Black History Month Exhibits
Three exhibits for Black History Month are on display in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library: "The Black Rural South, 1966" is on the Lower Level, "Black History in Government Documents" is on Floor 6, and "In Memoriam: Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King" is on Floor 2.
"The Black Rural South, 1966" consists of photographs taken in Mississippi and Alabama by Julius Lester, Professor Emeritus of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies. Born in 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of a Methodist minister, Lester spent much of his childhood in the South during the 1940s and 1950s where he dealt firsthand with Southern attitudes about race and segregation. In the mid 1960s, he became politically active in the civil rights movement and joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) where he served as head of their photo department. "I focused on documenting sights I felt certain were going to disappear," he said. Lester's photographs were included in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution and are part of the permanent photographic collection at Howard University.
"In Memoriam: Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King" is in the Quiet Study Room on Floor 2 and consists of portraits, books, and web pages examining the lives of these two extraordinary women.
"Black History in Government Documents" displays a vibrant and diverse sampling of government documents that depict Black History in America. Oral histories, scientists' biographies, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Underground Railroad are among the topics. For more information, contact Terry Billiel via email or by phone at 413-545-6895.