Morris Brown College, a private, liberal arts institution located in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1881 by the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church for the "moral, spiritual and intellectual growth of Negro boys and girls." The original site for the school was located at Boulevard and Houston Street in Northeast Atlanta. On October 5, 1885, under the charter granted by the State of Georgia, Morris Brown College opened with nine teachers and 107 students. To prepare students for ministerial careers in the A.M.E. Church, Morris Brown opened a theology department in 1894, which became the Turner Theological Seminary in 1900. The seminary's name honors Henry McNeal Turner, a pioneering A.M.E Church organizer. Turner Seminary remained affiliated with Morris Brown until 1957, when it joined the Interdenominational Theological Center. The school operated until 1894 on the primary, secondary, and normal school levels, while the College department was established in 1894 and graduated its first class in 1898. By 1908 the school boasted an enrollment of nearly 1,000 students. It continued to offer instruction in industrial trades as well as academic fields and awarded two-year degrees in addition to four-year bachelor's degrees, but over time administrators placed greater emphasis on the development of the school's college-level curriculum. Morris Brown joined the Atlanta University Center in 1941, and along with Atlanta University, Clark College, Spelman College, and Morehouse College formed the largest consortium of HBCUs in the country. They remained members of the AUC until 2002. The yearbooks of Morris Brown College chronicles the annual activities of the institution.

The AUC Author Series is a production of the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library librarians. The series began in 2011 when Dr. L.H. Whelchel of the Interdenominational Theological Center was interviewed about his newly published book, The History & Heritage of African-American Churches : A Way Out of No Way. Woodruff Librarians have since gone on to interview members from Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and the AUC Woodruff library. Our goal is to showcase, through video interviews with the creators themselves, the most important books, articles and other creative efforts produced by members of our Atlanta University Center community.

Top Shelf keeps Library users up to date on Woodruff Library events and activities undertaken in support of the academic missions of its AUC member institutionsClark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College.

Communication Arts Forum promotes scholarly and professional exchanges that address diverse interests of educators, researchers, practitioners and policymakers engaged in the fields of mass media, speech communication, and theatre arts. Articles providing innovative perspectives that enrich teaching, research and professional practices are especially sought. Communication Arts Forum also will consider film and book reviews, commentaries, original interviews and conference reports.

The yearbooks of Spelman College chronicle the annual activities of the institution.

The Center was a publication of the Interdenominational Center in the interest of the Cooperating seminaries of I.T.C.( Gammon Theological School, Morehouse School Of Religion, Phillips School of Theology, and turner Theological School), the alumni, and the Stewart Missionary Foundation of Africa.

The Spelman Messenger was established in 1885, four years after the founding of Spelman College. It featured articles written by faculty, students, and staff, on a variety of topics alumnae news, prominent visitors to campus, health and wellness, history, and religion and often included photographs and local business advertisements. The Spelman Messenger is still currently being published in print and online, and serves as the official magazine of Spelman College and the alumnae.

Explore thousands of items including theses, dissertations, faculty scholarship, archival materials, audio, video and more.

Yearbooks of Morehouse College

The Lantern is an Alumni News publication. The newsletter is used to highlight the work of alumni, important dates, and general information about the activities of the institution.

Yearbooks of Clark College and Clark Atlanta University

Founded in 1980, the Spelman College Honors Program, named for scholar-teacher Ethel Waddell Githii, is interdisciplinary in design recognizing the diversity of our faculty expertise and student creative scholarship. The Githii Honors Program creates original programming and targeted supports for our member students, and collaborates with academic departments and programs to provide a rich array of scholarly and creative venues. These include our annual reading and lecture series, special programs and workshops for the broader campus and the Atlanta community, and cultural engagements on and beyond the campus. The Program spotlights intellectual leadership as a habit of mind and a quality of the ethical citizen.

