Dhakir Abdullah

Originally from Dadeville, Alabama, Dhakir Abdullah is a PhD candidate in the department of African American and African Diaspora Studies; he minors in sociology. His research focuses on the Black Studies Movement at IUB in the late 1960s and early 1970s and how that movement, in conjunction with the administrative efforts of Herman C. Hudson, led to the founding of the Black Studies department at Indiana University Bloomington. Dhakir is also a Master of Library Science student in the Information and Library Science department at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering where he specializes in digital humanities. He is also a 2023-24 HASTAC Fellow with the Institute of Digital Arts and Humanities.

Forgotten Visionary: A Digital Library on Dr. Herman C. Hudson and the Founding of the Black Studies at Indiana University Bloomington

Introduction

This project serves as a springboard effort in seeking to foreground, through a digital library, the history that chronicles Herman C. Hudson’s role as Vice Chancellor of Afro-American Affairs, specifically, from the years 1970-1975, where he helped to create a unique and academically sound Black Studies department through administrative savvy and institution building. In this way it moves in much the same direction as my dissertation and seeks to build upon it; yet the two research undertakings dovetail in that where the dissertation tells the story through discursive means, the digital library hopes to come to fruition in the form of a visual representation of that same history.

Before proceeding it proves valuable to include a quick biographical look at Hudson’s life. Born of two college educated parents, Hudson was born on February 16th, 1923, in Birmingham, Alabama.[1] His mother was a schoolteacher part-time in and around Birmingham, Alabama.[2] Hudson’s family fit the nuclear family archetype until around 1949. Subsequently, Hudson’s mother along with his siblings and he moved to Detroit, Michigan after marital ties were severed between his parents. Although the family division was unsettling, growing up in Detroit in a single parent home turned out to be fortuitous for Hudson. Moving to Detroit provided Hudson with resources not available in Birmingham. At age five, while still in Alabama, Hudson developed spinal meningitis which resulted in pupic atrophy and partial blindness and there were no facilities in town for people with impaired vision and especially nothing for Black people. However, when we moved to Detroit there was a sight-saving division as part of the public school system and that’s where Hudson received my primary education and even secondary education.[3]

After graduating high school Hudson had higher educational aspirations. He received a scholarship to go to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There he earned his bachelors of arts degree and master of arts degree in Spanish, English, and History. He finished his PhD at Michigan as well and in 1961 accepted a job at Columbia University in New York. While in a teaching position at Columbia he directed an English literacy program at Kabul University, in Afghanistan. At a time when the government had decided to make English the second language of the county. Hudson began working on building a program for instructing English as a second language.  Hudson headed said project for six years which involved writing of textbooks, training teachers to teach English, and setting up English departments in various high schools in the capital of Kabul, and regional English language centers in the provinces.[4]

So shortly after his homecoming to Columbia he left there to go back to Michigan in 1968. Particularly significant for Indiana University, 1968 was the year that Hudson arrived at Indian University. Regarding Hudson’s initial arrival to IUB, he took a leadership role in his department; moreover, he also founded the department of Applied Linguistics. This was even before he founded the Black Studies program at IU in 1970 and simultaneously, he became the first Vice Chancellor of Afro-American Affairs.[5] As can be garnered from the information aforementioned, a project on Hudson’s legacy is also a blow to sentiments that attempt to rationalize ableism while at the same time being a story of inspiration for those who face similar physical difficulties. However, this project is valuable beyond these facts.

The eventual completion of the digital library project will prove valuable twofold within the academic sphere: first, to the discipline of Africana Studies and then to the larger history of Indiana University. To begin, consider the former. Although a pivotal figure within the Black Studies Movement (BSM), Hudson remains a figure who is all but invisible to the Africana Studies’ canon. Yet, the foregrounding of his impact through the digital pictorial matrix allows those in the academy to behold Hudson and the Black Studies Moment’s impact’s through the viewing of incontestable primary sources. Hudson’s inclusion within the Africana Studies’ canon will greatly substantiate the discipline’s historiography as well as inform Africana studies discourse in the national area. Although various Black studies texts abound that discuss the BSM in various geopolitical spaces, none present an interrogation of the Africana Studies movement at Indiana University of Bloomington. Regarding this project’s utility in expanding the historical literature of Indiana University, this digital library illustrates and brings to the fore voices that have been peripheralized in the literature on IU as well as in the quotidian and institutional discourse reverberating around Indiana University.

Relevance to This Issue

In apropos of the foregoing, particularly relevant for this issue’s theme is the verity that not only can my project substantiate the value of neglected and overlooked materials in an archive by merely viewing them and publishing works that reference them, but one’s engagement with those sources can also provide a lens through with to ascertain the priorities of that institutional repository, namely what they value and what they do not. Beyond this however, one’s engagement with particular materials can even alter an archives treatment and arrangement of those same materials. For instance, when I first accessed those sources that were scanned and taken from a particular midwestern university’s archive, concerning Herman Hudson and the Black Studies Movement at IUB, the materials were in complete disarray. Invaluable primary sources were scattered in boxes haphazardly without any particular provenance. In fact, materials centered specifically on the African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies department at IU were slammed together with other materials from a completely different program at that same university i.e. the African Studies program. This seems to connote a disregard for proper arrangement of those sources. In a sense, the merging of primary sources that focus on African American and African Diasporic cultural, economic, and social phenomena in a sense harkens back to the historical practice of homogenizing all of those with a phenotype ascribed the social referent “Black” as an essential physiological archetype enmeshed in cultural, historical, and social stasis. The former can be simply stated as “all Black people are the same.”

However, after repeatedly requesting these same materials for about a year, I was able to access those same materials the following year, and I quickly noticed that the materials were better organized, and properly relational in subject matter.[6] There are many ways to speculate on why those sources were better arranged and therefore more easily accessible to future potential users. Yet, it can persuasively be argued that my repeated interaction with those sources led to the archivists and their staff revaluating the importance of those sources and thus making strident efforts to improve their presentation and organization. It can also be contended that my engagement with these materials led to that University providing Hudson and the BSM adequate online representation within its catalogue and finding aids which of course allows other scholars to face less obstacles in finding those materials. This is one of the most important things that came out of this research, because prior to wading through these materials, my perusal of the many archival sources on that university’s various archival websites resulted in me locating nothing that resembled, nor anything officially designated as “Dr. Herman C. Hudson’s Papers.” Hudson and the Black Student Movement obscuration is also seen in the digital sphere outside of university walls. Even personal online searches outside of any university-controlled websites brought me to very few materials that mentioned Hudson’s name. Even now Hudson does not even have a Wikipedia page dedicated to him.

What this elucidates is that in contradistinction to those anthropologists who mine archival materials in an extractive fashion, thereby reinforcing and substantiating the colonial enterprise, I posit that scholars should subscribe to epistemological skepticism thereby moving beyond “archive-as-source to archive-as-subject.”[7] What should be clear now is that archives should not be seen as places of knowledge retrieval, but of knowledge production, and as such, in this case, an architectonic of the university and through the university the state and other stakeholders. Situating archives as spaces of contested knowledge, mainstream archives exist as both institutions shot through with power relations and intricate technologies of rule in themselves.[8]

The impetus of preserving the materials at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and shining a light on what is housed there was also an animated force in crafting this digital environ. Veritably a living archive itself, the Neal-Marshall has for years housed primary documents around the Center[9], however, the vast amount was in a private storage area. Nonetheless, about a year or so ago, the Center decided to build its own archive and that is still an ongoing mission at present. However, the present director has allowed me to utilize the sources housed in their proto-archive to support my dissertation as well as this digital library project. Though not attempting to undercut the archive qua archive as a brick-and-mortar institution, it must be acknowledged that analogue materials cannot weather being handled into perpetuity which is why the digital revolution as it relates to data repositories is a great boon for librarians, scholars, researchers, and the public. Having said that, I am not advocating digital repositories only; we should continue to build digital and analogue exhibition cooperatives.

Beyond this, this work resonates with Ampersand’s initiative to resurrect the buried and to redefine the forgotten. In consideration of the prior aim, not only is Hudson not well known, but many key agent’s actions and faces remain obfuscated amidst the collective and multitudinous attempt to depict the Black student revolution on campuses across the nation. This digital library seeks to push against that. Furthermore, this project is consonant with Ampersand’s intent to highlight the overlooked or inaccessible archive. Hence, this preliminary digital library includes multimedial digitized sources encompassing transcribed interviews, newspaper clippings, proposals, brochures, and images in an attempt to highlight these neglected personages. Primary sources were digitized and collected from the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Archives, the Lilly Library and the IU Archives. A lot of the metadata for the materials housed in the latter repository exist in the IU archives finding aids. However, scant metadata exist for the materials housed at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center; the materials are not formally archived, yet they do include date and titles. There are no finding aids in this case. Therefore, this project is important as it will draw attention to the materials located in the Center’s proto-archive which is not bureaucratically institutionalized[10] at IU as it stands presently. As a result, almost all metadata in this case was crafted by me which further substantiates the importance of this digital project i.e. the highlighting of important primary sources at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and the perpetuation of those sources through the digital sphere. Beyond this its hoped that this project serves as a resource as well presents primary sources that can function as resources for educators and researchers who wish to focus their investigative efforts on the intersection of the administrative life of Hudson with that of the Black Students/Studies Movement of the late 1960’s

Methods/Tools

To construct this digital repository the creator utilized Collection Builder as a platform to showcase this collection of primary sources. Collection Builder is a set of flexible, static web templates for creating digital collections and exhibit websites. These templates are driven by metadata and powered by modern static web technology.[11] Propelled by a minimalist computing philosophical ethos, Collection Builder was manufactured with the intent to make complicated technological barriers to building websites and such much easier for beginners and IT professionals alike. In utilizing Collection Builder, the user needs only three primary components: a spreadsheet of metadata which allows for interoperability between similar platforms, a configuration file, and a directory of assets[12]; equipped with those integrants, the user is able to build customizable sustainable digital libraires/exhibits/archives for free while learning valuable development skills in the process. It being non-commercial is keenly important in our present economy. Where susceptibility to link rot[13] is endemic to some other website building platforms including Omeka, Collection Builder allows users to utilize permalinks to help resist this detriment by leveraging webs static technologies[14]. However, in order to offset the overly positive tone in which I have discussed Collection Builder so far, one must understand, as with all new technology, that there is a bit of a learning curve. Moreover, in generating your digital exhibit one must be particularly meticulous in entering their data, specifically entering metadata into the right files. Furthermore, the code utilized must be exact to the last character or the site will not build.

Context

The context that circumscribes this digital library is one of academic culture and Indiana University digital librarianship. This implies that there must be established standards but locally and national, with their own affordances, that must be adhered to for interoperability and universal legibility. Moreover, all sources included herein are linguistically situated in the English language meaning that the digital library may be more accessible to more English speaking geopoliticalities as opposed to non-speaking ones.

Content

The content that compromises the collection are digitized sources encompassing transcribed interviews, newspaper clippings, proposals, brochures, and images. However, this is merely a starting point for a much larger collection to be built in the future. The transcribed interviews provide biographical and historical information on Hudson from a few of his contemporaries. There are also interviews where Hudson was the interviewee, and he recounts the founding of the department among other things. The newspaper clippings inform the user of the role that student activists played in helping to establish the climate and of their pushing for change on the Indiana University’s campus, among the establishing of an Afro-American Studies Institute. The proposals detail the formal propositional edicts of Hudson to the college submitted for approval in relation to the establishment of the department among other things. The brochures historically emerge after the department is established and details what the department of the then Afro-American Studies mission statement was, its course holdings, and other resources it offered students via the administrative power Hudson held as the Vice Chancellor for Afro-American Affairs and simultaneously the founding chair of the department. The images are of Hudson while young and one where he is older to allow for Hudson to be visually represented.

Users

Primarily the targeted audience of this project is the academy, specifically Black Studies scholars who wish to build off this research, and IU historical archivists. But also, the larger community as Hudson and the African American Studies department had a close connection with the Bloomington community. Ergo, by having this resource accessible on the web it will help move this resource beyond the ivory tower allowing more broader access.

Functional Requirements

Along with the context, the content, prospective users, the functional requirements are those dynamics that circumscribe and facilitate user ease of access. Moreover, they form the fundamental substratum of which the organizational structure of the digital library emerges from. The fact that these are an eclectic set of resources, what is paramount for the user in locating the sources is the ability to search and browse by: the subject of the source, the medium of the source’s composition, title of each source, the author, the date the source was published or recorded, and the publishing entity. The total number of pages also must be amenable to searchability when locating written documents of multiple pages. Since all sources are in English the language fields are included as a searchable field. However, possible notes on and the temporal milieu that envelopes the source’s ontology are recommended but not required for searchability. Additionally, it its prudent to allow visitors to search for full text versions of the textual materials.

Limitations

As alluded to previously, this digital library is in its preliminary state. It is my intent to continue to build this project into a larger repository of primary resources in the future. At present it hosts 37 digital primary sources from the IU Archives, the Lilly Library, and the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. Moreover, I have conducted a number of interviews with Hudson’s contemporaries, colleagues, friends, and coworkers. These recorded interviews will greatly substantiate the library while effectively complemented the sources already uploaded. It must also be mentioned that this is not a traditional research paper, the primary focus on this submission is the digital library itself. An additional limitation is that the materials included herein reflect mainly the initial stages of creating the department of African American Studies at IU i.e. Black Student activism beginning in the late 1960s and the appointment of Herman Hudson as founding Vice Chancellor for Afro-American Affairs and the founding chair of the department of Afro-American Affairs.

[1] Herman Hudson Interview, Indiana University Center for Study of History and Memory, Teaching, Experiences at IU, Formation of Afro-American Studies. April 10, 2001. Indiana University Archives. Being college educated was unusual at the time, because many Black sin Alabama and through the states for that matter did not have much education, and to have two parents who graduated from college was somewhat unusual.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[6] Every “receptacle” that contains documents or what have you have a unique arrangement regardless of the larger series it is a part of.

[7] Stoler, A., Laura, Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance. Archival Science 2: pg. 86, 2002.

[8] Ibid pg. 87.

[9] Facsimile primary documents even adorn the walls of the Center and there are artifactual materials exhibited around the Center as well.

[10] That is to say that it does not have official archival status with Indiana University and has no catalogues, indexes, finding aids, or archival staff.

[11] About Collection Builder. https://collectionbuilder.github.io/about.html#:~:text=Using%20three%20primary%20components—a,development%20practices%20in%20the%20process.

[12] About Collection Builder. https://collectionbuilder.github.io/about.html#:~:text=Using%20three%20primary%20componentsa,development%20practices%20in%20the%20process.

[13] Link rot, the deterioration of hyperlinks over time, leads to broken links on the internet, data loss and other issues. Prevent and fix link rot with proper mitigation techniques. See, Tech Target, “Link rot explained: Everything you need to know” https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Link-rot-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know

[14] { Lib-Static } a methodology, a collection, a community contributor: Evan Peter Williamson (University of Idaho Library) last update: 2021-08-04. https://lib-static.github.io/concepts/