Greetings from the Center for Campus History! For February’s edition of the newsletter we’re celebrating Black History Month with finds from the archives, recollections of campus space-making, book recommendations, events and more!

The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Rebecca M. Blank Center For Campus History is an ongoing university effort to uncover and give voice to those who experienced, challenged, and overcame prejudice on campus. As always, if you have a story to share, an event you think should be researched, or a person you think has been overlooked, please email us at centerforcampushistory@wisc.edu.

Meet one of the Center’s student researchers — Arielle Barber!

Arielle (she/her) is a third-year undergraduate from Neenah, Wisconsin. She is studying history and English (creative writing) with a certificate in Medieval studies. Her academic/research interests include the emergence of early human culture, the intersection of religion and government/law, women's history, the Italian Renaissance, the history of witch trials, and Black perseverance in American history. Arielle also works as a peer advisor for the History Department.

In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching true crime or history documentaries, playing NYT games, and wrangling her five cats.

Since the first one was founded on campus in 1946, Black Greek-letter Organizations (BGLOs) have  become a crucial part of the Black student community at UW–Madison, creating the first formally Black spaces at an otherwise white institution. UW–Madison has been home to eight of the nation’s nine historically Black Greek-letter organizations, known as the Divine Nine. These organizations established themselves at UW–Madison as the first Black-community oriented spaces, finding a home on campus despite—and in some ways because of—its predominantly white student body.

Read more about the history and impact of these organizations in Siftings, the Center’s online publication of research and writing.

Author and professor Nellie McKay was a pivotal figure in contemporary American letters whose scholarship helped secure a place for the study of Black writing in academia. Widely known as the coeditor of the canon-making Norton Anthology of African American Literature, McCay came to UW–Madison as a professor in 1978 and was central to establishing an African-American literature curriculum at the university. 

Now, McKay’s papers — personal and professional correspondence, course descriptions, manuscripts and writings, research files, and teaching materials — are available at the UW Archives. We’d highly recommend giving them a look. (And if you’re interested in more of McKay’s story, skip down a few sections to this month’s book recommendation.)

Often, queer presence in historic archives is a result of tragedy (AIDS, Gay Purges, discrimination, etc). The Queer Archive Drive is a space to give UW students the opportunity to self-document their experiences as queer people, preserving not only their struggles, but also their joys.

Co-hosted by the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center and UW Archives, the Drive is meant to encourage queer students to learn and contribute to the UW Archives and participate in an ongoing history of queer people on campus. This is done consensually with recording that prioritizes students' desires to share their stories. The event features a presentation, food and socializing, and opportunities to contribute to the archives. 

Wednesday, February 28, 2024  4pm-7pm

Armory and Gymnasium (Red Gym)

Don’t miss this year’s Doria Dee Johnson Lecture in History & Social Justice! Walter Johnson, noted author and Harvard University professor of history and African American studies, will present his talk “On Racial Capitalism (Redux)”. Co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Department of African American Studies, the Center for Campus History, and the Center for the Humanities

Thursday, March 21, 2024 5pm - 6:30pm

Pyle Center Auditorium Room 121

Each month, we like to share one of the many (many… many… ) books that have helped the Public History Project’s research.

This month we’re highlighting Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay by Shanna Greene Benjamin. The deeply researched work illuminates McKay’s life and work as a UW–Madison professor and central scholar of Black literature, as well as new details about her past that only emerged after her death.

(For more, check out this talk with Benjamin presented by the Friends of UW-Madison Libraries.)

We get asked a lot of questions about UW history. Each month we’ll answer one in the newsletter. 

This month: How long has Black History Month been celebrated on campus? What is the background?

The answer: Black History Month has been celebrated in the US each February for decades — the first official designation is credited to students and educators at Kent State in 1970. At UW–Madison, events celebrating Black History Month have also been offered through the years. But a new chapter of coordinated, campuswide programming started in 2014, when the African American Student Academic Services initiated a student-led Black History Month Planning Committee. 

To celebrate 10 years, students with the Black Cultural Center conducted oral histories with those who helped establish this campuswide tradition. Take a look here. 

Each month Center Director Kacie Lucchini Butcher will share a book, podcast, movie, quote, or something else she thinks has been adding to the CCH. We're calling it "From The Desk of KLB".

This month From The Desk of KLB, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. The fiction debut of acclaimed poet Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, it’s an intimate yet sweeping epic that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.

Kacie says: “Don't let the length fool you! This book is one of the most beautifully written things I've ever read.”