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Monday 7:45am - 10pm Tuesday 7:45am - 10pm Wednesday 7:45am - 10pm Thursday 7:45am - 10pm Friday 7:45am - 5pm Saturday 1pm - 5pm Sunday 2pm - 10pm

John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library

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John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library

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The Fisk University John Hope and Aurelia E.

Franklin Library is the academic hub of the university, working to support the academic programs by providing books, electronic resources, and other materials.

10/27/2026

Ann Allen Shockley preserved Black stories—and wrote stories that expanded the record.

A 1948 Fisk graduate, librarian, archivist, and author, Shockley helped build and steward Fisk’s Special Collections and founded its Black Oral History Program. Her work advanced the preservation of African American history while her scholarship brought greater attention to generations of Black women writers.

Her groundbreaking novel “Loving Her” (1974) centered a Black le***an protagonist, securing her place in the history of Black women’s and LGBTQ+ literature. Across archives, reference works, and fiction, her contributions continue to shape what we collect, study, and remember.

Join Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library for Distinguished Legacies in Black Librarianship: A Symposium Honoring Jessie Carney Smith and Ann Allen Shockley.

📅 Friday, November 13, 2026
🕙 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
📍 Appleton Room | Fisk University

Registration is complimentary and includes meals. We’ve saved you a seat—register today:
bit.ly/fisklibrarysymposium2026

Sponsored by the Sandra Schatten Foundation.

10/23/2026

Their work has shaped how Black history is collected, preserved, studied, and remembered.

Join Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library for Distinguished Legacies in Black Librarianship: A Symposium Honoring Jessie Carney Smith and Ann Allen Shockley.

As librarians, archivists, scholars, and authors, Smith and Shockley expanded access to Black history and literature while helping generations of researchers ask new questions and recover overlooked stories. Come celebrate their extraordinary contributions and join conversations about the continuing work of Black librarianship and archives.

📅 Friday, November 13, 2026
🕙 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
📍 Appleton Room | Fisk University

Registration is complimentary and includes meals.

Bring a colleague, invite a student, and join us in Nashville.

We’ve saved you a seat—register today:
bit.ly/fisklibrarysymposium2026

Sponsored by the Sandra Schatten Foundation.

10/23/2026

The John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library proudly welcomes the National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAAHP) to Fisk University for its 35th Annual Conference, October 22–24, 2026!

We are especially pleased to recognize Fisk’s W.E.B. Du Bois Honors Program, whose commitment to intellectual excellence, leadership, and scholarly achievement reflects the extraordinary legacy of its namesake and the enduring educational mission of Fisk University.

To the students, scholars, faculty, and institutional leaders joining us from across the country: Welcome to Fisk! May your time here inspire meaningful connections, spirited inquiry, and renewed commitments to excellence.

10/22/2026

Honoring a Legacy of Faith, Courage, and Justice | Kelly Miller Smith Week, October 21–27, 2026

The John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library at Fisk University proudly joins in commemorating Kelly Miller Smith Week, honoring the life, leadership, and enduring legacy of the Reverend Kelly Miller Smith Sr. (1920–1984).

A towering figure in Nashville’s Civil Rights Movement, Rev. Smith served as pastor of First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill, and helped establish the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, which played a pivotal role in organizing and sustaining the student-led sit-in movement. His leadership helped unite the moral authority of the Black church with the courage and determination of a generation of young activists who challenged segregation and transformed Nashville.

As we commemorate his life and legacy, we also recognize the vital contributions of the students, churches, educators, and community members whose collective efforts helped reshape our city and nation.

At the Franklin Library, we believe that preserving this history is inseparable from the responsibility to understand it, share it, and carry its lessons forward.

We join the Fisk University community in honoring Rev. Smith’s legacy and renewing our commitment to the pursuit of justice, equality, and the preservation of our shared history.

10/15/2026

For 55 years, Dr. Jessie Carney Smith helped shape Fisk University’s library—and the study of Black history.

Now Librarian Emerita, Smith became Fisk’s first Black woman university librarian in 1965. She guided the development of its present library building, expanded its collections, and advanced scholarship through more than thirty authored or edited books, including Black Firsts and Notable Black American Women. Her work has made generations of Black achievement more accessible to researchers, students, and readers.

Join Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library for Distinguished Legacies in Black Librarianship: A Symposium Honoring Jessie Carney Smith and Ann Allen Shockley.

📅 Friday, November 13, 2026
🕙 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
📍 Appleton Room | Fisk University

Celebrate their contributions and join the conversation about the future of Black librarianship and archives.

Registration is complimentary and includes meals. We’ve saved you a seat—register today:
bit.ly/fisklibrarysymposium2026

Sponsored by the Sandra Schatten Foundation.

