Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project

Jazz bassist and composer Rufus Reid will be performing "Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project" along with his large jazz ensemble at Hancher Auditorium on Saturday, October 13, 2018. Reid's composition was inspired by the sculptural work of artist Elizabeth Catlett [1915-2012], an African American woman who in 1940 was among the first three students to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa. Catlett's thesis advisor was Grant Wood. A video interview with Catlett conducted toward the end of her life can be viewed at the National Visionary Leadership Project.

Reid is currently undertaking a short residency at the University of Iowa as an Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor.

The 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, 50 years ago today. The day after his assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Presidential Proclamation 3839 declaring a national day of mourning for April 7, 1968 and that flags were to be flown at half-mast at governmental and military facilities both within the United States and abroad until King's internment. Johnson begins the Proclamation by stating: "The heart of America grieves today. A leader of his people--a teacher of all people--has fallen."

For previous Common Curator posts related to King's life and work, see: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence; The Quest for Peace and Justice; and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The New York Times has also recently republished its original obituary for King, which was first published April 5, 1968.

The Sesquicentennial of W.E.B. Du Bois' Birth

Civil rights advocate, scholar, educator, and global activist, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born 150 years ago on February 23, 1868, and died August 27, 1963.

Among his many outstanding contributions were his roles in founding, in 1905, the Niagara Movement, an African American group of scholars and professionals that challenged racial discrimination, and in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was also the founder and editor of The Crisis, which was the NAACP's monthly magazine.

Du Bois earned his doctorate from Harvard in 1895, the first African American to ever do so. His dissertation, "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870," was the inaugural publication of the Harvard Historical Series. In 1899, he published a major sociological work called The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Du Bois authored many other works over the course of his career, notable among them, The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903) and Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935).

As a global citizen, Du Bois was long committed to Pan-Africanism. He attended the First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900, and later organized a series of Pan-African congresses around the world. In 1961, at the invitation of its president, Du Bois received citizenship in Ghana, where he worked as director of the new Encyclopedia Africana, which was devoted to the African diaspora; he died in Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95.

For additional information on the life and work of Du Bois, check out the online guide to resources held by the Library of Congress. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has a very substantial collection, the W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, containing nearly 100,000 digital items. Other resources include the W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where Du Bois was born and raised, and the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, where an instrumental meeting of the Niagara Movement took place at Storer College in 1906.

Note: The photograph above was taken by Cornelius Marion Battey on May 31, 1919, and is in the collections of the Library of Congress.

The Bicentennial of Frederick Douglass' Birth

Born into slavery 200 years ago, on February 14, 1818, Frederick Douglass represents one of the most consequential figures in American history. His life's work as an abolitionist, social reformer, orator, author, publisher, and statesman are without parallel.

To learn more about Douglass, there are a number of significant research collections to explore. The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress contains approximately 7,400 items, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1865. Many of Douglass' early writings were destroyed when his house in Rochester, New York, burned in 1872.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has created a digital edition of the Frederick Douglass Papers, and at the University of Rochester, the Frederick Douglass Institute, in conjunction with the Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections, is seeking to digitize all of the Douglass-related materials at the University Library. The National Archives has deep collections in African American history generally.

The National Park Service maintains the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets Cedar Hill, where Douglass lived from 1877 till his death in 1895 at age 77. The Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Community has a number of online resources that are also of interest.

Note: The photograph above was taken by George Francis Schreiber on April 26, 1870, and is in the collections of the Library of Congress.

Portraits of President Obama and First Lady Unveiled at Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

The collections of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, which holds the nation's only complete set of presidential portraits outside the White House, were recently augmented as newly-commissioned portraits of the 44th president, Barack Obama, and former First Lady Michelle Obama, were unveiled on February 12, 2018 at a ceremony presided over by Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton and National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet. The President's portrait was painted by artist Kehinde Wiley, and the First Lady's portrait by artist Amy Sherald.

National Portrait Gallery Director Sajet observed:

As a museum of history and art, we have learned over the past half-century that the best portraiture has the power to bring world leaders into dialogue with everyday Americans. These two paintings fall into that category, and we believe they will serve as an inspiration for generations to come.

Wiley and Sherald are the first African American artists that have ever been commissioned for official portraits of a President or First Lady.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-1968] would have turned 89 today. It was during the March on Washington, held on August 28, 1963, that Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream Speech." The speech galvanized the civil rights movement, and in 1964, James Blue released the film, "The March," which documented the events of the March as well as King's speech.

