The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture - Scholars in Residence Program

Recipient: Dodson, Howard (New York, NY 10037 USA) in affiliation with New York Public Library (New York, NY 10018 USA)

Goal: The equivalent of four fellowships each year for three years.

Description: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library (NYPL) requests a grant of $316,400 over four years from the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions to support its Scholars-in-Residence Program. Such a grant, in addition to cost share provided by the Library, will allow the Schomburg Center to make six- and twelve-month residency fellowships available to at least twelve scholars over three years.

Grant: 194590 / RA-50080-09,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions,   Year Awarded: 2009

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Scholars-in-Residence Program

Recipient: Dodson, Howard (New York, NY 10037 USA) in affiliation with New York Public Library (New York, NY 10018 USA)

Goal: The equivalent of three fellowships a year for two years.

Description: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library (NYPL) requests $191,051 in NEH funds for its Scholars-in-Residence Program to support 6 and 12 month residency fellowships to at least 9 scholars over a four-year period. Established in 1986, Schomburg's Scholars-in-Residence Program has provided direct support for 108 scholars, including 59 recipients of NEH fellowships. Since 1986, scholars have published 34 full-length monographs based on work completed during their residency; 15 of these were written by NEH fellows. NEH funding will allow the Center to continue to make fellowships available to humanities scholars whose work will directly benefit from extended access to the Center's rich and unique documentary resources on African Diasporan and African history and culture, as well as to the collections of the other 3 NYPL Research Libraries.

Grant: 184882 / RA-50052-09,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions,   Year Awarded: 2009

Waterways to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in Virginia

Recipient: Newby-Alexander, Cassandra L (Norfolk, VA 23504-8060 USA) in affiliation with Norfolk State University (Norfolk, VA 23504 USA)

Goal: A project to create a historical simulation of the Underground Railroad in Virginia by using interactive gaming technology to educate high school and college students.

Description: Waterways to Freedom: the Underground Railroad in Virginia, will create a digital simulation with historical content and interactive educational features. We are calling this approach Empathetic Simulation Competition Accessing Past Experiences (ESCAPE). Abolitionism was just as important in the South as it was in the North, albeit as an underground movement. For port areas, such as Hampton Roads, Virginia that lay on the east coast's most important waterways, the story about how individuals and networks of people organized this resistance continues to captivate the public's imagination. However, common myths circulating about the activities of the Underground Railroad distract from the realities of the stories, in part because these myths are dramatic and elicit empathy. By approaching this material using ESCAPE, we hope to combine realism and dramatic simulation to our educational objectives by infusing historically possible dialogue, motivations, and actions.

Grant: 196872 / AB-50053-09,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Humanities Initiatives for Faculty: HBCUs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Collaboration for Digital Access for Margaret Walker Archives

Recipient: Luckett, Robert (Jackson, MS 39217 USA) in affiliation with Jackson State University

Goal: A project to digitize and provide intellectual context for the papers of African-American writer Margaret Walker Alexander (1915-1998), which are housed in the university's Sampson Library.

Description: The Jackson State University Alexander Research Center (the Center) and the H. T. Sampson Library (the Library) request a two-year $100,000 grant to implement training acquired during Ford Foundation workshops on digitizing the Walker archives for greater access by students, researchers, and teachers. It is the largest single archive of a twentieth-century African American woman writer, Margaret Walker (Alexander) [1915-1998]. The Center has a 110- linear-foot Walker literary archives and the Library has a 22-linear-foot Walker administrative archives. Walker was an award-winning poet, novelist, and influential educator. NEH funding will help digitize 40 percent of the Walker archives and use CONTENTdm to store and manage them. Three humanities scholars and two high school teachers will annotate the archives and write a ten-page essay, a five-page curriculum guide, and a print and online brochure to supplement class room instruction in secondary and post secondary education.

Grant: 196908 / AB-50061-09,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Humanities Initiatives for Faculty: HBCUs,   Year Awarded: 2009

NEH on the Road: Grass Roots

Recipient: Beavers, Terry Lynn (Kansas City, MO 64130 USA) in affiliation with Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center

Description: This request for funds is to support humanities programs that will supplement the exhibition.

Grant: 194779 / MR-50038-09,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: NEH on the Road,   Year Awarded: 2009

NEH on the Road: Grass Roots

Recipient: Beach, A. Gleny (Durant, OK 74701 USA) in affiliation with Southeastern Oklahoma State University

Goal: Ancillary public humanities programs to accompany the NEH on the Road: Grass Roots traveling exhibition.

Grant: 199935 / MR-50057-09,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: NEH on the Road,   Year Awarded: 2009

Preserving the Public Television Program, "American Black Journal"

Recipient: Rehberger, Dean (East Lansing, MI 48824 USA) in affiliation with Michigan State University

Goal: Preserving and providing access to the historic videotape collection and supporting production materials from the series "American Black Journal" produced by Detroit Public Television.

