Tell Them We Are Rising is a documentary on HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) that was just released and is on PBS streaming now! Tell Them We Are Rising asks in the opening:
What is education’s purpose, who controls it, and what is the relation of education to our people?
See more information on the documentary from the Mellon Foundation, which provided funding, from PBS, and watch it streaming on PBS!
Of the many amazing folks and work by HBCUs (and there’s so much!), my first thought goes to the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC, www.dLOC.com) because Library Director Judith Rogers of the University of the Virgin Islands (an HBCU) had the vision, shared it, and made dLOC possible. She did this in the 1990s. When the internet was still coming into being, she saw what could be possible for a collaborative, international, multilingual digital library, with shared governance, distributed work, and all working together as mutual aid and tend-and-befriend to grow community, capacity, and preserve and share resources from and about the Caribbean with the world. Through collaboration with many Caribbean institutions and contributors, this amazing vision was made into reality. Since meeting dLOC and the amazing folks involved, including the University of the Virgin Islands and HBCUs with world-changing work, I’ve been working to catch up and grow this vision. Thanks to PBS for a great documentary! I’m watching Tell Them We Are Rising now, and am excited to learn more about the University of the Virgin Islands and other fabulous institutions!