Raymond Gavins papers, 1880-2016

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Summary

Creator:
Gavins, Raymond
Abstract:
Raymond Gavins was the first African American faculty member of the History Department at Duke University. During his 45-year career at Duke University, Gavins held professorial and administrative positions including time as Director of Graduate Studies, History. His courses, publications, and research focused on Black history and life in the United States and North Carolina. This collection contains correspondence, writings, reports, course materials, and proposals related to Black Studies, Duke's History Department, advisory boards and committees, professional organizations, and conferences. Also includes subject files and notes from Gavins' research, drafts of his writings, and recordings of Gavins and interviews he conducted.
Extent:
15 Linear Feet
35 Gigabytes
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
UA.29.02.0260
University Archives Record Group:
29 -- Papers of Faculty, Staff, and Associates
29 -- Papers of Faculty, Staff, and Associates > 02 -- Individuals

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of materials related to Raymond Gavins' research, career, and activities in professional organizations. Includes administrative materials from Duke University committees and departments like the Academic Council Committee on Black Faculty, Minority Affairs Review Committee, the Behind the Veil Advisory Board, the History Department, Latin American Cultural Studies, and the Summer Transitional Program. Contains records related to the establishment and development of a Black Studies Program at Duke such as minutes, reports, and correspondence from the President's Council on Black Affairs, the Advisory Committee on Afro-American Studies, and the Afro-American Society. Includes correspondence between Gavins, colleagues, and former students; appointment books; course proposals and descriptions; and syllabi and lecture notes from courses taught by Gavins for the History and the African and African American Studies departments. Includes programs, papers, and correspondence for conferences and organizations such as the Making Sense of Survival conference, the Southern Regional Council, and the Southern Historical Association. Contains research notes and drafts of articles, speeches, and essays written by Gavins, his colleagues, former students, and other scholars, some of which include comments from Gavins. Research and subject files in the collection consist largely of photocopies of articles related to Gavins' research. Also includes cassette tapes with recordings of Gavins speaking at events and interviews he conducted.

Biographical / historical:

Raymond Gavins was born in Atlanta, Georgia on October 26, 1942. He studied at Virginia Union University (VUU) and the University of Virginia (UVA), and went on to develop a career as a historian, educator, mentor, and activist.

Gavins was the first recipient of the Rayford W. Logan Historical Prize in 1963. He participated in sit-ins, pickets, and campus vigils to protest the 1964 closing of the Prince Edward County public schools in Virginia. According to Gavins, his reading of From Slavery to Freedom: A History of American Negroes by John Hope Franklin in his second year at VUU influenced him to "join efforts for Afro-American Studies at the University of Virginia and to pursue the study of southern black leadership."

After receiving a bachelor's in History from VUU in 1964, Gavins taught US History and Government for Virginia Public Schools while studying History as a graduate student at UVA. He received a master's in American History in 1967, and in 1970, he earned a doctoral degree in American History making him the first African American student to receive a PhD from UVA's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Gavins began his 45-year career at Duke University in 1970; he first joined the History Department as an assistant professor. Gavins describes the subject matter of his instruction as "modern American and Afro-American history…along with documenting and explaining [B]lack experiences of segregation." This also reflected in his research which focused on Black life, experience, and history in the United States and North Carolina. Gavins was promoted to associate professor in 1977, and in 1992, he became the first African American professor to receive tenure in Duke's History department. He served in administrative roles for the department as Director of Graduate Studies from 1995 to 1998 and Director of Senior Honors Thesis Program from 2005 to 2008. Gavins participated in the Advisory Committee for Black Studies, which served in an advisory role for the establishment and development of a Black Studies Program at Duke from 1970 until 1987 and again from 1993 to 1995. He joined the Duke Oral History Program in 1972 as an associate where his research explored 1890s disfranchisement and civil rights in North Carolina. In 1991, he became co-director of the Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South oral history project. For his work on the Behind the Veil project, Gavins was a co-recipient of the 1996 Oral History Association Distinguished Oral History Project Award.

He contributed to addressing issues around diversity and life at Duke for Black students and faculty members. Gavins was a member of the President's Council from 1979 until 1980 then again in 1987 to 1989. The President's Council on Black Affairs was charged with keeping the University in line with its goals to increase diversity at Duke. He participated on the Advisory Committee on the Recruitment of Black Faculty. In 1981, Gavins introduced the idea of a non-administrative committee of the Academic Council for the recruitment of Black faculty members at Duke in a letter to the provost. The following year, the Academic Council Committee on Black Faculty was formed. He also participated on the Duke-Zimbabwe Exchange Committee, the President's Special Committee to Review Minority Affairs, and was an associate of the Center for Documentary Studies.

Gavins contributed on several projects and organizations outside of Duke. He consulted for Durham Public Schools in developing a Black Studies curriculum. He was a member of the Southern Regional Council (SRC), the North Carolina Historical Commission, Historical Society of North Carolina, and the Southern Historical Association (SHA). Within some of these organizations he served on programming, nominating, and advisory committees. He chaired the 1975 American Historical Association annual meeting and was a part of the editorial team for Tar Heel Junior Historian Journal's Fall 1995 issue.

Gavins published works and presented papers at conferences throughout his career. He authored The Perils and Prospects of Southern Leadership: Gordon Blaine Hancock 1884-1970 , The Cambridge Guide to African American History , and coedited Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South . Some of his writings have appeared in essay collections like Black Americans in North Carolina and South and Race, Class, and Politics in Southern History: Essays in Honor of Robert F. Durden . His articles have appeared in publications like the Journal of Negro History, Southern Changes, Tar Heel Junior Historian, Encyclopedia of North Carolina, and OAH Magazine of History .

Raymond Gavins was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, the Southern Regional Council Lillian Smith Book Award, the Julian Francis Abele Award from Duke Black Graduate and Professional Student Association, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellowship, and the John W. Blassingame Award of the Southern Historical Association. Gavins died on May 22, 2016.

Sources: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/raymond-gavins, accessed 4/3/2024

https://today.duke.edu/2016/05/gavinsobit, accessed 4/3/2024

https://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/history/faculty/raymond.gavins/files/cv.pdf, accessed 4/3/2024

Acquisition information:
The Raymond Gavins papers were received by the University Archives as a gift in 2012 and 2017.
Processing information:

Processed by April Blevins, May 2024

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2012-0220, UA2017-0034

Contents

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Restrictions:

Access restricted. Some materials in this collection include student records. In accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 as amended, Duke University permits students to inspect their education records and limits the disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records. Contact Research Services for more information.

Access restricted. Some materials in this collection are personnel records. Records pertaining to employment where individuals are identified are closed for 70 years.

Access note. Some materials in this collection are electronic records that require special equipment. Contact Research Services with questions.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Raymond Gavins papers, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1gf2v