Description: Michigan State University's MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters & Social Sciences Online and MSU Libraries Special Collections, partnering with Detroit Public Television and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History, propose to preserve and provide access to the historic videotape collection and 40 cubic feet of supporting production materials from DPTV's long-standing series "American Black Journal." The project will provide archival acquisition of videotapes and other materials into the Special Collections' archival vault, undertake preservation reformatting of ca. 980 tapes, and provide online access to a large subset of tapes selected with the project?s humanities scholars. Streaming video of the selected ABJ shows from 1968-1990, with catalog information, will be placed on ABJ Online; all supporting materials will be available in MSU Libraries' online catalog; and a set of all complete ABJ shows on DVD will be deposited at the Wright Museum's research library.

Grant: 189808 / PW-50106-08,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources,   Year Awarded: 2008

Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project

Recipient: Strain, Tracy Heather (Boston, MA 02118-2556 USA) in affiliation with Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc. (Waltham, MA 02453 USA)

Goal: Development of a 90-minute documentary, a website, and curriculum materials exploring the life, work, and times of African American playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry (1930-65).

Description: The Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project is the first multiplatform media project to explore the life, work and times of Lorraine Hansberry (1930?1965), the artist, activist and public intellectual best known for the 1959 groundbreaking Broadway classic, A RAISIN IN THE SUN. The project?s 90-minute documentary, LORRAINE HANSBERRY: A Drama Beyond the Stage (w.t.) weaves a compelling story of self-determination and commitment. Designed to attract a wide, general public television audience, the film will serve as the centerpiece of an extensive national outreach campaign that includes public engagement, educational resources, and interactive web components to bring Hansberry?s story to life. By probing Hansberry?s life and art, this project will transform viewers? understandings of United States history in the middle years of the 20th century. Her sharp insights engage many issues still contested in contemporary national discourse.

Grant: 191728 / TD-50026-08,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: America's Media Makers Development,   Year Awarded: 2008

African American Civil Rights Struggles in the Twentieth Century

Recipient: Gates, Henry Louis (Cambridge, MA 02138 USA) in affiliation with Harvard University

Goal: A four-week institute for twenty-five college and university teachers on the Civil Rights Movement in the twentieth-century United States.

Description: ?African American Struggles for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century? aims to introduce college teachers to new and recent scholarship on the origins, development, and consequences of the civil rights movement, and to facilitate the development of curriculum and teaching strategies for incorporating this history into American history curriculum and related areas of instruction. The proposed 2008 NEH Institute will include leading scholars, teachers, and writers working in the field of African American history, literature, and music. The program is part of an ongoing effort to identify and review monographs and primary source materials that deepen our understanding of the struggles of African Americans for full citizenship and civil rights, and situate those efforts within the broader context of American history.

Grant: 187137 / EH-50134-07,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Institutes for College and University Teachers,   Year Awarded: 2007

Public Programming to Accompany NEH on the Road Exhibition: Wrapped in Pride: Ghanian Kente and African American Identity

Recipient: Zoe, Vivian F (Norwich, CT 06360 USA) in affiliation with Norwich Free Academy Foundation, Inc.

Description: The Slater Museum of the Norwich Free Academy will present public programming to accompany its hosting of the National Endowment for the Humanities on the Road Exhibition: "Wrapped in Pride: Ghanian Kente and African American Identity." Programming will include a reception at the opening event in which 12 objects in the Slater?s collection, including necklaces, walking sticks, sculpture, masks, and drums will be on exhibition to enhance the NEH exhibition. The Slater will sponsor several internal programs for students and their teachers at the Academy: these will include a workshop for teachers, an essay contest, and a Martin Luther King Day Celebration. The Slater will also extend outreach opportunities through sponsoring transportation to middle and elementary school students in the surrounding areas, many of whom represent new and underserved populations. Finally, a panel discussion of local experts in related history and the arts will be held for the general public.

Grant: 189482 / MR-50002-07,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: NEH on the Road,   Year Awarded: 2007

Owens-Thomas House Reinterpretation

Recipient: DeLorme, Harry (Savannah, GA 31401 USA) in affiliation with Telfair Museum of Art

Goal: Planning of a new interpretation of the Owens-Thomas House and its inhabitants, placing the house in the context of Savannah, Georgia, in the 1830s.

Description: New interpretation of the Owens-Thomas House will introduce visitors to all former inhabitants of the site, white and black, with special focus on the lives and labors of the documented enslaved people who built, maintained and serviced the home- a National Historic Landmark building constructed in 1819- and who lived in the rare and intact urban slave quarters located in the carriage house. This interpretation will include the surrounding neighborhood, part of Savannah's renowned National Historic District, where approximately 50% of the 1830s population were people of color - enslaved, nominally enslaved and free. Accompanying educational materials, additional related programming and audience research will also be included.

