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Fisk Plays the Caucasian Card

to Save Its $30 Million Stieglitz Collection Sale 

The Art of the Deal by Christine Kreyling

Even after Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle's ruling in Chancery Court last Friday, the fate of Fisk University's Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern American and European Art is no clearer than it was before. But this latest round of legal squabbling over the multimillion-dollar modern-art collection has introduced a new wrinkle: the question of whether work by white artists has any value beyond financial worth to a historically black university— whose cultural mission, through the years, has been to further black identity.

Last week was the latest cliffhanger in a serialized saga. With Fisk petitioning to sell a half-interest in the collection to an eager buyer, the Crystal Bridges Museum-in-the-making in neighboring Arkansas, Chancellor Lyle ruled that she could not agree to the terms. At the same time, she told Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, who's leading the state's legal challenge, that he has two options: put up an alternative plan, or shut up and let the collection go.

Lyle agreed that Fisk's chronic shortfalls—regularly $2 million per year—make it impractical for the school to display and maintain the collection. Fisk spends an average of $131,000 annually on the Stieglitz Collection, in compliance with conditions imposed by artist Georgia O'Keeffe in 1949. That was the year she donated the art from the estate of her late husband, the famed photographer and collector Alfred Stieglitz.

Fisk's solution to its financial woes, subject to the court's approval, is articulated in a 2007 agreement between the university and Crystal Bridges, founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton. The basic terms: For $30 million, Fisk would sell a half-interest in the 101 works in the Stieglitz Collection, valued at $74 million in 2007. The collection would rotate between Fisk's campus and the 120,000-square-foot Crystal Bridges facility, currently under construction in Bentonville, Ark.

But Lyle ruled that certain provisions in the agreement "override, thwart and dilute the purpose for which Ms. O'Keeffe made the gift." O'Keeffe's purpose, as established by the Tennessee Court of Appeals during a previous legal skirmish in 2009, was "to enable the public—in Nashville and the South—to have the opportunity to study the Collection in order to promote the general study of art."

Therein lies the rub. The deal's terms, Lyle ruled, "have the potential to divest Fisk of more than a 50 percent ownership in the Collection." For example, both institutions agree to share the cost of the collection's care. If Fisk can't pay and breaches the agreement, Crystal Bridges could gain title to more or ultimately all of the collection. And there goes O'Keeffe's purpose—the general study of the collection in Nashville.—Nashville Scene

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"The Gift: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University" Promo

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The Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University

By C. Michael Norton

Georgia O’Keeffe received word in 1946 in New Mexico that her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, had suffered a serious stroke in New York. Catching the next airplane from Albuquerque, she was by his side when he died on July 13. No one at Fisk University in Nashville knew then that Stieglitz’s death had put into motion a chain of events which would lead to Fisk’s receiving, in 1949, an art collection considered “the finest of its type anywhere in the South.”

Stieglitz, one of the greatest photographers in the history of the medium, is credited with transforming photography from a method of documentation into an art form. As a premier collector and gallery owner of his time, Stieglitz encouraged and acquired art work by many young American artists, including Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Demuth, and John Marin. He is also credited with mounting the first exhibition of African sculpture in the United States. O’Keeffe, generally considered the most important female artist in 20th century America (a description that would have irritated her), had both a business and personal relationship with the much older Stieglitz. They married in 1924, despite the 23-year difference in their ages. . . .—Prodigy

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Cooperative HBCU Archival Survey Project (CHASP)

Cooperative HBCU Archival Survey Project (CHASP), which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is an on-site survey of the HBCU archives. These materials are generally unknown to researchers because they are not listed in existing reference tools and databases. CHASP is surveying ninety-seven HBCU and is more than half completed. When CHASP surveys an archive, the team writes a description of each collection including title, inclusive dates, size, and contents. These descriptions are then sent to the NUCMC program for cataloging. In addition, the CHASP descriptions will eventually be published in a printed guide toHBCU archival and manuscript collections.

