Examining the “Fluidity of Citizenship”: My Residency at the Stuart A. Rose Library, Emory University

In fall 2017, independent scholar Dorrie Wilson conducted research in Rose Library’s Michel Fabre archives of African American Arts and Letters and the James Baldwin Letters to David Moses. Michel Fabre and Me: The Rose Library residency was my first opportunity to work with a renowned collection of African-Americana on my independent research project: “The City Read More …

Words are Power: Remembering the Storyteller Julius Lester

Among the thousands of authors found in the Stuart A. Rose Library, Julius Lester (1939-2018) is a giant. An essayist, writer, folklorist, civil rights activist, and teacher, Lester’s work has been an integral part of helping African Americans maintain the oral tradition of storytelling.  Through his creative explorations into the past, we are more aware Read More …

Exploring Race Relations from the South African Collection at the Rose Library.

John Wamwara (SJD Candidate, School of Law) is 2017 – 2018 Newton Teaching Scholar at the Rose Library. He is supporting the Rose Library Faculty Fellowship program and is reviewing the Rose Library’s collections on Africa. His doctoral research is on how law, religion, and culture have shaped the monogamy – polygamy debate in Kenya; Read More …

Anthology, Archive, and Authority: Teaching with Lucille Clifton’s Papers

Marlo Starr (PhD Candidate, English Department) is the 2017-2018 Alice Walker Research Scholar in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. Her project centers on the archives and scholarship of poet and children’s book writer Lucille Clifton who was contemporary of Alice Walker. Marlo will be contributing towards a blog series based on Read More …

“So be it”: Celebrating Lucille Clifton’s Life and Work

In perhaps her best recognized poem, “won’t you celebrate with me” Lucille Clifton invites readers to celebrate her life. Though “born in babylon / both nonwhite and woman,” the poem’s speaker explains that she has managed to forge a kind of life, and at the poem’s conclusion, she again asks us to celebrate: “that everyday Read More …

Celebrate the Service of African Americans in WWI

Opening soon at the Rose Library,  “A Question of Manhood: African Americans and WWI” commemorates the centennial of the First World War, while celebrating the African American men who served as citizen-soldiers at a time when they were systematically denied full access to the promises democracy. The exhibit explores the challenges and conflicts, as well Read More …

Guest Post: The Black Student Union Collection

NaVosha Copeland, Emory College Class of 2016, Emory University Archives Intern, Summer 2016 On a hot August day during my first semester at Emory College in 2012 I walked to my advisor’s office that was on the campus quadrangle. Having been assigned my advisor by the Emory Pre-Major Advising Connections at Emory (PACE) program, her Read More …

Sigma Pi Phi Records Come to Emory

Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library is pleased to report acquisition of the current archives of the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the oldest African American Greek-letter fraternity in the United States. Known as the Boulé, the organization was initially organized in Philadelphia in 1904 as a post-graduate society for black professionals. Read More …

The J. Herman Blake Black Panther Party Collection: A Deep Reflection and Focus on Freedom

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party (BPP) for Self-Defense. Organized on October 15, 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the BPP became a symbol of militant resistance towards “establishment politics” and the ongoing abuse of black people in America. What began as a Read More …