“Black Studies Protests” Story Map
On November 19, 1969, a group of students sent an open letter to the head of the Department of Social Sciences with three demands: the creation of a Black Studies course, the hiring of a Black faculty member, and the removal of a racist Elon professor.
This story map collects material from books, newspapers, and additional archival records to ground the November 1969 open letter within the movement towards a Black Studies curriculum at Elon.
You can find the online exhibit in the Archives’ Online Exhibit’s page, or on the Story Maps website (linked below).
Black Studies Protests: Elon University’s Journey to an African and African-American Studies Program
Sometimes archival research resists a linear narrative. Instead of telling a story chronologically, it becomes easier to communicate the importance of an event or a piece of evidence through a different starting point. The November 1969 open letter is one such example. It is not the chronological beginning of the story of the Black Studies protests at Elon, but it is the beginning of the archival journey.
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