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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Preserving the Writings of Anna Julia Cooper
Recently, the Humanities Center at Syracuse University partnered with the Colored Conventions Project to host a local transcribe-a-thon of the writings of Anna Julia Cooper. The community service project's goal was to transcribe the writing of Dr. Cooper and create a digital archive of her work.
A Long-Forgotten HBCU to Get a Historical Marker in Huntsville, Texas
The Walker County Historical Commission has commissioned a historical marker to be placed at the corner of Old Madisonville Road and Pleasant Street in Huntsville, Texas. The site was the location of the Bishop Ward Normal and Collegiate Institute which was founded in 1883 but closed only a few years later.
Trinity University to Open a Civil Rights Museum in Downtown San Antonio
Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, has announced plans to open a civil rights museum in the Kress Building, a former five and dime store in the downtown area of the city. The store had a lunch counter that refused to serve African Americans until 1960.
New Bowdoin College Courses Examines the Role of Black Women in U.S. Intellectual History
Established in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Africana studies at Bowdoin, the course, "Black Women’s Lives as the History of Africana Studies" addresses the diversity of social and political thought by Black women.
Williams College Receives the Archives of Alumnus Sterling Brown
Sterling Brown was one of America’s most influential poets and scholars. Brown was a member of the graduating class of 1922 at Williams College. He taught in the English department at Howard University for more than 40 years.
The Higher Education of Delaware’s First Black Supreme Court Justice
African Americans make up 21 percent of the population in the state of Delaware. Yet until now, the state has never had an African Americans on its highest court. Tamika Montgomery-Reeves recently began her tenure as a justice on the the Delaware Supreme Court.
Law Students Ask That the Image of Robert E. Lee Not Appear on Their...
Students, alumni, and faculty members of the Washington and Lee University School of Law have started a petition asking the university's administration to give graduating students the option of not having the images of George Washington and Robert E. Lee on their diplomas.
University of Cincinnati Addresses the History of Its Slave-Owning Founder
When Charles McMicken died in 1858, he left money and property “to found an institution where White boys and girls might be taught.” He also left provisions to free his slaves and send them to Liberia. The university's president is now recommending that McMickon's name no longer be associated with the university's College of Arts and Sciences.
Tulane University Honors Its First African American Students
In 1966 and 1967, Deidre Dumas Labat and Reynold T. Décou became the first African American undergraduates to earn degrees from Newcomb College and Tulane University, respectively. The university recently renamed a residence complex in their honor.
Dickinson College in Pennsylvania Examines Its Historical Ties to Slavery
The final report of the Dickinson & Slavery Initiative recommends “a deliberative process” for improving the commemoration of the college’s ties to slavery and anti-slavery, including consideration for renaming some buildings on campus that have been honoring former slaveholders.
Stanford University Presented an Interactive Art Exhibit on African American History
The main attraction involved a walk-through of 23 exhibits depicting various scenes throughout history. The exhibit used lights, sounds, smells and trained theater actors to bring these scenes to life.
University of Memphis Creates Two Funds to Honor Frances and Benjamin Hooks
The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis has created two endowed funds which will enable the Institute to further the work of social change championed by Benjamin L. Hooks and his wife Frances Dancy Hooks, two stalwarts of the civil rights struggle.
University of North Carolina Gives Silent Sam to the Sons of Confederate Veterans
The statue of a Confederate soldier, that had stood at the gates of the university for more than a century, was torn down by protestors in August 2018. Now the university is donating the statue and $2.5 million to care and preserve the monument to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The University of Minnesota’s Historical Ties to Slavery
In 1856, the university was struggling financially and received a loan of nearly $15,000 from William Aiken Jr., who at one time owned more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. This money helped build one of the first campus buildings, Old Main.
Harvard University Launches a New Intitiative to Examine its Historical Ties to Slavery
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and a professor of history, will chair the new initiative which will be called Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery.
Georgetown University Decides Not to Impose Student Fee to Address Slavery Reparations
This past spring, Georgetown University students voted overwhelmingly to pay an annual $27.50 fee that would go into a fund to support the descendants of slaves once owned by the university. But now the university has decided not to impose a student fee and will raise an equivalent amount from donations.