bernard
THEE Realist
For nearly 200 years, HBCUs have educated Black Americans. Now, a new exhibition highlights special objects from five universities
In February 1837, the African Institute was established in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, at the bequest of Quaker philanthropist Richard Humphreys. He had designated $10,000, a tenth of his estate, “to instruct the descendants of the African race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts, trades and agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers.”
Today, the school is called Cheyney University, the first of what would later be known as historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), from the 1860s to 1900, more than 90 of these institutions were established—including Shaw University, the first to be founded after the Civil War. The Higher Education Act of 1965 noted that HBCUs “have contributed significantly to the effort to attain equal opportunity through postsecondary education for Black, low-income and educationally disadvantaged Americans.”
Now the museum is telling the stories of these schools with a new exhibition, “At the Vanguard: Making and Saving History at HBCUs,” which celebrates the many contributions of the institutions to American life. “At the Vanguard” features a collection of objects culled from the museum’s partnerships with five historically Black universities: Clark Atlanta, Florida A&M, Jackson State, Texas Southern and Tuskegee.
Four bricks handmade by Tuskegee University students illustrate the very material that composed the campus. “Many of the buildings were created by students,” says Deborah Tulani Salahu-Din, a researcher in Black American literary history who helped curate the exhibition. “They took classes in brickmaking and then they made the bricks and used them in the construction of many of the buildings on campus.” Some students were even able to help build the school in lieu of paying tuition.
Other artifacts on view include an oil painting by American artist William H. Johnson, lent by the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, and a mixed-media sculpture by contemporary Cameroonian artist Franck Kemkeng Noah, lent by the University Museum at Texas Southern.
“HBCUs played the role in providing platforms and showcasing works that would otherwise just go neglected,” Salahu-Din says.
“At the Vanguard” also features objects from famous figures in Black American history, such as George Washington Carver’s typewritten notes about peanut oil and a rare 1942 printing of For My People by poet Margaret Walker, from Tuskegee and Jackson State Universities, respectively.
In February 1837, the African Institute was established in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, at the bequest of Quaker philanthropist Richard Humphreys. He had designated $10,000, a tenth of his estate, “to instruct the descendants of the African race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts, trades and agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers.”
Today, the school is called Cheyney University, the first of what would later be known as historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), from the 1860s to 1900, more than 90 of these institutions were established—including Shaw University, the first to be founded after the Civil War. The Higher Education Act of 1965 noted that HBCUs “have contributed significantly to the effort to attain equal opportunity through postsecondary education for Black, low-income and educationally disadvantaged Americans.”
Now the museum is telling the stories of these schools with a new exhibition, “At the Vanguard: Making and Saving History at HBCUs,” which celebrates the many contributions of the institutions to American life. “At the Vanguard” features a collection of objects culled from the museum’s partnerships with five historically Black universities: Clark Atlanta, Florida A&M, Jackson State, Texas Southern and Tuskegee.
Four bricks handmade by Tuskegee University students illustrate the very material that composed the campus. “Many of the buildings were created by students,” says Deborah Tulani Salahu-Din, a researcher in Black American literary history who helped curate the exhibition. “They took classes in brickmaking and then they made the bricks and used them in the construction of many of the buildings on campus.” Some students were even able to help build the school in lieu of paying tuition.
Other artifacts on view include an oil painting by American artist William H. Johnson, lent by the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, and a mixed-media sculpture by contemporary Cameroonian artist Franck Kemkeng Noah, lent by the University Museum at Texas Southern.
“HBCUs played the role in providing platforms and showcasing works that would otherwise just go neglected,” Salahu-Din says.
“At the Vanguard” also features objects from famous figures in Black American history, such as George Washington Carver’s typewritten notes about peanut oil and a rare 1942 printing of For My People by poet Margaret Walker, from Tuskegee and Jackson State Universities, respectively.