The University of South Carolina’s First Building Named to Honor an African American
The University of South Carolina has renamed a residence hall to honor Celia Dial Saxon, who was born enslaved in 1857 but later had a 57-year career as an educator in South Carolina. Saxon attended the Normal School on the University of South Carolina campus when it was integrated during Reconstruction.
Bryn Mawr College Removes the Name of Its Racist Former President From Its Library...
Martha Carey Thomas was the second president of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She was a graduate of Cornell University and earned a Ph.D....
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Acquires Massive Photographic Archival of Black History
The Roland L. Freeman Collection is a massive compilation of assignment and project work from a career that spans more than 50 years of documenting Black communities, public figures, and folk art and artisans. It consists of nearly 24,000 slides, 10,000 photographic prints, 400,000 negatives, and 9,000 contact sheets.
Scholars Enhance FBI Photographs From Bloody Sunday
Photographs taken by FBI photographers from the ground and in surveillance aircraft were declassified in 2015, but have never been enlarged and enhanced via hi-resolution scans until now. A major question is why these photographs remained classified for 50 years.
A Photograph Is Discovered of the First Black Graduate of Yale College
For many years, it was believed that Edward Bouchet was the first Black graduate of Yale College in 1874. But nine years ago, new research discovered that Richard Henry Greene of the Class of 1857 was the first Black graduate. Now a photograph of Dr. Greene has been discovered.
Rice University to Relocate Statue of Its White Supremacist Founder
The board of trustees of Rice University has decided the statue of William Marsh Rice will no longer be at the center of the Academic Quadrangle and will be presented with historical context and information about the university’s founder, including his ownership of enslaved people.
Pomona College Receives the Personal Archives of Myrlie Evers-Williams
The collection, containing thousands of items focuses on her life after moving to California in 1964 after the assassination of her husband Medgar Evers. The Mississippi state archives are home to the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers, covering their early years in that state.
Columbia University to Acquire the Archives of Composer and Educator Tania León
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York has announced that it will acquire the archives of Tania León, the noted composer, conductor, and educator. Her orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in celebration of the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music.
College of William and Mary to Digitize Records of Early African American Churches
The Special Collections Research Center of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has partnered with several Black churches in Williamsburg to add their church records to the library’s special collections. One is the First Baptist Church, one of the country’s earliest African-American congregations that was founded by free and enslaved African Americans in 1776.
East Tennessee State University Has Digitized a Collection of Black History in Appalachia
The Langston Heritage Group Collection includes a wealth of historical information about Black churches, schools, civic clubs, and organizations throughout Washington County, Tennessee from the end of the Civil War to the present. It was donated to the university in 2000 but has now been digitized and made available to researchers and the public.
The University Consortium on Afro-Latin American Studies Will Examine Western Hemisphere Slavery
Of the 10.7 million Africans who survived the Middle Passage, 4.9 million were taken to Brazil, another 1 million arrived in Jamaica, and millions more were taken to various islands in the Caribbean. A new collaboration between Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh and four universities in Latin America will study slavery throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Four African Americans Receive Significant Honors From Louisiana State University
The School of Education and the Graduate School will be renamed to honor African Americans students who broke racial barriers at the university. The Design Building is being renamed for the university's first Black professor.
University of Kentucky Has Allocated Funds to Remove Controversial Mural From Memorial Hall
During the Great Depression, Ann Rice O’Hanlon painted a 38 feet wide, 11 feet tall mural on Kentucky history in the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Hall. The mural depicted enslaved African Americans hunched in a field, Black musicians playing for White dancers, and a Native American threatening a White settler with a tomahawk.
Brown University Honors Its First Black Woman Doctoral Recipient
Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, is renaming its Graduate School diversity fellow in honor of the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from the university. The Mae Belle Williamson Simmons Diversity Fellowships will honor the legacy of a trailblazing Providence native who earned a Ph.D. in 1962 and made a lasting impact on the field of child psychology.
Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center Acquires Notable Archives of Black History
Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center has announced that it has acquired the African Market Literature Collection and the papers of Masood Ali-Wilbert Warren, a Black American painter, sculptor, and Korean war Army veteran.
Southern University Ends 50-Year Campus Ban of Students Who Mounted a Protest in 1972
On November 16, 1972, student protesters were confronted with tear gas canisters that they threw back at police. During an ensuing melee, two students were shot and killed. Four student leaders were arrested, expelled from the university, and banned from campus. The ban has now been lifted.
Georgetown Creates New Fund to Benefit Descendants of People Enslaved by the University
The Reconciliation Fund has begun accepting applications for projects that aim to benefit communities of the descendants of people enslaved and sold by the university, many of whom live in and around Maringouin, Louisiana, where their ancestors were sold and forcibly moved to in 1838. The university plans to allocate $400,000 annually to the effort.
Western Kentucky University Honors Its First Black Student
Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green has renamed a campus building to honor its first Black graduate. A residence hall on campus now bears the name of Margaret Munday, who was the first Black student to enroll at the university in 1956 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music and elementary education in 1960.
