African-American History

Berkeley Professor to Design Emory University’s Memorial to the Enslaved

In 2021, Emory University announced plans to develop memorials on its Atlanta and Oxford campuses to honor the enslaved individuals who are part of Emory’s history. The university has selected the Hood Design Studio of Oakland, California to develop plans for the memorials.

Howard University Completing Work on the Renovation of the Home of Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell's home at 326 T Street NW in Washington, D.C. was built in 1894. She and her husband Robert Heberton Terrell, an educator and law professor at Howard University occupied the home between 1899 and 1913. In accordance with Terrell's wishes, the home was bestowed to Howard University in 1987. With the help of a federal grant, the home is now being restored.

Morgan State University Museum Added to the National Register of Historic Places

In 1935, Lillie Jackson was elected president of the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP. Under her leadership, the NAACP membership rose from less than 200 in 1935 to over 25,000 by 1946. She remained president until 1970. Her home was made into a museum and later ownership was transferred to Morgan State University,

Americans Overwhelmingly Support Teaching the Current Impacts of Racism in Public Schools

Recent data from the Gallup Center on Black Voices indicate that more than three in four Americans support curricula that teach students about the current impacts of racism.

Six HBCUs Receive Funding for Historic Preservation of Campus Buildings

Six historically Black colleges and universities are receiving grants from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historial Preservation to preserve historic buildings on campus.

Study Seeks to Fill in the Gaps in African American Ancestral History

The 1870 federal census recorded formerly enslaved African Americans by name, and though it is a vital tool for genealogical research, many African Americans are still not able to trace their family members to or beyond this document. A new study attempts to shed some light on the ancestral history of African Americans prior to 1870.

Huge Number of the Nation’s Political Leaders Have Direct Ancestors Who Enslaved People

New research by Reuters has found that of the 536 members of the current U.S. Congress, at least 100 have ancestors who had ties to the institution of slavery. More than one quarter of all U.S. Senators have an ancestor who enslaved at least one person. Two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and 11 of the nation's 50 governors had ancestors who were involved in slavery.

Huge Number of the Nation’s Political Leaders Have Director Ancestors Who Enslaved People

New research by Reuters has found that of the 536 members of the current U.S. Congress, at least 100 have ancestors who had ties to the institution of slavery. More than one quarter of all U.S. Senators have an ancestor who enslaved at least one person. Two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and 11 of the nation's 50 governors had ancestors who were involved in slavery.

Eleven Colleges and Universities Receive Grants Relating to Blacks From the National Archives

Recently the National Archives announced 47 grants totaling $6,510,701 for projects in 27 states and the District of Columbia to improve public access to historical records. Many of these grants relate to African Americans.

New Africana Studies Fellowship Created at Georgia State University

The department of Africana studies at Georgia State University has announced the establishment of the Jacqueline Rouse-Doris Derby Africana Studies Fellowship program. The program honors two women who played a significant role in the development of the Africana studies program at the university.

Johns Hopkins University Obtains an Archive of Materials on the Early Life of Billy Holiday

The new collection includes the earliest known photo of Billie Holiday—a posed studio shot taken in 1917 when she was 2 years old — ephemera such as programs from clubs, hand-written set lists, and a grocery shopping list. The collection also includes 140 taped interviews with friends and colleagues of Holiday.

Yale University Awards Degrees to Two of its First Students

James W. C. Pennington (1808-1870) and Alexander Crummell (1819-1898) studied at Yale from 1834 to 1837 and 1840 to 1841, respectively. Because they were Black, however, the university did not allow them to register formally for classes or matriculate for a degree. They could not participate in classroom discussions or access library resources.

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 Facade

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.
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