To date the NUCMC Team has cataloged 102 collections from sixteen repositories: Allen University, Arkansas Baptist College, Barber-Scotia College, Benedict College, Bennett College, Bowie State University, Claflin College Archives, Clinton Junior College, Delaware State University, Fayetteville State University, Harris-Stowe State College, Lewis College of Business, Lincoln University, Morgan State University, Paul Quinn College, and University of Maryland, Eastern Shore.—Infomotions

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When CHASP surveys an archives, the team writes a description of each collection including title, inclusive dates, size, and contents. These descriptions are then sent to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)  program for cataloging in the RLG Union Catalog. http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc. In addition, the CHASP descriptions will eventually be published in a printed guide to HBCU archival and manuscript collections.—Buffalo Edu

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Dorothy Porter Wesley (1905-1995), a scholar-librarian and bibliographer was born in Warrenton, Virginia in 1905, to her father, Hayes Joseph Burnett, a physician, and her mother, Bertha Ball Burnett, a tennis champion.  After receiving her A.B., from Howard University in 1928, she became the first African American woman to complete her graduate studies at Columbia University receiving a Bachelors (1931) and a Masters (1932) of Science in Library Science.   Dorothy Bennett joined the library staff at Howard University in 1928, and on December 29, 1929 married James Amos Porter. In 1930 University President W. Mordecai Johnson appointed her to organize and administer a Library of Negro Life and History incorporating the 3,000 titles presented in 1914 by Jesse Moorland.

The library opened in 1933 as the Moorland Foundation.  In 1946 Howard University purchased the Arthur Spingarn Collection.  By the time Porter retired in 1973 the library, which was now called the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, had over 180,000 books, pamphlets, manuscripts and other primary sources.  Over 43 years, Porter had successfully created a leading modern research library that served an international community of scholars. . . . —Black Past

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Historically Black Colleges and Universities

And a Spotlight on Mary McLeod Bethune, 1875-1955

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are colleges or universities that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the African American community. There are more than 100 historically black colleges in the United States, located almost exclusively in the southern and eastern states.

Southern University is the largest HBCU and one of the most prestigious universities. Located in Louisiana, Southern University has campuses in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, the Southern University Law Center and the Southern University Agricultural and Extension Center.

Southern University has become the only HBCU system in the United States with an enrollment of over 15,000 students. The System encompasses five institutions offering two-year, four-year, graduate, professional, and doctoral degrees.

Cheyney University in Cheney, Pennsylvania has been known for graduating prominent alumni through its education and journalism departments. Cheyney, founded in 1837, is the oldest HBCU, established for the purpose of educating youth of African descent.

Hampton University was founded in 1868 and is located in Hampton, Virginia. With an endowment of more than $185.8 million, Hampton is one of the wealthiest HBCUs. The school confers approximately 848 undergraduate degrees yearly and consistently ranks in the top 10 in graduating African Americans with degrees in biology, business administration, communications, English, journalism, pharmacy, nursing and psychology.

Howard University, located in Washington, D.C., is one of the most prominent historically Black higher education institutions in the United States. Howard University is a comprehensive, research-oriented, private university providing an educational experience of exceptional quality to students of high academic potential. Particular emphasis is placed upon providing educational opportunities to promising Black students. Howard has produced more African American doctorate degree holders than any other institution in the world. Howard is the only HBCU to make the U.S. News and World Report’s top 100 colleges and universities.

Florida A & M University was announced as the best school for African Americans in 2006 by the Black Enterprise magazine. Founded in 1887 as the State Normal College for Colored Students, the venerable HBCU offers 62 bachelors degrees in 103 majors/tracks and 36 master’s degrees in 56 majors/tracks. Xavier University of New Orleans, Louisiana is the top school in the nation in the placement of Black students into medical schools and has the largest number of Black undergraduates receiving degrees in biology or life sciences. Xavier also has the distinction of being the only historically Black and Catholic university in the Western Hemisphere.

North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is a rapidly growing institution. It is the first liberal arts college for African Americans in the country. Its School of Law is ranked as one of America’s top law schools in the nation by the Princeton Review. With a student population of 9,000, NCCU is the ninth largest HBCU. NCCU also has the highest HBCU graduation rate in North Carolina. In 2005, NCCU ranked third in North Carolina in admitting the most National Merit Scholars.

Xavier University of New Orleans, Louisiana is the top school in the nation in the placement of Black students into medical schools and has the largest number of Black undergraduates receiving degrees in biology or life sciences. Xavier also has the distinction of being the only historically Black and Catholic university in the Western Hemisphere. North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is a rapidly growing institution. It is the first liberal arts college for African Americans in the country. Its School of Law is ranked as one of America’s top law schools in the nation by the Princeton Review. With a student. population of 9,000, NCCU is the ninth largest HBCU. NCCU also has the highest HBCU graduation rate in North Carolina. In 2005, NCCU ranked third in North Carolina in admitting the most National Merit Scholars.—Wesleyan

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Mary McLeod Bethune was born in 1875 to former slaves in Mayesville, South Carolina. She devoted her life to ensuring the right to education and freedom from discrimination for African Americans. She believed that through education, Blacks could begin to earn a living in a country that opposed racial equality.

