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The Music That Frees Us: Jonathan Lykes and BYP100 a Special Feature from the Movement History Initiative

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Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator as part of the Movement History Initiative Movement Makers Series

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The Music That Frees Us: Jonathan Lykes and BYP100 

As we celebrate summer, Pride, and Juneteenth, we are also reminded of the profound role that Black music has played in shaping this country’s culture and its movements. For the Movement History Initiative, that connection between music and organizing, past and present, is never far from mind. In this issue of Movement Makers, we turn our attention to Jonathan Lykes, co-founder and the current Director of Culture & Organizing with Black Youth Project (BYP100), whose approach to cultural organizing has always kept music at its center, as a strategy, practice, and passion worth sharing! 

Did you miss our last Movement Makers issue? No Problem! You can find it here!

photo of Black man with head in hand wearing yellow jacket
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

Jonathan’s Early Organizing Years:

 Before Jonathan Lykes (he/they/she) became the co-founder of The Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) he was a statewide organizer for the Ohio Youth Voices for Justice. He was fifteen when he started working with the organization and in 2006 would lead the organization’s first ballot initiative campaign that lobbied to raise the minimum wage in Ohio and then successfully get the bill passed.

“That’s the first time I felt powerful. First time I realized that we could bring people, working class people together.”

Photo of two African American protestors one holding a bullhorn, the other holding a flag
Photo courtesy of Jontahan Lykes

He would carry this experience and momentum as a young organizer to the University of Chicago where he would meet and study under Dr. Cathy Cohen and Dr. Charles Payne, deepening his understanding of the movement in a theoretical and cultural way.

The Founding of BYP100

 Jonathan stated that Trayvon Martin is viewed as the Emmett Till by his generation of organizers. The death of the teenager, and the unjust acquittal of his killer ,were the catalysts that led to the  bringing together of many Black youth across the nation to rally and organize against police brutality and an unfair legal system. In 2013, under the leadership and vision of his professor, Dr. Cathy Cohen, 100 Black youth leaders from across the country would  gather at the Beyond November Movement Convening in Chicago. From this convening BYP100 would come into being, with Jonathan being one of its founders.

Unique to the organization was the need and push to function under a Black Queer Feminist lens. The core founders of BYP100  noticed that, oftentimes, leaders of  the movement were Black, cisgendered, and heterosexual , but what they wanted to accomplish would require a different approach. In order to reach “true liberation for all” the organization would need for those who were most vulnerable (queer, trans, femme, poor, disabled, and undocumented Black people) to be at the center of their organizing work.

“It was not an easy task to get everyone on the same page about this, but centering those silenced and vulnerable groups within Black communities recognizes and humanizes our people who have historically been left out. This was one of the central and strongest threads that kept the organization together.”

Black woman sitting on top of a stage black, green, and red flag in the background
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

The Intergenerational Spirit of Cultural Organizing

 Also, deeply ingrained within BYP100 is the method of cultural organizing, the ability to use art and culture to shift policy, practices, and the minds and hearts of people . The 100 youth that met in Chicago that fateful day, while from different walks of life, were well versed in the importance of sewing culture into their organizing practice. During the founding meeting, youth like those of the Freedom School tradition at the CDF’s Freedom School, Highlander Center and those from Camp Akili in Oakland, would begin chanting and singing into the space, setting a framework for the organization to function for years to come.  This aspect of organizing had been central to Jonathan even in his early years. During the reading of petitions to an Ohio senator, in order to get the minimum wage ballot passed, he would perform poetry, because of his experience as a spoken word artist in high school.

Crowd of Black people in hooded sweatshirts yelling in protest
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

That framework set at the founding convening would eventually crystallize into two values that still guide BYP100’s work today. The first, a holistic energy, which is the practice of bringing one’s whole self into organizing by using things like call and response, art, singing, and dance to carry the movement’s message as it works to shift policy and practice. The second is a polyrhythmic praxis, which originally belongs to music theory, but has been adapted by Jonathan to fit into his organizing work.

“Polyrhythmic praxis is how we get a whole bunch of people doing different things, moving in their individual energies to come together, not in complete unison, but in differentiated coordination…We have to be nimble, fluid, and our talents must show up everywhere…with our full selves in all the places we’re building. So polyrhythms, or polyrhythmic praxis, allows us to demonstrate metaphorically, through the power of our own voice, what is taking place in this larger movement.”

The strategic use of art and culture in organizing is one that has been passed down by organizers from different generations, and that was the case for Jonathan and BYP100. SNCC (also known as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) was known for their use of music during the movement. Not only were there singers who used their voice in order to call meetings to order and calm organizers during desperate times, they also created a group called the Freedom Singers who would travel throughout the country, rallying people to the cause of liberation in the South. These young singers – themselves Movement organizers grounded in struggle – would create albums and focus on specific freedom songs at different times and places within the movement.  They were very aware of the strength and unity their singing brought to Movement gatherings.