The film was produced for the Motion Picture Service unit of the United States Information Agency, and was intended for foreign audiences. In 2008, the documentary was inducted into the National Film Registry maintained by the Library of Congress. A full digital restoration of the original negatives was later undertaken by the Motion Picture Preservation Lab to coincide with the March's 50th anniversary in 2013; details of this painstaking process are available at the National Archives website.

The National Archives has many other resources related to King and to African American history, and there are several prior Common Curator posts regarding King's legacy as well.

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence . . . MLK, Jr. after Fifty Years

Fifty years ago on April 4, 1967 (exactly one year before his assassination), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a major speech at Riverside Church in New York City which articulated his reasoning for his opposition to the Vietnam War, and how the conflict was intertwined with racism and other pressing social issues facing the nation. Entitled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," King traces the evolution of his thought on the war, and argues for a "radical revolution of values," stating:

. . . [W]e must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

Towards the conclusion of his speech, King posits a fundamental question:

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. 

Wise words still today, fifty years hence. The full transcript of King's speech can be read here; the YouTube video above contains audio only.

Chuck B. Goode, Chuck B. Gone: Rock in Peace

Rock & Roll legend Chuck Berry [1926-2017] died March 18th at age 90. Johnny B. Goode, one of his many pioneering songs (and featured above in a live performance), was recorded at Chess Studios on January 6, 1958 and released as a single a few months later on March 31st.

Dr. Carla Hayden Sworn in as Librarian of Congress

Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. on September 14, 2016. Nominated by President Obama on February 24, 2016, Dr. Hayden was confirmed by the U.S. Senate after her confirmation hearing on April 20, 2016. She is both the first woman and first African American to serve as Librarian of Congress since the Library was established in 1800.

Librarian of Congress Confirmation Hearing

Dr. Carla Hayden is shown here on April 20, 2016 delivering her opening statement at the Senate confirmation hearing on her nomination to become Librarian of Congress. The entirety of the hearing can be viewed via C-Span. Hayden was nominated to become the 14th Librarian of Congress by President Obama on February 24, 2016.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2015

Just over 50 years ago, on December 10, 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Peace, concluding:

". . . I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners--all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty--and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

The complete text of Dr. King's speech can be read on the Nobel Prize website. The text of King's Nobel Lecture, "The Quest for Peace and Justice," is also available on the site.

Risking Everything: The Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964

1964 was a critical year for the Civil Rights Movement, seeing the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-352) and the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It was also the year of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, which was a campaign to register African-American voters and support equal rights.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Summer Project, the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) has launched a new digital collection, which draws upon its substantial archival holdings of civil rights organizations, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), as well as activists, including Amzie Moore, Mary King, and Howard Zinn. The collection contains over 25,000 pages of manuscript material and images, and offers complementary resources for educators.

In addition, WHS Press has published Risking Everything: A Freedom Summer Reader, an anthology of documents from the project. Its editor, Michael Edmonds, is featured in an interview in the video above. To learn more about the Wisconsin Historical Society, visit its website, and peruse its many online collections.

The Emancipation Proclamation at 150

The sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation was observed by the U.S. Postal Service on January 1, 2013 with the issuance of a commemorative stamp at the National Archives. While marking a momentous event in American history, what is unusual about this stamp is that the design is based on a letterpress-printed broadside. Designer Gail Anderson and art director Antonio Alcalá collaborated on the graphic design, with printing executed with the assistance of Jim Sherraden at Hatch Show Print. Photos of the process can be viewed at the Felt & Wire web site. In addition, the U.S.P.S. is offering a limited edition of both numbered and signed and numbered prints, as well as the stamps themselves with and without the first day of issue cancellation.

Democracy Now! Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Civil Rights Activist Rosa Parks

North Carolina Eugenics Task Force Recommends $50,000 Reparations for Survivors

In North Carolina over 7,600 people were sterilized between 1929 and 1974 under the state’s Eugenics Sterilization Program. Indiana was the first state to implement such a program, and eventually over 30 states followed suit, including North Carolina in 1929. The Eugenics Board of North Carolina reviewed petitions for sterilizations and authorized sterilizations in over 90% of cases. Of those sterilized, approximately 38% were black and 84% were female; moreover, 71% were classified as “feebleminded.” While most states’ sterilization programs diminished in scope after World War II, almost 80% of North Carolina’s cases occurred after 1945. By the late 1960’s over 60% of those sterilized in North Carolina were black and 99% were female.

