Browse Exhibits (5 total)

The African American Studies Collection

Shortly after returning to IU in 1965, where he'd graduated 25 years earlier, Librarian Wilmer Baatz began collecting "Afro-American materials" for the Main Library in response to a perceived university need.

This exhibit will show not only what a daunting task that was in the 1960s, but will provide insight into Baatz' methods, his contacts and those who championed his efforts.

Individuals of note are:

Dr. George Juergens of the IU Bloomington History Department
Dr. Joseph J. Russell, Dean for the Office of Afro-American Affairs
Grace Jackson-Brown, subject specialist for African American Studies at Indiana University Libraries

African American Studies Collection, Afro-American Studies Collection, collection development, Dean Joseph J. Russell, Dr. George Juergens, Grace Jackson-Brown, History Dept., Howard University, Howard University "Negro Collection", Office of Afro-American Affairs, Wilmer Baatz

Dr. Herman Hudson and IU in a time of transition

Let it be said, without hyperbole of any kind, that no mere exhibit can do justice to the accomplishments of Dr. Herman Hudson.

That he gained institutional recognition for African-Americans on the IU Bloomington campus during a time of racial turmoil is proof of his historic position in the narrative of Indiana University.

This exhibit attempts to represent those turbulent times and the efforts of Herman Hudson to create an environment that was encouraging to black students and one in which they could fulfill dreams perhaps inconceivable to generations that had gone before them.

Take a walk back in time... a time of afro hairstyles, dashikis, Black Power Salutes and political rhetoric...

Can you dig it? I knew that you could!

Afro-American Institute of Arts, Black Culture Center, Black House, Black Student Union, Chancellor Byrum Carter, Department of Afro-American Studies, Herman Hudson, Learning Resource Center, Mari Evans, Office of Afro-American Affairs, Wilma Miller

Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library... at last!

This represents a Perpetual Exhibit, for the history of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library is being made at this writing.

History will continue to be made as classes of MLS students, theater students, education students, doctoral students and countless others are gently coaxed into excellence--an excellence that shines just below the surface and is buffed to brilliance by the discerning spirit that is librarian Deloice Holliday.

And so, in honor of those for whom the library exists to serve and for those, now gone, who served to guarantee its existence, we dedicate this exhibit.

May it be continued by those who find a sense of belonging by exploring the resonant stories of the ones who came before.

appreciation, Deloice Holliday, Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library, NMBCC Library, survey

African American Cultural Center Library--A Period of Transition

From 1998 until the move into the current Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library, the newly-named "African American Cultural Center Library" was temporarily housed within Coulter Hall in Ashton Center.

Under the visionary guidance of Librarian Grace-Jackson Brown, library-sponsored events flourished!

Here are some examples of what you missed if you weren't around then...

African American Cultural Center Library1991, Ashton Center, Grace Jackson-Brown, Marianna Brough

OUR LIBRARIANS THROUGH THE LENS OF "Sankofa"

"The concept of Sankofa is derived from King Adinkera of the Akan people of West Afrika. Sankofa is expressed in the Akan language as se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki.

Literally translated it means it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.

Sankofa teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, forgone or been stripped of, can be reclaimed, revived, preserved and perpetuated.

Visually and symbolically Sankofa is expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg (symbolizing the future) in its mouth."

from W.E.B. Dubois Learning Center,Kansas City, MO

In the spirit of Sankofa, we look back at NMBCC Library history with a pictorial progression through The Librarians...

African American Cultural Center Library, Deloice Holliday, Grace Jackson-Brown, Learning Resources Centerm, Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library, Wilma Miller, Wilmer Baatz