This collection highlights the vibrant and diverse environments of HBCU communities through a selection of documents, visual artworks, and oral histories.
Description
HBCUs signify the strength, self-love, and educational success of African Americans. From slavery to Jim Crow, these educational temples held a belief in Black excellence and became records of intellectual, creative, and humanistic prowess in the struggle for freedom.
Mr. Wells had roots in the Clinton community, going back to his parents' ancestry in slavery. He discusses his time in the military during World War I, his education at Jackson State, and Black land ownership in Clinton, especially the amount of Black people who lost or gave up land during The Great Migration.
Biggers completed work on this mural in 1959 after returning from his UNESCO fellowship in West Africa. Originally installed in the Samuel M. Nabrit Science Building on Texas Southern’s campus, it is now located in the University Museum. Mother Nature is at the center of this work, surrounded by embryos and skeletons, animals and fish, and men and women. It speaks to the interconnectedness of life.
A commentary on the conflict between technology and progress, history and culture, Davis painted this mural in response to the destruction of several Hannah Hall murals to create windows into a new computer lab. Davis’ own mural was later damaged by subsequent construction, as foreseen in its design.
Focusing on the Sterling Student Life Center, the artist captures the lively activities of students and reflects the importance of Black fraternities and sororities in HBCU student life. Realism is paired with the surreal imagery of fantastic figures dancing around the music blasting from a boombox.
This photograph shows three students sleeping on a couch in the lounge of Texas Southern University’s John T. Biggers Art Center. Captured by longtime campus photographer Earlie Hudnall Jr., the students rest while Oliver Parson’s The Crucifix (Judas) hangs behind them. Selections from the permanent collection are displayed in the art building on a rotating basis. Hudnall was a student, mentee, and friend of Dr. Biggers.
Pictured here, left to right, are Texas Southern art alumni Bert Samples, John C. Davis, Harvey Johnson, Leon Renfro, former art student Rickey Donato, and Professor Carroll Harris Simms walking on the campus of TSU. Johnson and Renfro would later go on to teach art at TSU.
This is a brochure for Williams’ senior art exhibition. The culmination of the Texas Southern art curriculum is a senior exhibition where students showcase artwork created over the course of their undergraduate studies. The brochure features a portrait of Williams, a brief biography, a catalog of the artwork featured in the exhibition, and several photos of his paintings, designs, weavings, and sculptures.
Collection of materials leading up to Robert Clark speaking on campus at Jackson State University for the 1983 Afro-American History Month Celebration. There are letters of invitation from Dr. Alferdteen Harrison as well as a biography of Robert Clark and the event program.
Rep. Robert G. Clark served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1968 to 2004. He was the first African-American member of the Mississippi Legislature since 1894. In this interview, Rep. Clark summarizes in detail his time at Jackson State College.
This photograph by Earlie Hudnall, Jr. shows John Biggers seated on a bench near Texas Southern's Fairchild Building. He holds a mother & child sculpture in his left hand and an Aunt Dicy sculpture in his right. A mammy doll is seen to his left on the ground. In 1955, Biggers illustrated J. Mason Brewer's version of the African-American folktale, Aunt Dicy Tales: Snuff-Dipping Tales of the Texas Negro.
The artist boldly tackles the often stereotypical image of the watermelon while depicting the hypocrisy of organized religion in the Black community and the constant threat of the Klan. The large, reaching hands pull at a recent graduate, whose face is obscured by the watermelon they are holding.
This is an architectural rendering for the Fine Arts Building on Texas Southern’s campus. The building was dedicated as the John T. Biggers Art Center in 1995 to honor the art department’s founder. The building largely retains its original character as depicted in this image.
Elzena Harris moved to the Jackson area in 1892 when she was 4 years old. She was the youngest of twelve children and she talks about her childhood, mentioning the games they would play. Ms. Harris also discusses her education from grade school through college at Jackson State. The transcript contains handwritten edits and is incomplete.
This is a brochure for the April 2010 John T. Biggers Carroll Harris Simms Symposium On the Art of the African Diaspora: Building Upon Our Legacy. This regular event from the University Museum at Texas Southern brings together artists, historians, educators, students, alumni, and members of the public to celebrate the legacy of Biggers and Simms, who worked together to build TSU’s art department from the ground up.
