Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture

04/01/2026

Last month, Phyllis Chesler and Robin Morgan, whose papers are housed in the Bingham Center, received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the International Law Conference on the Status of Women. In her acceptance remarks, Dr. Chesler said, "Thank you for recognizing my work. It means a great deal to me. As you know, what remains to be done will require many generations, many torch-bearers, in order to “bend the arc” of justice towards womankind. I am so grateful to have been part of this process for the last sixty years.”

  Both at home and abroad the rule of law and the judiciary are facing unprecedented attacks. These attacks on […]

01/06/2026

The Baldwin Scholar's Program annual lecture (Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 7pm, Rubenstein Arts Center, von der Heyden Studio Theater): "Is Diversity & Inclusion Over? Is Now Really the Time?" with Dr. Mary Frances Berry

01/06/2026

Upcoming event: "Freeing Joan Little: "Gender, Incarceration, and Struggles for Justice"
Date: Thursday, January 29th, 2026
Time: 5:00 – 6:30pm
Location: Smith Warehouse, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Bay 4; 114 S Buchanan Blvd, Durham, NC

In 1975, a Black woman named Joan Little was acquitted of killing a white guard who had tried to r**e her in an eastern North Carolina prison. The folks who campaigned on Little’s behalf understood the webs of sexual violence, state violence, and racialized carcerality that ensnared her, and they linked her trial to other sites of existential concern for Black women’s—and everyone’s—liberation. 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of this landmark case that still offers lessons in the struggle for justice.

Join historian Christina Greene, Ph.D. ’96, and death penalty lawyer Shelagh Kenney to discuss what Joan Little tells us about gender, incarceration, and state violence then and now.

Adriane Lentz-Smith, Associate Professor of History and African & African American Studies at Duke University, will introduce and moderate the discussion.

In addition to the panel, an exhibition of items related to Joan Little, including one of her handwritten, illustrated poems, will be on display in Perkins Library during the month of January 2026.

Date: Thursday, January 29th, 2026 Time: 5:00 – 6:30pm Location: Smith Warehouse, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Bay 4; 114 S Buchanan Blvd, Durham, NC In 1974, a twenty-year-old Black woman named Joan Little found herself facing the death penalty for killing a white guard who had tried to r**e her...