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Payne Theological Seminary
The history of Payne Theological Seminary, one of the nation’s oldest African American seminaries is now at your fingertips, thanks to a collaboration between Payne and Princeton Theological Seminary.
With funding from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Payne Theological Seminary is actively digitizing materials from its historical archives and contributing the digitized versions to the Theological Commons. The collection will contain curated, contextualized subcollections of images and textual materials for the study of the history of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) denomination and Black Church tradition while chronicling the leadership and legacy of Payne Theological Seminary.
The records available for research include blueprints, handwritten manuscripts, rare books, bulletins and photos that date back to the 1800s which document the establishment of the Black Church in America to the physical changes and developments of a number of AME Educational Institutions.
This unique digital archive is publicly accessible at the Theological Commons.
For information about the project contact Seminary Archivist Shanee’ Murrain at smurrain@payne.edu.
Hein Slavery Collection
From the Hein web site:
The crisis revolving around race relations in America and the recent events surrounding this crisis have made the Hein Company rethink the idea of financially profiting from the sale of a collection on slavery. As good corporate citizens, Hein realized that a unique opportunity existed to make a positive impact in our community, in our profession and very possibly in a wider arena. Therefore, the decision was made not to charge for this collection, but to provide Slavery in America and the World free to anyone with an interest in the subject: libraries, institutions, students, researchers, or any other entity within our global community. By doing this, the Hein Company will realize a different form of profit by potentially making a difference during this troubling time. Read the complete announcement here: Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, and Law.
Search Hein Online.
Online Exhibit
Photos: ‘Still Raising Hell: The Art, Activism and Archives of Camille Billops and James V. Hatch’
(Source: By Kimber Williams | Emory Report | Sept. 20, 2016)
An opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 15, marked the debut of “Still Raising Hell: The Art, Activism and Archives of Camille Billops and James V. Hatch,” the new exhibit at Robert W. Woodruff Library (Emory University).
Billops and Hatch were present as attendees explored the exhibit, drawn from items the couple collected over five decades. The Billops-Hatch archives are widely considered to be one of the most important collections of materials related to 20th-century African American theater, art history and African American artists.
The exhibit, which runs through May 14 in the Schatten Gallery, showcases themes related to creativity, social justice and community, art and activism, and the importance of history and memory.
View the online exhibit here.
Ntozake Shange Collection
(Source: Barnard College, Media Relations, Press Release, April 14, 2016)
Poet, playwright, novelist and black feminist Ntozake Shange’s, Ph.D., earliest work can be traced back to the late 1960s when she was in high school. This foundational work along with an early drafts of the Obie Award-winning play, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” and many others are a part of the significant collection acquired by the Barnard Library Archives and Special Collections.
Shange, Barnard College class of 1970 and former fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, decided she wanted her collection to be maintained at the College because it’s where all of her formative artistic, political and intellectual experiences took place.
“I feel as though I came of age as a feminist and an artist at Barnard. I formed the basis of my critical thinking in English and history classes. I was a member of conscious-raising groups, the antiwar movement and black-student movement. I got all that I ever imagined from an all-women’s college, and I thought my archives belonged here,” Shange said.
The 31-linear-foot collection tells the story of Shange’s life and career and focuses on issues of race and feminism. Items range from personal diaries, a quill pen and personal artwork to a photo album from the poetic narrative, “The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of African American Family” and a typescript manuscript of “Some Sing, Some Cry.”
“We are so incredibly grateful to have such a significant collection where scholars can view personal photos, letters, and annotated books that influenced her work next to published poetry and artwork to literally trace the life of a dynamic writer, like Dr. Shange,” Shannon O’Neill, Barnard College associate director of Archives and Special Collections, said.
For more information about Barnard College and the Shange collection, contact Media Relations at mediarelations@barnard.edu or 212-854-2037.
Rare Copy of David Walker’s Appeal
(Source: Press release, Emory News Center, Tuesday, March 7, 2016)
A rare first edition of David Walker’s 19th century anti-slavery book, “Appeal,” owned and signed by W.E.B. Du Bois, has been obtained by Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, with a generous grant from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation and additional support from other individuals.
Written and published in 1829 in Boston by Walker, a self-educated African American merchant, “Appeal” is considered one of the most important documents in African American history. Its full title is “Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles, Together with A Preamble to the Colored Citizens of the World, But in Particular, and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America.”
Only half a dozen copies of early editions of “Appeal” are known to exist, and only two known first editions can be found in libraries, according to the Rose Library’s curator of research Randall Burkett.
The first edition at Emory is stamped with Du Bois’ ownership signature on the title page, and his holograph signature is on the front fly. The book also contains Du Bois’ extensive marginal markings.
“One of the most compelling aspects of this work is that it addresses some of the questions that continue to challenge us today,” says Rosemary Magee, director of the Rose Library.
