Archival Collections
Aug 1, 2019

Archival Collections

Dr. William Pickens directed Morehouse College's Interdisciplinary Humanities Program (Mirror Grant Project) in the early 1970s. The Mirror Grant Project was a program designed to teach freshmen and sophomores interdisciplinary mini-courses called "mirrors". These "mirrors" were half a semester in length and provided a humanistic thrust in learning and communication skills.
Archival Collections
Wayman A. Carver (b. 1905 d. 1967), jazz musician and music educator, achieved acclaim for his virtuosity and artistry as a flutist during his tenure from 1934-39 with Chick Webb and his Orchestra. In the series "Giants of Jazz" (International Musician April 1963), Leonard Feather credits Wayman Carver as being internationally recognized as the first and only jazz musician to play the flute during the decade of the 1930s. Wayman Carver, a graduate of the class of 1929, is among the most notable alumni of Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University). Carver was an outstanding student and assisted with instruction and band direction. In 1942, Carver accepted a faculty position in the music department at his alma mater. Carver served on the Clark faculty for twenty-five years and was held in high esteem by his colleagues and students. The Clark College students dedicated the 1952 yearbook to Carver, and the college presented him a trophy and plaque in appreciation of his contributions.
Archival Collections
The Walter Rodney Collection is a compilation of materials donated by a number of individuals and institutions. The donations help to broaden the documentation about the life, contributions, influence, and legacy of Walter Rodney. The collection also includes the work of the Walter Rodney Foundation in establishing the Walter Rodney Symposium and documents the annual symposia through video, ephemera, and photographs. The Walter Rodney Collection will continue to grow as more donations are made. The collection complements the Walter Rodney Papers that were donated to the Robert W. Woodruff Library in 2004.
Archival Collections
The Voter Education Project (VEP) began in 1962 as part of the Southern Regional Council. Initially VEP granted funds to civil rights organizations to support voter education, voter registration drives, and voting-related research. In 1964, Vernon Jordan, the second executive director of the VEP, expanded the programs goals to include citizenship training, voter education, and leadership training in the southern United States, while continuing to provide funds to independent voter and civil rights groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the League of Women Voters. The VEP’s work with the League of Women Voters is highlighted in the materials below.   In 1971, VEP under the leadership of John Lewis, became an independent organization and functioned as a research center and became known as an authoritative source for statistics on southern elections and voter registration in general. Lewis also forged the VEP into an activist organization, launching Voter Mobilization Tours with Georgia state legislator and civil rights advocate Julian Bond.
Dr. Vivian Wilson Henderson was the 18th president of Clark College from 1965 until his death in 1976. A native of Bristol, Tennessee, Henderson completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from North Carolina College in Durham in 1947. He earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Economics from the University of Iowa in 1949 and 1952, respectively. The Vivian Wilson Henderson Papers document Dr. Henderson's personal and professional activities spanning the years 1940 to 1976. The photographs in the collection date primarily from the 1960s and document Henderson's activities at Clark College as well as his family life. Photographs of Dr. Henderson's wife, Anna, and children are included.
Archival Collections
Virginia Lacy Jones (b. 1912 - d. 1984) was a librarian, educator, author, and  among library educators known as "the Dean of Deans." She dedicated almost fifty years of her life to the library profession, thirty-six of which she spent as Dean of the School of Library Service at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University). Her career began at Atlanta University in 1939 as Catalog Librarian in Trevor Arnett Library.
Archival Collections
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is a philanthropic organization that provides scholarship funds for black education.  This collection includes UNCF organizational records. Finding aid only.
On September 28-29, 2012, the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation presented the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: "Hip Hop, Education and Expanding the Archival Imagination." The Tupac Amaru Shakur Conference was designed to combine AUC Woodruff Library's mission to facilitate scholarly research and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation's mission to encourage hip hop curriculum. Works posted to the Library's website from the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference may be downloaded, archived, and/or printed for noncommercial, educational, and research use. Any further use or dissemination of these works requires the express written permission of the copyright holders.
Trezzvant William Anderson (1906-1963) was an author and journalist best known for reporting on the injustices and inequalities of the Jim Crow South at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. A member of the 761st Tank Battalion of the U.S. Army during World War II, Anderson wrote the unit's history book "Come Out Fighting: The Epic Tale of the 761st Tank Battalion, 1942-1945." This digital collection including photographs, correspondence and audio recordings.
