Sanders Wins Faculty of the Year Award

The Emory NAACP selected Dr. Crystal R. Sanders as the Faculty Member of the Year at Emory University. She received the award during the organization’s annual Image Awards ceremony. Dr. Maurice Hobson of Georgia State University gave the keynote address.

Sanders and Frederick Host 2nd HBCU Film Festival at Emory University

In April 2026, Crystal R. Sanders, Associate Professor of African American Studies at Emory, and Marla Frederick, Dean of the Harvard Divinity School, hosted the second HBCU Film Festival at Emory University. Award-winning actress, producer, singer, and dance Jasmine Guy headlined the event and reminisced about her iconic role as Whitley Gilbert on the hit sitcom, A Different World. Filmmakers from universities throughout the United States submitted films a about some aspect of HBCU history or culture for the annual competition.

Sanders Wins Award from the ASHE

Crystal Sanders Featured in National Park Service Article about Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s home is now a National Park Service site and will open to the public in 2026 (click the linked sentence to learn more).

Sanders is Co-Winner of the 2025 Lillian Smith Book Award

Dr. Crystal R. Sanders is the co-winner of the 2025 Lillian Smith Book Award jointly given by the Southern Regional Council and the University of Georgia Libraries. She and co-winner, Dr. Robert Cohen of NYU, will accept their awards during a September 30 ceremony in Decatur, GA.

Sanders and Frederick Host Inaugural HBCU Film Festival at Emory

Emory University Associate Professor of African American Studies Crystal R. Sanders and Harvard Divinity School Dean Marla Frederick sponsored the inaugural HBCU Film Festival at Emory University on April 11, 2025. Undergraduate and graduate students from throughout the United States submitted short films about some aspect of HBCU history and culture. Select films were screened during the festival and noted scholars and filmmakers participated in a panel about HBCUs and ways to raise the profiles of HBCUs using various media. Be on the lookout for information about the 2026 HBCU Film Festival!

PBS Produces 5-Part Documentary Series Based on Sanders's Forthcoming Book. See Episode 1 Here

Crystal Sanders and other National Humanities Center Fellows Discuss the Price of Injustice

Crystal Sanders and Erica Frankenberg weigh in on public education 65 years after the Brown decision (interview link at bottom of post)

Click here to listen to the interview.

Sanders Named Director of the Africana Research Center at Penn State

https://news.psu.edu/story/526306/2018/06/25/academics/crystal-sanders-named-director-africana-research-center

Sanders Speaks at the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Crystal Sanders recently spoke about Head Start in civil rights-era Mississippi during the Presbyterian Historical Society's luncheon during the 223rd General Assembly in St. Louis, MO.  Click the link for more information about her remarks.

https://www.pcusa.org/news/2018/6/20/phs-remembers-head-start-program/