Four young people joined hand in hand singing in protest
SNCC Freedom Singers, Charles Neblett, Bernice. Reagon, Cordell Reagon, and Rutha Harris, photo by Joe Alper, found at crmvet.org

For Jonathan personally, the SNCC Freedom Singers, alongside Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Highlander Center for Research and Education – where for 5 years he co-facilitated the cultural organizing train-the-trainers program, – represent the musical and spiritual roots of what BYP100 has always tried to do: make the movement something you can feel in your body, not just understand in your mind.

SNCC and its legacy have been woven into the very fiber of BYP100’s movement work since the very beginning, both figuratively and literally, as Jonathan and a few of its members have had relationships with some SNCC veterans. SNCC Legacy Project chair, Courtland Cox, was present at the creation of the founding documents of the organization;  Charlie Cobb and Judy Richardson joined local BY0100 chapter members to provide advice and mentorship.

“We were fortunate to be inspired, mentored, and supported, not just by the historic direct actions [but also] the music actions that took place within SNCC’s history…what I love about SNCC and the SNCC Legacy Project is  they have such a rich history, but they’re still fighting with us in the present moment.”

The Black Joy Experience Album

Album cover for the Black Joy Experience
The Black Joy Experience Album, Volume Two

The clearest expression of BYP100 and Jonathan’s cultural organizing work is The Black Joy Experience, a two-volume album that captures the chants, songs, and political messages that have defined the organization at key moments in its history. The recording of Volume 1 began in 2016 and was released in 2018, with members flying in from chapters across the country to record at Howard University’s radio station in Washington, D.C., on donated studio time and without dedicated funding. Released alongside the album was a resource guide containing BYP100’s history, a 20-activity holistic energy curriculum, case studies on freedom music, and testimonies from members on why freedom songs are critical to Black liberation.

“This wasn’t just music for entertainment, it was music to change the material conditions of Black people’s lives. We wanted to ensure we were adding political education, even though you could just listen to the album without any additional context, once you listen you will leave more informed and connected to our ancestors just by entering into our organization’s musical and cultural experience…”

In the time that the album was released, the choir would tour to their chapter cities. In 2019, BYP100 took the project to West Africa, touring Sierra Leone, Togo, and Ghana during the Year of Return, sharing their music and message with Black diaspora communities across the continent. Spotify also spotlighted the album and displayed Jonathan’s music in Times Square New York during Pride Month in 2022.

Present Day and Still Singing

When asked if Jonathan had a favorite freedom song, or one that keeps them going, he smiled and answered honestly: “That’s a hard question. There’s so many.”  

Just like SNCC and the Freedom Singers realized, freedom music is not meant to apply to the whole movement, but instead to specific moments and places. So for Jonathan, his favorite song changes from “week to week or year to year”. He chose to shout out Bernice Johnson Reagon’s “There’s a New World Coming.” because of its direct connection to the theme of Afrofuturism and the building of a Black radical space that BYP100 is currently focusing on.

Group of people in a bar location with instruments
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

 “I Love Being Black” from The Black Joy Experience and another of Jonathan’s personal favorites, serves as BYP100’s unofficial anthem with music by Jonathan and lyrics written by Je Naè Taylor this song speaks directly to how Jonathan understands freedom music. He believes it lives within communities, not on the charts. For Jonathan, commercialized music has not only been anti-Black, but a tool of capitalism and of the enemy. He doesn’t rely on it for that kind of spiritual enrichment. Freedom music, by contrast, is built to grow community, communicate values, and preserve history. It’s difficult to find, and when it surfaces, it’s often suppressed. For Jonathan, that’s not a reason for despair, it’s a reminder of why direct, people-centered organizing still matters most.

For those looking to find more freedom music, Jonathan’s answer is both practical and urgent. Base-building organizations must center it in their work as a rigorous cultural practice embedded in everything they do. In BYP100, that means opening and closing every meeting with song and chant, carrying the tradition forward the way SNCC once did. And for those who stumble across freedom music on their own — say, finding The Black Joy Experience on a playlist, Jonathan encourages them to follow that thread, to seek out what they haven’t yet heard, and, if they feel the call, to create their own.

BYP100 is celebrating its 13th birthday on July 13th, which is no small feat for an organization that continues to face systemic opposition designed to silence movements like theirs. Through it all, Jonathan remains rooted:

“I’m excited for the next 15 years of building Black political power and sharing radical freedom music with the masses.”

Large group photograph of African American young people
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lykes

 

***

Hello Reader,

We want to take a moment to say thank you!

 At the Movement History Initiative, we understand, as SNCC knew well,  how essential communication and community are to the movement. As our community, we are grateful for your  continued support, and for helping us keep this history alive.

We are taking a summer break, but will return in August with more movement history, archival finds, and upcoming events. In the meantime, stay connected with us through our socials and explore our partners on the website. Also, keep an eye out for updates on events and fellowship opportunities.

Also, if you’ve enjoyed the newsletter,you should tell a friend! Forward this email along, or use the link at the button below to continue spreading the knowledge of the movement!

We’ll see you in the fall!

Forward Together,

Mattison Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator.

