On the Yard

On the season one finale of On the Yard, MSRC Director Dr. Benjamin Talton sits down with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, historian, author, and the inaugural Carter G. Woodson Endowed Chair in History for the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University.  The conversation covers Dr. Kendi’s new book, Chain of Ideas , which examines the origin and rise of “the great replacement theory” as a dominant poli...

Just across the street from The Yard, sits Sankofa Video, Books, and Cafe. For nearly 30 years, Sankofa has provided an expansive selection of film and literature on the global Black experience, but it has also long been a community center for Howard University students and residents of northwest D.C.  For this episode of On The Yard, MSRC Director Dr. Benjamin Talton pays a visit to Sankofa Cafe...

By the early 1970s, Black residents comprised nearly 73% of Washington, D.C.’s population, making it one of the most prominent majority Black cities in America.  As a testament to that identity, residents in D.C. nicknamed it “Chocolate City.”  Chocolate City was a rare urban space in the 1970s where Black-owned businesses thrived, go-go music dominated the radio stations, and Black people held ge...

Theater, as a medium, has historically offered unique and groundbreaking ways to illuminate singular visions of and insights into Black life that challenge and move beyond more accessible or commodified forms of representation. On this episode of On the Yard, MarQuis Bullock, Head of Collections in MSRC’s Manuscripts Division, is joined by special guest Dominique Morriseau, award-winning playwrigh...

For more than a decade, Howard University’s swim and dive team was plagued with a losing streak they just couldn’t seem to shake. But that all changed in 2014, when Howard swim team alum Nicholas Askew took over the program. By Coach Nic’s second season, the swim and dive team won its first dual meet in 15 years. Since then, he’s catapulted the program into success with record-breaking, undefeated...

 On March 2, 1867, U.S. President Andrew Johnson signed the Congressional Charter for Howard University, making it one of only two universities in the country whose existence was enshrined in federal law. The university was named after one of its most notable founders – Civil War general and president of the Freedmen's Bureau, Oliver Otis Howard. Howard University’s origins, in every respect, alig...

It took 59 years and 12 white ministers before Howard University finally had its first Black president.  Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Howard’s 13th president, took office in 1926 at just 36 years old. On this episode of On the Yard, President Johnson’s legacy comes to life – from his days as a Baptist minister to leading Howard through the most pivotal time of the 20th century. Dr. Benjamin Talton, dir...

Gordon Parks, one of the most consequential photographers in history, documented American life in the middle of the 20th century, with a focus on race relations and civil rights. Parks also spent a great deal of time examining the role of religion and spirituality, and how those traditions impact the environment and the communities from which they emerge. Thanks to a partnership with the Gordon Pa...

Welcome to On the Yard, a podcast that delves into the archives at Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center to uncover the figures and events in Howard’s history that have shaped the global Black experience.  In this inaugural episode, the power of protest and its place in the fabric and legacy of Howard’s history is explored. Dr. Benjamin Talton, director of MSRC, is joined by Dr. Gr...

Welcome to “On The Yard,” a podcast by the Moorland Spingarn Research Center at Howard University.    Since 1914, MSRC has preserved the stories that define Black life around the world, including photographs, rare books, letters, political archives, film, and everyday materials that reveal lives filled with love, brilliance, struggle, creativity, and imagination. This podcast brings you into the t...