amistad research center

Sometimes a simple question can lead you down a rabbit hole. That’s the enjoyment of reference, your ability to learn something new while helping a patron in their own research. In this case, someone looking for a speech led to a little-known organization, the New Orleans Improvement League, whose story had a far-reaching impact on the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans. The mid-1950s saw great strides in federal de-segregation, but not everyone agreed with it. For those wh

Dorothy Mae (Delavallade) Taylor was an authoritative political figure in New Orleans and Louisiana, whose fiery rhetoric shook the old guard political establishment in the 1970s to the 1990s. Born August 10, 1928 to Charles Henry and Mary Delavallade, Dorothy Taylor was a lifelong resident of New Orleans. Her career in public service began with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the Orleans Parish School Board. At that time, school segregation relegated Black children t

In Germany in the 1930s, many scholars had to make a difficult choice. As the political climate in Europe soured when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came in to power in 1933, academics of Jewish decent began to be forced out of their faculty positions at universities. What were these Jewish scholars, and others opposed to Hitler’s regime, to do? The answer for many was to leave Europe and start a new life teaching at historically Black colleges and universities [HBCUs] in th