This sculpture features a small bird placed in the lap of a larger abstract figure, perhaps suggesting the larger figure is the small bird’s mother. The body of this sculpture has a smooth surface finished with a thin rim around the edges. The act of nurturing and providing shelter is reflected in the placement of the smaller bird. Mother-child relationships are frequently showcased in TSU student terracottas.
This watercolor painting by Frank Perkins features a scene at a baseball stadium. This work may be an homage to the Negro Leagues, which offered Black baseball players the chance to play professionally prior to Jackie Robinson's integration of Major League Baseball. Iconic Black baseball players like Robinson, Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and many more played in the Negro Leagues.
McNeil creates a scene of Black spirituality and worship, surrounding images of Black men with the traditional symbols of the cross, the lamb, the dove, and the wine of communion. Placing two of the figures against stained glass windows yields a direct connection with the interior of the Black church.
Henri Linton was an artist and art professor from Tuscaloosa, AL. Stanley is a print of a solemn Black man. The subject rests his head in his hand as he looks past the viewer.
At the 1948 Orlando State Conference of Social Work, which had an interracial meeting, members discussed ways to minimize juvenile delinquency in Florida. They mentioned a need to enforce existing child labor laws, increase school hours, provide financial aid, appoint a regional, interracial fact-finding committee for delinquents, and more.
This report summarizes major changes that affected Florida A&M University in the years 1974-1975. FAMU implemented the Florida Plan for Equalizing Opportunities in Higher Education, the Reorganization of FAMU, the Bachelor’s Degree Program in Journalism, and the Master’s Degree Programs in Applied Social Science and Community/School Psychology.
A newspaper article from The News Tribune summarizing key points from the prosecution's case after the state had rested its case against Assata Shakur (JoAnne Chesimard) for the 1973 killing of a state trooper. The defense, after intense cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, was scheduled to begin presenting its case on March 14, 1977.
A newspaper article from The Black Panther. Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton lays out the philosophy of the Black Panther party through a Marxist lens. He highlights the unique ways the Black Panther Party serves the specific needs of colonized Black people in the United States and that the party is constantly adapting.
At the 1948 State Teachers Association in Tampa, William H. Gray, Jr. conversed with Milton P. Rooks, a civics scholar in Clearwater, FL. With the help of the Florida A&M College Department of Social Sciences, Gray put together a memorandum on current civil rights problems, offering a succinct view of the state of civil rights in the U.S.
A newspaper article written discussing Monroe N. Work's speech on Negroes after World War I. The author writes how will the colored man should be treated following the war by the victors and points to Great Britain as an Example.
Stevella Adams moved to Jackson in 1932 after graduating from college and getting married. Mrs. Adams talks about her time operating a grocery store on the corner of Monument and Blair Streets in the Farish Street District from 1952 to 1973. The store was originally owned and operated by her late father in law.
Stevens A. Renfrow was born in 1892. He talks about the games he played as a kid and his education, including graduating from Mississippi State University in 1916. Mr. Renfrow also talks about his family and he recalls some of the types of food he and his family ate growing up. The transcript is edited heavily with handwritten notes.
David Driskell was a Black artist, scholar, and curator known for his fusion of African abstract forms and modern aesthetics. Still Life is an abstract print of inanimate kitchen objects. It features a bowl of fruit, plates of food, vases of flowers, and other objects atop a table.
William S. Carter was an abstract, landscape, still-life, and figurative painter from St. Louis, Missouri. Still Life embodies its namesake by depicting a table of commonplace objects with a muted background. Carter's subjects include a teacup, a vase with flowers, fruit, a feather, and an empty vase on top of a haphazard cloth.
Howard E. Lewis was an Art professor and Korean War veteran from Columbus, OH. Still Life with Fish is a watercolor depiction of two fish and a vase on a table. Lewis uses stark shapes, colors, and patterns to create the fish, vase, table, and background.
Alfa Bell was an artist from Montgomery, AL. Still Life with Fruit is an abstracted print of inanimate kitchen objects with an abstracted background. The piece features a cup, pieces of fruit, and gourds on top of a white sheet in front of a water pitcher and a plate.
A newspaper article from the Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi) providing historical context to the Clinton Project Oral History Collection. The article includes stories from Clinton, Mississippi, residents telling their stories about the World War II POW camp in the town.
In this drawing by Willie Moe, a group of children gather around an elderly man in a rocking chair to hear his stories. Oral storytelling is an essential part of preserving the past, particularly in communities that have been denied the opportunity to write their own histories.
Lee’s collage speaks to the 1998 lynching of James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texas. Byrd’s murder provided part of the impetus for the passage of stronger anti-hate crime laws in Texas and federally. The collage references the anti-lynching poem/song “Strange Fruit,” made famous by Billie Holiday. Lee, sometimes called “Da Mayor of Fifth Ward,” grew up in Houston’s Fifth Ward, but his family traces its roots to Jasper, where three white supremacists lynched Byrd and desecrated his body.
In the Western context, this item is a “mask” because it covers the face, but technically in Bwami culture, this piece is a sculpture. The Bwami society of the Lega people is located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; they use these masks for initiation rituals, with five types to signify different ranks, and for ancestral veneration.
Lucille Malkia Roberts was a painter and educator from Washington, D.C. Street in Senegal is an abstract depiction of people shopping on a market street in Senegal, West Africa. Roberts uses muted colors to create the robust marketplace environment and emphasizes the shoppers and their goods with Black silhouettes.
Walter Augustus Simon was an art historian, professor, and artist best known for his abstract oil paintings from Petersburg, VA. String Dance shows two women dancing with a thin white string. Their arms are stretched above their heads to pull the string as they dance together barefooted.
Oliver's mural reflects his classical painting style in a composition that shows Black men struggling to lift up an imposing weight above them, represented by the closed window on the wall. The mural appears to have been painted over an older design, as can be seen in the lower right section.
Zenobia Hammonds was an artist from Hampton, VA. Student Artist is a sketch of a male student working at a tabletop easel. The artist has his head resting on his hand as he creates his own art.
Black and white image of Tuskegee Institute students marching in response to the shooting and death of SNCC member and Tuskegee Institute political science student Sammy Younge Jr. in 1966.
A 10 point platform for the Student United Front. The platform, drawing inspiration from the Black Panther Party Ten Point-Point Program, is a list of demands by students for better services on campus as well as a call for expelling all white racist teachers, free education for all, and the exclusion of police from school premises.
