This collection highlights how HBCUs have promoted community on their campus and engaged with their broader communities through a selection of documents and visual artworks.
Description
A culture of community and collective responsibility is created and reinforced in settings where groups share time and space. On HBCU campuses, a sense of community is fostered through historic events, such as homecomings and choral concerts, and through organizations, such as student clubs and sororities.
Date Modified
2025-09-12
About This Record
The HCAC public history focused digital archive cataloging is an ongoing process, and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. We welcome your comments and feedback if you have more information to share about an item featured on the site, please contact us at: HCAC-DigiTeam@si.edu
A letter from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Chaplain Wynn stating that he would not be able to attend Religious Emphasis Week from Jan 6-10, 1958 due to an overseas trip to India and completing his book.
Taylor offers a snapshot of Houston’s Third Ward in the mid-20th century. Growing up in Third Ward, Taylor saw it grow and change. The scene is a busy one and depicts various storefronts and residents of the neighborhood. Taylor named the pool hall in the lower left corner after himself.
This flier announces a Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) public meeting at the College Park Auditorium at Jackson State College on Saturday Oct. 8, 1966, at 10am. The purpose of the meeting was to bring the community together to discuss ways to save CDGM from being overtaken by the state and federal governments.
This is a brochure from Lawndale Art Center advertising, among other things, the Otabenga Jones & Associates’ exhibition Symmetrical Patterns of Def. Made up of members Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Jamal Cyrus, Kenya Evans and Robert A. Pruitt, the collective was formed to harness the group's creativity and provide them an entry-point into the art world. The four met and became friends in Harvey Johnson’s drawing class at Texas Southern University.
A copy of a photograph of an unknown woman, Dr. Alferdteen Harrison, and Dr. Cora Norman at the Smith Robertson Neighborhood Folklife Festival, April 9-11, 1983. The festival was a one-time grant sponsored event held on the grounds of the Smith Robertson Museum to celebrate the rich history and culture of the Farish Street Historic District.
Romare Bearden was an artist, author, and songwriter from Charlotte, NC. Atlanta Mural is a maquette of a mural created for City Scenes '76-'77, the National Paint and Coatings Association bicentennial. Bearden includes the Kente symbol, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's head, the silhouette of a Black family, a church, and a plot of land to represent the African American influence in the city.
Samella Sanders Lewis was a printmaker, painter, sculptor, and art historian from New Orleans, LA. Barrier is a drawing that depicts the physical and social barriers between groups of people. In the foreground, three women and a boy suspiciously look at a group of townspeople who return their stare from the other side of a barbed wire fence.
A newspaper article from the Jackson Advocate about the history of the Farish Street Historic District. Some research for the article comes from Jackson State's Farish Street Oral History Collection.
Two photographs of brochures for the Smith Robertson Neighborhood Folklife Festival, April 9-11, 1983. The festival was a one-time grant sponsored event held on the grounds of the Smith Robertson Museum to celebrate the rich history and culture of the Farish Street Historic District.
Richard Dempsey was a painter known for his abstractions and portraits of prominent African American leaders from Washington, D.C. Cathedral and Choir is an impressionist depiction of the inside of a church. The yellow brushstrokes create a tall organ alongside stained glass; the layered reds, blues, and black show the congregation and choir.
Aurelia Norris Young was a prominent Civil Rights activist and professor of music at Jackson State College and Tougaloo College. She gave this speech on the history of the Farish Street Historic District on April 9, 1983, at the Smith Robertson Neighborhood Folklife Festival, which honored the history and legacy of the district.
Lewis’s print shows a group of people holding a Kente-style textile, inscribed with the words, “However I am perceived and deceived, however my ignorance and conceits, lay aside your fears that I will be undone, for I shall not be moved," a selection from Maya Angelou’s poem Our Grandmothers; John Biggers also created illustrations to accompany Angelou's poem. Lewis was a leading African-American artist and art historian. She and Biggers studied together at Hampton University.