In 1972 the Eugenics Board became the Eugenics Commission, and was finally abolished in 1977. In 2002, the state of North Carolina formally apologized to the victims of sterilization, and in 2003 the General Assembly repealed the law that authorized involuntary sterilization.

On March 8, 2011, Governor Beverly Perdue issued Executive Order 83 to create the Governor's Task Force to Determine the Method of Compensation for Victims of North Carolina's Eugenics Board, which functions with the support of the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation. After months of investigation and public hearings, the Task Force issued a preliminary report on August 1, 2011 and three additional reports on December 6, 2011.

At its most recent meeting on January 10, 2012, the Task Force voted on its final recommendations, which included the recommendation that the state pay $50,000 to each surviving victim. In response, Governor Perdue issued the following statement:

Thank you to the devoted members of this task force for months of diligent, careful and thoughtful work to address one of the most difficult and emotionally wrenching issues in our state’s history.

While no amount of money will ever make up for the fact that government officials deprived North Carolinians, mostly women, of the possibility of having children—and officials did so, in most cases, without the victims’ consent or against their will—we must do something. I support the task force’s compensation proposal. I also agree that we should establish a permanent exhibit so that this shameful period is never forgotten. I look forward to reviewing the details of the task force’s recommendations.

Although it is unknown at present how many survivors there are, it is estimated that there may be as many as 1500 to 2000. The North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation strongly encourages anyone believing he or she was sterilized under the authority of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina to contact them for assistance in documenting a potential claim.

Readers interested in learning more about the historical background of eugenics can check out Eugenics in North Carolina at the State Library of North Carolina web site, as well as the Winston-Salem Journal's project, Against Their Will: North Carolina’s Sterilization Program.

In addition, the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection, a grant project initiated and directed by the Common Curator, contains all volumes of the Biennial Report of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina [1934-1966], and the survey report, Eugenical Sterilization in North Carolina [1935].

Of related interest are an archival finding aid for Eugenics Commission documents and previous Common Curator posts: North Carolina Dedicates Eugenics Historical Marker and The History of Eugenics in North Carolina.

The Quest for Peace and Justice

To commemorate this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, here is a passage from Dr. King's Nobel Lecture, "The Quest for Peace and Justice," that he delivered on December 11, 1964 upon receiving the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize:

There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: "Improved means to an unimproved end". This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature subjugates the "within", dark storm clouds begin to form in the world.

This problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern man's chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of man's ethical infantilism. Each of these problems, while appearing to be separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war.

The entire speech, along with numerous related documents, can be read on the Nobel Foundation's web site. It is noted there that King's lecture was not printed in its entirety when first reported in the New York Times, but was instead excerpted.

Documentation for all Nobel Peace Prize winners, as well as laureates in all fields, can also be found on the Foundation's site. President Obama, the Peace Prize winner in 2009, cited King among others in his Nobel Lecture entitled, "A Just and Lasting Peace." The text and video for Obama's lecture are both available online. Liu Xiaobo, the Peace Prize winner in 2010, is imprisoned by the Chinese government and did not attend last month's ceremonies. The Nobel site does, however, contain the text of Liu's document, "I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement."

National Archives Offers "Today's Document" as Mobile App

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is now offering a mobile version of Today's Document, which is featured on the NARA web site. The application provides access to 365 documents and photographs, with background information available for each, among other functionalities.

The document for today happens to be a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born on January 15, 1929. Created by Betsy G. Reyneau, the painting is part of NARA's donated collections, Record Group 200.

North Carolina Dedicates Eugenics Historical Marker

On June 22, 2009, the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program dedicated a new marker in Raleigh to commemorate the victims of the state's Eugenics Sterilization Program, which was authorized by the North Carolina legislature in 1929. The Eugenics Board was created in 1933 to review all sterilization requests, and between 1929 and 1974, over 7,600 individuals were sterilized. In 1972 the Eugenics Board became the Eugenics Commission before being abolished in 1977.