Continuum highlights research that affects black women and black womens contributions to research. As an interdisciplinary journal, Continuum encourages readers to think critically about the intersection between scholarship and black womens experiences across the diaspora. The publication prepares undergraduate students for graduate studies by encouraging them to develop a passion for research. We are a platform for students around the world to use scholarship to initiate dialogue across disciplines and bring research to the forefront of the collegiate experience.

The Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center also known as JITC is a publication by ITC to highlight the work of faculty.

This collection contains the transcriptions of audio recordings conducted by two AUC Librarians, funded by the American Library Association's Diversity Research Grant (2017-2019).

The Freedmen's Aid Society was an agency of the Methodist Episcopal Church created after the Civil War for the purpose of establishing schools and colleges for African Americans in the South. A great part of the work of the society was in supporting teachers in various institutions begun by or connected with Freedmen's Aid, and in preparing young men for the ministry. Finding aid only.

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.

Grace Towns Hamilton (1907-1992) was a civic leader and Georgia General Assembly member. She is known as the first African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. She represented the Vine City area of Atlanta in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1965 to 1984. Maps in the collection span from 1960 to 1981 with the bulk of the material from 1963 to 1975. They consist of Atlanta Neighborhoods, Atlanta Congressional Districts, Georgia counties, and election precincts of Fulton County, GA. Images in the collection span from 1910 to 1984 with the majority of materials from 1910 to 1930. They consist of Hamilton’s family, childhood, and individual portraits.

Gladstone Lewis Chandler was an English professor at Morehouse College from 1931 until his death in 1965. During his 34 year tenure, he served as the faculty representative for the Maroon Tiger, the student-run newspaper, and taught three generations of Morehouse graduates, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Outside of his career as a professor, Chandler was also involved in the Atlanta community as an active civic worker and the leader of campaigns for the YMCA, the Community Chest, and the UNCF. He was a member of the St. Paul's Episcopal Church as active participant in the Vestry and the Men's Club. He also served as president of the neighborhood club Fountain Drive-Morris Brown Drive community club , where he led a successful battle to prevent a highway from being built through the neighborhood. Beyond his civic activity, Chandler was the first African American to conduct a campaign for a mayoral candidate in the city of Atlanta. The photographs in this collection document the personal and professional life of Gladstone Chandler and the Chandler family.

Bishop John Howard Dell was born in Washington County, Georgia on September 29, 1902. Bishop Dell began preaching and spreading the gospel at the age of 16. At 18, he preached out of his first congregation in Gardner, Georgia. During his life, Bishop Dell founded four other churches: Crisp Street Church, Macon Georgia; First Church of God in Christ, Soperton, Georgia; First Church of God in Christ, Lyons, Georgia; and Christ Temple Church of God in Christ, Atlanta, Georgia. He also started missions in Danville, TerryTom, Alley, and Udila, Georgia. In 1948, he was appointed Georgia's overseer by the late Bishop Charles H. Mason. Bishop Mason consecrated him to the Office of Bishop in 1954. Bishop Dell was instrumental in the Northern Georgia Jurisdiction having a headquarters being paid for by the congregation. He was one of the first Black ministers in Georgia to have a radio ministry beginning in 1941, and the first to preach from a remote radio site in Macon and Columbus, Georgia. He was the first Black minister to have a television ministry in Albany, Georgia beginning in 1958 and one of the first Blacks to telecast Sunday services in Atlanta, Georgia beginning in 1979.

James Herbert Touchstone (1889-1975), an educator, scholar, and scientist, Touchstone worked as a Professor of Chemistry, Greek, and Latin at Clark University. In addition to his teaching career at Clark University, he was a Professor of Chemistry and football coach at Rust College, Samuel Houston College, and Philander Smith College, where he also served as Academic Dean and Director of Summer School. Beyond his work as an educator, Touchstone was an active member of the Methodist Church. He served as a teacher, Trustee, Steward, Superintendent of Church School, and as Church Lay Leader. The images in this collection range from 1915-1979.

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 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.