The Black Heritage Collection, of John B. Cade Library, is named after Camille Stivers Shade. Shade graduated from Southern University in 1928, she received her degree in Library Science from Hampton University in 1929, she returned to Southern University and was Head Librarian from 1929-1969. In 1966, from the core Negro Collection, Shade developed the Black Heritage Collection. Shade was the university’s first professional librarian.
Camille Shade died on Monday, September 19, 1994, in Baton Rouge, LA at the age of 89. The Black Heritage Collection was renamed the Camille Stivers Shade Collection in memoriam on Wednesday February 8, 1995, during Black History Month.
Artifacts in Shade Collection Reading Room feature items from such places as Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, & Ivory Coast. There are original paintings by such renowned artist as Louisiana’s Own Clementine Hunter & a 1844 original portrait of Frederick Douglass with his daughter Rosetta:
Materials from this collection circulate for 14 days.