The Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center will open “Black Utopias,” its fall exhibition Oct. 8. This exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”

In addition to Malcolm X, the exhibit also celebrates the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Madam C. J. Walker, James Ford, Martin Luther King, Jr. and several other leaders in African-American history.

“Black Utopias serves as a model for the kinds of faculty partnerships that the Special Collections Research Center strives to create,” said Lucy Mulroney, interim senior director of the research center in an email. Mulroney co-curated the exhibit with Joan Bryant, an associate professor in the African American Studies department.

An opening reception for the exhibition will be held Thursday, Oct. 15 from 5 to 7 p.m. An exhibition tour and brownbag discussion with both of the curators will be held Friday, Oct. 23 from noon to 1:30 p.m. Both events will be free and open to the public.

Among other items, the exhibit will host a variety of original manuscripts, photographs, architectural plans, audio recordings and film and video displays from the 19th and 20th centuries.

These documents address a variety of themes, including justice, freedom, beauty, progress, radicalism and interracial ties. The exhibition presents different perspectives on each theme. For example, there is a huge contrast between the beliefs of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois, Bryant said.

“Working collaboratively from our different areas of expertise, Professor Bryant and I wanted to think deeply and creatively about how a variety of individuals envisioned possibilities for unity, power, equality, and beauty amidst experiences of injustice and degradation,” Mulroney said. “It is our attempt to open up broader conversations about the contours of our own historical moment and the role that the archive can play in thinking about our past, our future, and our scholarly work.”