicling runaway slave advertisements in pre-Civil War newspapers from Alabama and Mississippi.
University of Maryland Award Will Honor Sports Journalists Who Work for Racial Equality
The award is named for Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith, two African American journalists who documented Jackie Robinson's effort to racially integrate Major League Baseball.
University Saving a Historical But Controversial Mural From a Building Scheduled for Demolition
The University of Tennessee is preserving a mural painted in 1954 that was defaced in 1970 due to objections of how it portrayed African Americans. The mural was hidden behind paneling for more than 30 years.
Tuskegee University Marks the 100th Anniversary of Its Campus Hospital
Speaking at the ceremonies were relatives of Louis Rabb, the first administrator of the hospital, and John A. Kenney who came to Tuskegee in 1902 and served as the personal physician to Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.
New Book Explores the Causes of the 1992 Race Riot in Los Angeles
A new book by Brenda Stevenson, a professor of history at UCLA, makes the argument that the causes of the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King case can be traced back to the March 1991 murder of a Black teenager by a Korean shopkeeper.
Duke University Completes Digitalization of Eight Civil Rights Collections
The Content, Context, and Capacity Project is a joint effort of Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina State University. When the project is completed next year, more than 350,000 documents will have been digitized.
Alice Walker Comes Under Fire for New Book
Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, has been harshly criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for her views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Walker has been highly critical of the Israeli government and has compared the plight of the Palestinians to Blacks in the Jim Crow South.
University of South Carolina Honors the History of Booker T. Washington High School
Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia, South Carolina, one of the first public high schools for African Americans in the city, closed in 1974. The building was purchased by the University of South Carolina and has now been renovated. The renovations include displays that preserve the history of the high school.
Morgan State Scholar’s Research on What May be the Oldest African American Neighborhood in...
Dale Glenwood Green, an assistant professor of architecture and chair of the Historic Preservation Program at Morgan State University in Baltimore, found a deed from 1788 which shows a purchase of land in "The Hill" district of Easton, Maryland, by a free African American couple.
Tuskegee University Receives the Archives of a Civil Rights Icon
Civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson has donated her personal memorabilia collection to Tuskegee University. Robinson was among the marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on “Bloody Sunday” on March 7, 1965.
Scholar Documenting the History of Black Businesses in Wichita
Robert Weems, the Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History at Wichita State University in Kansas, is collecting artifacts and has undertaken an extensive oral history project on Black businesses in the city.
Tulane University Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Its Racial Integration
In the early 1960s, two Black students filed a lawsuit seeking admission to the graduate programs at Tulane University in New Orleans. They lost the suit. But in 1963, the Tulane University board of trustees decided to admit Black students to graduate programs.
Hampton’s William Harvey Named One of the Top Five HBCU Presidents of All-Time
William R. Harvey, president of Hampton University has been named by two organizations as one of the top five HBCU presidents of all time. Norman Francis, current president of Xavier University in New Orleans, was also selected by one organization for the honor.
The University of Memphis Library Plays Major Role in Award-Winning Documentary Film
The director of the award-winning documentary film has stated that the film would not have been possible without the help of the special collections unit of the University of Memphis Library.
Historic Marker Placed at the Site of 1963 Sit-In by Tougaloo College Students
Fifty years ago, students from historically Black Tougaloo College staged a sit-in at a lunchcounter in a Woolworth’s store in Jackson, Mississippi. The students were beaten by a White mob. Now a historic marker has been placed at the site of the old Woolworth's store.
Exhibit Explores the Role of African Americans at the 1893 Columbia Exposition in Chicago
The exhibition, entitled “The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition,” was inspired by a pamphlet with the same title that was co-authored by civil rights activist Ida B. Wells.
Sweet Briar College Receives Grant to Preserve a Slave Cabin on Its Campus
Sweet Briar College in Virginia recently received a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to preserve a 1840 slave cabin on campus and to incorporate the building into Sweet Briar College’s curriculum.
New Website Examines the History of Blacks in Theological Education
Yale University has launched a new website chronicling the history of theological education for African Americans. The website, entitled Been in the Storm So Long, has a particular focus on Blacks at the Yale Divinity School.
Researchers Publish a Collection of Poems That Supported Black Troops in the Civil War
During the Civil War thousands of poems in support of African American troops were published in newspapers across the nation. Researchers at the University of Nebraska and the University of Cambridge have collected and published a sample of these poems online.
Emory University Acquires the Papers of Ophelia DeVore Mitchell
Ophelia DeVore Mitchell was the founder of one of the first modeling agencies for African Americans and a pioneer in the "Black Is Beautiful" movement. Now over 90 years of age, she continues to own and help run an African American newspaper.
Huge Digital Archive of Civil Rights History Being Created in North Carolina
The entire project includes 38 manuscript collections and archival record groups held by libraries at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that make up the Triangle Research Libraries Network.
