This month, the GLAM Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning’s featured collection celebrates LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer + other groups) Pride. This year’s Pride Month marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, widely considered to be the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Here at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, our Archives Research Center has been making a concerted effort to increase the amount of collections related to LGBTQ+ material in order to more accurately reflect the breadth of the African American community. For decades the LGBTQ+ community at the AUC, as they were in the rest of the country, remained silent and hidden. The Archives Research Center is committed to expanding our collections to increase LGBTQ+ representation, recognizing the value these collections provide as a scholarly resource.
From left to right: Harold Jackman, Josephine Baker, and Noble Sissle
Our featured collection highlights many photographs from our Countee Cullen-Harold Jackman Memorial Collection of black entertainers including Josephine Baker and Bessie Smith. The collection also contains correspondence from writer James Baldwin and a poem from Angelina Grimké. Additionally, the Archives Research Center holds a collection of BLK, a monthly magazine published from 1988 to 1994 with the motto “where the news is colored on purpose,” which covered people, events, and issues relevant to LBGT African American readers.
1993 cover of BLK Magazine featuring drag icon, RuPaul
Due to the sensitive nature of some materials, we have opted to digitize a small sampling of our collection to share online. If you’re interested in viewing more of our LGBTQ+ materials, please contact the Archives Research Center at archives@auctr.edu to make an appointment.