The NMBCC Story
The NMBCC was born out of an era of campus activism in the late 1960s, followed by African American student groups creating a document outlining their goals to increase black faculty, admit more black students, and introduce black studies programs. By 1969, the document went before the Faculty Council and was approved. The late Herman Hudson became the first chair of Afro American Studies, which is now known as the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Hudson went on to create the NMBCC, which supports teaching, research, and service missions of the university, while also offering a positive and hospitable social environment for African American and African students, faculty, and staff.
In January 2002, the NMBCC was officially dedicated in honor of the first African American man and woman to graduate from Indiana University: Marcellus Neal, who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1895, and Frances Marshall, who received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919.