This is an invitation from William Reaves - Sarah Foltz Fine Art gallery to the exhibition Protégés: The Legacy of John Biggers As Viewed Through the Artworks of Thirteen Students. The featured artists - Charles Criner, Geraldine Crossland, Karl E. Hall, Earlie Hudnall, Jr., Harvey Johnson, Earl S. Jones, Josie Mendoza Postel, Robert Meyers, Elizabeth Montgomery Shelton, Kermit Oliver, Jesse Sifuentes, Charles Thomas, and Roy Vinson Thomas - are all Texas Southern alumni and students of Dr. Biggers.
Jimmie Mosely was an artist, navyman, and art professor from Lakeland, FL. Johannesburg is an abstract watercolor depiction of African people traveling through the street. Mosely uses bright colors that emphasize the vibrance of South African culture.
A native of New Orleans, Green transferred to TSU’s art program following Hurricane Katrina. His mural ties different aspects of New Orleans history and culture together through floodwaters. Enslaved ancestors stand at auction, and the city skyline, including the Superdome, is featured prominently.
John Woodrow Wilson was a sculptor, painter, printmaker, and educator from Roxbury, MA. La Calle, or The Street, is a print depiction of people traveling a gold cobblestoned street. There are male workers carrying wood and rock slabs, women and their children walking, a woman watching the street, and a man facing the viewer.
Collection of campaign materials from Robert Clark's 1984 campaign for the United States House of Representatives, 2nd Congressional District of Mississippi. This collection consists of letters, mailers, fliers, and more.
Ross’s mural represents Black rural life in the early to mid twentieth century. The composition highlights the gendered division of labor, and how women’s work focuses on maintaining the home. Ross grew up in Huntsville, Texas, and this scene may represent his background and experiences.
Jacob Lawrence was a renowned painter from Atlantic City, NJ. Playland shows a room with people standing around a table with a crowd. The majority wear black trench coats and fedoras. Three people wear yellow dresses, and two wear striped clothing and headwear. Gambling occurs in front of a decorated wall with various suits of playing cards.
Dr. Arthur L. Britt was an artist and educator from Cuthbert, GA. Poverty Toy Chest is an installation that displays items impoverished children use for recreational play. It shows the disparity and ingenuity of people with little resources.
Al Tyler was an artist known for his figurative murals and landscape paintings. Prayer for Freedom shows two scenes from the fight for Civil Rights. On the left, black and white people are leaving a courthouse, and on the right, armed officials are stopping Black men from entering a building.
Oliver's painting depicts vanguard Black politicians from the Reconstruction period following emancipation. Radical Reconstruction saw the election of dozens of Black lawmakers in former slave states like Texas. After 1897, Texas didn't elect another Black legislator until 1966.
A photocopy of the program for the Child Development Group of Mississippi/Community Education Extension 25th Anniversary Reunion from June 30-July 2, 1989 in Warren Hall at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. This reunion brought together over 400 former Head Start employees and over 100 students from the Head Start classes of 1965-1969.
A Letter from Miss Dora McDonald to Chaplain Johnson that Congressman Andrew Young has saved the date of 12/13/1970 to speak at Tuskegee on his calendar.
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.
This Texas Senate resolution commends the art students and faculty of Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University) for their exhibition in the State Capitol in April 1951. It is notable that this exhibition took place years before desegregation.
Charoennimuang’s Hannah Hall mural draws inspiration from her birth country, Thailand. In her own words, it “is a Thai style mural-painting that expresses the love of two human beings…surrounded by the beauty of nature…. The man and woman are dressed up in Thai-style like the old days…neatly weaved and knitted in a Thai pattern…made of Thai silk.” The study for this mural included a dragon in the upper right corner that was cut from the final design.
Edward L. Loper was an artist and teacher from Delaware known for his vibrant palette and juxtaposition of colors. Twelfth Street Gardens is a landscape piece illustrating a rural town under a slightly cloudy, blue sky during Autumn. The piece shows three men conversing beside a field in a rural residential area.