Events, Exhibits, Featured, From Our Collections

5th Annual Black Lives in Archives Day – April 10, 2026

Post contributed by John B. Gartrell, Director, John Hope Franklin Research Center

Black Lives in Archives Day

Friday, April 10, 2026

11am-3pm

Gothic Reading Room, Rubenstein Library 2nd Floor

Please join us for the Rubenstein Library’s 5th annual Black Lives in Archives Day on Friday, April 10. This one-day immersive, “please touch” exhibition will spotlight collections from the Rubenstein Library’s rare and special items that document Black life and culture. This event is free and open to the public.

light blue event flyer with collage of photos

 

 

Featured, Franklin Research Center, Movement History Initiative, News and Features

Maisha Moses and the Young People’s Project – Special Feature from the Movement History Initiative

Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator

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This Women’s History Month, the Movement History Initiative (MHI) is proud to highlight Maisha Moses as the Executive Director of the Young People’s Project (YPP). YPP is one of the organizations that have partnered with MHI’s goal to carry forward the spirit of the organizing tradition. Using math literacy the Young People’s Project, works “to develop the abilities of elementary through high school students to succeed in school and in life, and in doing so involves them in efforts to eliminate institutional obstacles to their success” (Misson, The Young People’s Project)

Woman in red jacket sitting in chair
Maisha Moses

Early Life and Influences:

Maisha’s early childhood was heavily influenced by her parents, veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Bob and Janet Jemmott Moses. She was born in Tanzania, where her parents were teaching at a rural school in Samé. She was educated at a very early age and could read before she started school. “Teaching and education was really deep in their spirits and how they moved through the world, and so I really benefited from that.”

Three people, man in blue jacket, woman in black coat, woman in pink coat with blue scarf
(l to r) Bob Moses, Maisha Moses, Janet Moses. “Civic Leadership Spotlight: Cambridge family brings civil rights and math to kids” Cambridge Community Foundation, Dec. 19, 2018

Maisha benefited greatly from their experience as organizers during the Civil Rights Movement. Even after their time with SNCC , her parents remained connected with other organizers, many of whom  often visited the family once they moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1976. Maisha recalls learning freedom songs and being deeply moved by the energy that was brought into the house by her “extended family.” She would meet influential powerhouses like Ella Baker and see the respect from others that they had for her father, especially when she heard him speak publicly for the first time at Amzie Moore’s funeral.

Maisiah’s Future and the Algebra Project:

While in the 8th grade, Maisha’s father began teaching her and some of her peer’s algebra because it was not offered at the school. This would be the start of the Algebra Project, an organization, whose goal was to use math literacy as an organizing tool to guarantee that every child has a quality education and understanding of complex mathematics that was needed in the coming age of technology.

Maisha says that her father’s approach to mathematics was “powerful and deep enough that they helped me make my own sense of calculus and so I think I was hooked by all of that.”

Attending Harvard University allowed her to continue to volunteer with the growing Algebra Project. She started by helping with the Saturday program facilitated by  her father  and later  began working with her sister and her peers that were in the 8th grade.

Man in red shirt posing next to woman in pink shirt
Bob Moses and Maisha Moses at Freedom Summer 50th in Jackson, MS.

Her father’s method of teaching math was eye opening. His technique of viewing the classroom as a meeting space, drawn from his experience of organizing in the rural South, felt “very familiar… but at the same time, it was so different from anything else that I have experienced in all my education.” 

After graduating in 1991 Maisha  and the Algebra Project would become a 501(c)(3). What would she do next? Become an educator? No, she wanted more experience before stepping into that role. Pursue a master’s degree? Not yet, she didn’t have a clear path on what to study. What she did know was that she wanted to find her place and purpose to create systemic change, just as her parents and “extended family” had. “I felt like I had a lot to give, you know, having received so much. I had a sense of that.”

Maisha told her father she wanted to keep working with the Algebra Project.  “I didn’t see anything else that was hitting all the buttons for me like the Algebra Project.” So, he sent her to a junior high school in Oakland, California to help support teachers and implement the curriculum he had developed. She stayed in Oakland until 1997, helping shape the program to fit the school and its environment.

Maisha and the Young People’s Project (YPP)

While Maisha was in Oakland, her father and brothers were in Jackson, Mississippi establishing what would be the start of the Young People’s Project. Working with a group of students from Brinkley Middle School in an abandoned science classroom, they would play the flagway game and continue expanding their knowledge of mathematics.

Group of children playing
Children at Brinkley YPP

 

Man in black shirt speaking to class of students
Omo Facilitating Shelby

As the Moses brothers and students at Brinkley began laying the foundation for the YPP, Bob Moses called Maisha from Oakland to  have her help establish the budding organization. She was tasked with  developing a training program for the middle and high school students that would serve as math literacy workers. Years later, Bob Moses’s insight and Maisha’s leadership proved invaluable as YPP grew out of the classroom at Brinkley Middle and into other institutions of education. Omo Moses wrote  in his memoir “White Peril: A Family Memoir,” that Maisha’s involvement in the early stages of YPP “created space for the spirit of love to flourish” calling her YPP’s mother. 

