James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection

The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection (JWJ) documents and celebrates the cultural and artistic achievements and the intellectual and political activities of African Americans.

  • Celebrating Black New Haven & Dixwell Congregational UCC History

    October 17, 2022

    The Beinecke Library recognizes Black New Haven and one of the city’s most revered African American communities, the Dixwell Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC). The Dixwell Church was founded at 105 Temple Street in 1820. It is the oldest African American Congregational UCC church in the world and among the oldest African American churches of any denomination in New Haven. It has a long social justice tradition with early congregants aiding escaped slaves seeking freedom through the underground railroad. While others supported the Amistad captives jailed in New Haven during their groundbreaking trial. Delayed by the global pandemic, the Dixwell Church celebrates its Bicentennial Plus Two anniversary this year. Its thriving congregation continues to be a center of the historic Dixwell neighborhood to this day. The Beinecke Library had the opportunity to share historically relevant items from the collection through a public viewing on September 17, 2022.

  • Digital project supports ‘bibliographic turn’ in Black literary studies

    August 11, 2022

    Digital project supports ‘bibliographic turn’ in Black literary studies By Allison Bensinger August 11, 2022 Share this with Facebook Share this with Twitter Share this with LinkedIn Share this with Email Print this A selection of books by Black authors (Photo by Tubyez Cropper) Yale’s Jacqueline Goldsby and Meredith McGill of Rutgers University recently received a $1.7 million grant from The Mellon Foundation to support the development of The Black Bibliography Project (BBP), an initiative that aims to revive and transform descriptive bibliography for African American and Black Diaspora literary studies.

  • Student curator Gabrielle Colangelo ’22 brings obscured lesbian histories to light

    June 6, 2022

    For her exhibition, “We Are Everywhere: Lesbians in the Archive,” now on view in Sterling Memorial Library, student curator Gabrielle “Gabby” Colangelo ’22, began by asking questions. “Why are there so few lesbians represented in Yale’s archives? And who is Silvia Dobson, this unknown woman who appears so prominently in my search results?”

  • Students present research detailing Yale’s history with slavery (Yale Daily News)

    February 4, 2022

    On Monday, three students from the “Slavery, Race and Yale” fall seminar shared historical findings about the University’s ties to slavery. The students spoke virtually at a Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library event entitled “Yale & Slavery Research — Student Perspectives.” Taught by Professors Edward Rugemer and Crystal Feimster with teaching fellow Teanu Reid, the “Slavery, Race and Yale” seminar developed from the Yale and Slavery Research Project and its mission to explore and detail Yale’s history with racial slavery from its inception in 1701 through the late-19th century. Miguel Ceballo-Countryman ’23, Patrick Hayes ’24 and Mackenzie Hawkins ’22 each dis