Browse the Collection

All De Live Long Day, a program of African American folklore, music, and dance, was the second of two productions by Zora Neale Hurston to be performed on the Rollins campus during the 1930s.

Twenty Black Student Union members pose for their student organization’s yearbook photograph. This is the first Black Student Union photograph included in the Tomokan yearbook. Back row: Krisita Jackson, Theda James, Deborah Coleman, Brenda Martin, Reggie Brock, Blanche Jackson, Lonnie Butler, Otis Cameron, Rodney Dowling. Middle row: Lorraine Powell, Marcus Wilson, Grace Borom, Juanita Gibson, Jennifer Matthews, Roxwell Robinson, Arlinda Staley. Front row: Guilda Brandon, Theotis Bronson, Constance Blackman, Errol Cunningham.

President Hamilton Holt; Mary McLeod Bethune, President Emerita of Bethune-Cookman College; and Professor of Books Edwin Osgood Grover at the 1949 Animated Magazine.

The administration responds to student demands for more Black studies by creating a winter term course on "Black Literature, History and Sociology." The Dean of Rollins College consulted the Dean of Bethune-Cookman College on the structure and content of the course, demonstrating continued cooperation between the two institutions.

President Hamilton Holt writes to alumnus Dick Kelly about public support for awarding an honorary degree to civil rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune.

In a memo to Prof. Royal France, President Holt and Treasurer E. T. Brown recommend that no African Americans should be permitted to use the Harper-Shepherd Field while it is not being used by Rollins College. The message shows that the college is trying to determine its position on involvement with local African Americans and their ability to be on Rollins- owned grounds.

A Rollins Sandspur article describing the first Race Relations Sunday, which brought together white and African American residents to celebrate Race Relations Day with music, film, and speeches. Rollins' hosting of this event on campus with support from Winter Park and the Hungerford School shows local and collegiate interest in supporting African Americans.

Black Student Union President Roxwell Robinson writes to President Jack Critchfield, requesting that the College offer at least three Black Culture courses per academic year, even in the face of financial difficulty. President Critchfield responds that he cannot make a guarantee, but that he and the administration intend to preserve Black Culture courses in the curriculum.