Encased in our Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division is a display on the late Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan. The Afrocentric scholar, author, and frequent Schomburg lecturer, who sadly passed away on March 19 this year, is memorialized in a new exhibit along with photos, personal correspondence, and covers of his most famous books such as Africa: Mother of Western Civilization and Cultural Genocide in the Black and African Studies Curriculum.
Born on December 31, 1918 in Gondar, Ethiopia, "Dr. Ben," as he was affectionately known to those closest to him, traveled the world to acquire and share knowledge about the origins of African civilizations. He, along with friend and fellow historian, John Henrik Clarke (who's also featured in a photo), often taught at the Schomburg and various schools at City University of New York. He was also known to escort travelers on educational tours to Egypt.
The case also includes the program from Dr. Ben's wake, a brochure of his 2000-2001 Nile Valley educational tour, and a rebuttal letter to art historian Deborah Barton, who refuted his lecture on Egyptian pharoah Akhenaton as well as his claim that Egyptians were black Africans.
Image credit: Dr. Ben-Jochannan speaking at an unidentified church, ca. 1970s. Photo by Austin Hansen. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
