Archie Givens, Sr. at the Givens Ice Cream Bar. The Givens Ice Cream Bar opened in 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Givens Foundation Photos

Archie Givens, Sr. at the Givens Ice Cream Bar. The Givens Ice Cream Bar opened in 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Givens Foundation Photos

Givens would later become a prominent businessman and Minnesota’s first African American millionaire. With the support of ten prominent African American families and the University of Minnesota, “The Black Literature Collection,” (later renamed the Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature) was purchased in 1985 and brought to the University of Minnesota.