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Charting Our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies Online Exhibit Opens

The exhibit celebrates 50 years of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, sharing the history of the department through digitized collections from UNO Libraries.

black and white digitized cover of Black Studies newsletter from March 1972

"Charting Our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies (1971-2021)” digital exhibit is now available online through the UNO Libraries’ website. The exhibit shares the history of one of the oldest Black Studies departments in the nation, highlighting the complex relationship between university administrators, students, and the Omaha Black community. The exhibit is composed of digitized archival materials such as department documents, photos, newspaper clippings, and scrapbook pages, chronicling events from the 1969 Omaha 54 campus sit-in to the celebration of those student activists over 50 years later.

The history of the Department of Black Studies has been characterized by constant struggle for survival, but also by the enduring engagement and support by students, faculty and staff, and the Omaha Black community. Learn about the civil rights origins of the department, battles for legitimacy in the eyes of the university, the role of the Omaha chapter of NAACP in the department’s survival, and much more.

Items in this exhibit provide a sampling of the materials available in Archives and Special Collections, which have been digitized and are available to the public. Learn more about the materials in this exhibit by exploring the Department of Black Studies Records, the Student Unrest Collection, UNO Poster Collection, and the "UNO 54" BLAC (Black Liberators for Action on Campus) Sit-In Related Documents, 1969-1970 from the Kirk Naylor Papers. You can access these and other collections through UNO Libraries Digital Collections website.

A traveling exhibition is also available for loan to schools, libraries, community organizations, and for special events. If your organization is interested in hosting the traveling exhibit, please contact unoasc@unomaha.edu for available dates. The public may view the original documents in UNO Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections during its regular hours of operation or by requesting an appointment.

Funding and support for this digital exhibit was provided by UNO Libraries and Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. The exhibit was curated by Claire Du Laney, Outreach Archivist, and researched in part by Paul Jensen, UNO Libraries student worker.

About Charting Our Path

Charting Our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies is a cooperative project of the Department of Black Studies and UNO Libraries. The project will honor the 50th anniversary of the Department of Black Studies in 2021-2022 through campus and community speakers, exhibits, and events as well as supporting expanding research, creative activity, and open access instructional resources. Support is provided by UNO’s Strategic Investment in Social Justice, Inequality, Race, and Class initiative. Charting Our Path is one of the ‘Telling Our Story’ proposals and was funded for 2021-2023. The project leads are Dr. Cynthia Robinson, Amy C. Schindler, and Claire Du Laney.

About the University of Nebraska at Omaha Libraries

UNO Libraries fulfill the UNO mission through dynamic services, highly qualified and adaptive personnel, unique and extensive collections, and accessible learning spaces and environments. With its two locations, Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library on UNO’s Dodge Campus and in KANEKO-UNO Library located in Omaha’s Old Market, UNO Libraries provides UNO students, faculty and staff, and the Omaha community with the resources and materials needed to excel academically and professionally.

About Humanities Nebraska

Charting our Path: UNO Libraries' Traveling Exhibits and Panels is one of many grants funded by Humanities Nebraska (HN). HN awards more than $257,000 in grants each year.

Created in 1973 as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities Nebraska (HN) is an independent, non-profit organization governed by a volunteer board of public and academic members. Humanities Nebraska funds programs that explore Nebraska's heritage, build community awareness, and strengthen our ties to cultural traditions at home and abroad.

The Nebraska Cultural Endowment is a public/private partnership that designates funds to HN for distribution.

Any non-profit group is eligible to apply for a grant from HN. The HN staff is available for grant consultation and will read proposal drafts. Contact the HN office if you need assistance with a project idea.

For a copy of Humanities Nebraska grant guidelines, contact HN at 215 Centennial Mall South, Suite 330, Lincoln, NE 68508, phone 402-474-2131, fax 402- 474-4852, or e-mail at info@humanitiesnebraska.org. The entire grant guideline packet is available online.