Creator: Roberta H. Jackson and Blyden Jackson papers, 1955-1991.
Collection number: 4646
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Abstract: Roberta H. Jackson (1920-1999), African American professor of education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was married to Blyden Jackson (1910-2000), African American professor of English and dean of the Graduate School at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Blyden Jackson wrote novels and works on African American and southern literature. He also served from 1973 to 1981 as the Assistant Dean/Special Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, charged with promoting the recruitment and retention of minority graduate students and working with the University’s Student Aid Office to secure scholarships and fellowships for graduate students. Office files, correspondence, and other papers relating to African American college teachers Roberta H. Jackson and Blyden Jackson. Most papers relate to Blyden Jackson’s teaching of and research on African American literature in the English Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or to his work recruiting minority students as Assistant Dean/Special Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School. Other papers relate to Blyden Jackson’s work as a member of faculty committees and still others result from his other activities, including editing the Journal of Southern Literature and serving on the North Carolina Humanities Council. Also included are letters, 1959-1963, that Blyden Jackson wrote while teaching at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., to Roberta H. Jackson, in Bluefield, W.Va.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: The collection includes family correspondence to and from Blyden Jackson to Roberta Jackson while he was teaching at Southern University in Louisiana (Boxes 1-3). Box 7 also includes materials and information on the creation of the African and Afro-American Studies department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.