Black History Month Blog

The State of Virginia has just taken a huge step toward apologizing for a grievous wrong. The enslavement of Blacks in Virginia lasted for centuries before the Civil War forced an end to the institution, but the attitudes and prejudices that allowed slavery to flourish survived. In a thousand different ways, from the laws of Jim Crow to the practices of underhanded realtors and financiers, prejudice against Blacks has persisted down through the years in America. While progress has gradually been made in mitigating the effects, legal and otherwise, of prejudice, apologies for slavery--along with the possibility of some kind of reparations--have been slow in coming.

Since 1865, various efforts have been made to move the United States toward finding a way to repay Black Americans for what their ancestors suffered. VCU Libraries has a number of books about the subject.

Roy L. Brooks' Atonement and Forgiveness (call number Cabell Library E185.89.R45 B76 2004) makes a case for reparations as a means to racial conciliation, setting the issue in the context of reparations made by states for other injustices, from apartheid to the Holocaust.

Raymond A. Winbush's Should America Pay? (call number Cabell Library E185.89.R45 S56 2003) is a collection of essays from various perspectives about the question of reparations.

More books on the subject can be found here. If you'd like to learn more online, National Public Radio has a page on the subject with links to further articles and interviews.

--John Glover, Reference Librarian for Humanities - Cabell Library

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ARTstor has just released 7,000 new images from their collaboration with the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The joint venture aims to digitize and make accessible approximately 30,000 high quality images from the Du Bois Institute's Image of the Black in Western Art Research Project and Photo Archive. Several additional releases are planned for 2007. The images span from pre-history to the present and encompass a wide range of artistic media. The new addition has great potential for faculty and students in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Additional information is available at:
www.artstor.org/info/news/content_IBWA_announce.jsp

ARTstor is a digital library of over 500,000 images with an emphasis on art, architecture, and archeology. The images include descriptive information and can be analyzed by panning and zooming; saved into groups for personal or shared use; and used in offline and online presentations. ARTstor can be accessed through the list of databases on the VCU Libraries' Web site.

For more information, please contact VCU art librarians Yuki Hibben ydhibben@vcu.edu or Kristina Keough, keoghkm@vcu.edu.

--Yuki Hibben, Collection Librarian for the Arts - Cabell Library

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The first-ever digital collection of historical Civil Rights publications is now available, thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Government Printing Office, the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law. Hundreds of publications from the United States Commission on Civil Rights are available at http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/index.asp, featuring everything from hearings to advisory committee reports. A sampling of PDF documents includes:

• Civil Rights Act of 1957 (Enabling Legislation for the Original Civil Rights Commission). P.L. 85-315 (Sept. 9, 1957); 71 Stat. 634.
• Southern School Desegregation, 1966-67. A Report of the US Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, DC. July 1967. Press release text.
• The Voting Rights Act: Summary and Text. Clearinghouse Publication no. 32. United States Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, DC. September, 1971.

--Renée Bosman, Reference Librarian for Government and Public Affairs - Cabell Library

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A new 39-cent stamp was released this year honoring the first lady of song, Ella Fitzgerald. The stamp is the 30th in the Black Heritage series, which includes stamps of Marian Andersen, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, and Langston Hughes.

Ella Fitzgerald, a native Virginian born in Newport News, went on to become one of the most recognizable voices in music with a vocal range spanning three octaves. At an early age she began winning talent competitions, breaking into the professional music business when she was hired to sing with Chick Webb's orchestra. She became known for her scat singing and performed with great musicians and composers such as Dizzie Gillespie, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer. During her career, she won many awards including 13 Grammy's.

For more information on Ella Fitzgerald, visit her official website: http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/ or the biography on PBS.org: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/fitzgerald_e.html. For more information on the Black Heritage series stamps, visit the U.S. Department of State, International Information Programs website: http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/blackhis/stamps.htm.

