Archival Documents Bring Light to Historical African American Legal Triumphs

A sheet of paper at Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library shows how a Black woman sought—and won—justice in 1791 America. This story originally appeared on Columbia News on September 16, 2021.  […]

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Juneteenth, Freedom, and Emancipation Archives in the RBML

  June 19th, known as Juneteenth, has long been a key African American holiday — a day to commemorate emancipation and freedom from enslavement. The date was first celebrated in Texas, in 1865, to mark the end of slavery after the Civil War. In the RBML, archival documents related to African American freedom reflect the […]

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Anti-Racist and Black Liberation Archives in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library

The extrajudicial murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which followed the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and coincided with a global pandemic that has taken disproportionate toll on African Americans, reveals that systemic racism is a life or death matter–for the millions of people who suffer its effects, and for a nation that purports […]

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Oral History and Storytelling Workshops from OHMA

The Oral History Master’s Program at Columbia has released their fall line-up of workshops. This year’s theme, Oral History and Storytelling, considers storytelling as an underused tool in academic oral history practice. Visit OHMA’s website for workshop details and featured speakers. September 12, 2019 Europe according to Auschwitz: Experiments from the Laboratory of Reportage September […]

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Researcher Profile | Janelle Drone

We see you every day, handing you a lockers key as you walk in each morning, and receiving it back toward the end of the day. Most often you’re hunkered down over a particular archive, getting to understand a portion of one of our archives better than anyone who works in the RBML. We await […]

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