Robin Hough Collection, 1964, 2006, 2014, and undated (majority within 2006)

Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library

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Restrictions:: Robin Hough Collection is open for research.

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Summary

Creator:: Hough, Robin.
Abstract:: The collection (mostly copies) consists mostly of Professor Robin Hough’s Subject Files, notes, study guides and tests (blanks) on Africans and related topics, African Americans and related topics, and Native Americans and related topics.
Extent:: 1.5 cubic foot (in 1 box, 9 Oversized folders)
Language:: English
Authors:: Collection processed and finding aid created by M. Matyn, 2014

Background

Scope and Content:

The collection (mostly copies) consists mostly of Professor Robin Hough’s Subject Files, notes, study guides and tests (blanks) on Africans and related topics, African Americans and related topics, and Native Americans and related topics. There is a small amount of material on the Caribbean and “colored people” of Canada. The main focus of these topics is music from Africa, how it evolved through slave culture into the modern period and its social, political, and religious impact. A small amount of material at the front of the box includes Hough Materials: papers, correspondence, conference materials, tests, quizzes, study guides and examples Robin used in his various classes, mostly Religion 342/501. There are also a few issues of some publications which are not duplicated in the CMU libraries’ collections, including newsletters, catalogs, and journals. Most of the copies were made between 1983 and 2006, with a few preservation copies made by the archivist in 2014. The collection is organized by series and size.

Of particular note are manuscripts (copies) documenting the American Freedmen’s Inquiry Commission which investigated the condition of slaves and freedmen, and ideas about what to do with them (send them north, to Alabama, or to Honduras) during the American Civil War. There is a small amount of material documenting similar investigations and reports from the Provincial Association for the Elevation and Education for Colored Persons and the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. These provide a lot of detailed information by white men who interacted with the freed men and women. The reports are strongly affected by what they witnessed and cultural perceptions. There is also a mostly statistical report on the Colored Convicts in Canada, 1863.

Processing Note: Approximately ten cubic feet of the original donation was returned to Professor Hough’s friends, as per their request. This material including various formats on peripheral and general topics, such as general religion or folklore topics, miscellaneous or unidentifiable materials and notes, personal copies of recorded televised shows, resumes, job descriptions, generic correspondence, and related materials of other people, students’ papers, quizzes and exams, duplicates, professionally made and purchased slides, and personal recordings of speakers without documentation of their permission to be recorded. Class lists of students with their social security numbers were immediately shredded by the archivist. Really bad copies of microfilmed newspapers, manuscripts, and acidic notes were photocopied in 2014 by the archivist, and the originals were then withdrawn from the collection. The collection was stored in the department’s storage area following Prof. Hough’s demise in 2006, until it was donated to the Clarke in 2014. Six academic publications were cataloged and added to the collections of the Clarke.

Biographical / Historical:

Biography:

Robert “Robin” W. Hough lived an interesting life with a unique perspective. He was born in North Carolina on April 22, 1945, the son of Robert S. Hough, a Presbyterian minister, and Mary. Robin grew up mostly in Tennessee. His mother always called him Robin, and that was the name he used all his life. Robin attended the Macauley School, a military high school, in Chattanooga. As a teen, Robin listened to Chuck Berry, and this led to his awareness of the pervasive and unrealistic racism in the world.

About 1967, Robin earned a B.A. from Emory University. While at Emory, he trained in non-violence and participated in civil rights demonstrations. During training, black and white students lived together. This experience deeply affected him and he wondered what the black students got out of it. Robin marched with Vietnam protestors on the Pentagon in October 1967. Abbie Hoffman had promised to levitate the Pentagon during the protest. Robin reacted to the cultural differences between those who thought the building would be literally raised and those who realized it was political theatre. He was also affected by the loss of many of his young, male friends who died in Vietnam. This loss likely led to his dissertation topic, poetry by Vietnam war veterans. Robin viewed the poems as social artifacts, records of pain, not as literary works. Robin did not serve in Vietnam.

After Emory, Robin earned a M.A. from Harvard Divinity School in the 1970s, and a Ph.D. in 1980 from Harvard School of Humanities. His academic focus was social ethics.

In 1983, Robin came to Central Michigan University (CMU). He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1992. An expert on African American music, race, and religion in America, Robin had a special interest in goddess-oriented religions, Afro-Caribbean religion, world mythology, folklore, and feminism. One of his former student recalled how Robin taught without any lecture notes. He had his students listen to examples from his large musical records collection. Then, Robin covered the chalkboard with information about music, names, dates, song titles, and performers. He particularly loved to teach African American adults in Detroit and Atlanta. Robin was a very gifted teacher.

Robin is remembered by his friends and colleagues as intense and outrageously fun-loving. He was good friends with the radical feminist Mary Daly. In the early 1980s Robin traveled to Nicaragua and filmed Sandinista community life. In the 1990s he helped create a CMU men’s rape awareness and prevention group. In this period he also helped bring Allen Ginsberg to campus as a speaker.

Robin was married to the feminist theologian Emily Culpepper for a few years in the late 1960s. They later divorced. Afterwards, Gail Hansen was his partner for about twenty-five years.

On January 13, 2006 Robin died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Boston. His large collection of pre-war Gospel and Blues music was auctioned, at his request, after his death. (This information is from the Biographical Materials folder in the collection, including correspondence with his friends and family.)

Acquisition Information:

Acc# 74658

Arrangement: