African American Archivist, Historian To Lecture Feb. 6

1-24-97

University Park, Pa. -- "African American History: Undercover Underground," a lecture featuring Charles Blockson, curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University, will be held at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, on the University Park Campus in Pattee Library's West Wing Staff Lounge, third floor. A reception will follow.

Blockson has spent more than 40 years amassing one of the nation's largest private collections of black history. The collection contains more than 150,000 books, pamphlets, manuscripts, prints and drawings, sheet music, posters and artifacts. He lectures in both foreign and domestic schools, colleges and universities, and has traveled extensively in Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. He has organized exhibitions and black studies programs throughout the United States.

Blockson holds an honorary doctorate from Villanova University and is listed in Who's Who Among Black Americans. He is chairman of the National Park Service Underground Railroad Advisory Committee and project director of the Pennsylvania African American State Historical Marker Program for the City of Philadelphia. Former president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, he has served as a director of the state Historical and Record Advisory Board and its Black History Advisory Board. Blockson has served as past-member of Penn State's Alumni Council and received the honor of Alumni Fellow in 1981. Currently, he participates as a member of the Libraries' Development Advisory Board.

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Contact:Christy Rambeau (814) 865-7517 (office) cmr7@psu.edu