In 1904, Bethune opened the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls. Bethune never refused to educate a child whose family could not afford tuition. There was objection during Bethune’s time to the education of Black children, but her zeal and dedication won over skeptics of both races. Bethune also opened a high school and a hospital for Blacks. In 1923, Bethune oversaw the high school’s merger with the Cookman Institute, thereby forming the HBCU Bethune-Cookman College. She helped integrate the Red Cross and became president of the National Association of Colored Women, formed the National Council of Negro Women, and in 1940, Bethune served as VP of the NAACP.—Wesleyan

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Historically Black Colleges and Universities Edited by Charles L. Betsey Beginning in the 1830s, public and private higher education institutions established to serve African-Americans operated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Border States, and the states of the old Confederacy. Until recently the vast majority of people of African descent who received post-secondary education in the United States did so in historically black institutions. Spurred on by financial and accreditation issues, litigation to assure compliance with court decisions, equal higher education opportunity for all citizens, and the role of race in admissions decisions, interest in the role, accomplishments, and future of Historically Black Colleges and Universities has been renewed. This volume touches upon these issues. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are a diverse group of 105 institutions.

They vary in size from several hundred students to over 10,000. Prior to Brown v. Board of Education, 90 percent of African-American postsecondary students were enrolled in HBCUs. Currently the 105 HBCUs account for 3 percent of the nations educational institutions, but they graduate about one-quarter of African-Americans receiving college degrees. The competition that HBCUs currently face in attracting and educating African-American and other students presents both challenges and opportunities. Despite the fact that numerous studies have found that HBCUs are more effective at retaining and graduating African-American students than predominately white colleges, HBCUs have serious detractors.

Perhaps because of the increasing pressures on state governments to assure that public HBCUs receive comparable funding and provide programs that will attract a broader student population, several public HBCUs no longer serve primarily African-American students. There is reason to believe, and it is the opinion of several contributors to this book, that in the changing higher education environment HBCUs will not survive, particularly those that are financially weak. The contributors to this volume provide cutting-edge data as well as solid social analysis of this major concern in black life as well as American higher education as a whole.

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How Black Colleges Empower Black Students Lessons for Higher Education Edited by Frank W. Hale, Jr. To their disadvantage, few Americans—and few in higher education—know much about the successes of historically Black colleges and universities. How is it that historically Black colleges graduate so many low-income and academically poorly prepared students? How do they manage to do so well with students "as they are", even when adopting open admissions policies? In this volume, contributors from a wide spectrum of Black colleges offer insights and examples of the policies and practice—such as retention strategies, co-curricular activities and approaches to mentoring—which underpin their disproportionate success with populations that too often fail in other institutions.

This book also challenges the myth that these colleges are segregated institutions and that teachers of color are essential to minority student success. HBCUs employ large numbers of non-Black faculty who demonstrate the ability to facilitate the success of African American students. This book offers valuable lessons for faculty, faculty developers, student affairs personnel and administrators in the wider higher education community–lessons that are all the more urgent as they face a growing racially diverse student population. While, for HBCUs themselves, this book reaffirms the importance of their mission today, it also raises issues they must address to maintain the edge they have achieved.

Contributors: Pamela G. Arrington; Delbert Baker; Susan Baker; Stanley F. Battle; T. J. Bryan; Terrolyn P. Carter; Ronnie L. Collins; Samuel DuBois Cook; Elaine Johnson Copeland; Marcela A. Copes; Quiester Craig; Lawrence A. Davis, Jr.; Frances C. Gordon; Frank W. Hale, Jr.; B. Denise Hawkins; Karen A. Holbrook; James E. Hunter; Frank L. Matthews; Henry Ponder; Anne S. Pruitt-Logan; Talbert O. Shaw; Orlando L. Taylor ; W. Eric Thomas; M. Rick Turner; Mervyn A. Warren; Charles V. Willie; James G. Wingate.

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Privatizing Education: The Neoliberal Project

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The State of African Education (April 200)

Attack On Africans Writing Their Own History Part 1 of 7

Dr Asa Hilliard III speaks on the assault of academia on Africans writing and accounting for their own history.

Dr Hilliard is A teacher, psychologist, and historian.

Part 2 of 7  /  Part 3 of 7  / Part 4 of 7  / Part 5 of 7 / Part 6 of 7  /  Part 7 of 7

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Creative Writing at Dillard  / Dillard Faculty Focus  / English Faculty Focus Dillard / Dillard Writing Successes / Poems: Red Beans and Ricely Yours