Find more Left of Black here: https://fhi.duke.edu/programs/left-black

For academics and scholars, the library is the source and life's blood to do the important work of research. What does it mean when state legislatures try to dictate what libraries can offer to the public at large? Celebrated scholar Dr. Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, currently the Vice Provost of Arts and Libraries at Vanderbilt University, joined host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss the role of the librarian along with reflecting on highlights of her illustrious career. Dr. Sharpley-Whiting came to Duke to conduct a masterclass at the From Slavery to Freedom Lab at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute on the historic librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black mixed-race woman who developed the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. That video will soon be made available on this YouTube channel.

Find out more about Dr. Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting here: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/aads/people/tracy-sharpley-whiting.php

Left of Black is a web series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars produced by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University. Directed, filmed, and edited by Eric Barstow, MFA.