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.
Duke University to House Hate Group Archives of the Southern Poverty Law Center
The collection includes more than 90 boxes of materials that include periodicals, pamphlets, flyers, and other documents that hate groups in the United States have sent to members and recruits over the past 30 years.
Petition Calls on UCLA to Establish the Jackie Robinson Institute of Sports Business
An online petition calls on the University of California to establish an institute of sports business to honor the legacy of Jackie Robinson. The petition also seeks to rename a portion of a street adjacent to the UCLA campus, Jackie Robinson Way.
New Hip-Hop Collection Established at the College of William and Mary
The effort will assemble oral histories, audio and video recordings, publications, posters, and memorabilia by Virginia-based hip-hop artists and businesses.
Old Movie of African American Baseball Players Found in the University of Georgia Archives
The film, made around 1919, was found in the archives of the Pebble Hill Plantation that were donated to the Walter J. Brown Media Archives of the University of Georgia Libraries.
1805 Bill of Sale for Three Slaves Donated to Duke University
The bill of sale lists three slaves, Elizabeth, a 20-year-old woman and her daughter Harriet who was six months old. A third slave Delilah, aged 14, was also included. The three slaves were sold for a total of $493.
New Poem by Jupiter Hammon, a Slave, Discovered at Yale Library
Jupiter Hammon was born into slavery in 1711. Although a slave, he attended school and learned to read and write. Later in life he wrote essays and poetry and is generally considered the first African American writer to be published.
Quinnipiac Students Get the Opportunity to Study the Bones of a Slave
A slave whose bones were preserved by his slaveowner will be studied by students before he is given a Christian burial in Waterbury, CT.
New Film Recreates Black History at the University of Virginia in the 1970s
The film project was co-created by Kevin Jerome Everson, professor in the department of art and Claudrena Harold an associate professor of history at the university.
George Mason University Students Recreate Some of the Iconic Photographs of Black History
The students found actors who resembled the historical figures and secured costumes and designed sets to recreate the original scenes in old photographs.
University of Virginia Acquires Historial Documents of a Black-Owned Bank
The First State Bank in Danville, the last of the Jim-Crow era Black-owned banks in the state of Virginia, recently donated a large collection of its historical records to the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.
University of Tennessee Names Its First Building After an African American
The Fred D. Brown Jr. Residence Hall, the first new dormitory built on the Knoxville campus in 43 years, is named after the founder of the Office of Diversity Programs in the College of Engineering.
SMU Students Spend Spring Break on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage
The students will travel by bus to visit many of the most famous locations of the civil rights movement including Little Rock Central High School, the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
Jackson State University to Produce an e-Book on Medgar Evers and Margaret Walker
The university, in conjunction with the University Press of Mississippi, is producing an electronic book on the friendship of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and author Margaret Walker Alexander. They were family friends and they lived a block from each other.
Emory Opens Exhibit of Its SCLC Archives
Emory University in Atlanta officially acquired the archives of Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 2007. Now the university has debuted its first exhibition from the archive.
The Black Man Who Taught at Auburn University in 1947
African American artist Isaac Scott Hathaway taught a workshop at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, in the summer of 1947. This was 16 years before the racial integration of the university.
Vanderbilt University Receives the Papers of a Civil Rights Icon
The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., a leading figure in the civil rights movement and an associate of Martin Luther King Jr., has donated a significant portion of his papers to the special collections division of the Vanderbilt University Libraries.
University of Alabama to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Its Racial Desegregation
Throughout the year, the university will hold seminars, lectures, and other events to celebrate 50 years of racial diversity on campus.
University of Louisville Asks the Public’s Help to Preserve a Historical Black Newspaper
Due to the poor quality of microfilm copies, the university has been unable to create a searchable digital archive of the Louisville Leader, an African American newspaper published between 1917 and 1950. The university is asking the public to help transcribe the microfilm files.
PBS Conducting an Oral History Project on the Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is conducting an oral history project about the Voting Rights Act of 1965. You can call the PBS NewsHour Oral History Hotline at (703) 594-6PBS and record your story.
University of South Carolina Project Seeks to Preserve the History of the Civil Rights...
Scholars at the University of South Carolina are establishing an archive documenting the history of the civil rights movement in South Carolina. The project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Emory Students to Prepare Exhibit from Historic Collection of African American Photos
Students in the class "Looking at the Familiar: History, Memory, Race, and Visual Culture" will create an exhibit from the university's archive of 12,000 photographs of African Americans from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The University of Virginia Unveils a New Online Archive of the Civil Rights Movement
The new online digital archive offers biographies of key figures in the civil rights movement, oral histories, and digitized documents relating to each person featured in the archive. The documents include newspaper articles, personal correspondence, letters, court documents, and field reports.
University of Tennessee Professor’s Research on Streets Named for Martin Luther King Jr.
There are more than 900 streets named for Dr. King. The 900 streets are predominantly in the southeastern United States, where much of the civil rights movement took place. There are 10 states in which there are no streets named after Dr. King.
Ohio State Suspends Chapter of a Historically Black Sorority Over Hazing Incident
Delta Sigma Theta was founded at Howard University a century ago. Members have include Mary McLeod Bethune, Shirley Chisholm, Patricia Robert Harris, Lena Horne, Barbara Jordan, and Wilma Rudolph.
University of Alabama Birmingham Conducting Oral History Project of the Civil Rights Movement
The goal of the StoryCorps Griot Initiative is to record for prosperity the stories of the city's residents who participated in the historical civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
New Discovery of Photograph of Edmonia Lewis
The first African American sculptor to receive international fame, was a student at Oberlin College in Ohio where she was accused of trying to poison two White students and stealing artist supplies. She was acquitted but was not permitted to graduate and spent most of her career in Rome.
Tulane University Exhibit Documents the History of a Local Black Fraternal Group in Louisiana
The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans is currently showing an exhibit to honor the history of the African American fraternal organization, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons of Louisiana.
University of Cincinnati Reopens Its African American Cultural and Resource Center
The African American Cultural and Resource Center. which was established in 1991, has been undergoing a major renovation project since last August.