The Young People’s Project Today

Today Maisha serves as the Executive Director of the Young People’s Project. For thirty years the organization has stayed true to its original cause of giving young people the space to organize and teach themselves and one another through mathematics. In 2005, support from the National Science Foundation made it possible to open a second office in Boston, with expansion into high schools in Chicago and Michigan soon after.. While maintaining close ties to the Algebra Project, YPP has also partnered with the Education Testing Service and, in 2015, extended its impact internationally by bringing the Flagway Tournament to Dublin, Ireland.  Grounded in its tradition of grassroots organizing, the organization also helped inspire “Finding Our Folk” (FOF), a student-led response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the government’s failure to respond effectively.

Woman in black shirt holding microphone
Maisha Moses at Flagway

The Young People’s Project offers two signature programs: the Flagway Tournament and Math Playground. Flagway™, a fast-paced, team-based math game, allows students to decode number patterns and race their solutions, building fluency, strategy, and pride. In 2025, YPP hosted its 9th National Flagway Tournament at the University of San Francisco, bringing together seven teams and about 200 students, educators, and families. Math Playground extends this work to broader audiences, creating interactive spaces where math becomes shared and engaging. YPP has facilitated seven Math Playgrounds across three states, reaching hundreds of participants, including more than 350 students and 225 community members. Together, these programs embody YPP’s mission to make math collaborative, empowering, and alive. The 10th Flagway Tournament will be hosted May 16th this year at MIT campus Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Group of students in black t-shirts posing for photograph

The growth of the Young People’s Project and Maisha as a leader and math literacy expert is a testament to the power of the organizing spirit as it has transformed over time. The Young People’s project remains rooted in the belief that young people have the ability to lead their own learning and transform their own communities, just as Maisha has remained rooted within the legacy of her parents’ work. Together they continue to carry the spirit of the movement forward.

And Don’t Forget!

The 10th National Flagway™ Tournament and Math Playground

May 16, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM | MIT Campus (Cambridge, MA)

The 10th National Flagway™ Tournament and Math Playground is a dual-format, youth-led celebration of math literacy bringing together students, families, educators, and community partners on the MIT campus during the 2026 Year of Math.

The day begins with the Math Playground—an open, family-friendly arena featuring 25+ interactive math games designed for K–8 learners and led by high school Math Literacy Workers (MLWs). Participants can explore hands-on activities that make math creative, collaborative, and accessible for all ages.

The event culminates in the National Flagway™ Tournament, a fast-paced, team-based competition built on the Möbius function, where middle school teams are coached by high school MLWs using YPP’s distinctive near-peer leadership model. Students don’t just solve math problems—they strategize, move, collaborate, and lead!

Families, educators, and supporters are invited to attend, observe, participate, and celebrate a public vision of math where leadership, inclusion, and opportunity take center stage.This is a free event! 

Register Here!

Watch a preview of the event here!

From Our Collections

2026 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America

Post contributed by Patrick A. Stawski, Human Rights Archivist

A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland is the winner of the 2026 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America.

Gilliland will accept the award and talk about her work on April 7, 2026, from 5:00pm-6:30pm at the Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Smith Warehouse, Bay 4.  More information about the event can be found on the DHRC@FHI website.

Cohen Gilliland headshot
2026 Juan E. Mendez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America Winner, Cohen Gilliland

This is the seventeenth year of this prestigious award. The award is supported by the Duke Human Rights Center@the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Human Rights Archive at the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

In A Flower Traveled in My Blood, Gilliland documents how the Argentine Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo set out to find their grandchildren, abducted by the military junta in the 1970s and 80s. With determination and creativity, the abuelas marched, confronted the authorities, allied with local and international human rights groups, and pioneered the use of genetic testing to find their loved ones. This is despite the intense grief of losing their adult children, “disappeared” by the security forces.

Deborah Jakubs, a judge and University Librarian Emerita at Duke University and historian of Latin America, wrote that the book is “exceptional.”

Flower Traveled book cover
Book cover for A Flower Traveled in My Blood

“Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Gilliland’s book traces the rise of the Abuelas’ activism by focusing on the life and death of one young woman, Patricia Roisinblit, the only child of Rosa and Benjamín… A Flower Traveled in My Blood reads like a mystery novel, as Patricia’s story and those of other desaparecidos unfold against the backdrop of military repression and societal unrest. One of the book’s many strengths is the author’s careful attention to the complex ethical, legal, and emotional aspects of attempting to return lost children to families that are completely new to them.”

Christine Folch, also a judge and the Bacca Foundation Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, wrote, “Ultimately, ‘who am I?’ is the fundamental question of the book. I particularly appreciated that the author does not sugar coat or hide the dilemmas faced by adult grandchildren who now have to grapple with whether to accuse the only parents they have known.

The other judges included Prof. James Chappel, a member of the DHRC@FHI executive committee and the Gilhuly Family Associate Professor in the History Department at Duke; and Robin Kirk, a former co-director of the DHRC@FHI and Professor of the Practice in the Cultural Anthropology Department at Duke.

