UC Libraries resources in celebration of Black History Month

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Throughout February, we shared UC Libraries resources and collections in celebration of Black History Month. Below is a list of those highlights, as well as others, so you may continue exploring and learning Black history throughout the year.

Theodore M. Berry Papers Project
An exhibit highlighting the 2010 project to completely process the papers of Theodore Moody Berry, Cincinnati’s first African mayor.

Louise Shropshire: An Online Exhibition
An online exhibit featuring Louise Shropshire a Cincinnati Civil Rights pioneer and composer.

Marian Spencer: Fighting for Equality in Cincinnati
An alumna of the University of Cincinnati (Class of 1942), Marian Spencer fought for Civil Rights in Cincinnati for nearly seventy years. This exhibit examines her career and her papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library.

The Colored Citizen
Published in Cincinnati sporadically from the height of the Civil War in 1863 until approximately 1869, The Colored Citizen was edited by a group of African American citizens from Midwestern cities, including Cincinnati. It was a paper with general news, but with a focus on the political, economic, and cultural affairs that had an impact on African Americans of the age. The Archives and Rare Books Library hold one issue of this paper.

Phillis Wheatley
In 1773, at the age of 20, Wheatley published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, making her the first published African-American poet.

Lucy Oxley
Source article highlighting Lucy Oxley, MD, the first person of color ever to receive a medical degree from the College of Medicine.

Previous Library Exhibits

  • Celebrating Black Authors and Illustrators at CECH Library – In honor of Black History Month, the CECH Library has curated a display from our children’s and young adult literature collections to highlight the works of Black authors and illustrators. The display includes poetry, novels, picture books, graphic novels, and board books.
  • Uncovering Black History through Arts & Education featured prominent black writers, poets, educators and musicians, including Rita Dove, Phillis Wheatley, Derrick Bell, Katherine Johnson, Muddy Waters and Tammi Terrell among others.
  • Women of the Movement: Leaders for Civil Rights and Voting Rights profiled female leaders of the fight for civil and voting rights. Beginning with Sojourner Truth, former slave and abolitionist, and including contemporaries Diane Nash, a key player in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Cincinnati’s Marian Spencer, a champion for Civil Rights both locally and nationally, the exhibit spans history into current times.

Library Guides

African American Newspapers (UC access only)