--Donna Coghill, Director, Marketing & Public Relations - VCU Libraries

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Throughout Black History Month, the VCU Libraries BOOK reMARKS blog will feature reviews of literature written by African Americans and about the African American experience. If you have read one of our featured books and would like to offer your own thoughts, we encourage you to share them via our new commenting feature. Please note that all titles reviewed are from VCU Libraries' collection. To see if a particular book is available, click on the link to its catalog record, which can be found at the end of each entry.

Recent reviews include a children's book entitled, Goin' Someplace Special, and Seldon Richardson's work, Built By Blacks: African American Architecture & Neighborhoods in Richmond, VA.

--Jennifer Darragh, Reference Librarian for the Behavioral and Social Sciences - Cabell Library

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The Dirksen Congressional Center, a non-partisan organization that seeks to improve civic engagement, has created a Web-based resource entitled "The Civil Rights Documentation Project", which can be found at: http://www.congresslink.org/civilrights/index.htm. Geared toward teachers and students, but informative for all populations, the project features a comprehensive timeline that spans the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Supplementing the timeline are photos, audio clips, and external links to materials from museums, historical societies, and other organizations. The content focuses on the legislative processes of the period, with a level of detail that makes this project one of the more comprehensive, yet readable, sources for the legislative histories of some of our nation's most important laws.

--Renée Bosman, Reference Librarian for Government and Public Affairs - Cabell Library

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St. Paul's Baptist Church (larger image)

On Thanksgiving night, 25 November 1909, members of First Union Baptist Church met near Virginia Union University at 2028 Henrico Street (now Botetourt Street) for the purposes of organizing a new church. Shortly thereafter the first members established the church known as "The St. Paul's Baptist Church" and constructed a sanctuary with a seating capacity of fifty people. They called as their first pastor Reverend George D. Pinkney. Four sanctuaries and six pastors later, St. Paul's Baptist Church has grown to become one of the largest predominantly African-American congregations in the Old Dominion.

During its ninety-seven year history, St. Paul's has called six pastors, none serving longer than Reverend Journey Archer Mosby. Mosby was called to St. Paul's in 1929, four years after the membership had constructed and moved to a second sanctuary in the Newtown neighborhood that accommodated over two hundred worshippers. This sanctuary would serve the needs of the congregation until 1950 when Mosby recognized the need for an even larger sanctuary. After several years of fundraising, the congregation sold its building in Newtown in 1957 and purchased an existing church building at 26th and Marshall Streets in Church Hill.

Reverend Journey Archer Mosby ( larger image)

Mosby retired in 1969 but St. Paul's continued to grow under Reverend James E. Leary, who served until 1983. St. Paul's sixth and current pastor Reverend Lance D. Watson assumed the pulpit on 15 October 1985. With Watson as preacher the church experienced tremendous growth and today counts over 6,000 members on two campuses in the Richmond area. Their north campus building was completed on 47 acres of land on Creighton Road in 2002. The south campus was the result of a historic act of generosity, when in 2005 the congregation of Weatherford Memorial Baptist Church voted to give its buildings located on Belt Boulevard to St. Paul's. As St. Paul's nears its 100th anniversary, the church oversees its own credit union, preschool, housing corporation, and scholarship fund for college-age youth.

VCU Libraries is proud to be working with members and staff at St. Paul's Baptist Church to document and preserve their archives as part of the Archives of the New Dominion grant initiative. Materials donated by St. Paul's to VCU Libraries include photographs, church histories, membership directories, minutes, bulletins, event programs, and the recorded sermons of Reverend Watson. For more information on the records of St. Paul's Baptist Church, please contact Special Collections and Archives at 828-1108.

--Alex Lorch, Community Outreach Archivist - Special Collections & Archives

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Last April, VCU Libraries launched its Archives of the New Dominion project to locate, secure and make accessible the paper history and archives of Central Virginia's under-documented communities, including the African-American community. African-American organizations and individuals have made and continue to make huge contributions to this region's 20th- and 21st-century history. Yet, their history has not been adequately documented. This initiative takes a proactive approach to their history and archives by working directly with the communities to identify organizations and individuals who are agents of change on behalf of their communities.

