Lifting as we climb

As the nation commemorates the 250th anniversary of America's independence, a featured exhibition at the University of Delaware invites visitors to consider a broader question: Whose stories go untold?

Lifting As We Climb: Churches, Schools and the Formation of Delaware's Free Black Communities, on view through Aug. 7 in Morris Library, explores how African Americans in Delaware built institutions, pursued education and strengthened the community in the decades following the Civil War. Drawing from the University's Special Collections, the exhibition highlights the people and organizations that worked to expand opportunity and realize democratic ideals that remained out of reach for many Americans long after the nation's founding.

"One of the themes that inspired the exhibition was the idea of an unfinished revolution," said Hillary Kativa, associate librarian and head of Special Collections. "The efforts to realize the promises of American democracy didn't begin and end in 1776. We wanted to explore how Black Delawareans continued that work through community building, education and civic engagement."