The Civil Rights Struggle
Press Release No. 4/2009
2 07 2009
2 07 2009
Oral history collection receives award from NAACP
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This year’s Julius E. Williams Distinguished Community Service Award of the African-American civil rights organisation NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) goes to Dr. Martin Klimke, staff member at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies and current research fellow at the German Historical Institute (DHI) in Washington, together with Prof. Dr. Maria Höhn of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie (New York State). They have been selected for this honour in recognition of their joint research project “The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany”, which encompasses both an oral history collection and a freely accessible digital archive (www.aacvr-germany.org). The project investigates the extent to which the establishment of U.S. military bases outside North America has advanced the cause of the African-American civil rights movement in the USA.
The first country the project has turned its attention to is Germany. Since 1945 about 20 million American soldiers, along with their families and civilian employees, have spent part of their military service here. About 3 million of them have been African-American. Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke have been documenting their experiences and the experiences of those who have interacted with them over civil rights demands and racial discrimination on both sides of the Atlantic. In so doing, the Höhn-Klimke project takes the history of the African-American civil rights movement beyond the boundaries of the USA itself. The project receives funding from the German Historical Institute (Washington DC), Heidelberg University’s Center for American Studies and Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY).
The Julius E. Williams Distinguished Community Service Award of the NAACP will be presented in New York on 14 July as part of the Centennial Convention celebrating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP. In 2009/2010 an exhibition of photographs assembled by Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke and entitled “The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany” will be on show at various locations in the USA and Germany, including Heidelberg (early 2010).
More information available at
www.aacvr-germany.org/award
General inquiries from journalists should be addressed to
Heidelberg University
Communications and Marketing
Dr. Michael Schwarz
Public Information Officer
michael.schwarz@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
Irene Thewalt
phone: +49 6221 542311
presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
The first country the project has turned its attention to is Germany. Since 1945 about 20 million American soldiers, along with their families and civilian employees, have spent part of their military service here. About 3 million of them have been African-American. Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke have been documenting their experiences and the experiences of those who have interacted with them over civil rights demands and racial discrimination on both sides of the Atlantic. In so doing, the Höhn-Klimke project takes the history of the African-American civil rights movement beyond the boundaries of the USA itself. The project receives funding from the German Historical Institute (Washington DC), Heidelberg University’s Center for American Studies and Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY).
The Julius E. Williams Distinguished Community Service Award of the NAACP will be presented in New York on 14 July as part of the Centennial Convention celebrating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP. In 2009/2010 an exhibition of photographs assembled by Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke and entitled “The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany” will be on show at various locations in the USA and Germany, including Heidelberg (early 2010).
More information available at
www.aacvr-germany.org/award
General inquiries from journalists should be addressed to
Heidelberg University
Communications and Marketing
Dr. Michael Schwarz
Public Information Officer
michael.schwarz@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
Irene Thewalt
phone: +49 6221 542311
presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
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