By LUCY D. SUDDRETH
"I believe in any kind of education which will reach down and be the most effective in regard to the lifting up of a race of people," said Booker T. Washington, principal of Tuskegee Institute.
"An Uplifting Tradition: Graduates of Historically Black Colleges," a celebratory display, has been mounted on the sixth floor of the Library's Madison Building.
The idea for the display grew out of a joint project between a Daniel A.P. Murray African American Cultural Association committee and Logical Expressions Design Inc., a local graphic design company, to publish a directory of historically black colleges and universities. Committee members are Debra Newman Ham of the Manuscript Division, Ardie Myers of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division, Rosalyn L. Wilcots of the Congressional Services Team, Charles Jones of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division and Donald Ware of the Human Resources Division and project director for the directory.
The display commemorates prominent black Americans Booker T. Washington, Zora Neale Hurston, Thurgood Marshall and Patricia Roberts Harris -- all graduates of historically black colleges whose papers, books and other memorabilia are at the Library of Congress.
"When you look at black leadership, particularly in the early part of this century, you have to credit the historically black institutions," said Debra Newman Ham, Afro-American history and culture specialist in the Manuscript Division.
"The display shows the significance of black colleges and the types of individuals that they have produced," said Ardie Myers, reference specialist.
The lives of those honored span the years from Reconstruction following the Civil War through the Jim Crow period and the decades of the civil rights era.
"These four individuals struggled to uplift or honor the talents of their race within the constraints of their time," said Sara Day, exhibit director in the Interpretive Programs Office who collaborated with Ms. Ham and Ms. Myers on the items selected and the prepared text.
Booker T. Washington, a former slave, entered Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in 1872. "At Hampton, he later said, "I found the opportunities ... to learn thrift, economy and push." After graduating, he taught school in his hometown and then at Hampton. He was given the opportunity to start his own school in the deep South at Tuskegee, Ala. In 1881 he became the first principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. As principal, Washington provided leadership and defined a program to educate black Americans during an era of segregation.
Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Fla., one of the first incorporated all-black towns. She attended the Hungerford School, where disciples of Booker T. Washington taught basic academic skills and self-reliance. Hurston later attended the Morgan Academy, now Morgan State University, in Baltimore. In 1920 she received an associate degree from Howard University and also at that time began to write about her past. From 1927 and 1932, Hurston worked exclusively as an anthropologist-folklorist. She used her talent for capturing African-American folk idiom, emotion, spirituality and humor in her novels and short stories.%
Thurgood Marshall received his undergraduate training from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. It was known as "the Black Princeton" because of its all-white, mostly Princeton-trained faculty and demanding academic standards. Because of segregation laws Marshall attended Howard University's School of Law. Mr. Marshall acknowledged later, "It was at Howard that I found out what my rights were." Marshall continued his quest to protect human rights as the first black Supreme Court Justice.
Patricia Roberts Harris graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Howard University. While there she served as vice chairman of the student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and participated in a sit-in at a white cafeteria that refused to serve blacks.
Harris served in two Cabinet posts for the Carter administration as secretary of housing and urban development (1977 to 1979) and secretary of health and human services (1979 to 1980).
"These individuals offer an interdisciplinary array of academic achievement and leadership," said Rosalyn L. Wilcots, attorney in the Library's Congressional Services Team.
The display was designed by Chris O'Connor, exhibits production specialist in the Interpretive Programs Office. "An Uplifting Tradition: Graduates of Historically Black Colleges," is on display through March 18.