Kevin Young, curator of literary collections and of the Rose Library’s Danowski Poetry Library, echoed that sentiment in a comment to The New York Times. “The book is testament to a line of black protest and prophecy that stretches from Walker to Du Bois to #blacklivesmatter,” he said. “Seeing it and the markings it’s almost as if Du Bois’s lines in the text make that literal.”
In his autobiography, “Dusk of Dawn,” Du Bois called Walker’s “Appeal” “that tremendous indictment of slavery,” recognizing its importance as the first “program of organized opposition to the action and attitude of the dominant white group.”
According to the late American historian Herbert Aptheker, “Walker’s ‘Appeal’ is the first sustained written assault upon slavery and racism to come from a black man in the United States.” The publication was considered so radical and revolutionary in its call to arms that even abolitionists condemned it as inflammatory.
“The book itself is a landmark of political protest and eloquent articulation of the demand for freedom for people of African descent in the United States,” says Pellom McDaniels III, curator of African American Collections in the Rose Library. “It is as important for African American political and social history as Thomas Paine’s ‘Rights of Man’; it is a demand for freedom and a call to arms.”
To view complete article, go to Emory acquires anti-slavery “Appeal”
Rosa Parks Archive
Source: By Jennifer Schuessler, ArtsBeat, New York Times, February 25, 2016 12:01 am
The Library of Congress has digitized the papers of Rosa Parks, enabling free online access to everything from her first-hand recollections of the Montgomery bus boycott and personal correspondence with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to family photographs, tax returns and a handwritten recipe for “featherlite pancakes.”
(To view entire article visit here: Library of Congress Puts Rosa Parks Archives Online.)
Manning Marable Book Collection
(Source: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, John Jay News, October 4, 2015)
The family of the late Dr. Manning Marable, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who received an honorary doctorate from John Jay College in 2006, has donated his collection of authored books to John Jay’s Prison-to-College Pipeline initiative at the upstate Otisville Correctional Facility (New York).
Marable, who died in April 2011 at age 60, was a professor of African-American studies at Columbia University. He had informed his family that one of his passing wishes was to make his work available to incarcerated individuals. John Jay’s work in educating incarcerated people made it an appropriate choice for receiving the bequest.
Marable was the M. Moran Weston and Black Alumni Council Professor of African American Studies and professor of history and public affairs at Columbia University. He was founding director of African American Studies at Columbia from 1993 to 2003, and directed Columbia’s Center for Contemporary Black History. The author of fifteen books, Marable was also the editor of Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society. His last book, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, was published shortly after his death to great acclaim, and earned him the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in History.
To view complete article go to Book Collection of late Historian Manning Marable Donated
Emmett Till
(Source: by Devin Galetta, Florida State 24/7, University Communications, Florida State University, September 25, 2015 press release)
Till’s death helped galvanize the civil rights movement in America, and Friday, Aug. 28, marks the 60th anniversary of his murder. Till, 14, was kidnapped, beaten and shot after he allegedly flirted with a white woman.
“We’re very excited for this project because there is just simply nothing like it,” said Houck, a faculty member in the College of Communication and Information who authored “Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press.” “We’ve spent 20 years accumulating this material, most of which involved travel to Mississippi and archives around the South. It’s long past due that we had a ‘one-stop-archive’ for all things Emmett Till, and with this collection, we’ll finally have that.”
The collection will feature newspaper coverage from the Till murder trial and court proceedings by domestic and international press, and materials from FBI investigations, court records and interview transcripts.
Author Devery Anderson will contribute a comprehensive collection of newspaper articles, genealogical work, interview transcriptions and obscure magazine articles used to write his recently released book, “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement.” Anderson’s research not only tells the story of the Till case as it unfolded in 1955, but follows the case to the present day, incorporating the FBI’s investigation and source materials, including a complete trial transcript.
Interviews and oral histories gathered by filmmaker Keith Beauchamp for his Emmy-nominated documentary, “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” will also comprise part of the archive. Beauchamp’s research was pivotal in convincing the FBI to re-open the case in 2004 — an investigation that resulted in more than 8,000 pages of important material.
“These materials from some of the nation’s foremost Emmett Till researchers will be a great addition to our archives and an outstanding resource for students, researchers and civil rights historians worldwide,” said Katie McCormick, associate dean for Special Collections and Archives.
The collection will be available beginning in 2016 at the Special Collections Research Center at Strozier Library. For updates on the Till collection and further information on FSU’s Special Collections and Archives, visit FSU Special Collections & Archives.
Freedmen’s Bureau Records
Discover your roots and unlock your future. New digital collection of government documents being released is from the post Civil War Freedman’s Bureau and could help people with slave ancestry find out where they come from.
To help bring thousands of records to light, the Freedmen’s Bureau Project was created as a set of partnerships between FamilySearch International and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), and the California African American Museum.
Link to The Freedmen’s Bureau Project.