When notified of the award, Gilland stated, “I am deeply honored to receive the Juan E. Méndez prize, and to be associated with Professor Méndez and his enduring legacy of human rights advocacy. It is especially meaningful to receive this recognition from Duke, whose library holdings on human rights in Latin America are unparalleled, and which I frequently and gratefully consulted for this project. I would like to dedicate this award to the grandmothers and grandchildren who trusted me with their stories and who have remained relentless in their fight for truth, justice, and the preservation of memory.”

First awarded in 2008, the Méndez Human Rights Book Award honors the best current non-fiction book published in English on human rights, democracy, and social justice in contemporary Latin America. The books are evaluated by a panel of judges drawn from academia, journalism, human rights, and public policy circles.

For more information on the award, event, and previous winners, see https://humanrights.fhi.duke.edu/current-programs/juan-e-mendez-book-award/.

For more information about A Flower Traveled in My Blood, see https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Flower-Traveled-in-My-Blood/Haley-Cohen-Gilliland/9781668017142

From Our Collections

“I AM… SOMEBODY”: Honoring Jesse Jackson Through the Florence Tate Papers

Post contributed by Krista Bradley, John Hope Franklin Research Center Graduate Intern

Jesse Jackson was a reverend, activist, and political icon from Greenville, South Carolina, who helped shape modern civil rights politics. Rising to national prominence in the 1960s as a protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he built his career on grassroots organizing, self-pride, community building, and active participation in American democracy. In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), whose mission was “to protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.”  The organization later evolved into the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which still operates today. Within Operation PUSH, Jackson became known for his motivational work with Black students, often reciting the poem “I Am Somebody,” written by Atlanta pastor and civil rights leader Reverend William Holmes Borders, Sr. Jackson’s use of the poem gained national attention in his 1972 Sesame Street appearance, where he performed the call-and-response poem with a group of children.

sepia colored poster with Jesse Jackson headshot
1984 Jesse Jackson campaign poster, Florence Tate Papers, 1960s-2006, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

By the early 1980s, Jackson had built enough momentum to take a bold step: running for president—and what a historic run it was! In his first presidential campaign, he elevated the idea of a “Rainbow Coalition,” originally developed by Fred Hampton to organize marginalized groups in Chicago and fight racism, poverty, and police brutality. Jackson’s use of the term transformed it into a broader ideology of uniting diverse communities, young and old, and encouraging them to use their voting power to effect positive change. Though he did not win the 1984 Democratic nomination, Jackson’s third-place finish significantly reshaped national conversations about who can wield political influence. Building on this progress, he launched another presidential campaign in 1988, winning several primaries and caucuses—including key victories in Southern states. These victories established him as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination, even though he ultimately finished second. Jesse Jackson’s life’s work is the result of a vivid imagination rooted in fearlessness, pride, and determination. He inspired so many communities across the country, not only through his pursuit of higher office, but also through the doors he dared to open.

group of political buttons
Jesse Jackson presidential campaign buttons, Florence Tate Papers, 1960s-2006, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Florence Tate (1931-2014) was a 1966 graduate of English from LeMoyne College in Dayton, Ohio. There, she began her career as a reporter and became active in several civil and human rights organizations and Pan-Africanist affairs. As Jackson’s press secretary during both of his presidential campaigns, Tate assembled a collection that documents the strategic labor and teamwork associated with seeking higher political office, while preserving the essence of the civil rights movement and the individuals who carried it forward. Her papers, acquired by the John Hope Franklin Research Center in 2017, include campaign buttons, photographs, press releases, newspapers, zines, internal communications, business cards, correspondence, and extensive notes. Materials on Jesse Jackson in her collection remind us that historic legacies are rarely built without trustworthy and knowledgeable support in both open and closed spaces. By providing access to these materials, we honor a lifetime spent enduring impossible obstacles and pushing the boundaries of possibility.

Handwritten notes and business cards, Florence Tate Papers, 1960s-2006, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

 

Citation: Rainbow Push Coalition(2018). Accessed 2026 February 25. https://www.rainbowpush.org/organization-and-mission

Digital Collections, Featured, From Our Collections

Duke Grad Student Awarded Grant to Digitize Historic Slavery Records

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Post contributed by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant

Duke Libraries is pleased to announce its partnership with History doctoral candidate Jobie Hill on her newly funded project, Bearing Witness to Enslaved Women and Their Future Issue and Increase in the Massie Family’s 18th– and 19th-Century Reproductive Labor Systems (Bearing Witness). Hill is the recipient of a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) award through its Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices program.

Bearing Witness is one of sixteen projects that received funding through the Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices program, which seeks to “deepen public understanding of the histories of communities whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or attended.” Since its launch in 2021, the program has awarded nearly $12 million for 49 projects.

