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WELCOME

...to the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library History Exhibit

Inextricably linked to the history of the "Black Culture Center" of which it is a part, the NMBCC Library has a historical narrative all its own.

What we have assembled here is an exploration of the available administrative, pictorial and personal archival materials that serve to shed light on the development of the library as we know it today.

 

 

Featured in this exhibit are:

  • The "Office of Afro-American Affairs" with its Deans--Hudson and Russell
  • the various incarnations of the library from "reading room" to "learning resource center" to "African American Cultural Center Library" and finally to Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library
  • the "architect of the Afro-American Studies collection" who came out of retirement to assure its continued growth--Librarian Wilmer Baatz

 

 

It has been over 40 years since an African American Studies collection was first shelved at Indiana University. 

Yet, the idea that the collection might be housed in its own library was a much slower development.  

This exhibit attempts to understand how and why a "black culture library" came to be.