Archival Collections
Thomas Clarkson (b. 1760 d. 1846) was a renowned English abolitionist who spent his adult life fighting to end slavery. As a leader in the British anti-slavery society, Clarkson was instrumental in getting the English Parliament to ban the slave trade in 1807 and to abolish the institution of slaver in 1833. The majority of this small collection is comprised of correspondence from Thomas Clarkson and his wife, Catherine, to her father, William Buck. Notable writings by Clarkson include the original essay An Liceat Nolentes In Servitutom Dare? [Is It Lawful to Make Slaves of Others Against Their Will?]. This essay, written in Latin, won the Chancellor's Prize at Cambridge College, England in 1785 and served as the basis for the expanded work, Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly The African published in 1786.
Archival Collections
The vertical files held by the Archives Research Center contain materials on various subjects, some which are represented in this digital collection. Materials include newspaper clippings, programs, pamphlets, and other printed and published materials.
Archival Collections
At the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library we are always striving to improve our digital collections. We welcome additional information about people, places, or events depicted in any of the works in this collection. To submit information, please contact us at DSD@auctr.edu.
The Spelman Independent Scholars is a two-semester independent, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational learning experience open to students across all majors, the goal of SIS is to enhance students critical writing and thinking skills. It also allows students the opportunity to share research and grow in griot knowledge. In addition to learning sessions with the SIS faculty mentor, students are exposed to lectures by guest scholars including gerontologists, oral historians, museum curators, and physician-researchers. Through one on one independent student relationships and class seminars, the unique yearlong program allows and entrusts students to solicit, understand and archive stories of African-American women elders. A global component of SIS has included oral history research in Accra, Ghana; Benin, West Africa; and Kingston, Jamaica.
This collection contains over 1100 images dating from 1887 to the present and document Spelmans presidents, commencement ceremonies, and campus building and grounds. Also featured are images from Spelmans Department of Drama and Dance from the 1930s to the present.
The Southern Regional Council is a reform-oriented organization created in 1944 with its roots in the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. The organization was founded to help avoid racial violence and promote racial equality in the Southern United States. The collection includes newsletters, memos, correspondence, reports, programs, statements, and pamphlets from various organizations, such as the League of Women Voters, the National Council of Negro Women, and the National Women’s Committee for Civil Rights.
Archival Collections
The Southern Education Foundation records include the administrative files of the John F. Slater Fund (1882-1937), the Negro Rural School Fund (Anna T. Jeanes Fund)(1907-1937), and the Southern Education Foundation (SEF). The records of these organizations document the activities of philanthropists and educators in helping to provide African Americans in the South with greater educational opportunities. The records of both the John F. Slater Fund and the Anna T. Jeanes Fund include minutes of meetings, annual reports, financial records, and application forms from various states requesting educational aid. The materials in this digital collection represent photographs and scrapbooks ranging from the 1930s to the 1960s. and audio recordings from a meeting in 1997.
The Society for the Study of Black Religion (SSBR) is the oldest scholarly society dedicated to the study and production of knowledge about the broad diaspora of Black religion. The first meeting was in October, 1970, with the society's mission to "engage in research and discussion about the religious experiences of blacks and to promote the teaching of these experiences in colleges and universities." A constitution was adopted that gave purposes for the Society, these are: 1) To engage in scholarly research and discussion about the religious experience of Blacks; 2) To publish reports of its discussions and research; and 3) To encourage the teaching and discussion of the Black religious experience in the curricula of college or university departments of religion and theological seminaries.
The Scrapbook Collection consist of various scrapbooks documenting AUC institutions, with the majority of the institutional scrapbooks compiled by the school's public relations offices, and chronicle key events, memorials, and newspaper clippings collected by the creators. Other scrapbooks held within this collection, consist of individual scrapbooks documenting student life and experiences of the individual creators.
Archival Collections
Dr. Rufus Early Clement, the sixth President of Atlanta University, was the longest serving president in the history of the institution. While president, Clement served on the American Council on Education, the United Negro College Fund, and was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the United Service Organization. Clement served as president until his death in 1967. Materials consists of correspondence and reports from organizations such as Gammon Theological Seminary, the United Negro College Fund, National Education Association, Carnegie Research Fund, General Education Board, Harmon Foundation, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Atlanta Urban League, Southern Regional Council, Southern Conference for Human Welfare, Georgia Department of Education, and the United States Veterans Administration.
Archival Collections
This collection contains the photographs from the life and work of Reverend Robert E. Penn, a Baptist minister and educator. Penn was born in a rural coal mining town in West Virginia, and went on to receive degrees from Clark College, Gammon Theological Seminary, and Central Baptist Theological Seminary. He was a chaplain during World War II, and later after his pastoral work in Kansas City, Kansas, and Gary, Indiana, Penn returned to Atlanta to become Director of Field Education at the Interdenominational Theological Center in 1973. These photographs document Rev. Penns family life and friend in West Virginia, Indiana, and Georgia, as well as his work as Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Gary, Indiana, and Director of Field Education at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary.
Archival Collections