Category: Black History

Ralph Ellison, First Black Commencement Speaker at UMD

On By umdarchivesIn Black History, Campus History, commencement, Digitized Materials, PeopleLeave a comment

By: Evangeline Gahn

Ralph Waldo Ellison is one of the most iconic Black authors of the twentieth century. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1913, and named after the transcendentalist essayist Ralph Waldo Emmerson, Ellison’s father hoped he would grow up to be a poet. 

A black and white image of Ralph Ellison sitting behind a type writer on his porch. He is wearing dress pants and a white shirt, and gazing off to the side.

James Whitmore/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images

Ellison’s most famous work is the novel Invisible Man, published in 1952. The book deals with many of the major social and political issues he was facing as a Black man in America in the post-war period, such as Black nationalism, as well as the struggle between individual identity and community identity. 

Deeply concerned with society, and the places different people hold within it, Ellison nevertheless considered himself an artist and a novelist first. The freedom of an artist to be such for its own sake was the central philosophy of his career, from Invisible Man and other novels to his work as a lecturer and professor. In an interview for the New York Times in 1966, Ellison said, 

I am a novelist, not an activist… But I think that no one who reads what I write or who listens to my lectures can doubt that I am enlisted in the freedom movement. As an individual, I am primarily responsible for the health of American literature and culture. When I write, I am trying to make sense out of chaos.

A scan of the bio of Ralph Ellison from the 1974 Spring Commencement program. There is a headshot of Ellison on the left, and he is wearing a suit and tie, while gazing off to the left.

University of Maryland Commencement Program, May 12th, 1974. University Archives Digital Collections.

By 1974, Ellison was an internationally recognized literary force. As the first Black commencement speaker for the University of Maryland, College Park, he was awarded an honorary degree as a Doctor of Humane Letters; this was his ninth such honorary degree. Unfortunately, no copy of the speech Ellison gave remains in the University Archives. Instead, we encourage our readers to explore some of his literature, essays, novels, and other speeches. 

Though Ellison died in 1994, at the age of 81, his legacy of engaging with our world and ourselves as students, artists, activists, and Americans endures in the work and lives of everyone who sees the world, with its justice and injustice alike, and confronts it.

Evangeline Gahn is a graduate student assistant in University Archives, pursuing her Master’s of Library and Information Science. With a background in history, philosophy, and creative writing, she is interested in using archives to understand the past and the present, and creating a more accessible and inclusive space for all members of the University community.

Fight For Your Right…To Equal Opportunity

On By umdarchivesIn Black History, Buildings & Grounds, Campus History, Digitized Materials, Student Life, Throwback Thursday2 Comments

By: Eleena Ghosh

In October 1968, 500 students took over the steps of Marie Mount Hall, home to the College of Home Economics, in a rally protesting discrimination in a nutrition experiment. 

Four Black students were denied participation in the experiment for being “biologically different” and an “unknown variable”, despite the Home Economics lab having a history of employing Black women to work in the lab for cheaper wages than their White counterparts, particularly pre-integration. 

As the protest went on, state and campus police were called in to line the perimeter of the building, as well as the inside lobby. 

A black and white image of the crowd of students gathered outside the Home Economics building to protest. There are trees and flags in the background, and a man smoking a pipe blocking the camera's view of the left side of the crowd.

Crow outside the Marie Mount building, 1968. The Diamondback, vol. 61, issue 29. University of Maryland Archives.

When then-president of the Black Student Union, Bob McLeod, tried to peacefully enter the building to speak with Brooks and VP of Student Affairs, J. Winston Martin, he was met with forceful resistance from them. McLeod stressed that is his legal right as a student to enter the building, and that this was not a violent protest; still, the state troopers wouldn’t allow him in. 

Eventually, he and other students were able to enter the building. After a conversation with BSU representatives, Brooks took to the podium to publicly apologize and announce that two of the students would be given lab positions, and two were to be included in the study. 

A black and white newsprint photograph of Bob McLeod, standing on the right, talking to a seated J. Winston Martin inside Marie Mount Hall. A state trooper in uniform stands in the background.

Bob McLeod, right, speaking with J. Winston Martin, left. Crow outside the Marie Mount building, 1968. The Diamondback, vol. 61, issue 29. University of Maryland Archives.

However, she also read excerpts from a 1956 science journal article that stated a “biological difference between White and Black individuals” and later, mass copies of that study were made available and spread at the Student Union, though no one knows how… 

Eleena Ghosh is a graduate student assistant in University Archives, pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Sciences and a Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Certificate. She is interested in museum studies, creating more inclusive archival records and spaces, anthropology, and figuring out how to combine all of her different interests.