A&S Summer Fellows 2017

Lemon Project Symposium Presentation: The Black Student Experience at UR (1970-1992) by Jennifer Munnings

Irina Rogova Uncategorized , ,

On March 16, 2018, five undergraduate students who have worked with the Race & Racism at the University of Richmond Project had the opportunity to present at the Lemon Project Symposium at the College of William and Mary. The panel, entitled “Seeing the Unseen and Telling the Untold: Institutions, Individuals, and Desegregating the University of Richmond,” was moderated by Dr. Nicole Maurantonio and featured Dominique Harrington, Madeleine Jordan-Lord, Elizabeth Mejía-Ricart, Jennifer Munnings, & Destiny Riley. Below you will find the text and slide images of Jennifer Munnings’s presentation, focusing on the research she conducted as a 2017 A&S Summer Research Fellow with the project. Click here to read more of her writing from last summer, and here to explore the exhibit she and her teammates created, “The Black Student Experience at UR (1970-1992).”

Jennifer Munnings is a rising junior at the University of Richmond double majoring in Sociology and Political Science with a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is from Nassau, Bahamas, and attended high school in New York. She was a research fellow during the Summer of 2017 for the University of Richmond Race & Racism Project where she created metadata for archival materials, wrote blog posts for the project, and collected oral histories and stories at the unveiling of the Maggie Lena Walker statue.

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Lemon Project Symposium Presentation: Faculty Response to Institutional Change by Dominique Harrington

Irina Rogova Uncategorized , ,
Photograph courtesy of The Lemon Project at the College of William & Mary.

On March 16, 2018, five undergraduate students who have worked with the Race & Racism at the University of Richmond Project had the opportunity to present at the Lemon Project Symposium at the College of William and Mary. The panel, entitled “Seeing the Unseen and Telling the Untold: Institutions, Individuals, and Desegregating the University of Richmond,” was moderated by Dr. Nicole Maurantonio and featured Dominique Harrington, Madeleine Jordan-Lord, Elizabeth Mejía-Ricart, Jennifer Munnings, & Destiny Riley. Below you will find the text and slide images of Dominique Harrington’s presentation, focusing on the research she conducted as a 2017 A&S Summer Research Fellow with the project. Click here to read more of her writing from last summer, and here to explore her exhibit “Faculty Response to Institutional and National Change (1968-1973).”

Dominique “Dom” Harrington is a rising senior from Indianapolis, IN majoring in American Studies and minoring in Psychology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.  She is a part of the Dean’s Student Advisory Board, Students Creating Opportunities, Pride, and Equality (SCOPE), and she is both an Oldham and Oliver Hill Scholar. She has worked on the Race & Racism Project for two years and looks forward to continuing to work for the project during her final year at the University. Last summer, she completed a digital exhibit on faculty response to institutional and national changes from 1968-1973.
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Censorship on College Campuses: The Mystery of The Collegian Sex Survey

Irina Rogova Uncategorized ,

Over ten weeks this summer, 10 A&S Summer Fellows, 1 Spider Intern, 5 faculty mentors, and 1 community partner (Untold RVA) collaborated on The Race & Racism at the University of Richmond Project. Final projects focused on the Race & Racism Project included exhibits, podcasts, and digital stories. Over the next few weeks, we will feature these works.

Karissa Lim is a senior at the University of Richmond double majoring in Psychology and Rhetoric & Communication Studies. She first worked with the Race & Racism at UR Project during the Fall 2016 semester in the class Digital Memory & the Archive. Her final project in Fall 2016 was a timeline outlining the history of Race and Education between 1946 and 1971 with team member Damian Hondares. She returned to the project as a 2017 A&S Summer Research Fellow, working with the project remotely from her hometown of Franklinville, New Jersey and traveling to neighboring Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to conduct site visits.

Karissa’s final project was a digital story entitled “Censorship on College Campuses: The Mystery of The Collegian Sex Survey.” A bit about the topic in her own words:

While creating metadata for the Race & Racism at the University of Richmond Project, Summer Research Fellow Karissa Lim (’18) stumbled upon a series of letters from 1968 that referenced a Collegian sex survey that had been censored. As a social science and humanities student, Karissa was curious about the content of the survey and set out to find the questions and results, hoping that these would provide more context and answers. Unfortunately, Karissa could not find the questions or results of the second half of the survey. This mystery raised more questions about freedom of speech and religious reputation on the University of Richmond’s campus.

