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.
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Movement History Initiative Coordinator
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)
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.”
(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.
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.
Children at Brinkley YPP
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Archive as Ceremony Symposium flyer, March 2 and 3
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.
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.
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
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.
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Coordinator, Movement History Initiative
Photo of Worth Long taken from SNCClegacyproject.org
On May 8, 2025 Worth Westinghouse Long Jr., Folklorist and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (also known as SNCC) Veteran passed away. The Franklin Research Center and Rubenstein Library mourns this lost and remembers his contributions as not only an activist, but also as a cultural archivist and true Durham native.
Worth Long’s Alabama State Police file, undated, Alabama Photographs and Pictures Collection, ADAH. Photo found at https://snccdigital.org/people/worth-long/
Long joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963, organizing in Selma, Alabama, during a pivotal time in the Civil Rights Movement. He would later become a nationally recognized folklorist, committed to preserving and celebrating Black cultural traditions. His work with the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Library of Congress helped amplify the voices, music, and stories of Black communities across the South.
A proud son of Durham’s Hayti community, Long’s legacy bridges activism and cultural memory. We are grateful for his life and his enduring contributions to justice and history.
Civil Rights History Project Interview completed by the Southern Oral History Program under contract to the Smithsonian Institution ’s National Museum of African American History & Culture and the Library of Congress, 2015 https://www.crmvet.org/nars/long_w.pdf
