The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) is the largest and most comprehensive repository of books, documents, and ephemera on the global Black experience, including the personal and official papers of Kwame Nkrumah, Paul Robeson, Alain Locke, Mary Frances Berry, Dr. Benjamin Mays, Vernon Jordon, and Amiri Baraka, to name but a few from its over seven hundred collections. It was founded in 1914 as the Moorland Library and became a research center within Howard University in 1973, consisting of the University Archives Division, the Manuscripts Division, Library, Museum, and the Black Press Archive. Our mission is to provide access to history through diverse formats and to preserve it for generations to come.
Hours
Monday-Friday 9am-4pm
Episode Six of On the Yard explores Black theater as a space where history, language, and imagination intersect. Building on conversations from Moorland-Spingarn’s Fall 2025 International Black Writers Festival, this episode considers how contemporary Black playwrights engage the weight of the past while shaping new possibilities on stage.
MarQuis Bullock, Head of Collections in the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center’s Manuscripts Division, is joined by award-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau to reflect on the creative tensions and freedoms that define Black theater today.
🎧 Listen now
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Join us for the 3rd Annual MSRC Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series with Dana A. Williams, Ph.D., Professor of African American Literature and Graduate Dean, presenting:
“Toni Morrison and the Archive: Sites of Memory and Creative Production.”
Dr. Williams will examine the “invisible work” of piecing together archival fragments to create coherent, seamless narratives. She will reflect on navigating archival silences, balancing invention with fidelity, and constructing narrative voice, highlighting how care, creativity, and intellectual rigor converge in her writing of Toni at Random.
Thursday, April 2nd | 6:00 PM
Founders Library, Browsing Room
Light refreshments at 5:30 PM
In honor of Black History Month and Howard University’s upcoming Charter Day, Gwen Tolbart of FOX 5 DC visited campus to highlight the University’s historic legacy and the work of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
The segment, “Exploring Historic Howard University,” shines a light on Howard’s iconic campus and features our Director, Dr. Benjamin Talton, discussing the Center’s impact, collections, and enduring role in preserving and interpreting Black history.
It is a meaningful spotlight on the scholarship, stewardship, and cultural leadership happening at MSRC every day.
🎥 Watch the full segment here:
A new exhibition of renowned photographer Gordon Parks opens September 9, 2025, at Howard University, presented by the University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC).
Investigating the social structures and sites of religious practice documented through Gordon Parks’ photographs from the 1940s to the 1980s, the exhibition frames Parks’ underexplored religious and spiritual examinations through his photographs that captured the prominent role of religion and spirituality in 20th-century modern life.
Comprised of over 40 objects including photos and archival documents, including works from the Gordon Parks Legacy Collection acquired by Howard University in 2022. Temples of Hope, Rituals of Survival: Gordon Parks and Black Religious Life is on view September 9, 2025 to May 15, 2026, and is curated by Dr. Melanee C. Harvey, Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University.“Gordon Parks’ photography has long been a fixture in the documentation of Black life in America.
Visit the Gordon Parks Foundation here
The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) is proud to partner with LegacyHistoryPride (LHP) to release an exclusive Black colorway of the “Von” Rugby Shirt.
As the largest and most comprehensive repository documenting the global Black experience, MSRC plays a vital role in preserving, protecting, and sharing the history and culture of the African diaspora. This special collaboration with LHP celebrates that mission and ensures its continuation—a portion of proceeds from every shirt will directly support MSRC and its programming.
Shop the collaboration today and support the preservation of our shared history
The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center is proud to share that Dr. Benjamin Talton, Executive Director of MSRC and Professor of History at Howard University, is featured on The Black Studies Podcast.
In this episode, Dr. Talton reflects on his scholarly journey and examines the cultural and political meanings of Black Studies as a field of inquiry, drawing on his extensive research on Africa and the African diaspora. A highly respected historian and author, Dr. Talton has published three influential books, including In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), which received the 2020 Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association.
Listen now on Spotify
Dr. Benjamin Talton (Director, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University) on his eclectic intellectual journey as an historian of Africa and the Diaspora. The interview begins with a discussion of his early work on ethnicity and politics in northern Ghana and then turns to his award-winning book, In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics. In the final portion of the interview, Dr. Talton discusses his forthcoming book on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s engagement with African liberation politics.
Listen here
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