One such organization, the Richmond Crusade for Voters, has their records housed at VCU Libraries. The Crusade for Voters is just one of more than fifty collections created by, and pertaining to, African-Americans that are currently housed in the Special Collections and Archives Department. Founded in 1956, the Richmond Crusade for Voters have sought to increase the influence of African-Americans in the political process in Richmond, Virginia. Its goals have included increased voter registration among blacks, endorsement of candidates, and efforts to increase voter turnout. The collection was donated in 1995 by William Armstead Thornton, historian for the Crusade. The records span from 1953-1995 and include minutes, correspondence, reports, newsletters, newspaper clippings, campaign flyers, financial reports and other materials.

--Alex Lorch, Community Outreach Archivist - Special Collections and Archives

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Cabell Library's Special Collections and Archives houses over fifty manuscript collections that make up the Virginia Black History Archives -- a project begun in 1990 to help document African American history in the Central Virginia area. A detailed listing can be accessed where entries for each collection provide a brief description of the materials. Links to the finding aid (or guide) of many of the collections are also provided. Many of these finding aids are the result of Virginia Library of Virginia's (VIVA) Virginia Heritage Project.

--Ray Bonis, Special Collections and Archives.

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Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) and VCU Libraries collaborate to develop a multicultural collection. This is a unique collection of popular or lower academic books and videos on the cultures of the various ethnic groups in the VCU community. The purpose is to offer materials that inform the VCU faculty, staff and students about the cultures of other nations. The collection is housed in the OMSA office and it is intended to make the center more welcoming and interactive. The records are represented in the VCU Library catalog with a location of "Multicultural Resource Center".

The collection so far covers but is not limited to the cultures of African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Native American and some European. Currently, it is non-circulating. It is still a small collection but it is growing. You can browse the collection from the library catalog or visit the OMSA office to enjoy it. If you have any questions, please contact Napoleon Peoples or Ibironke Lawal.

--Ibironke Lawal, Engineering and Science Librarian.

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Minorities and the Mass Media is the name of a special topics course taught this semester by Dr. Clarence Thomas, Associate Professor in the School of Mass Communications. The course examines historical and contemporary topics and issues associated with the presence and portrayal of selected minorities in/by mainstream mass media.

Crucial to illustrating the issues discussed in the course, is the viewing and interpretation of images of minorities in full-length films and television. In coordination with Dr. Thomas, the VCU libraries have purchased several new videos featuring minority actors and actresses in some of their earlier roles in film and television. While the course focuses primarily on African-Americans, the library's media resources cover a range of minority groups.

Check out this list of selected resources currently available in Media and Reserves, Cabell Library 3rd. floor: Films and Video available in Media and Reserves, JBC Library, Third Floor (Word document).

--Serena Harioan, Collection Management Librarian - Business and Public Affairs.

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Clarence W. Thomas, Ph.D., associate professor in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Mass Communications, will work on the Voices of Civil Rights project, which is sponsored by the AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Library of Congress. The project's goal is to collect and preserve the stories of the Civil Rights movement. The information will become part of a repository at the Library of Congress and will be used for scholarly investigation in the future.

The project already has collected several thousand accounts of the movement. More information on this project is available here: htt://www.voicesofcivilrights.org.

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VCU Libraries is launching the Archives of the New Dominion outreach initiative in 2005 to reach out to area African-American, Hispanic, Gay and Lesbian, and Women's Activist organizations. The purpose of this project is to collect the materials from these communities which will be necessary for historians and social scientists of the future to document their existence and efforts. This is a three-year, NHPRC grant-funded initiative designed to strengthen VCU's connections with the Greater Richmond community and to fill in what might otherwise be a gap in the history of this region. For more information, please contact Curtis Lyons.

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