Bearing Witness received $300,000 and is a three-year project beginning in January 2026 and ending in December 2028. Hill’s institutional partners include Duke Libraries’ David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library; the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin; the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library; the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William & Mary; Virginia Museum of History & Culture; and Saving Slave Houses, the non-profit Hill founded to support research and public outreach.

sepia tone map of land
1795 Land Survey by Major Thomas Massie, Massie family papers, 1766-1920s, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Hill’s research focuses on people enslaved by the Massie family during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bearing Witness will result in the digitization of the family’s papers housed at the partner institutions and a database of at least 1,300 birth records of people born into slavery and documented in these papers. As Hill writes of these records,

“Strategic business processes, such as systematic tracking and bookkeeping ledgers, allowed slaveholders to count and control bodies, organize them for labor, and claim them as property. By adapting legacy accounting practices to the unique needs of slave breeding the Massie family converted enslaved women into mothers, mothers into birth records, and birth records into a self-sustaining reproducing labor system that yielded wealth-building dividends. Through these practices their sophisticated reproductive labor enterprise was sustained for more than a century.”

At Duke, Hill will work with Hannah Jacobs, the libraries’ Digital Humanities Consultant, and a team of graduate research assistants, to gather and organize information about the people enslaved by the Massie family to create the Enslaved Persons Database. The database will be shared with the public as a downloadable dataset. In addition to the publicly accessible database, the team will create a Guide to the Massie Family Archive, an online finding aid for the holistic Massie collection.

 

 

 

Events, Exhibits, Featured, Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library, Symposia and Conferences

Franklin Research Center Announces the Opening of the Sylvia Wynter Papers, Exhibition, and Symposium

Post contributed by John B. Gartrell, director John Hope Franklin Research Center 

The John Hope Franklin Research Center is pleased to share that the archive of philosopher, scholar, and author Sylvia Wynter will be opened to the public beginning March 3. The archive, which was acquired by the center in 2018, has been undergoing processing for the past 2 years and the writings series will be made available first to researchers, with the remaining sections of the collection opening by the summer of this year.

sepia colored headshot photo of Sylvia Wynter
Sylvia Wynter photo, 1970s

To commemorate and share the contents within the papers, the Franklin Research Center is mounted an exhibition entitled “Noise up the World: Introducing the Archive of Sylvia Wynter,” which will be on display in the Mary Duke Biddle Room in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Library from February 26-August 1. This exhibition is co-curated by John B. Gartrell, Dr. Deborah Jenson, Diego Avila Lopez, and Michaelle Vilmont.

Two events will kickoff the exhibition and opening of the papers. On Monday, March 2, there will be an opening reception from 5:30-7:00pm and Tuesday, March 3, the “Archive as Ceremony” symposium will occur from 8:30am-4:30pm. Both events will take place in the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room 153 of the Rubenstein Library. The symposium is co-sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History & Culture, Department of Romance Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

collage of writings for event poster
Archive as Ceremony Symposium flyer, March 2 and 3

Any researchers wishing to use the collection should register a research account and order materials prior to their visit. The collection guide for the papers is now live – https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/wyntersylvia. For any additional inquires, please contact the Franklin Research Center – franklin-collection@duke.edu.

Program for “Archive as Ceremony,” March 3, 2026 (Holsti-Anderson Assembly Room, Rubenstein 153)

9:00am – Light breakfast

9:30am – Opening Remarks

9:45am – Keynote Address, Anthony Bogues, Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Africana Studies, Affiliated Professor of History of Art and Political Science, Brown University, “Archives : Black radical/ anti-Colonial Thought / Theory and History Making”

10:30 Discussant: Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Associate Professor of Literature, Duke University

10:45-11:00, Q&A

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:00 Roundtable, “Organized Noise: Processing and Making Public the Sylvia Wynter Papers”, with John B. Gartrell, Tracy Jackson, Russell-Flowers Technical Services Archivist, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and Bedour Alagraa, Assistant Professor of Political and Social Thought in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin

Noon-1:00 Lunch Break

1:00 Panel, “The Discovery Archive and the Journey Toward the Human”

Diego Ávila López, Doctoral Student in Romance Studies, “Navigating 1492: Sylvia Wynter and the Colonial in the Archive”

Michaelle Vilmont, Doctoral Student in Romance Studies, “Who Brings Society Into Being? Sylvia Wynter, Frantz Fanon, and the Genres of Being Human”

1:45 Discussants: Richard Rosa, Associate Professor of Romance Studies, Duke University; Tony Ballas, Doctoral Student in Literature, Duke University

2:00 Q&A

2:15 Panel, “Wynter from Subsistence to Catastrophe”

Bedour Alagraa, Assistant Professor of Political and Social Thought in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, “The Interminable Catastrophe”

Isabel Bradley, Assistant Professor of French Literature, Thought, and Culture, New York University, “On Subsistence and the Sociogenic Principle”

3:00 Discussants: Anne-Maria Makhulu, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University; Laurent Dubois, John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor in the History & Principles of Democracy at the University of Virginia

3:15 Q&A

3:30-3:45 Break

3:45 Epilogue: Deborah Jenson, Professor Emeritus of Romance Studies, Duke University, “Sylvia Wynter: Human Autonomy and the ‘Cognitive Charter’”

