Black History at Duke University

The following secondary source materials contain information about African-American history at Duke. Clicking on the links will take you to the catalog record for each item.

• Biondi, Martha. The Black Revolution on Campus. Berkeley: University of California Press, c2012.

• Brodkin, Karen. Caring by the Hour: Women, Work, and Organizing at Duke Medical Center. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c1988.

• Cohen, Robert and David J. Snyder, eds. Rebellion in Black and White: Southern Student Activism in the 1960s. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

• Duke University. Legacy, 1963-1993: Thirty Years of African-American students at Duke University. Durham: Duke University, 1995. (View digitized volume.)

• Kean, Melissa. Desegregating Private Higher Education in the South: Duke, Emory, Rice, Tulane, and Vanderbilt. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c2008.

• Kean, Melissa. "The Early, Unsuccessful Effort to Desegregate Duke University." The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 62 (Winter 2008/2009): 84-86.

• Knight, Douglas M. Street of Dreams: The Nature and Legacy of the 1960s. Durham : Duke University Press, 1989.

• Rogers, Ibram H. The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

• Segal, Theodore. Point of Reckoning: The Fight for Racial Justice at Duke University. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021.

• Turner, Jeffrey A. Sitting in and Speaking Out: Student Movements in the American South, 1960-1970. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2010.

• Tweedy, Damon. Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine. New York: Picador, 2015.

Duke undergraduate and graduate students have written course papers, honors papers, and theses on the major themes in African-American history at the University. Clicking on one of the links will take you to the finding aid or the catalog record for that item.

Segregation and Desegregation:

• Kotelanski, Jorge. Prolonged and Patient Efforts: The Desegregation of Duke University, 1948-1963 (1990)
• Morrin, Douglas S. Segregation at Duke Hospital, 1930-1995 (1995)
• Perretti, Peter. The Divinity School and Desegregation: An Abortive Blow Against the Status Quo, 1948-1952 (1976)
• Smith, Chandler C. Desegregation and the Admissions Policies at Duke University (1972)

The Silent Vigil, 1968:

• Gartin, Ashley. Unity and the Duke Vigil: Civil Rights Challenges at Duke University (2012)
• Hanberry, Jane M. The Duke Vigil: A Culmination of Issues (1976)
• Henderson, David L. A Journal of the Duke Vigil (c. 1960s)
• Segal, Theodore D.  'A New Genesis': The 'Silent Vigil' at Duke University, April 5th-12th, 1968 (1977)
• Toro, Kim L.  The Silent Vigil (1992)

Allen Building Takeover, 1969:

• Ellis, Atiba. The Occupation of the Allen Building at Duke University: The Synthesis of Student Revolts (1992)
• Fair, Bryan K. The Allen Building Takeover: Origins of Black Student Protests at Duke University, 1966-1969 (1982)
• Lundberg, Greg. Black Power and the Allen Building Takeover: A Culmination of Issues (1986)
• Kendall, Deborah. Framing the Takeover: How Local Newspapers Reported the February, 1969 Racial Demonstrations at Duke University (1983) (Includes clippings from area newspapers from 1969)
• Yannella, Don. Race Relations at Duke University and the Allen Building Takeover (1985)

Employees:

• Bailey, Kevin. Bad Blood on the Ward: A Study of the Politics of Labor Organizing at Duke Hospital, 1974-1976 (1991)
• Creamer, Robert W. Duke Employees Local 77: Confrontation over Impartial Arbitration of Grievances (undated)
• Ludwig, Erik. First Class Education and 'Second Hand' Workers: The Struggle for Unionization During Duke’s Decade of Development: 1965-68 (1998)
• Wise, Leah. Stirring the Pot: Oliver Harvey's Narrative Account of the Struggle to Organize Duke University (1980) (Contains an oral history of longtime Duke janitor and Local 77 leader, Oliver Harvey, including details on working conditions for African-American staff at Duke during the Jim Crow era.

Other:

• Lewis, Andrea. "The Association is Dying": Black Student Activism and the Evolution of Conscious Space-Making at Duke University (2014)