Anna E. Hall was born near Bainbridge, Georgia on March 1st, 1870. She lived a religiously oriented childhood with her mother, a seamstress, and expressed the desire to serve as a missionary while a student at Clark University (now Clark Atlanta University) in Atlanta, Georgia, where she completed the normal course on May 12, 1892. With the generosity of influential people who were made aware of her desire to be a missionary, she was able to enter the New England Deaconess Training School in Boston, Massachusetts in 1899 and graduated May 22, 1901 as the first African American to attend the school. Her missionary work was realized in December of 1906, when she travelled to Monrovia, Liberia to teach the Kroo (Kru) people. Her second year she was asked to go to the southern part of the Republic, Garraway, where she became the successor to the Director of the Julia A. Stewart Memorial Girls Home and School, Garraway Mission.
The Asa G. Hilliard, III papers span the years between 1933 and 2007. The bulk of the collection dates from 1971 to 2007. The collection includes organizational files from organizations of which Hilliard was a member, subject files on topics of interest, records from his work at both San Francisco State University and Georgia State University, files related to his speaking engagements, photographs and videos, and manuscripts of articles, books, speeches and reports. The collection also contains some materials related to trials in which Hilliard served as an expert witness. Of note are the files related to the Larry P. V. Wilson Riles case from the late 1970s, photographs of the ceremony during which Hilliard became Nana Baffour and the slides from Hilliard's presentation "Free Your Mind! Return to the Source.
This collection consists of records generated by Eliza Paschall and the Atlanta Community Relations Commission (ACRC) during her year as Executive Director of the ACRC. The bulk of the collection is research materials gathered by Paschall and the ACRC to support their work in the community. The files contain reports and statistics that document such things as employment discrimination, police action in the Dixie Hills Riots, and desegregation efforts in the public schools. Of special interest are the studies which survey the conditions of Atlanta's disadvantaged neighborhoods.
The Methodist Episcopal Church South was an outgrowth of Methodism, but some African-Americans that were converted to Christianity by slave masters desired to have and control their own church. This desire led these formerly enslaved people to form The Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church. It was later renamed the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church in 1956. The Atlanta-Rome District consists of 34 churches in Atlanta and surrounding areas, all within Georgia the Sixth Episcopal District. The Collection includes programs from worship services, funerals, events and church anniversaries; church histories; minutes from national and district annual conferences; and photographs. The photographs in this collection depict members of the congregation and various church groups at events and at home. The one recording in this collection is an interview with L. W. Jay, who discusses his history with the Atlanta-Rome District, along with various events and people he has worked with.
This collection documents the Atlanta Student Movement during the Civil Rights Era. It highlights student activism in the Atlanta University Consortium (AUC); Clark College, Morris Brown, Morehouse College, Atlanta University, and Spelman College. The collection includes newspaper and journal articles, flyers, reports, photographs, and correspondence by and about students from the AUC schools. Of note are copies of An Appeal for Human Rights written by student leaders, which set forth the student's grievances, rights, and aspirations as well as their dissatisfaction with the status quo conditions of segregation and discrimination and the slow pace at which inherent human and civil rights were being meted out to African Americans. The Appeal was published as a full-page ad in the March 9, 1960 editions of the Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Journal, and Atlanta Daily World. It was subsequently published in the New York Times, providing national awareness of student activism in the civil rights struggle in Atlanta. The issuance of the Appeal was followed by sit-ins and pickets at specifically targeted businesses, government and transportation facilities in Atlanta and Fulton County, Georgia, and kneel-ins at churches. The participants in the Atlanta student movement organized commemorative reunions, 1990 and 2000 to re-examine the civil rights movement and discuss current efforts and projections for the future. Programs, minutes, correspondence, and news articles from the reunions are included in the collection.
The Atlanta University Center Votes Coalition, referred to as AUC Votes, is a coalition of non-partisan civic engagement-oriented organizations in the Atlanta University Center. Students from each of the campuses participated in the coalition. During the 2020 and 2021 elections, the organization created a digital strategy to engage all eligible voters in the AUC. Organizations included were Spelman's Chapter of the Andrew Goodman Foundation, Spelman College Social Justice Program, Spelman and Morehouse Chapters of National Action Network, Spelman and Morehouse Student Government Associations, Spelman's Chapter of the NAACP, Fair Fight U, Collegiate 100, and CAU Votes. The records contain materials related to the activities of the coalition. It consists of event materials, such as flyers, Instagram posts, photographs and videos of events. The collection contains meeting agendas and minutes, correspondence, and logos. The collection covers the 2020 presidential election and the 2021 Georgia Senate Runoff elections.
This collection contains photographs of Atlanta University before its consolidation with Clark College, containing photographs dating from 1858 to 1995, with the bulk of the material falling between 1905 and 1968. The photographs consist of mostly students, alumni, faculty, administrative officers, campus events, and buildings of Atlanta University, however, there are photographs of people and places from all the Atlanta University Center schools.
The Atlanta Urban League (AUL) was established in 1920 as an affiliate of the National Urban League. The AUL served as an organization dedicated to addressing the social and economic concerns of African Americans in the city of Atlanta. The AUL worked to address housing discrimination, inadequate unemployment, improve health services, and promote voting rights. The digitized collection focuses on the leadership of Grace Towns Hamilton, executive director of AUL from 1943-1961. Under her leadership the AUL waged intensive campaigns for advancement of education, health care, housing, and voting rights for African Americans. The AUL worked with the League of Women Voters, the National Council of Women, the Southern Regional Council, and more to promote the enfranchisement of Black women and voter education.
Benjamin Elijah Mays was born August 1, 1894 in Ninety Six, South Carolina. After graduating high school, he spent one year at Virginia Union University before moving to Maine to attend Bates College, where he received his BA. He then went to the University of Chicago for his M.A. and his Ph.D. While at the University of Chicago, Mays worked as a Pullman Porter and a student assistant to Dr. Lacey Kirk Williams, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church. While finishing his doctorate, Mays published The Negro's Church, the first sociological study on the Black church, with Joseph Nicholson. He became dean of the School of Religion at Howard University in 1934. In 1940, Mays moved to Atlanta to become the president of Morehouse College. Martin Luther King Jr. was Mays' most famous student at Morehouse. The two remained close until King's death in 1968 and Mays delivered the eulogy at his funeral. Mays left Morehouse College in 1967. In 1969, Mays ran for the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education. While on the board, Mays oversaw the peaceful desegregation of the Atlanta Public Schools. He served on the board until 1981, and served as the president of the board between 1970 and 1981.