Grant: 179906 / MP-50018-06,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: Museums Planning,   Year Awarded: 2006

Sapelo Island Cultural Village

Recipient: De Honiesto, Beverly (Sapelo Island, GA 31327 USA) in affiliation with Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society, Inc.

Goal: Consultation to frame the future development of the Hog Hammock community of Sapelo Island, Georgia, as a living-history cultural village and education center focused on history, culture, and language.

Grant: 179846 / BK-50010-06,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: Interpreting America's Historic Places Consultation,   Year Awarded: 2006

An Orientation to Weeksville: Defining a Sense of Place

Recipient: Scott, Jennifer (Brooklyn, NY 11213 USA) in affiliation with Society for the Preservation of Weeksville/Bedford-Stuyvesant History

Goal: Consultation with scholars and an audience evaluator to develop a permanent exhibition that introduces visitors to the history of an antebellum free black community.

Description: Weeksville Heritage Center requests $15,000 from NEH through Interpreting America's Historic Places: Consultation Grants. The grant will support Weeksville’s efforts to create a permanent orientation exhibition which will be housed in the new education building opening in 2009. The exhibition will introduce the visitor to the Weeksville Heritage Center, present research and information about historic Weeksville and the Hunterfly Road houses, and launch visitors on to their experience of the houses and grounds. To achieve the best visitor experience, Weeksville seeks the support of NEH to conduct preliminary audience research and convene a group of humanities experts to determine the best interpretive approach for the Weeksville site.

Grant: 179873 / BK-50014-06,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: Interpreting America's Historic Places Consultation,   Year Awarded: 2006

Creating a Digital Library on American Slavery

Recipient: Schweninger, Loren L (Greensboro, NC 27403 USA) in affiliation with University of North Carolina, Greensboro (Greensboro, NC 27412 USA)

Goal: The final editing of information about slaves and free blacks for an online database drawn from the analysis of petitions to the legislatures and county courts in fifteen former slaveholding states and the District of Columbia, dating from the American Revolution through the Civil War.

Grant: 174311 / PA-51186-05,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2005

Owens-Thomas House Reinterpretation

Recipient: Chamberlain, Carol Hunt (Savannah, GA 31401 USA) in affiliation with Telfair Museum of Art

Goal: Consultation for a new interpretation of the Owens-Thomas House and its inhabitants, placing the house in the context of Savannah in the 1830s.

Grant: 174705 / GM-50432-05,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: Museums and Historical Organizations, Humanities Projects in,   Year Awarded: 2005

Voices from Detroit: American Black Journal Online

Recipient: Kornbluh, Mark L (East Lansing, MI 48824 USA) in affiliation with Michigan State University

Goal: Development of a web-based archive of cataloged segments from American Black Journal, one of the longest-running television programs focused on African American culture and public affairs.

Grant: 171647 / GP-50104-04,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: Special Projects,   Year Awarded: 2004

Schomburg Center's Scholars-in-Residence Program

Recipient: Dodson, Howard (New York, NY 10037 USA) in affiliation with New York Public Library (New York, NY 10018 USA)

Goal: Three humanities fellowships each year for three years.

Description: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library (NYPL) seeks $259,760 in NEH funds for its Scholars-in-Residence Program to support 6- and 12-month residency fellowships to at least 6 scholars over a 4-year period. The Library will match federal funds with an equal amount of private funding to support an additional 6 scholars. Established in 1986, Schomburg's Scholars Program has provided direct support for 91 scholars, including 34 recipients of NEH fellowships. NEH funding will enable the Center to continue to make fellowships available to humanities scholars whose work will benefit from extended access to the Center's rich and unique documentary resources on African American, African Diasporan, and African history and culture.

Grant: 168261 / RA-50017-04,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions,   Year Awarded: 2004

Cataloging African American Pamphlets on Religion and Politics, 1877-1980

Recipient: Burkett, Randall (Atlanta, GA 30322-2870 USA) in affiliation with Emory University (Atlanta, GA 30322 USA)

Goal: The cataloging of pamphlets dealing with politics and religion, written by or for African Americans and published from 1877 to 1980.

Grant: 168142 / PA-50769-04,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2004

Life of the Mind: African-American Oratory

Recipient: Summerskill, Gail (Charlotte, NC 28216-5398 USA) in affiliation with Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, NC 28216 USA)

Goal: A seminar in the history of African-American oratory for faculty from West Charlotte High School, Central Piedmont Community College, and Johnson C. Smith University.

Grant: 167874 / HI-50013-04,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Presidentially Designated Institutions,   Year Awarded: 2004

How Far Have We Come? A Case Study of Segregated Mobile, Alabama

Recipient: Grantham, Ashley Claire (Mobile, AL 36602 USA) in affiliation with Museum of Mobile (Mobile, AL USA)

Goal: Consultation with scholars and museum experts to develop an intergenerational oral history project examining the history of Mobile during the Jim Crow era.

Grant: 172043 / GM-50339-04,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: Museums and Historical Organizations, Humanities Projects in,   Year Awarded: 2004