4:00 Discussant: Felwine Sarr, Anne-Marie Bryan Distinguished Professor of French, Duke University

4:15-4:30 Q&A

Thanks to the facilitation of Professor Anthony Bogues, the John Hope Franklin Research Center was able to acquire the papers of Sylvia Wynter in 2018. Over the last 2.5 years, the archive has been painstakingly organized and prepared to be shared with the wide range of scholars from those who know Wynter’s work intimately to those who are only discovering her voice. A small team here are Duke, including scholars, graduate students, the staff of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Duke University Libraries exhibition team has dedicated this past year to commemorate the opening access to these papers with this symposium and exhibition which serve as a prelude to the seeds of future events involving the large and distinguished community of Sylvia Wynter scholars, students and researchers whom we acknowledge humbly and respectfully.

DCL at Duke, Featured, From Our Collections

Lyda Moore Merrick: A Life in Care, Art, and Community

Post contributed by Amelia Wimbish, DCL at Duke Intern

Today we celebrate the birthday of Lyda Moore Merrick: an artist, a teacher, and a steward of community life in Durham. She was attentive and deliberate in how she showed up for others, offering her abilities where they were needed. People who knew her remembered her patience, her composure, and the thoughtful way she moved through the world.

She was born on November 18, 1886, in a home on Fayetteville Street where her parents, Sarah McCotta “Cottie” Dancy Moore and Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore, cared for neighbors before a hospital for Black residents existed in Durham. The rhythm of that household formed her understanding of responsibility and how one might carry it. Her life is documented not only in her father’s papers but also in the papers of Dr. Charles DeWitt Watts, her son-in-law, whose correspondence and family materials help preserve her story.

Family photograph of Lyda V. Merrick from the 1960s

Lyda was observant and patient, drawn to books, art, and music. At Whitted School she excelled in her studies and graduated as valedictorian. She continued her education at Barber-Scotia Seminary in Concord, a school that prepared Black women to teach and to serve their communities, and then at Fisk University, where she earned her degree in music with honors in 1911. Later she studied art at Columbia University. These institutions connected her to networks of Black educators, artists, and cultural workers and affirmed what she had already learned at home: knowledge holds value when it is shared. She often remembered watching her father read his Bible and study medical research late into the night, long after his formal training had ended. From him she learned that responsibility was not a task completed, but a way of living.

In 1916 she married Edward Richard Merrick. Their home at 906 Fayetteville Street became a place for lessons, conversation, and encouragement. She taught piano and violin to students of many ages, guiding them toward confidence through daily practice. She served as organist at St. Joseph’s AME Church, where music shaped both worship and community life. Those who studied with her remembered calm instruction paired with high expectations, and an approach to teaching that treated skill as something developed over time.

Lyda made art throughout her life. She painted portraits and landscapes and often worked from memory to hold on to places and people who mattered. Her portrait of her father, completed in 1940, remains on display at the Stanford L. Warren Branch of the Durham County Library. Later in life, she drew a detailed map of Hayti from her recollection, recording the neighborhood’s homes, streets, and gathering places. Her art was a form of remembrance, a way of keeping community life visible and known. Across her life, she treated art, teaching, and community work as one practice: preserving what mattered by making it shareable.

Brochure interior describing the organizations mission and support for blind readers.
A printed brochure from the North Carolina Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs, Inc., featuring the motto “Lifting As We Climb.”

Her work with blind readers grew from a long relationship. As a young mother, she came to know John Carter Washington, who was blind and deaf from infancy and was receiving care through Lincoln Hospital, where her father worked as a physician and as hospital superintendent. Their friendship endured for more than sixty years. When Washington noted the lack of reading material available to Black blind readers, Lyda responded. In 1952 she founded The Negro Braille Magazine, later adopted as a project of the Durham Colored Library. Volunteers gathered regularly to transcribe essays, sermons, and articles into Braille by hand. The magazine reached readers throughout the United States and internationally. Later renamed The Merrick Washington Magazine, it continued for decades under her daughter’s and later her granddaughter’s leadership. It remains a rare example of Black-led accessible publishing and a testament to collective effort. In 1973, her leadership in the project was recognized by a letter of commendation from the White House.

Recognition of Lyda’s work came steadily across her life. Community organizations, cultural groups, and professional associations honored her not just for what she accomplished, but for how she carried her responsibilities. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Links, Inc. of Durham recognized her leadership. The Daughters of Dorcas and Sons Quilting Guild honored her role in sustaining craft and cultural memory. The North Carolina Library Association granted her honorary membership for her leadership with the Durham Colored Library, her way of continuing her father’s legacy. The Hayti Heritage Center named a gallery in her honor, a testament to her influence on Durham’s artistic life.

Late in life, Lyda reflected on her experiences in an oral history published in Hope and Dignity: Older Black Women of the South. She spoke about the institutions her community built and maintained, and about the belief that cultural and educational life should be shaped by those who participate in it. Her recollections emphasize continuity and ongoing effort rather than singular accomplishments.

