The Legacies of American Slavery Resource Database continued to grow in 2023, with many new examples of how independent colleges help their students, their institutions, and their communities reckon with the history and afterlives of slavery. The resources include new courses at CIC member colleges and universities, new scholarship by faculty members (and students), and new public-facing activities. Here are five recent additions to the database.
The Resource Database will continue to grow in 2024, too—but we can’t hope to capture all the good work that CIC members do without your help! Is your institution (or a CIC institution in your community) already part of the database? Is there another course, book, article, public program, exhibit, memorial, digital archive, etc., that addresses one (or more) of the legacy of slavery themes? Let us know at legaciesproject@cic.edu.
Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, MI)
Humanities Courses Lead Students to New Orleans
In January 2022, Kalamazoo College received a grant of nearly $1.3 million from the The Mellon Foundation to develop new learning opportunities through the College’s Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL) program. HILL supports courses that reflect the college’s commitment to experiential learning and social justice, address issues such as racism, economic inequities and homelessness. One of the first projects developed under the grant: a cluster of on-campus courses devoted to various aspects of race in New Orleans, followed by place-based research in the Louisiana city. You can find additional information in the database.
Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT)
Twilight at 200: Race and the Academy
Last year, Middlebury commemorated the bicentenary of its first Black graduate (and perhaps the country’s first college graduate of African descent), Alexander Lucius Twilight. According to scholars at the college, “Alexander Twilight’s legacy as a Black man in academia and politics represents a point of pride and complexity for Middlebury and for Vermont, given that he passed as white for most of his life.” This legacy was explored during a scholarly symposium and public events in September 2023.
(This blog recently shared the complicated story of another early Black graduate of Middlebury, contributed by Prof. Daniel F. Silva, director of the Twilight Project. Check it out!)
Our Lady of the Lake University (San Antonio, TX)
“Black Market: An Exploration of Black Mental Health in America”
An essay by undergraduate researcher Alexandria D. Burroughs explores the multigenerational trauma of enslavement and “its effects on the racial disparities and treatment of the African American community in the mental health system [today].” The essay appears in the peer-reviewed publication Psychology from the Margins. The database includes a direct link.
Roanoke College (Roanoke, VA)
Roanoke College Moves Forward on Enslavement Memorial
A local newspaper story describe the progress on “[a campus] memorial to recognize and honor the role of enslaved people in the history of Roanoke College and greater Southwest Virginia [which] is now one step closer to becoming a reality. Six artists have submitted concepts to the College for consideration in the memorial project, which was initiated two years ago by the school’s Center for Studying Structures of Race. … [Since 2019, the CSSR] has been working on a comprehensive plan to commemorate the role of enslaved people both in the history of the College and across the wider region. CSSR sponsors the Genealogy of Slavery project, which documents enslaved individuals who were either connected to Roanoke College or who lived in Roanoke County.” Roanoke is an Institutional Affiliate of the Legacies network. The CSSR is directed by Prof. Jesse Bucher.
Samford University (Birmingham, AL)
Samford Preserves and Honors Black History
Samford University dedicated a new Racial Reconciliation Memorial in 2022, as part of an ongoing effort to honor the Black experience at Samford. This 2023 article from the database describes the work of campus archivists to “document the history of the university, the state of Alabama and its people, and Alabama’s religious institutions through the acquisition of historically significant, rare and unique materials.” Among other items, Samford holds two original copies of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.