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Vol. 26:1 ISSN 0160-8460 March 1998
Discovering Archival Resources for the Study of Art and Athletics at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
by Carter B. Cue
Deeply imbedded in the history of higher education in the United States, unknown to a great majority of its citizens, are those institutions which have come to be narrowly defined as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs. These institutions are the legacy of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, which together ended slavery in this country, but also of America's history of racial and social segregation. Although often underfunded when compared with other institutions of higher education, HBCUs have been the incubators of many African-American professionals, leaders, and innovators noted in the annals of American history.
Two disciplines in which African-Americans have excelled, and which many 20th-century Americans follow as spectators, since they often serve as the mental equivalent of oases in stress-filled lives passed in hectic urban centers, are athletics and art. While in earlier days, baseball was America's favorite pastime, today a number of team sports (including baseball) have faithful followings, depending upon the time of year. In like manner, all forms of art - from museum-displayed Rembrandts to graffiti-covered subway cars, from Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans to T-shirts imprinted with images of Michael Jordan - have their admirers, and can inspire, educate, and enlighten those to whom they appeal.
Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and Coach "Bighouse" Gaines. Photo courtesy of the Winston-Salem State University Archives.
As the result of a grant approved by the North Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board from funds provided under an NHPRC regrant, the Winston-Salem State University Archives were able to complete a one-year project to process and make available to the public the archival collections of two former Winston-Salem State University faculty members - Clarence E. "Bighouse" Gaines, Sr., and Hayward L. Oubre, Jr. Not only do these collections document the impact athletics and art have had on student life, institutional and personal development, and community morale at one HBCU, Winston-Salem State, they also demonstrate the significance of such activities at an HBCU for contemporary American life.
By any standards, the career of Clarence E. "Bighouse" Gaines, Sr., has been phenomenal. This Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and humanitarian spent 47 years (1945-1993) at Winston-Salem State University as educator, coach, and athletic director. To sports historians and die-hard roundball enthusiasts, "Bighouse" Gaines is best known as the third winningest NCAA basketball coach of all time, behind the University of North Carolina's Dean Smith and the University of Kentucky's Adolph Rupp. Under his direction, the Winston-Salem State basketball powerhouse amassed a win-loss record of 828-446.
The archival resources in the "Bighouse" Gaines Collection, amounting to 44 linear feet, give the researcher a glimpse into the professional and personal relationships between Coach Gaines and former Winston-Salem State University basketball players such as Cleo Hill (#1 draft pick of the National Basketball Association's St. Louis Hawks in 1961 - the first player from a HBCU to achieve this distinction) and former New York Knicks great Earl "The Pearl" Monroe. They also document the coaching practices which enabled him to become the first coach from a HBCU to win a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II basketball championship in 1967. However, this collection, which consists of score books, photographs, correspondence, game programs, films, etc., also documents how a coach without a substantial athletic budget and without the facilities available to a Dean Smith or an Adolph Rupp nevertheless went on to create a successful basketball program.
Coach Clarence E. "Bighouse" Gaines, Sr., sets the strategy for another victory by one of his many successful Winston-Salem State University basketball teams. Photograph courtesy of the Winston-Salem State University Archives.
Although not as extensive as the Gaines records, the manuscript collection of sculptor, painter, educator, author, and civil servant Hayward L. Oubre, Jr., provides the intuitive researcher with rich insight into the multifaceted life of a person some called a Renaissance man. Oubre is listed in numerous publications for his artistic achievements, both nationally and internationally. The archival resources in his collection, which totals two linear feet, include magazine articles, letters, and videotapes that commemorate his experiences as the third African American to receive the Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa, as well as his equally significant experiences as a student apprentice to noted Harlem Renaissance artists Hale Woodruff and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and to printmaker Maurico Lansansky.
The Oubre Collection chronicles the life of the confident, competent artist who introduced art as a major subject at Winston-Salem State University following his arrival at the small North Carolina college in 1965. Oubre had earlier served as a master sergeant in the United States Army during World War II. He fought racism while participating with other Black soldiers in constructing the great Alaska or Alcan Highway in 1942.
Hayward L. Oubre, Jr., stands with his work entitled "Crescendo." Photograph courtesy of the Winston-Salem State University Archives.
Archives Associate Minnie Benson and I have prepared paper-based finding aids for on-site researchers who wish to use the Gaines and Oubre collections. In the very near future, these finding aids, as well as those for other record groups in the Winston-Salem State University Archives, will be available on our Web site.
Despite their many years of service and their proven record of providing higher education to minorities and the under-served, the rich history of the HBCUs and the lives of those who nurtured their formative development have until now largely gone undocumented. However, difficulties related to feasibility, financial sustainability, and staffing are in the process of being overcome. Funding by the NHPRC, the North Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board, and the North Carolina Department of Archives and History has been beneficial in helping HBCUs in North Carolina begin the process of developing systematic archival infra-structures, establishing training courses in archival and records management, and preserving their rich history for future generations.
(Carter B. Cue is the archivist of Winston-Salem State University.)