View Karissa’s digital story and other projects via our digital collection at memory.richmond.edu

Spider of Color: Korean-American Representation at the University of Richmond

Irina Rogova Uncategorized , ,

Over ten weeks this summer, 10 A&S Summer Fellows, 1 Spider Intern, 5 faculty mentors, and 1 community partner (Untold RVA) collaborated on The Race & Racism at the University of Richmond Project. Final projects focused on the Race & Racism Project included exhibits, podcasts, and digital stories. Over the next few weeks, we will feature these works.

Joshua Hasulchan Kim is from Colonial Heights, Virginia. He is a junior at the University of Richmond who is double majoring in Journalism and French. Joshua is involved in various clubs on campus: He is the co-president of Block Crew dance crew, the opinions editor for the Collegian newspaper, and is the Co-Director of Operations for the Multicultural Lounge Building Committee. Joshua joined the project as part of the Spring 2017 independent study (RHCS 387) and expanded upon this research with the support of an A&S Summer Research Fellowship during Summer 2017.

Josh approached his summer research with the goal of identifying Korean and Korean-American students throughout the University of Richmond’s history. His research took him down some unexpected routes. Read the various blog posts Josh contributed over the course of his research, including his archival discovery of the (possibly) first Korean-American student on campus, here. Josh’s his final project was a podcast–listen to it here: “Spider of Color: Korean-American Representation at the University of Richmond.”

Explore Josh’s podcast and other projects via the Race & Racism at UR Project’s digital collection at memory.richmond.edu

The Black Student Experience at the University of Richmond Main Campus (1970-1992)

Irina Rogova Uncategorized ,

Over ten weeks this summer, 10 A&S Summer Fellows, 1 Spider Intern, 5 faculty mentors, and 1 community partner (Untold RVA) collaborated on The Race & Racism at the University of Richmond Project. Final projects focused on the Race & Racism Project included exhibits, podcasts, and digital stories. Over the next few weeks, we will feature these works.

Jennifer Munnings is a sophomore, intending to major in Sociology with a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Jennifer was new to the Race & Racism Project when she joined our Summer 2017 team. She created 74 individual digital items for our online collection, and contributed several blog posts available here. Her final project for the summer was an Omeka digital exhibit entitled “The Black Student Experience at the University of Richmond Main Campus (1970-1992).” A bit about the topic in her own words:

The University of Richmond’s black student integration experience is a tale of feet dragging by the University administration, threats of defunding from the federal government, and some resistance from the student body.  University of Richmond jumped through hurdles to avoid integration and maintain federal funding after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, complete with creating University College to cater to the “nontraditional” student. In 1968 the University of Richmond had its first full time black student enrolled in Richmond College, Barry Greene. Black students at UR had to fight to cultivate spaces for themselves where their opinions were acknowledged as legitimate, and their experiences were not discredited within the predominately white institution….Black students did not have spaces for themselves on campus where their feelings, opinions, and right to be students were not questioned. There were no black faculty or administrators on campus; the only black adult face students would have seen would have been the custodians or the gardeners. This exhibit will explore the acts of activism, intentional or not,  by black students through their experience at UR in their creation of clubs and organizations. Additionally, it will explore the tension that existed between black students and the administration in their attempt to be integrated into the campus.

Jennifer also joined Project Coordinator Dr. Nicole Maurantonio, Project Archivist Irina Rogova, Community Partner Free Egunfemi of Untold RVA, and fellow sophomore and A&S Summer Fellow Elizabeth Mejía-Ricart at the Imagining American Conference at UC Davis to present on the summer work on October 14, 2017.

Explore Jennifer’s exhibit and others via the project’s digital collection at memory.richmond.edu

Faculty Response to Institutional and National Change (1968-1973)

Irina Rogova Uncategorized ,

Over ten weeks this summer, 10 A&S Summer Fellows, 1 Spider Intern, 5 faculty mentors, and 1 community partner (Untold RVA) collaborated on The Race & Racism at the University of Richmond Project. Final projects focused on the Race & Racism Project included exhibits, podcasts, and digital stories. Over the next few weeks, we will feature these works.

Dominique “Dom” Harrington is a junior majoring in American Studies and minoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She worked with the Race & Racism project for the Fall 2016 seminar in the course Digital Memory & the Archive, where she developed an exhibit entitled “George Modlin’s Segregated University of Richmond” with team members Bailey Duplessie and Madeleine Jordan-Lord. This summer, she continued working with the project remotely from her hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana–she created some 60 individual digital items for our Omeka digital collection and contributed blog posts, including several site visit posts highlighting black history in Indianapolis.

