Black Student Activism on Campus and Beyond Pop-Up Exhibition at the Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) will present a pop-up exhibition in celebration of Black History Month on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, from 4:00pm – 6:00pm in the Antje Bultmann Lemke Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Bird Library. The display will feature historical materials related to Black activism, particularly among college students both nationally and at Syracuse University, in the 1960s and 1970s. Photographs, manuscripts, printed materials, posters and rare books will share perspectives and insight into the rise of Black educational initiatives within higher education, such as Black Studies departments, while allowing visitors to explore firsthand how printed materials and publications furthered the aims of student activists and served as critical information networks for Black communities.
Primary sources created by organizations, groups, and coalitions such as the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), the Soul Student Advisory Council, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party and more will be on display. Additionally, SCRC will be showing periodicals and publications produced by students at campuses across the United States such as New York University and Brandeis University, as well as self-published works and poetry, including Charlie Cobb’s 1967 book Furrows: In The Furrows of the World. Also on display will be historical materials from the University Archives that document Black student activism in the late 1960s on Syracuse University’s campus that resulted in the establishment of the African American Studies program and Martin Luther King Jr. Library, as well as the Syracuse 8's 1970 boycott of the Syracuse University football program. Documentation of later Black student activism, including anti-apartheid protests, the SU NAACP chapter's #itooamSU campaign and #NotAgainSU will also be included.