Programs, Accreditations, & Initiatives

Duke University's John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American Documentation is hosting an exhibit titled, "Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South."

The exhibit, which officially opened on November 10 in Durham, N.C., is the result of a three-year oral history project that examined life during the South's embrace of racial segregation. More than 1,300 interviews were conducted with those who suffered through "the age of segregation."

In addition to the interview tapes and biographical papers of Black families who lived through the experience, the exhibit features historic family photographs from the era.

"This collection is the first full effort to document -- in the words of African Americans, themselves -- the extraordinary ways that Black Americans struggled, endured, and triumphed over the age of segregation," said the project's co-director, William H. Chafe, who is Duke's dean of the faculty of arts and sciences. "The interviews tell us how courageous, yet careful African American families were as they sought ways to resist discrimination, protect their children, and build institutions that would add to the strength of the community."

For more information, contact Paul Ortiz at (919) 660-3651.

The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga will soon be getting a new endowed professorship to help students with dyslexia and other learning disorders. According to Chancellor Bill Stacey, the University of Tennessee Board recently voted unanimously to establish a permanent Chair of Excellence in Dyslexia and other learning styles.

A nationwide search is underway to find someone to fill the professorship. The program is expected to be up and running by next fall.

"This will enable students with those learning differences to master a college education and enter professions for which they are capable," Stacey said.