Dom’s final project was an exhibit entitled “Faculty Response to Institutional and National Change (1968-1973).” A bit about the topic in her own words:

To date, the Race & Racism at the University of Richmond project has examined several key players to the university campus: college presidents, students, and staff.  However, a major group of folks that have the power to shape the culture of the school is missing: faculty and administrative staff.  To look at their role at the University, I chose a five-year window, 1968-1973, defined by change for both the university and the nation to explore exactly how these figures fit into this project. In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, racially restrictive covenants became illegal in real estate, two Olympic athletes staged the iconic silent protest by raising their fists instead of placing their hands on their chests during a medal presentation ceremony, and Star Trek aired the country’s first televised interracial kiss.  A Virginia case, Green v. New Kent, made it all the up to the Supreme Court where the justices ruled that “freedom of choice” was not a legal response to Brown v. Board of Education as it was not a sufficient method to integrate the school system.  That same year, the University of Richmond enrolled its first residential black student, Barry Greene, on its main campus.  Barrier shattering changes filled the rest of these years as well, particularly with the rise of liberatory movements for women, black folks, and the LGBTQ community to the anti-war movements that swept the nation.

Explore Dom’s exhibit and others via the project’s digital collection at memory.richmond.edu

This Week in the Archive: Against the Norm–T. Eugene West and His Neighbor, The Nisei

Irina Rogova Uncategorized , ,

by Joshua Kim

(A Nisei is a person of Japanese descent born in the U.S. with immigrant parents. Nisei directly translates to “second generation” in Japanese.)

“At the outbreak of the war, 112,000 of these good people were taken from their homes, businesses, farms, schools, and churches and put into ten relocation camps throughout the midwest. Of these there were 70,000 American citizens by birth.” T. Eugene West, University of Richmond Class of 1927.

In his piece for the Richmond Alumni Bulletin, alum T. Eugene West passionately spoke on behalf of the Japanese American community and the horrors they faced during WWII, specifically the repercussions of Executive Order 9066.

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This Week in the Archive: 1964-1965 President’s Report

Irina Rogova Uncategorized , ,

By Jennifer Munnings

The 1964-1965 President’s Report highlights the first year of the Junior College’s establishment under University College. University College was formed in 1961, and the intention to develop the Junior College was expressed the same year by the Board of Trustees. Given that the Board of Trustees minutes are sealed indefinitely, the true intention behind the formation of University College and the Junior College is based on educated guesses, and published documents. The President’s Report report says on the formation of the Junior College: “This division was established to provide a two-year daytime liberal arts program for Richmond-area students who could not enroll in Richmond and Westhampton Colleges.”  Historical context suggests that part of the reason University College and subsequently the Junior College were instituted was as a means to continue to receive federal funding without integrating the main campus.

Although the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education was targeted at public institutions, private universities, like University of Richmond, that resisted integration were in danger of losing funding and being penalized. The University’s failure to desegregate resulted in the centering of the T. C. Williams School of Law by the Association of American Law Schools. On June 8th 1964 Walter Carpenter became the first black man to graduate from University College although University of Richmond had not announced that it would integrate until that same semester. There were also twelve black students whose names are unknown that were enrolled in night courses. So, what prompted the public announcement of its integration? And, who are the populations that Richmond and Westhampton College cannot serve?

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This Week in the Archive: SOBA and Progress

Irina Rogova Uncategorized , ,

by Dominique Harrington

When I’ve attempted to explain to people what I’ve been doing this summer, I’ve gotten a few typical responses.  First, I get the generic, “That’s so cool! Good luck!”  The next one provokes more of a conversation, “That’s interesting, but what’s the point?”  However, the response I’ve received most frequently is, “Wow, that must be pretty depressing!”  When I explain that I am grappling with the University of Richmond’s racial history, I think they probably thought that I would be faced with more violent instances of racism during the Jim Crow era.  However, I’ve mostly gone through letters to President Modlin and Academic Departmental Reports; I haven’t witnessed anything as egregious as one might expect in the former capital of the Confederacy from 1946-1971.  Still, I’ve found myself quite disheartened more times than I anticipated — not because of what I saw, but because of what I didn’t see: progress.

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No John Trumbull

Irina Rogova Uncategorized , ,

BlogPost3.Photo1_Lim_062217By Karissa Lim

The title for this piece is sourced from the song “No John Trumbull” from the Hamilton Mixtape. Watch if performed here.

Located near Chinatown in Old City, the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is the first institution built by a major US city to preserve, interpret, and exhibit African American culture. Across from the museum are two federal buildings: the Federal Detention Center and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The museum consists of four galleries; currently, they have two art exhibits and two history exhibits. On display on the first floor of the museum is “Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia: 1776-1876.” This exhibit attempts to tell the history of African Americans in Philadelphia through photos, light projections, a timeline, and audio. It answers questions museumgoers may have about African American culture in Philadelphia and the contributions they made to not only the abolitionist movement but also the city’s history. Read more