Temple’s Blockson Afro-American Collection celebrates 40th anniversary

Charles L. Blockson dedicated his life to documenting the history of the Black Diaspora. A native of Norristown, Blockson is the visionary behind one of the most prestigious collections of African American artifacts in the country, The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University, home to more than 700,000 items related to the global Black experience dating from 1581 to the present. On June 14, Blockson passed away at his home at 89 years old.

This December, the Blockson Collection is celebrating its 40th anniversary. As the story of the Black experience across the globe unfolds, this collection will continue to be a vital component of the story.

To better understand Blockson’s immense contributions to Philadelphia and beyond, Billy Penn spoke with Dr. Diane Turner, noted author and curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, about Blockson’s legacy, the importance of preserving Black history, and the future of the collection.

The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University is home to more than 700,000 items related to the global Black experience dating from 1581 to the present. (Courtesy Temple University)

How did Mr. Blockson decide that Temple University was the place to house his collection?

Turner: A group of scholars led by Doctor Lawrence Reddick visited Mr. Blockson’s home in 1973. We were moving out of the Civil Rights Movement into the Black Arts and Black Power movements. I’m sure that influenced their visit to Mr. Blockson’s house, and they appealed to him to bring his collection to Temple. At that time, Mr. Blockson was a bibliophile and was still collecting. It took him 10 years to finally decide that he would have his collection brought to Temple.

One of the main reasons he brought it to Temple was because it was situated in the heart of an African American community, and he wanted the community to have access to his collection, along with Temple staff, students, and faculty. In 1984, the collection came to Temple, and Dr. Jessie Carney Smith appraised the collection. At that time, he had 20,000 items, and today we have over 700,000 items and growing.

When did Mr. Blockson begin accumulating his vast collection?

Turner: Mr. Blockson started collecting at the age of 9, in 1943. He said he started because he raised his hand and asked his teacher, “What contributions had Negroes made to American history?” His teacher said, “Negroes had no history, and it was their place to serve whites.” So he just started collecting anything that had colored Negro, colored, Ethiopian, Jamaican, and he kept them all in his home. Also, he read Richard Wright’s “Black Boy”. As a student at Penn State, his roommate was [star athlete] Rosie Greer. After the football games, he said when the guys would go to parties, he would go to the bookstores and see what they had, and then go to the parties.

Charles Blockson is seen seated in front of a Paul Laurence Dunbar painting. (Photo by Reed Stevens)

When did you begin working with Blockson?

Turner: When I was working on my PhD in the history department, I was Mr. Blockson’s graduate assistant. I worked for him in the collection and had the honor to work on the book “The Journey of John W. Mosley” with him. So I was with him sifting through photographs for that book. When he retired in 2006, they did a national search and picked the right person. Me.

Before coming to Temple, I had a one-year appointment at Rowan University in the history department, and then I worked with the Bard [College] Clemente program and also taught. When the position came up at Temple, I applied for it.

With the banning of books by Black authors in public schools and the erasure of Black history in some curricula across the country, would you say the work of the collection is more important than ever?

Turner: History is important. The materials we have in the Blockson Collection document the global Black experience. This is not the first time that books have been banned. When Carter G. Woodson came out with “The Negro in Our History” back in the ‘20s, a school out in Tulsa, Oklahoma adopted the book, and the Board of Education banned it. They fired the principal, and the teachers were reprimanded. The main thing is you need to know who you are, because if you don’t know who you are, anybody can name you.

I think that there’s always been this fear around having everybody know the African American experience. If you look at the United States, some of the oldest Americans are people of African descent. What we promote in the Blockson Collections is that African American history is American history and world history. It’s not just for African Americans. It’s for everyone.

Lastly, how do you envision the future of the Blockson Collection?

Turner: I’m hoping now that with the growing collection Temple will consider a capital campaign so that the Blockson Collection can have a building, as opposed to just being in a space. There’ll be an actual building where we can have space, community, a separate section for film and photographs, archival versus the library, and a whole host of things that we could do if we had more space.