University of Georgia Has Mounted an Oral History Project of Early Black Students
While some of the recollections are memories of forging new paths, other stories reflect a continued culture change on campus with stories of racism, bias, and protests in classrooms, dorms and around campus.
Wake Forest University Apologizes for its Historical Ties to Slavery
The university was founded on the grounds of an old plantation near Raleigh in 1834 before moving to its current location in 1956. In 1860, 14 enslaved humans were auctioned for a total of $10,718 that added to the university's endowment.
Mississippi State University Digitizes Records of Enslaved People
This undertaking involves digitizing 19th-century documents from across the South. The database will utilize records created or used by slave owners or the legal system to track enslaved persons, such as inventories, bills of sale, and probate and other court records.
Tulane University Removes a Bell From Campus That Had Been Used to Summon Enslaved...
Recently, Tulane University in New Orleans became aware of the fact that its Victory Bell, which was rung by students after athletic victories, was used on a Louisiana plantation as a signaling device to inform enslaved people when to move about the plantation.
The First “Virtual Stop” on the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
The Digital Library on American Slavery at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has been recognized as the first online stop in the National Park Service's network of Underground Railroad historical sites.
Exhibit Documents History of Racial Discrimination and Violence in the Railroad Industry
The exhibit, "The Other Side of The Tracks: Discrimination and Social Mobility in the Railroad Industry," will be on display at the Catherwood Library of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, through August 31.
Harvard University Offers Online Course on the Selma Voting Rights March
Selma Online is an interactive program that is designed for middle or high school students. The platform uses scenes from Ava DuVernay's 2014 film Selma as a storyboard to bring the voting rights movement to life
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The University of the South Reckons With Its Past Ties to Slavery and Jim...
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.
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.
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.
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.
HBCU Finally Removes the Names of a Ku Klux Klan Leader From a Residence...
Since 1929, Bibb Graves Hall on the campus of historically Black Alabama State University has honored a former governor and the Grand Cyclops of the Montgomery Klavern of the Ku Klux Klan.
University of Virginia Takes Steps to Make its Campus a More Welcoming Place
Jim Ryan, president of the University of Virginia, stated that these "actions that will make this place more clearly and obviously welcoming to all, and where all have an opportunity to thrive.”
University of Pittsburgh Acquires the Extensive Archives of Playwright August Wilson
The collection — more than 450 boxes of materials — document a wide array of August Wilson’s career and interests from the 1960s to 2010s. The noted playwright was born in Pittsburgh in 1945 and called the city home until 1978.
Oklahoma State University Bestows Additional Honors on Its First Black Student
In 1949, Nancy Randolph Davis became the first African-American student to enroll at what was then Oklahoma A&M College. Initially, she was required to sit in the hallway outside a classroom because of the color of her skin.
Association of American Medical Colleges Changes Name of Its Most Prestigious Award
In his 1910 report, Abraham Flexner wrote that Black students should be trained as “sanitarians” rather than surgeons and their primary role should be to protect White people from disease. “A well-taught negro sanitarian will be immensely useful; an essentially untrained negro wearing an M.D. degree is dangerous.”
Student Project Details the History of Housing Segregation in Miami
Using a platform that combines maps with narrative text, images, and multimedia content, the students wrote the history of Miami’s segregation, slum clearance, public housing, and gentrification and detailed the tactics used to remove Black residents from their homes and neighborhoods.
New Evidence Discovered That Shows Johns Hopkins Owned Slaves
Johns Hopkins, the founder of the university in Baltimore that bears his name, has been thought of as a staunch abolitionist. But new evidence has come to light that one enslaved person was listed in his household in 1840 and four enslaved people were listed in 1850.
In Utah “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
The board of trustees at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, voted unanimously to ask the Utah Board of Higher Education to change the name of the educational institution.
University of Maryland to Name New Residence Hall for Two Black Student Pioneers
Whittle-Johnson Hall will honor Hiram Whittle, the first African American male to be admitted to the university in 1951, and Elaine Johnson Coates, the first African American woman to graduate with an undergraduate degree in 1959.
