For release: March 6, 2013
For press information, contact Jennifer Schnabel, 901-678-8210

The University Libraries at the University of Memphis are displaying “Impact and Influence: The Church Family of Memphis” in the rotunda of the Ned R. McWherter Library through May 9. The exhibition, which features more than 30 documents and artifacts from three generations of the Robert R. Church family, reflects the cultural, political and racial climate of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Prominent Memphians and active in the Republican Party, members of the Church family were influential in business, politics and public service both locally and nationally. They were heavily involved in the early civil rights movement and gained the respect and admiration of presidents, activists and key historical figures. In 1976, Sara Roberta Church donated nearly 100 boxes of material from her family’s personal archives to the University Libraries.

The exhibition includes souvenir programs from local events honoring President Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, along with personal correspondence from both men. One display features an assortment of letters, pamphlets, and historical publications, such as an original 1906 issue of W.E.B. DuBois’ The Moon, the first weekly African-American magazine and the precursor to The Crisis. 

Another display highlights the achievements of women during the civil rights movement and includes letters from Ida B. Wells-Barnett, as well as Church’s copy of her 1920 publication The Arkansas Race Riot.

“Impact and Influence: The Church Family of Memphis” is free and open to the public during regular library hours. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.memphis/libraries.

To view digital photographs of the Church family online, visit the University Libraries Digital Repository.