Chicago State University History and Africana Studies Program

01/04/2026

It looks like a great program for college seniors at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in NYC. The dormitory housing, meals each day, and a stipend will be provided. The deadline to apply is Feb 6.

The online application for the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute is now available! https://ow.ly/vsSK50Xsf2n

The Schomburg Center and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation created the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute to encourage students of color and others with interests in African-American, African, and African Diaspora Studies to pursue PhDs in the humanities.

Rising college seniors, who are eligible to apply, receive housing, meals, and a stipend during the four-week in-person program, hosted from June 1 to 26. Deadline to apply is February 6, 2026.

Photo: Lisa Herndon

03/26/2025

Elizabeth Catlett’s Legacy Lives On At The National Gallery Of Art: A career-long retrospective of the iconic artist and activist’s work examines racism, inequality, and the beauty of Blackness

A career-long retrospective of the iconic artist and activist’s work examines racism, inequality, and the beauty of Blackness.

03/08/2025

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has been dedicating their digital platforms to celebrating the multifaceted brilliance of Black women, honoring their resilience, essence, and immeasurable contributions to our nation. This month's exhibition is entitled "the Activist: Uplifting Black women who lead the charge for justice, equality, and change."

Celebrate the multifaceted brilliance of Black women, honoring their resilience and immeasurable contributions to the nation and the world.

11/10/2024

Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater trailblazing dancer and Artistic Director Emerita has died at 81. Jamison's "ability to maintain a human dimension and to project superhuman power and radiance is perhaps one of her most impressive skills.”

Judith Jamison, best known for her work as a dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has died.

08/03/2024

A literary giant, James Baldwin's centennial birthday

Baldwin is heralded for being everything from an orator, activist and fashion icon. None of that would be true if he weren't a writer first. We asked fans to break down what made his writing work.

07/25/2024

A virtual tour of the groundbreaking exhibition, the Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, with 160 works of painting, sculpture, photography, film, and ephemera. On view through July 28.

Join Dr. Denise M. Murrell, Merryl H. and James S. Tisch Curator at Large in The Met’s Director's Office, for a virtual tour of the groundbreaking exhibition...

07/08/2024

More important primary sources will become available!

In 2025, University Mississippi Press plans to publish Margaret Walker’s manuscript

06/13/2024

Philadelphia Orchestra renamed its concert hall in honor of Marian Anderson, the first African American singer to perform at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. The date of that dedication, June 8, 2024, has now been declared Marian Anderson Day in the state of Pennsylvania.

The name of the great contralto and civil rights icon now lives above the doors to the grand hall in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

06/08/2024

Happy Belated Birthday to Professor Gwendolyn Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000), a Distinguished Professor of English at Chicago State University, former Poet Laureate of Illinois, and the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize

Happy birthday to poet, Pulitzer Prize winner, teacher, and lifelong Chicagoan, Miss Gwendolyn Brooks 💕 She would have been 107 today.

Have a look back at our 2017 event, Gwendolyn Brooks Centennial: Golden Shovel on Brooks' "Children of the Poor:" https://bit.ly/3V1lJt6

📷: Image by Art Shay
[Image description: Gwendolyn Brooks on the front porch of her home in Chicago.]

03/18/2024

Letter from Lorraine Hansberry to Langston Hughes requesting permission to use a line from Hughes' poem Harlem, "a raisin in the sun," as the title of her play. February 8, 1958.

02/23/2024

The country’s oldest Black collegiate newspaper, Howard University's "the Hilltop," is celebrating 100 years this year. The Hilltop was co-founded by former Howard University students Zora Neale Hurston and Eugene King. The first issue of the newspaper was published on January 22, 1924.

“The Nation’s Oldest Black Collegiate Newspaper” was co-founded in 1924 by acclaimed Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston. News4 Community Reporter Molette Green spoke to the newspaper’s current editor-in-chief about the centennial celebration.

12/11/2023

The legacy of one of the three great medieval West African states, the Mali Empire.

One of the greatest empires in Africa, the Mali Empire was a powerhouse of trade and wealth that shaped West Africa for centuries.