In 2026, the National Museum of African American History and Culture launched the traveling exhibition At the Vanguard: Making and Saving History at HBCUs. If you can’t make it to Washington, DC, or another host venue, use this guide to explore the collection and to discover museums and archives at an HBCU near you. Their collections nurture, document, and celebrate Black history, telling inspiring stories of creativity, genius, and resistance.

During the first half of the 1900s, Black visual artists had few places to show their work. In 1942, Atlanta University art professor Hale Woodruff championed an annual juried art competition—the Exhibition of Paintings by Negro Artists of America. Known as the “Atlanta Art Annuals,” they ran for ~30 years and featured nearly 900 artists. Attracting 3,450 entries, the Annuals helped launch the careers of numerous African American artists and establish the legitimacy of Black artistic expression.

The legacies of Black visual arts have survived and thrived because of HBCUs. Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) began collecting and exhibiting art in 1942, when it initiated the “Atlanta Art Annuals” competition. Today, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum (CAUAM) has more than 1,200 African American and African diaspora works of art. Hale Woodruff’s “Art of the Negro” mural hangs in the atrium, and CAUAM offers artist residencies, art exhibitions, and educational programs.

Art department founder Hale Woodruff’s legacy is literally painted on the walls. From 1950 to 1951, the artist created what he considered to be his best mural, "Art of the Negro," for the university’s library. Consisting of six 12'X12’ paintings, the work connects African Americans to their mixed ancestry and artistic heritage through art. Woodruff hoped students and visitors would be inspired to want to learn more. This panel spotlights cultural exchange. See them all in Trevor Arnett Hall.

With its motto “Excellence in Achievement,” TSU is one of Texas’s most culturally diverse institutions, known for its award-winning debate team and dynamic “Ocean of Soul” marching band. TSU created its University Museum in 2000, specializing in African American and African diasporic art. Artist John Biggers, seen here with founding director Alvia Wardlaw, helped build its gallery of traditional African art, and the museum collects the work of Texas Southern alumni—part of what sets it apart.

TSU’s art department is a center for art training and art education. Graduates often return to teach and share how identity shapes art. “TSU taught me how to be an artist,” says Delita Martin. “The philosophy that I was taught under Harvey [Johnson] is that you formed an emotional, spiritual connection with your work, and the technical abilities will follow… Take the time to understand [your work], to know it, to feel it, to be it, and bring it to life. And that’s how I practice to this day.”

Bold, bright, and strikingly large, murals reveal complex artistic histories and legacies. At Texas Southern University (TSU), muralist John Biggers sparked a lasting student-made mural tradition.TSU students commissioned professor Biggers to create this mural for the new Sterling Student Life Center. “Family Unity” showcases Biggers’s abstract sculptural style that emerged after his time in West Africa. This central detail features a couple embracing in a shape echoing a womb.

Tuskegee University (TU), founded as a normal school in 1881, is the only HBCU designated a National Historic Site—preserving the legacy of Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and the Tuskegee Airmen. TU Archives documents Black history—collecting legal and financial papers, historical photographs, and scholarship about education, science, and aviation. Recordings capture the oral and visual power of Civil Rights activism. Written archives tell a story of reckoning and remembrance.

The official photographer at the Tuskegee Institute for 40 years, P. H. Polk enrolled in its new photography department in the early 1900s. He took this photo of a dancing couple in the 1940s. He went on to earn national acclaim for his work in portraiture. Polk donated his vast collection of negatives to the Legacy Museum, one of 5 museums on campus, including the George Washington Carver Museum; his home, The Oaks; and the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.

Intellectual curiosity and free thinking characterize the study of literature at Jackson State University (JSU). This academic tradition is personified in literary figures like Margaret Walker, poet and novelist, and Kiese Laymon, writer and founder of the Catherine Colemon Literary Arts and Justice Initiative. Students engage in literary analysis and examine the literary history of African Americans. These programs and writers have helped to sustain their universities’ rich literary tradition.

Writer, activist, and professor Margaret Walker founded the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People at Jackson State University in 1968. Now called the Margaret Walker Center, this archive and museum preserves the university’s and community’s histories, political and social movements, and Walker's personal papers. The museum features the school’s historic marker, Walker’s typewriter, and her Alabama Writers Hall of Fame medal.

Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray put Tuskegee University on the literary map. They met as students and left indelible footprints on our cultural landscape. Tuskegee was inspirational in the development of Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man,” which dramatizes concepts of “invisibility” and self-identity. After 20 years in the Air Force, Murray went on to publish novels and studies of Blues and Jazz as a writer and cultural critic. He and Wynton Marsalis were founding members of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In 1887, the State Normal College for Colored Students—now Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU)—was founded on a former Tallahassee plantation. Built in 1932 on FAMU’s campus, Lucy Moten Elementary School taught Black elementary-age children and trained teachers. In 1953, Moten joined the FAMU College of Education and became the Developmental Research School. Saved through student activism from merging with Florida State in the 60s, FAMU is still one of the nation’s largest HBCUs.

HBCUs play critical roles in the uplift and stability of their local communities. The Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) Cooperative Extension Tractor Clinic of the 1960s worked to meet the needs of farmers by providing key demonstrations and skills to allow for more effective use of farming equipment. The FAMU extension agents aided in sustainable farming in the region and promoted economic profitability and social well-being. The Meek-Eaton preserves these stories and more.