Winter term 1980 students march into Oberlin at the end of their four-hundred-mile journey retracing the Underground Railroad. Their thirty-day trip took them from Greensburg, Kentucky to Oberlin, Ohio. The nation's media, both print and broadcast, widely reported on this NEH-sponsored project.
Celebrating Black History Month, February 2014
An Exhibit in the Goodrich Room, Mudd Center, Fourth Floor
In 1935, Oberlin College dedicated a plaque in the Carnegie Library
building to commemorate 100 years of black education at Oberlin. That plaque is located on the wall outside
Azariah’s Café in the Academic Commons of the Mudd Center. Today we celebrate over 179 years of African
American Heritage at Oberlin.
Featured in the exhibit are photographs and documents from the collections of the Oberlin College
Archives. The exhibit provides a brief
glimpse into the history of African American Heritage at Oberlin including the
entry in the minutes of the January 1, 1835 meeting of Board of Trustees of the
Oberlin Collegiate Institute: "Whereas
information has been received from Rev. John J.
Shipherd, expressing a wish that students may be received in the Institution
irrespective of color…"
We invite you to visit our website (www.oberlin.edu/archive) or see our
staff to learn more about the holdings of the Oberlin College Archives,
specifically those related to the history of African American Heritage at Oberlin. See also our Oberlin and Civil Rights Digital Collection.