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African American History at Brown University

Archival sources pertaining to African-American history at Brown University.

Alumni and Faculty

Faculty

Alumni

Departments and Organizations

University Records

  • Afro-American Studies / Rites & Reason records, 1970 - 2006 (catalog record) (finding aid)
  • Rites and Reason Theatre records, circa 1971-1993 (Request the Word document finding aid via the Question Form.)

 

Organizations

Brown University-Tougaloo College Partnership

University Records

Brown-Tougaloo Exchange records, 1961-1989 (bulk 1963-1969) (OF-1ZU-2) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Presidents

Barnaby Conrad Keeney papers, 1936-1980 (bulk 1940s-1966) (OF-1C-12) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Howard Swearer papers, 1976-1990 (bulk 1977-1978) (OF-1C-15) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Administrators

Zenas R. Bliss Papers, 1952-1966 (OF-1CA-B2) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Richard Ramsden papers, 1967-1984 (bulk 1977-1982) (OF-1CA-R1) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Merton P. Stoltz files as Provost of Brown University, 1959-1975 (OF-1CA-S2) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Alumni

M. Charles Bakst papers, 1927-2009 (bulk 1962-2008) (MS-1U-B6) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Jessica Brooks papers on the Tougaloo-Brown Exchange, 1993-1994 (MS-1ZUT-1) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Robert F. Cohen, Jr., papers, 1952-1984 (bulk 1966-1972) (MS-1U-C8) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Janet Shaffer papers on the Brown University-Tougaloo College Partnership, 1966, 1986-1987, 2006, (1986-1987) (AMS.1ZUT.2) (library catalog record) (finding aid)

Website

"Freedom Now!" archival research project (2002-2003):  An archival project of Tougaloo College and Brown University documenting the Mississippi Freedom Movement and Brown-Tougaloo Cooperative Exchange.

Slavery and Justice

Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice  
In 2003, President Ruth Simmons appointed a Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.  The committee, which included faculty members, undergraduate and graduate students, and administrators, was charged to investigate and prepare a report about the University’s historical relationship to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.  The Committee presented its final report to President Simmons in October 2006. On February 24, 2007, the Brown Corporation endorsed a set of initiatives in response to the Committee’s report.  The report is designed to foster discussion of this subject in ways that prepare students and others to engage in and promote the meaningful exchange of ideas.

Rhode Island College miscellaneous papers, 1763-1804, MS-1E-1 (See finding aid for digital surrogates)   The list of supplies and expenses (The College to Nicholas Brown & Co., Dr.: 1770 – 1771) used to build the College Edifice (University Hall) documents the work of enslaved people and Native Americans.  Page 5 of the document (scanned page 7) highlights the information.

*Terminology

Brown University Library staff often re-use language provided by creators or former owners of collections because it provides important context about the materials or is the official title of an item.  To locate all materials of interest, you may need to search for historical terminology, which is offensive today, but was used in the past to describe people of color.  Examples of terms to use as keywords: African-American; African American; Afro-American; black; Negro, third world.  

Examples

In the Brown University Christian Association records, the term “Negro” locates files from the 1950s titled:

Negro Scholarship Service; United Negro College Fund; Negro students.

 

In the William Gerald McLoughlin papers, the term "third world" locates files from the 1970s about the Third World Center, the former name of the Brown Center for Students of Color.

 

Brown University Library is dedicated to describing materials related to marginalized groups accurately, respectfully, and in a way that will not be harmful or offensive.  Many of our finding aids (descriptions and inventories of collections) and library catalog records, were created years or decades ago and may include harmful language. Library staff are actively engaged in an ongoing effort to revise and update the descriptive language in the hundreds of finding aids and thousands of library catalog records.  If you encounter language in finding aids, catalog records, digitized collections, blog posts, exhibitions, or elsewhere that you find offensive or harmful, or if you have questions about our work, we welcome your feedback. Please email us at hay@brown.edu or call the John Hay Library at 401-863-6414.