This 4-panel traveling exhibit shares historical snapshots of one of the oldest Black Studies departments in the nation, highlighting debates over curriculum, attempts to downgrade the department to a program, and the mutual engagement between campus and community. The banners share archival materials such as newspaper clippings, department documents, and photos, chronicling events from the 1969 campus sit-in to the celebration of the “Omaha 54” student activists 52 years later. The history of the Department of Black Studies had been characterized by constant struggle for survival, but also by the enduring engagement and support of the Omaha Black community. Learn about the civil rights origins of the department, battles for legitimacy in the eyes of the university, the role of the Omaha chapter of the NAACP in the department’s survival, and much more.

This traveling display is a variation of the “Charting our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies (1971-2021)” exhibit located on the first floor of Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The exhibit is open to the public during regular library hours. Items on display from Archives and Special Collections have been fully digitized and are available to the public. Learn more about the materials in this exhibit by exploring the Department of Black Studies Records, the Student Unrest Collection, UNO Poster Collection, and the “UNO 54” BLAC (Black Liberators for Action on Campus) Sit-In Related Documents, 1969-1970 from the Kirk Naylor Papers. You can access these and other collections through the department’s digital repository

https://repository.unomaha.edu/