Her presence is still visible in Durham. Her portrait of her father greets visitors at the Stanford L. Warren Branch Library. Her hand-drawn map of Hayti preserves the memory of a neighborhood reshaped by time. Issues of The Merrick Washington Magazine survive in collections as evidence of shared labor and sustained commitment.

hand drawn map of Hayti community
A hand-drawn map created from memory, documenting the homes, streets, churches, and gathering places of Hayti.

She once reflected, “My father passed a torch to me which I have never let go out. We are blessed to serve.” The care she carried did not end with her lifetime. It continues in the practices of teaching, memory work, and community stewardship today. On her birthday, we honor the torch she tended and the work that keeps it lit.

 

Sources and Further Reading:

Dr. Charles DeWitt Watts Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Includes correspondence, family materials, John Carter Washington materials, and extensive documentation relating to The Negro Braille Magazine and The Merrick Washington Magazine.

 

Materials relating to Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore in the Rubenstein Library

Appearing throughout the C. C. Spaulding Papers and related institutional and family collections.

Hand-drawn map of Hayti by Lyda Moore Merrick

Available through Durham County Library and the Rubenstein Library digital collections.

Portrait of Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore (1940)

Painted by Lyda Moore Merrick. On display at the Stanford L. Warren Branch Library.

Hope and Dignity: Older Black Women of the South, by Emily Herring Wilson

Temple University Press.

Aaron McDuffie Moore: An African American Physician, Educator, and Founder of Durham’s Black Wall Street (2020), by Blake Hill-Saya

A comprehensive biography of Dr. Moore.

 

Featured, Franklin Research Center

A Black August Booklist, But Make it SNCCY!

Submitted by Mattison H. Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator

February is traditionally associated as the month in which we focus on the history and achievements of African Americans within the United States. But as information becomes more accessible and widespread more people have realized that Black history cannot be contained within a single month, and August is just as important a month for the Black community as February is.

What is Black August?

The origins of Black August began during the later end of the Black liberation movement, during the 1960s and 70s. As the nonviolent, peaceful mobilizations of the Civil Rights Movement began to transform into the direct-action campaigns of the Black Power Movement (sparked by SNCC’s Stokely Carmichael one hot night in Greenwood, MS, nearing the end of the Meredith March for Freedom), the formation of the nascent Black Panther Party come to the forefront of the movement bringing with them renewed energies toward self-sustainability and revolutionary theories and practices.

George Jackson, revolutionary and member of the Black Panther Party became a symbol of resistance while in prison. Incarcerated at a young age in 1961, Jackson was exposed to radical liberation politics by fellow inmates. Emboldened by this philosophy , he and his comrades dedicated themselves to organizing within the prison system, leading study groups and even starting a chapter of the Black Panther Party within the San Quentin Prison.

It was in 1971, a year after the killing of his brother, Jonathan, and other political prisoners, that George Jackson was assassinated by a prison guard within Soledad Prison. The death of these two brothers, along with the death of other political prisoners sparked widespread organizing and advocacy within the prison system.

Black August was celebrated for the first time in 1979 within San Quentin prison, where George Jackson and his comrades breathed their last breath. In remembrance of their lives and the decade of the liberation struggle within prisons, a moment of connection to centuries of Black resistance that served as a precedent, Black August came to symbolize a broader struggle for liberation and justice, particularly in response to enduring racial and social inequities.

How Can You Participate?

When Black August was first celebrated within the walls of the California San Quentin prison, prisoners in solidarity wore black armbands on their left arms and dedicated time to study books about revolutions and liberation, specifically focusing on the writings of George Jackson. In that same spirit, Black August continues to be a month of remembrance, education, and meditation toward the fight for liberation. During the month, celebrators dedicate their time to “study, fast, train, [and] fight.”

A Black August Booklist, But Make it SNCCY!

With an emphasis on STUDY here are some books written by members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of the 1960s. Dedicated to the liberation of all people by means of impowering local people and communities, with education and nonviolent/political training, there is much to be learned about the fight for liberation between the pages of these featured books.

“This Nonviolent Stuff will Get you Killed”
by Charlie Cobb
“The Making of Black Revolutionaries”
by James Forman
“Hands on the Freedom Plow”
Editor Judy Richardson
“Ready for Revolution”
by Stokely Carmichael
“I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle”
by Charles Payne
“The Courage to Hope: How I Stood Up to the Politics of Fear”
by Shirley Sherrod

 

 

Want to read more from the veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee? Check out the SNCC 60th Anniversary program agenda[SNCC-Agenda-v6.pdf] (start on p. 27) for more books by SNCC veterans.

And for a deeper context, check out the “Meet the Authors: A Legacy of Excellence in SNCC Literature – 19 Authors, 1 Movement” [Meet the Authors of the SNCC 60th Anniversary Conference – SNCC Legacy Project] videos, where 19 authors gather for one-on-one interviews to talk about their experiences within organizing that lead to their written materials.