Celebrating the Past, Charting the Future: Commemorating 50 Years of Black Students at Duke University

I enrolled at Duke as a freshman in the Fall of 1975. Although Duke was already an elite university, President Terry Sanford was pushing to realize his even greater “outrageous ambitions” for the place. Decades later I am an alumnus, trustee and parent.

Well-known for her groundbreaking book on the emergence of hip hop culture, “Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America,” Rose discussed inequities in higher education.  She said that while certain measures such as enrollment present an outward appearance of equality of educational opportunity, inequalities remains prominent throughout the educational system.

Eight members of the Duke-Durham community have been selected as 2013 Cook Award winners, named for Samuel DuBois Cook, the first African-American faculty member at Duke.

From reflections by pioneers who broke the color barrier to frank conversations about the challenges that remain, a university-wide commemoration of integration offers an opportunity to assess Duke’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.

What’s in a name? Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy says for African Americans demanding their rights during the Civil Rights Movement, a name was one way of declaring their dignity and equality.

In a year when Duke University is honoring the undergraduate students who integrated Duke five decades ago, a lecture next week will honor another Duke African-American pioneer: Dr. James H. Carter Sr.

Duke had a watershed year in 1963.

That year, the University ushered in a new president, Douglas Knight, as well as its first five black undergraduate students. Fifty years later, three of these five returned to Duke to reflect on a half century of racial progress.

I’ve been waiting a long time for the year 2013 to finally arrive. It is a significant year because it marks the year I will graduate from Duke University after four years of hard work and amazing memories. However, now that 2013 has finally arrived, it is not just my graduation that is on my mind but also a milestone in Duke’s history. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first incoming class to include black students.

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University presents an installation of paintings, works on paper and sculpture in collaboration with the 50th anniversary of the first black undergraduates enrolled at Duke. The installation, all recent gifts and purchases for the permanent collection, reflects the museum’s ongoing focus on artists of African descent. Artists include Radcliffe Bailey, Barkley L. Hendricks, Thomas Hirschhorn, Zanele Muholi, Robert Pruitt, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems and Kehinde Wiley, among others.