10/07/2026

Two women. Two extraordinary legacies. One enduring impact on how Black history is collected, preserved, studied, and remembered.

Join Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library for Distinguished Legacies in Black Librarianship: A Symposium Honoring Jessie Carney Smith and Ann Allen Shockley.

Through thoughtful conversations on HBCU library history, Black digital archives, and Black women’s history at HBCUs, scholars and practitioners will celebrate their remarkable contributions and consider the essential work of preserving Black institutional memory for generations to come.

📅 Friday, November 13, 2026
🕙 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
📍 Appleton Room | Fisk University

Registration is complimentary and includes meals. We’ve saved you a seat—register today at bit.ly/fisklibrarysymposium2026.

Sponsored by the Sandra Schatten Foundation.

10/07/2026

Their work has shaped how Black history is collected, preserved, studied, and remembered.

Join Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library for “Distinguished Legacies in Black Librarianship: A Symposium,” honoring two towering figures in the field: Dr. Jessie Carney Smith and Ann Allen Shockley.

Through conversations on HBCU library history, Black digital archiving, and Black women’s history at HBCUs, we will celebrate their extraordinary contributions and consider the continuing importance of Black librarianship and archival stewardship.

📅 Friday, November 13, 2026
🕙 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
📍 Appleton Room | Fisk University

Registration is complimentary and includes meals. Reserve your seat today at bit.ly/fisklibrarysymposium2026.

Sponsored by the Sandra Schatten Foundation.

10/07/2026

Registration is now open—and we want you in the room! 📢

Their work has shaped how Black history is collected, preserved, studied, and remembered.

Join Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library for “Distinguished Legacies in Black Librarianship and Archives: A Symposium,” honoring Jessie Carney Smith and Ann Allen Shockley.

This special gathering will celebrate their extraordinary contributions while bringing us together to consider the enduring importance—and future—of Black librarianship and archival work.

Whether you are a librarian, archivist, scholar, educator, student, cultural worker, or simply someone who believes Black history must be preserved, this symposium is for you.

📅 Friday, November 13, 2026
🕙 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
📍 Appleton Room | Fisk University

Registration is complimentary and includes meals. Make plans now, invite a colleague or student, and reserve your seat today:

bit.ly/fisklibrarysymposium2026

We look forward to welcoming you to Fisk!

Sponsored by the Sandra Schatten Foundation.

10/07/2026

155 years of Jubilee! 🎶

On October 6, 1871, nine young singers left Fisk University with a mission to help save their school. Their voices carried the spirituals to the world and helped secure Fisk’s future.

Today, the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library celebrates their courage, sacrifice, and extraordinary legacy—and congratulates the newest troupe of Fisk Jubilee Singers®!

We salute their director, Dr. G. Preston Wilson, Jr. ’10, himself a former Jubilee Singer, for guiding this generation in carrying forward one of Fisk’s most sacred traditions.

To our Singers: we celebrate you, we’re proud of you, and we look forward to all that your voices will make possible.

Happy Jubilee Day, Fisk! Forever, we carry thee. 💙💛

Historic photograph courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, Fisk University.

10/04/2026

Today, on what would have been his 112th birthday, we remember Dr. Leslie Morgan Collins—“Friend” to generations of Fiskites and one of the most enduring members of the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library community.

For more than three-quarters of a century, Dr. Collins’s relationship with the Library was lived in motion: faculty instructing, researcher researching, writer writing, mentor meeting with students—and, most importantly, patron reading.

Again and again, he returned to books, ideas, people, and the work of learning.

After joining Fisk’s English faculty in 1945, Dr. Collins became a beloved teacher of composition, English literature, the Harlem Renaissance, and Black literature. He wrote poetry, authored books, and reviewed books for The Tennessean for nearly fifty years. His 1944 Rosenwald fellowship application—supporting his study of Marian Anderson, Katherine Dunham, and Paul Robeson—is now preserved in the Library’s digital Rosenwald Fund Collection.

His relationship with the Library was never merely historical. It was habitual, personal, and alive.

Heavenly Happy Birthday, Friend. We’ve saved you a seat, Friend!

Lovingly remembered by your John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library family at Fisk University.

Address

1000 17th Avenue North
Nashville, TN
37208

Opening Hours

Monday	7:45am - 10pm
Tuesday	7:45am - 10pm
Wednesday	7:45am - 10pm
Thursday	7:45am - 10pm
Friday	7:45am - 5pm
Saturday	1pm - 5pm
Sunday	2pm - 10pm

Telephone

+16153298640

Website

http://www.fisk.edu/

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