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Hblack colleges and universities (HBCUs), many of which were established during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, have a history filled with documents, photographs and, in some cases, even videos. The archives are a testament to the enduring importance and influence of Black American history in the US, spanning more than a century.
Many valuable pictures, however, are in boxes or storage, which are often inaccessible to the public and are often at risk of damage or loss. Getty Images’ image donation program and its HBCU collections aim to bridge the gap between helping HBCUs preserve their past and making old and new images available to the public.
“We realized that there was no data coming from HBCUs,” Cassandra Illidge, vice president of HBCU partnerships and programs at Getty Images, told the Guardian. “HBCUs have a great reputation. We wanted to create something that was unique and that would meet their needs.”
Through the grant, 11 HBCUS are either in the process of or already have their records online – and, Illidge said, the group plans to expand to more schools. New digital images are available online use or purchase.
Launched in 2021 in partnership with the Getty family and Stand Together, a humanitarian organization, the grant helps HBCUs shine a light on their heritage. Participating HBCUs retain full ownership of their content, and all proceeds benefit the organizations – 50% of the certification fee goes to the HBCU, 30% to support student education and 20% is reinvested in Getty Images’ image portfolio to support the photo editing process for future HBCUs.
“We are able to make money or realize some money from some images that are very little if you look at things that show the American people, especially for many years,” Brenda Allen, president of the University of Lincoln, a first degree-granting HBCU, told the Guardian. “It’s been very helpful not only in bringing in a few dollars, but in helping the history of the world go well, not to mention what it’s doing to help us promote and preserve the past.”
So far, two schools, Lincoln University and Jackson State University, have chosen to join Ancestry. The first-of-its-kind genealogical relationship also helps archive archival records and photos at HBCUs, then makes them searchable on Ancestry’s website.
“Parents have been doing a great job of taking our artifacts — these things go back to the 1800s — and they’ve taken them and digitized them.” What we had as a private collection, you go through it and someone searches it on Microsoft or something like that, but now, through our partnership with Ancestry, we’ve been able to upload the records,” said Allen.
The Getty team visits each school, and, working with the institution’s administrators, goes through the archives – boxes and folders – to find the contents.
Not everything is checked. Getty gives administrators insight into what can be sold commercially: group photos of famous people, famous figures, a beautiful picture of the school in the 1800s, the founders of the university. They find pictures of the presidents of one organization who eventually went on to work for other organizations; human rights leaders on school trips; famous athletes when they were just college students.
“We’ve seen beautiful pictures of people who are still alive – this amazing picture of this woman driving a car in 1900,” Illidge said. “Every school we went to, we found pictures of Jesse Jackson being Jesse Jackson, talking to students, encouraging them to vote. We even found chrome defects, we found defects of Muhammad Ali in Florida at an event…
It’s a no-nonsense approach, so the key, Illidge said, is that Getty is supporting the need for customers to access new content. In doing so, the company is also building space between schools. Getty holds quarterly calls with all HBCU staff to discuss their challenges, successes and share best practices. The company has also mentored photographers from select HBCUs and signed them on as contributors to Getty Images.
Claflin University, in Orangeburg, South Carolina; North Carolina Central University, in Durham, North Carolina; Jackson State University, in Jackson, Mississippi and Prairie View A&M University, in Prairie View, Texas are the first recipients of the grant.
Since then, Southern University and A&M College, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Lincoln University in Lincoln, Pennsylvania; Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware; Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, Florida A&M University, in Tallahassee, Florida and Alcorn State University, the first public aid HBCU, in Lorman, Mississippi, have also been selected to participate in the program.
“For us, we’re just getting started, 11 out of over 100 organizations,” Illidge said. We are just beginning to make it very clear.
‘Now they can share their story’
Most of the institutions have famous images, which have entered the cultural and historical zeitgeist without credit to the school or to the photographer.
One such image is of a black boy during the Jim Crow era in the South. In the black and white photo, the man stares nonchalantly at the camera while drinking from a whites-only fountain. The photo has spread around the world, on social media, on shirts, posters and other items, yet many do not know the name of the person in the photo, nor when and where it was taken.
Photo by Cecil J Williams, an octogenarian artist at Claflin University. A friend, Illidge said, took the picture decades ago. The program brings the details of the picture to the fore, and may also help Williams and Claflin finally start receiving their paychecks. The 86-year-old Williams, a Claflin alum, is still painting today.
“That picture was everywhere,” Illidge said. “He used it in his books, people took the picture and made all kinds of swag, like pins and one company in Canada, he said, sent him real magnets – no payment, but magnets. advance, if the picture is on the website, if someone does that, we can work with you and Claflin University to make it happen.’ That is the need for (money) and to protect this information. “
The program works to support large, well-known, and small organizations. Thus, important records that may not be remembered are uploaded.
Alcorn State University, a recent grant recipient, for example, was founded by Mississippi’s Reconstructionist legislature. Its first president was Hiram R Revels, the first black person to sit in the US Congress.
“My goal was to find a school in every state that would change the story of the country,” Illidge said. “Mississippi is a very important state in the history of black people, and there are many stories that can be argued against the evils of Mississippi. The schools have all the records that do not have doors.”
Maxine Greenleaf, vice president of marketing and communications at Alcorn, said “the images will be lost forever” without the program.
“It brings the images to life,” he told the Guardian. “We didn’t know that some of these pictures existed until we started with this project. Some of these things were in the library, some of them were in boxes in our community, but they gave new life to the history of Alcorn. Alcorn is the first American HBCU to receive public space, and not many people know this. This is an important part of American history. We are celebrating 5 years, but we are celebrating 5 years of Alcorn this year. 250 years of America, and Alcorn will participate section.”
Since its inception, Alcorn has produced heavyweights who have shaped the nation’s political and social life, from civil rights icons Medgar and Myrlie Evers to author Alex Haley to legendary football player Steve McNair. Lorraine Hansberry’s grandmother, father and uncle all graduated before making their own mark.
“There are many people who have followed these principles who have made great progress for us and our community and have helped us to make progress in our community,” said Greenleaf.
As part of the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs, every few weeks, the Getty Images archive on Instagram shares a series of photos in collaboration with the schools.
“It’s amazing when people tag and say who these people are,” Illidge said. “This is another touching point, that schools can now recognize those people. It is really important that this happens, because there are lives there. There are relatives who are looking for pictures of their grandmothers, their grandfathers. Twice at the school when we started the program and we had students, they found pictures of their relatives. I think this just shows the importance of this work.”
