Black Presence Timeline

Born in Athens, Alabama, on October 5, 1873, Bridgeforth was 23 when he entered as a freshman and, in some ways, set a pattern for the pioneering cohort of African American students at UMass—then known as Massachusetts Agricultural College. 

Craighead was likely either the first or second African American to captain a sports team at a predominantly white college un the U.S.

The first African American to receive a doctorate at UMass Amherst and the first nationally to receive a doctorate in agronomy, Major Franklin Spaulding earned a PhD in 1935 for his study "Factors influencing the rate of decomposition of Different Types of Plant Tissues in Soils and the Effects of Products on Plant Growth".

Just 23 years old in the fall of 1948, Edwin Douglas Driver was hired by UMass Amherst's Department of Sociology, becoming the first person of non-European descent to join the faculty and, along with Ruby Pernell of the University of Minnesota, one of the first two African Americans hired onto the faculty of a state flagship university in the 20th century.

The Black Mass Communications Project was founded as an educational and informational outlet for Black students at UMass Amherst in 1968, and authorized in the following year as a Registered Student Organization. 

The vision for a memorial to honor Du Bois was conceived in 1967 when Professor Edmund W. Gordon and Walter Wilson, a local realtor, purchased the Du Bois Homesite property. This five-acre parcel in Great Barrington includes the original homestead of Du Bois’s maternal family, and was later designated a National Historic landmark in 1979.

November 2nd was designated Black Solidarity Day by a national committee of Black leaders representing a broad spectrum of social, civic, religious, and political organizations active in the Black community. Conceived as a national day of unity and awareness among Black people in the United States, Black Solidarity Day is not related to a program or ideology of any single organization. 

Students occupy Mills House, leading to the formation of the New Africa House. Students occupied Mills House in a call for the need of a Black cultural space on campus, leading to events that transformed it into the New Africa House. To this day, New Africa House serves as a hub for Black students and faculty and houses the Department of Afro-American Studies.

The Department of Afro-American Studies is formed within the history department, becoming among the first departments of Black studies. That September, the department began its first academic year with nine faculty offering fourteen courses. Faculty: Allan Austin, Johnnetta Cole, Playthell Benjamin, Ivanhoe Donaldson, Cherif Guellal, Femi Richards, Esther Terry, Michael Thelwell, and Ben Wambari

Randolph W. Bromery becomes the first Black chancellor at UMass, igniting an era of diversification of students and faculty and securing the W.E.B. Du Bois papers, among other major accomplishments.

Named in honor of renowned sculptor Augusta Savage (1892-1962), the Gallery was founded by the Afro-American Studies Department. Its mission is to promote artistic works from a broad spectrum of cultures. Exhibits are selected for their aesthetic integrity and their ability to enlighten the viewer on such issues as race, ethnicity, class, and cultural identity.

This unique vocal ensemble was organized by famed percussionist and UMass professor, Max Roach, as a performance course in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies. The choir, later led by Dr. Clarence Boyer, performed with such acclaimed artists as Max Roach, Ossie Davis, Reggie Workman, Archie Shepp, Paul Carter Harrison, Dorothy Love Coates, Sallie Martin, DeeDee Bridgewater, Cissy Houston, Carmon Moore, the Famous Boyer Brothers, and the Collective Black Arts Ensemble.

In addition to divisions of public health and nursing, this newly created School of Health Sciences included a department of communications disorders, which offered majors and graduate study in audiology and speech and language disorders.

The Du Bois papers were stored and archived in what was later named the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. The papers were acquired by Chancellor Randolph Bromery for $150,000 after a series of meetings with activist and Du Bois' wife, Shirley Graham; historian Herbert Aptheker; and Graham’s lawyer, Bernard Jaffe, in Cairo, Egypt.

Contributions in Black Studies: A Journal of African and Afro-American Studies was a periodical publication of the Five Colleges, Inc.—Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges, and University of Massachusetts—that appeared more or less annually from 1977 to 1997. 

After novelist James Baldwin's honorary doctorate ceremony in 1978, some attendees gathered to talk with him at the house of Paul Puryear, a political scientist and former UMass provost. During the gathering, the idea of Baldwin teaching at the Five Colleges was brought up for the first time. (via the Massachusetts Collegian) Baldwin would later join UMass as a Distinguished Fellow in 1983.

Pivotal American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist, James Baldwin, joined UMass as professor and Distinguished Fellow.

Over 100 Black students occupied the New Africa House in protest of an incident on February 7 when four white students shouted slurs at two Black students. The demands that the four students be expelled and the University increase its minority enrollment were met by Chancellor Duffy.

In response to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination's report that found the October 27, 1986, Southwest campus residence riot to be racially motivated, UMass sponsored a week of events designed to increase awareness of racism and help create an environment of tolerance for cultural diversity.

Campus newspaper, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, came under fire after students gathered to protest a verdict of innocent in the case of four white Los Angeles police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King. After a rally, 150 protestors turned their attention to their own campus and occupied the third floor of the Whitmore administration building, demanding more hirings of faculty of color. 

On April 1, 1992, Chuck D, head rapper of Public Enemy, sold out the Fine Arts Center for his lecture on a plethora of subjects as part of the Distinguished Visitors Program. Chuck, a self-proclaimed "media pirate," regularly made time to speak to young America, especially those who were culturally in tune with him.

Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Archibishop Desmond Tutu, spoke to a sold out crowd at the Fine Arts Center as part of the Distinguished Visitors Program.

This is the second department in the nation to offer the PhD in Afro-American Studies. The objective of the program is to produce scholars and teachers in the tradition of W. E. B. Du Bois, who insisted throughout his long life that a commitment to social justice must be rooted in scholarship of the highest order and scholarly excellence requires us to be socially responsible and engaged in improving our world. 

Pictured: An autographed photo by B.B. King from after his performance, from the class of 2000 yearbook.

Marcellette Gaillard-Gay Williams served as chancellor of the Amherst campus from July 2001 to June 2002. The first woman to serve as chancellor, Williams advocated for the importance of community, collaboration, interdisciplinary understanding, and human enablement. She also spearheaded a massive infrastructure update and led the University through a difficult financial period as well as the attacks on 9/11.

The focus of his one-hour speech was his portrayal of life as an African American in an impoverished neighborhood through film. He talked about his experiences as a film student at NYU and the process in which he made each of his movies.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Center is established "to engage the nation and the world in discussion and scholarship about the global issues involving race, labor and social justice."

The Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies brought together scholars and activists, writers and artists, youth and elders, to mark the 40th year on campus, as well as to support the exchange of knowledge about the dynamic Black Power Movement period in which academic Black Studies units were established. The conference drew over 400 participants.

Approximately 700 people filled the Student Union Ballroom at UMass to listen to Lavern Cox speak. Cox was the chosen speaker for the University's homecoming weekend. The title of the event "Ain't I a Woman?" referenced Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech of the same name at the Women's Convention.

Cox delivered a talk titled "Ain't I a Woman?" to a crowd of nearly 1,000 students at the UMass Randolph Bromery Fine Arts Center.

Tyrone Parham is sworn in as UMPD’s 10th Police Chief by UMass Amherst Chancellor, Kumble R. Subbaswamy in a ceremony that included Chief Parhams family

Enobong (Anna) Branch Becomes First Associate Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion and establishes the Office of Equity and Inclusion, having spearheaded a major campus-wide climate improvement survey the prior semester.

Great Barrington and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries mark the 50th anniversary of what was, in 1969, the controversial establishment of the W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite, at 612 South Egremont Road, Great Barrington.

The Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts is a fitting tribute for Bromery, who recruited jazz legends Max Roach, Archie Shepp, and Fred Tillis to the music department faculty and oversaw construction of the Fine Arts Center. 

Tillis profoundly shaped the cultural and musical landscape at UMass Amherst, the Pioneer Valley and beyond. His work as a performer and composer spanned jazz and European music traditions, encompassing a wide range of cultural references. His more than 100 compositions include works for piano and voice, orchestra and chorus, along with chamber music and works in the African-American spiritual tradition. Tillis published 15 books of poetry.