Eugenics was a neologism created by Sir Francis Galton, who elaborated his theory of improving natural selection for humans in his 1883 work, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. Sterilization laws were later adopted by over 30 states in the U.S., but were challenged in 1927 in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200. In upholding such laws, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered the opinion of the Court, infamously asserting:

"It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11. Three generations of imbeciles are enough."

The General Assembly of North Carolina currently has two bills pending related to eugenics: House Bill 21 (Eugenics Program--Support and Education) and Senate Bill 179 (Sterilization Compensation). For further information on this legislation and the history of eugenics in North Carolina, please see an earlier Carolina Curator post.

In addition, Special Collections at UNC Health Sciences Library has digitized all volumes of the Biennial Report of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina [1934-1966], as well as North Carolina journals and documents in public health and other areas as part of an ongoing digital initiative.

Note: The images below are from the Historical Marker Database; full entries are available online for Indiana, the first state to pass eugenics legislation, and Virginia, the source of the landmark Buck v. Bell sterilization case.

Black Medical History Resources

:: The Old North State Medical Society (Durham, NC)
The nation's oldest association of black physicians, the Society was founded in 1886 and has from that date until the present directed its energies to the objectives of equity in healthcare, equal opportunity for black professionals and equal care for black, other minorities, and very poor patients. Online exhibit at: Virtual Museum of African American Medical History in North Carolina

:: Black History Month: A Medical Perspective (Duke)
An online exhibition featuring sections on People, Medical Education, Hospitals, Folk Medicine, Chronology of Achievements, as well as a Selective Bibliography.

:: Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons (National Library of Medicine)
African Americans have always practiced medicine, whether as physicians, healers, midwives, or “root doctors.” The journey of the African American physician from pre-Civil War to modern day America has been a challenging one. Early black pioneer physicians not only became skilled practitioners, they became trailblazers and educators paving the way for future physicians, surgeons, and nurses, and opening doors to better health care for the African American community.

:: Journal of the National Medical Association (1909 to present)
In celebration of Black History Month, the National Library of Medicine has announced an important addition to PubMed Central (PMC), its free digital archive of full-text journal articles: the complete archive of the Journal of the National Medical Association (JNMA), which observes its centennial this year.

The National Medical Association (NMA), established in 1895, is the largest and oldest national organization representing African American physicians and allied health professionals in the United States. The JNMA was published quarterly from 1909 to 1938, bimonthly from 1940 to 1977, and monthly since 1978. The archive currently represents over 77,000 digitized pages of issues through 2007. More recent content will be coming at a later date.

Bullitt Lecture on Early Black Physicians

The next joint meeting of UNC’s Bullitt History of Medicine Club and Duke’s Trent History of Medicine Society will be Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at the UNC Health Sciences Library in the 5th Floor Conference Room (527). Please join us at 5:30pm for light refreshments followed by the lecture at 6pm. Meetings are free and open to the public.

Dr. Todd Savitt, Professor of Medical Humanities at East Carolina University, will be presenting a lecture entitled, "Entering a 'White' Profession: Black Physicians in 19th- and 20th-Century America."

Dr. Savitt is an historian of medicine. He received his bachelor's degree from Colgate University (1965), attended the University of Rochester School of Medicine (1965-1968), and earned his M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1975) in history from the University of Virginia. After teaching history of medicine and medical humanities at the University of Florida College of Medicine from 1976 to 1982 he joined the faculty of the Department of Medical Humanities at East Carolina University School of Medicine, where he presently teaches history of medicine, literature and medicine, social and cultural issues in medical practice, and medical ethics.

Dr. Savitt's primary research interests are African-American medical history and medical history of the American South and West. He has written or edited six books (Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in Antebellum Virginia; The Dictionary of American Medical Biography; Science and Medicine in the Old South; Disease and Distinctiveness in the American South; Medical Readers’ Theater: A Guide and Scripts; and Race and Medicine in Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth Century America) and a number of articles on such topics as the relationship of the AMA towards black physicians, history of sickle-cell anemia, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), use of African Americans for medical experimentation, the entry of black physicians into the American medical profession, and early African-American medical schools and medical journals.

For directions to the UNC Health Sciences Library, visit the HSL website. The Robertson Scholars Express Bus travels non-stop between UNC (Morehead Planetarium) and Duke (Chapel Circle).

For more information on the Bullitt Club and a schedule of meetings for spring 2009, please visit the Bullitt website. Bullitt lectures for 2008-9 are now available as mp3 downloads.