African-American History

Harvard University President Commits to Studying the University’s Ties to Slavery

As a first step, President Faust said that the university is installing a plaque on Wadsworth House on the Harvard campus. The plaque recognizes four enslaved persons who lived and worked in the building for two Harvard presidents during the eighteenth century.

University Project Is Creating a Database of Runaway Slave Advertisements

Researchers at Cornell University, the University of New Orleans, and the University of Alabama are collaborating on a project to digitize as many as 100,000 runaway slave advertisements that appeared in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century newspapers.

University of Wyoming Debuts Online Its Liz Byrd Archival Collection

Liz Byrd was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1926. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from what is now West Virginia State University in 1949. In 1980, she became the first African American to be elected to the Wyoming state legislature.

Emory Acquires Rare First Edition of David Walker’s 1829 Book Appeal

The book was written and published in 1829 by Walker, a self-educated African American merchant. It is one of the earliest known written indictments of the institution of slavery. The first-edition acquired by Emory, one of only six known to exist, was owned and signed by W.E.B. Du Bois.

The Discovery of a Poem Written by Indiana University’s First Black Woman Student

Carrie Parker Taylor, the daughter of former slaves, enrolled at Indiana University in 1898. Taylor dropped out of college after one year, got married, and raised six children. Recently, a poem penned by Taylor in 1915 was discovered.

Oberlin College Acquires a Collection of Papers of Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell was the daughter of former slaves. She was a 1884 graduate of Oberlin College and went on to become an educator, civil rights activist, and a proponent of women's suffrage.

University of Mississippi Adding a New Plaque to Statue of Confederate Soldier

The University of Mississippi is proceeding with plans to add a new plaque explaining the historical context of a statue of a Confederate soldier on the Oxford campus.

Historian Seeks Information on the First Black Applicant to the College of William and Mary

In 1807, John Wallace De Rozaro, a 20-year-old African American man, sought to take classes at the college. He was born free in Virginia and worked as a gunsmith. The president of the college urged him to work in a local armory instead of pursuing higher education.

Brown University Renovates the Home of African American Artist Edward Mitchell Bannister

The home at 93 Benevolent Street, originally built in 1854 near the Brown University campus, was purchased by the university in 1989. At the time, the house was in disrepair. Now the renovated home will be sold to a member of the Brown University community.

A New Anthology of the Writings of Former Slave Peter Randolph

Katherine Bassard, a professor of English and senior vice provost for faculty affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, is the editor of a new book on the writings of a former slave who became a leading abolitionist and religious figure.

Harvard Law School Seeks to Distance Itself From a Legacy Tied to Slavery

The current seal is modeled after the family crest of Isaac Royall, the son of an Antiguan slave owner. Funds from Royall's estate were used to established Harvard Law School.

Duke University to Further Honor the Black Man Who Designed Much of Its Campus

Duke University has announced that the main quadrangle with the university's initial academic and residential buildings will be named Abele Quad. An African American architect, Julian Francis Abele, designed many of the buildings on the quadrangle.

University of Oregon Receives Collection of Photographs of Famous Black Women

The art museum at the University of Oregon has received a donation of 75 photographs from Pultizer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker's collection "I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America."

Laboratory Used by Edward Bouchet Designated a Historic Site by the American Physical Society

Edward A. Bouchet was the first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university when he received a Ph.D. in physics at Yale University in 1876. The laboratory where he did much of his research has been named the 37th historic site in the history of physics.

Howard University’s Founders Library Designated a “National Treasure”

The university and the National Trust for Historic Preservation will now cooperate in efforts to improve the facility as a 21st-century learning environment while protecting its historical significance.

George Washington Carver Fungi Collection Found at the University of Wisconsin

Recently researchers at the Wisconsin State Herbarium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison came across of 25 specimens of fungi that were collected by George Washington Carver more than a century ago.

Virginia Commonwealth University Acquires Rare Copy of All-Negro Comics No. 1

The 48-page comic book was published in 1947 and features characters such as police detective Ace Harlem and Lion Man, a college-educated scientist and superhero. It was the first comic book written and draw solely by African American writers and artists.

Oregon State University to Digitize Oral Histories of Black Railroad Porters

The archive includes 29 reel-to-reel tapes of interviews conducted by filmmaker Michael Grice that were used as background for his documentary Black Families and the Railroad in Oregon and the Northwest.

Yale Scholar Edits the Earliest-Known Manuscript of an African American Prison Inmate

Austin Reed, an indentured servant who was born free in Rochester, New York, describes his experiences in the 1830s through 1858 in New York's House of Refuge, a juvenile reformatory.

Toni Morisson Delivering the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University

The lecture series was endowed in 1925 with the honoree designated as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry for the duration of the six-lecture series. Toni Morrison, the Nobel laureate and professor emerita at Princeton University, is this year's honoree.
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