Black College Life in the New Deal: A Google Cultural Institute Exhibit

Today’s blog was written by Netisha Currie, Archives Specialist at the National Archives in College Park.

In celebration of Black History Month, the Google Cultural Institute has created a channel devoted to Black History and Culture. It features over 80 exhibits showcasing documents, artwork, photographs, artifacts and 5,000 other types of items relating to black history. The National Archives has contributed to the channel by creating an exhibit of our own – Black College Life in the New Deal: A Photo Exhibit through the Lens of Kenneth Space, Photographer for the Harmon Foundation.

Our exhibit (curated by myself and Tina Ligon, with great assistance from Rutha Beamon, Sharon Culley, and Theresa Roy) displays photographs from the series Kenneth Space Photographs of the Activities of Southern Black Americans, 1936-1937 (NAID 559211) in the Harmon Foundation Collection. Pictures show African American students at various historically black colleges and universities including: Howard University, Virginia Union University, Fisk University, Clark Atlanta University, Tuskegee University, Xavier University, and Dillard University.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The photos selected in the exhibit will be the first time they are displayed as a large collection, rather than in fragments that may be shown on individual college’s websites. These records are an important highlight of the National Archives collection as they tell a story of an under represented and unique time in American history – of black students attending college during the Great Depression.


 Important Links:

One thought on “Black College Life in the New Deal: A Google Cultural Institute Exhibit

  1. Thanks so much for doing this! Members in my family attended Howard University during this time. It is a little known story that also was transformational in shaping the modern civil rights movement.

Leave a Reply