Iowa State University Planning a Year-Long Celebration Honoring Jack Trice
Jack Trice was the first African American to play intercollegiate sports at Iowa State University. A student of animal husbandry, Trice suffered severe injuries in his second collegiate football game against the University of Minnesota and died two days later on October 8, 1923. He was 21 years old.
University of South Carolina Partners With the National Park Service on Civil Rights History
Under a five-year agreement with the park service, the center will expand its existing work in civil rights education and scholarly research, including support for exhibits and programming at South Carolina sites in the African American Civil Rights Network.
University of Richmond Changes Name of Its Law School Due to Benefactor’s Ties to...
The T.C. Williams School of Law will now be known as the University of Richmond School of Law. Williams was a student and later a trustee of the then-named Richmond College. He personally enslaved three individuals and his business enslaved dozens more.
Getty Images Launches a New Black History Archive for Educators and Scholars
The collection aims to grant free non-commercial access to rarely seen historical and cultural images of the African/Black Diaspora in the United States and the United Kingdom from the nineteenth century to the present day to educators, academics, researchers, and content creators.
University of Michigan Compiles a Vast Database of Its Early Black Students
A new public database of African American students created by the University of Michigan documents students who attended the university between 1817 and as recently as 1970. The database contains information on nearly 6,000 African American students.
University of Cincinnati Removes Name of Founding Benefactor From Campus
Charles McMicken left a bequest of real estate to the City of Cincinnati that led to the founding in 1870 of the University of Cincinnati. McMicken traded in enslaved persons and fathered two children with enslaved women.
Eastern Illinois University Renames a Residence Hall to Honor Two African Americans
Zella Powell is believed to be the university’s first Black graduate, earning a degree from Eastern State Normal School in 1910. Ona Norton was the matriarch of a Black family in Charleston, Illinois, who housed Black student athletes in the 1950s who were not permitted to live on campus.
Prairie View A&M University Seeks to Rediscover Its Lost History
Prairie View A&M University is located on land that once was a plantation that housed 400 enslaved individuals. Many of the historically Black university's historical records were lost in a 1947 fire. Now a new committee has been formed to piece together the university's past.
University of Michigan to Examine Its History Relating to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The University of Michigan is set to begin a multifaceted, years-long project to study, document, and better understand the university’s history with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion — with the history of race and racism as its first major focus.
How Education May Play a Role in Reparations for Black Californians
“Without accountability, there is no justice. For too long, our nation has ignored the harms that have been — and continue to be — inflicted on African Americans in California and across the country,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The First Black Woman to Graduate From Arizona State University
For many years, it was believed that Love Hatton Jordan was the first African American woman to graduate from Arizona State University in 1928. Now an earlier Black woman graduate has been discovered. Stella McHenry graduated in 1925 and became a school teacher. She died three years later.
Baylor University Takes Steps to Confront Its Past Ties to Slavery
The board of regents of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has decided to remove a statue of former president and slave owner Rufus Burleson from the quadrangle that has borne his name. Burleson was also a colonel in the Confederate Army.
College of William and Mary Dedicates a Memorial to the Enslaved Who Worked on...
The memorial resembles a fireplace hearth and is meant to symbolize both a place of community and the center of domestic enslavement. A vessel to hold fire that will burn on special occasions will be installed at the center of the Hearth at a later date.
North Carolina A&T Acquires the The Justice Henry E. and Shirley T. Frye Archival...
Shirley Frye was a longtime administrator at North Carolina A&T State University and nearby Bennett College. Henry Frye was a district attorney, legislator, judge, and chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Emory University to Rename a Campus Center and Professorships
Emory University in Atlanta has decided to rename campus spaces and professorships honoring Robert Yerkes, a psychologist who vigorously supported eugenics, and L.Q.C. Lamar, who was a staunch defender of slavery.
Meredith College in North Carolina Removes Name of Former Trustee From Campus Building
The board of trustees of Meredith College in Raleigh recently announced that Joyner Hall, named for an individual who advocated for white supremacy and unequal funding for schools based on race, will be renamed. "The racist ideas James Yadkin Joyner, who served as a trustee for 55 years, stood for throughout his lifetime, are antithetical to Meredith College’s mission, vision, and values,” the board said.
New Scholarship Honors the First Black Woman Graduate of Yale Divinity School
A new scholarship at Yale Divinity School honors Rena Karefa-Smart, the first Black woman to graduate from the school. Dr. Karefa-Smart was also the first Black woman to earn a theology doctorate from Harvard Divinity School and the first female professor to earn tenure at the Howard University School of Divinity.
Vanderbilt University Acquires the Papers of Jazz Musician Yusef Lateef
Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are now home to a rich collection of research materials from the life and career of Yusef A. Lateef, a Grammy-winning musician who played a pioneering role in bringing Middle Eastern and Asian sounds to American jazz.
