| Summary: | African diaspora historian and curator Charles L. Blockson was born on December 16, 1933, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Blockson has amassed one of the world's largest private collections of African American history. Blockson graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1956, where he was a talented football player and NFL prospect. He taught local and multicultural history and traveled extensively around the world, acquiring more than 150,000 rare African, African American and African Caribbean publications and more than 500,000 rare photographs. In 1984, Blockson donated these items to Temple University, and served as curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. Blockson worked as director of the Pennsylvania Black History Committee, director of the Pennsylvania Afro-American History Board and governor's commissioner of the Governor's Heritage Program. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, as well as multiple honorary doctorates, and has been a leading expert on the Underground Railroad.
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