Browse the Collection

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.

The flyer invites the Rollins community to attend an open discussion meeting in 1972 with the Black Student Union. This meeting was to address concerns about the purpose of the first scheduled Black Awareness Week, since there had been a mixed response to news of plans for this event.

From Sun to Sun, a program of African American folklore, music, and dance, was the first of two productions by Zora Neale Hurston to be performed on the Rollins campus during the 1930s.

A letter to the mayor and the Chief of Police from the Race Relations Committee Faculty Advisor, communicating the group's efforts to solicit donations from a few Winter Park residents. The letter indicates that the group needed permission to raise funds for DePugh Nursing Home, a nursing home for African American residents.

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.

A mission statement provided by the Rollins College Interfaith and Race Relations Committee regarding improving relations between various racial and religious groups. The statement uses idealistic and vague language along with war imagery to convey their dedication to the ideals of peace and prosperity of all groups.

A yearbook photo from Rollins College Tomokan showing the Race Relations Committee members in 1950-1951.

Resident heads Randy Lyon, Andrea Boissy Lyon, and Reginald Brock, who were in charge of the residence halls. Reginald Brock was the only African American student to serve as a resident head that year. Circa 1972-1973

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.