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Civic Responsibility and the Howard University School of Divinity
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Amistad’s current blog series highlights the Historically Black Colleges and Universities found in our School Newspaper Collection. Today we feature Howard University.
In 1866, members of the American Missionary Association met to discuss the best way to help educate the large number of African Americans who had recently been freed from slavery following the U.S. Civil War. The A.M.A. – the interdenominational organization whose records make up the core collection of the Amistad Research Center – had long worked in the areas of abolition and education. It was they who provided the legal defense for the group who had been held captive aboard the Amistad schooner. With the end of institutionalized slavery in America, the group had turned their resources toward creating schools and ministering to the spiritual needs of the former slaves. The idea was born to create a theological seminary for the education of African American clergy. This idea quickly expanded to that of a full university, and Howard University was founded in 1867 in Washington D.C.
The A.M.A. contributed the entire support for Howard’s theological department. The Howard University School of Divinity was founded in 1870 and accredited in 1940, and stands as the oldest historically Black school affiliated with the Association of Theological Schools in North America. It is also the only African American theological school connected to a comprehensive category I research institution.
The School Newspaper Collection at the Amistad Research Center holds five issues of The News, the newsletter of what was then known as the Howard University School of Religion, running from 1939-1943. The issues feature biographical pieces on recent graduates, news about enrollment and student elections, and an entire issue devoted to theological discussion. There are also recaps of conferences, meetings, and convocations. In an article on the 1940 convocation, which according to the newsletter created “unusual interest,” Dr. William Lloyd Imes, Minister of the St. James Presbyterian Church in New York, delivers a moving address on democracy and civic responsibility that would have made Howard’s A.M.A. founders proud. It says in part:
“Democracy to me in America means that I can only have as much of it as I am willing to share with all my fellows. My blood-right and my service-right could be argued down, possibly, if opponents chose to do so; but, when they discover that as they limit my democratic privilege they also limit theirs, they pause before they abridge my rights… American democracy is assured only so long as this interplay of mutual trust in civic responsibility is a reality… American Democracy means that the vital experience of guaranteed rights for the minority – that numerically inferior part of a democratic government that is often pushed to the wall – is an experience that we can realize in practice, not in theory alone.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. would convey a similar sentiment in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail when he said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This idea of mutuality, and of trust in civic responsibility as absolutely necessary to the very existence of democracy, rings especially true in today’s political climate. Amid divisive rhetoric and violence, a reminder that we are all part of a single society, and that society hinges on everyone’s participation in it and responsibility to it, seems salient.
Along with further issues of The News, the School Newspaper Collection at Amistad also includes issues of The Howard Alumnus, The Howard University Bulletin, The Commercial Outlook from the School of Commerce and Finance, and an issue of The Stylus Magazine from 1916.
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Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books:
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books:
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books: