Learn
Interested in learning more about the Black experience in our region and on our campus? In addition to the oral histories and images available in this exhibition, the University Library holds the following resources that may be of interest, whether for your studies or your personal journey.
CSUSM Student Newspapers
CSUSM's student newspapers often covered events, people, and issues related to the Black experience on campus. Twenty-five years of newspapers (1990-2015) have been digitized and are available online. These newspapers can be browsed by issue, searched, and browsed by tag.
Some tags that may be of interest include: African American (history month) | Angela Davis (campus visit) | Associated Students (ASI) elections | Black Faculty Organized (BFO) | Black History Month | Black Student Union (BSU) | civil rights | discrimination | diversity | Ethnic Studies (program) | hate crime | Kwanzaa | Proposition 54 | racial profiling | racism | sankofa | social justice | study abroad | teach-in
Dan Rios papers
The Dan Rios papers are a visual representation of San Diego County from 1969 - 2001. Rios was the Chief Photographer of the Escondido Times-Advocate newspaper, and as such took many images of our regional community. Events, people, and places important to North San Diego county's Black community may have been photographed. This collection is currently being processed and is quite large - 43,000 envelopes and an estimated 1,000,000 images. Please contact Special Collections with any research queries and we'll look at our records to see if we may be of assistance.
Pictured at left is former boxing World Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore, who lived in Ramona, California.
Jake Northington photographs of campus Black life
Jake Northington is an artist, activist, and lecturer and assistant coordinator for B.A.S.E.S. (Black Achievement Success & Engagement) at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The Jake Northington photographs of campus Black life (currently undergoing processing), document the campus Black experience from 2017 - 2019, when Jake was matriculated at the university. Jake's photographs are available for non-profit, scholarly use with Jake's permission. For more details, please contact Special Collections.
Northington is pictured at left. Self portrait by Jake Northington.
Oral Histories
The University Library has conducted oral histories of members of our campus and region's Black community, including:- Black Student Center oral histories: Ariel Stevenson, 2021, at the time Director of Programs and Initiatives, Office of Inclusive Excellence | Geoffrey Gilmore, 2021, AVP of Student Support Services | Gezai Berhane, 2021, CSUSM alumni, AD of Operations | Jake Northington, 2021, CSUSM alumni, artist, activist | Jamaéla Johnson, 2021, CSUSM alumni, former VP, Associated Students | LaPorcha Ellick, 2021, former Coordinator for Student Involvement | Louis Adamsel, 2021, CSUSM alumni, Business Continuity Coordinator | Marilyn McWilliams, 2021, Administrative Assistant, Office of Inclusive Excellence | Tiffaney Boyd, 2021, CSUSM alumni, former President of Associated Students
- Community oral histories: Anthony Jackson, 2022, Major General, United States Marine Corps, retired | Dinah Poellnitz, 2023, Executive Director, Hill Street County Club art gallery
- Cross-Cultural Center oral histories: Chanel Bradley , former peer educator, Cross-Cultural Center | Gezai Berhane (2023, under process)
- University Archives oral histories: Gezai Berhane (2023, under process) | Jake Northington, 2020, CSUSM alumni, artist, activist
Pictured at left is Dinah Poellnitz, founder of the Hill Street Country Club in Oceanside, California, a nonprofit art gallery that is dedicated to shaping the growing arts and culture scene in North Country San Diego County in an inclusive way representative of our region's diverse socioeconomic landscape. Image courtesy of Poellnitz.
Special Collections serials
The University Library's Special Collections serials include newspapers, newsletters, magazines and similar ongoing publications related to our region. Many of our newspaper holdings include papers that were intersectional and nature and carried stories important to North County's Black community, especially leftist newspapers from the civil rights era (the OB Rag, Prensa Popular, San Diego Door, Street Journal & San Diego Free Press); military publications (all ready on the LEFT, Attitude Check, Military Appreciation Resource Magazine) and, LGBTQ+ publications (Bravo!, Pacific Coast Times, San Diego Lesbian Press, San Diego Scene, Thursday's Child). Other serials, especially newspapers like the Escondido Times-Advocate, covered events, people, and places of regional and national importance.
Publications specifically by and for San Diego's Black community include: Black Unity, a Vietnam War-era publication for Camp Pendleton's Black Marines; Dare to Struggle, an insert in the Street Journal & San Diego Free Press, written for San Diego's Black community with a focus on civil rights and Black liberation; and Voice & Viewpoint, a publication for San Diego's Black community focused on regional and national news.
Pictured at left is the cover of the first issue of Black Unity, a Vietnam War-era newspaper published for Camp Pendleton's Black Marines.
University Archives
CSUSM's University Archives hold documents related to the university's cultural heritage and history, and include some documentation on previous Black History Month activities at the university, Black staff and faculty actions about racial issues and campus climate, and university communications to regional stakeholders in the Black community. For more details on what the University Archives hold related to the campus Black experience, please contact Special Collections.