Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education. Historically Black Bowie State University in Maryland received a $150,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support micro-history projects focused on documenting the lived experiences of the African American community of Tolson’s Chapel in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Sharpsburg was the site of the Battle of Antietam, which was the Civil War’s deadliest one-day battle. In 1866, a chapel was constructed on land donated by an African American couple which would go on to serve as one the earliest schools for former slaves. The two-year grant will fund hiring 10 local community fellows to help research public records and interview members of the Tolson’s Chapel community, as well as the creation of a digital archive and art exhibit. The research will be under the director of Karen Cook-Bell, the Wilson H. Elkins Endowed Professor of history at the university. She is the author of Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Spelman College, the historically Black educational institution in Atlanta, received a $104,000 grant...