Guide to African American History and Culture
This guide identifies manuscript collections that are related to African American history and culture. The Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) of Emory University houses a diverse body of African American primary sources, from literature and history to politics and popular culture. These include an extensive collection of correspondence, literary manuscripts, photographs, and ephemeral material as well as rare books, periodicals, pamphlets, and other printed matter. For additional assistance searching MARBL’s African American pamphlet literature, see http://marbl.library.emory.edu/afampamphlets/.
This guide is not intended to be a complete finding aid to the collections. It serves as a preliminary research tool, providing a brief description of holdings with basic information on size, inclusive dates, types of records, and broad subject areas. More detailed descriptions of the sources listed below are available in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) and through EUCLID, the Emory Libraries’ online catalog. EUCLID contains bibliographic records for the majority of the manuscript collections held in MARBL as well as books and other printed material available at Emory University. EUCLID is accessible through the Internet at http://www.library.emory.edu. Finding aids for these sources are also available through MARBL's Web site in the finding aids database. Researchers may also wish to consult a related guide, “Manuscript Sources for Civil Rights History and Post-Civil Right Movements.”
Please note that not all manuscript collections are housed in MARBL. Some collections are located at an off-site storage facility and must be requested in advance. In addition, some collections have access restrictions. Researchers are encouraged to contact MARBL to insure that materials will be available. We are also happy to pull materials in advance of a research visit.
MARBL is located on the 10th floor of the Robert W. Woodruff Library. Researchers may visit MARBL Monday through Friday 8:30-5:30; Saturdays 9:00-5:30. Hours are subject to change during holiday and inter-session periods. During the summer, Saturday hours are 10-4. It is highly recommended that researchers contact MARBL in advance to inquire about the collections and business hours. For more information about materials held at MARBL, please call (404-727-6887), e-mail (marbl@emory.edu), or visit our Web site (http://marbl.library.emory.edu). Mail inquiries may be addressed to Research Services, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322.
Revised editions of this guide will be forthcoming as new collections are accessioned and as material in existing collections is located and identified.
ADAMS, LAWRENCE L. (MSS 963)
Papers, [ca. 1960-1969]; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
The collection contains the papers of Lawrence L. Adams, African American author from Providence, Rhode Island. The papers include handwritten and typescript drafts of his original plays, dialect poems, and prose. Topics include religion, family and social relationships, and the African American community following emancipation. The collection also includes a photograph of Adams and three letters he wrote to the editors of various Providence, Rhode Island, publications.
ADAMS, OSCAR W. (MSS 931)
Papers; 4 linear ft. (8 boxes)
Oscar Adams (1889-1946) published the Birmingham Reporter from 1906 to 1934. He was also a prominent member of fraternal organizations, most notably the Knights of Pythias. The collection details both the business operations of the paper and Adams’s fraternal activities. The business records include advertising, subscription, and circulation reports as well as bills and receipts for printing and engraving from the Reporter. Adams ended his involvement with the Reporter in 1934 when he decided to devote himself to saving the local chapter of the Knights of the Pythias. He not only saved the chapter but was also elected Grand Chancellor of the national organization. The collection includes correspondence from members, chapters, and the national office along with membership and financial reports. Also included in the collection are copies of Adams’s addresses to state and national meetings.
AFRICAN AMERICAN CINEMA (MSS 814)
Collection, 1907-2001; 8 linear ft. (17 boxes)
This collection consists primarily of promotional materials, including lobby cards, press books, posters, and ephemera, related to African Americans in cinema. The strength of the collection resides in the periods 1920-80 and 1991-2000.
AFRICAN AMERICAN MISCELLANY (MSS 1032)
.75 linear ft. (2 boxes, 4 bound volumes, 4 oversized bound volumes, 2 audio recordings)
African American miscellany is an artificially created collection that contains single items related to African American history and culture. The collection includes scrapbooks, minute books, correspondence and sound recordings. Among these items are the following: a scrapbook relating to the National Association of Colored Girls Citizen Institute for Future Leaders Institute at Howard University, March 1960; a scrapbook dating from 1946-1960 relating to the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, the National Council of Negro Women, the Iota Phi Lambda sorority, Mary McLeod Bethune and Mary Chuch Terrell; and a reel to reel recording of Martin Luther King, Jr. speech at Montreat, North Carolina, 1965.
AFRICAN AMERICAN SHEET MUSIC (MSS 1028)
Collection; 4.5 linear ft. (9 boxes); 21 oversized papers
The African American sheet music collection is an artificially created collection acquired through a number of small accessions that contains sheet music related to African American history and culture. The majority of items in the collection were performed, composed, or published by African Americans from the 1880s to the 1960s. Genres of music represented include minstrel and vaudeville tunes, Broadway musical numbers, spirituals, blues and jazz arrangements. Sheet music covers and illustrations depicting African Americans and performers in blackface are also of interest in this collection.
Some materials in this collection originally received as part of the Delilah Jackson papers (MSS 923). Note that a substantial sheet music collection is also found in the William L. Dawson papers (MSS 892). That collection includes two boxes of music arranged or composed by Dawson and an additional eight boxes of music composed by African Americans. In all, there are well over 1,000 pieces of African American sheet music found in various collections.
ANDREWS, BENNY (MSS 845)
Papers, 1940-2006; 71.25 linear ft. (134 boxes, 16 oversized papers, 24 oversized bound volumes)
Benny Andrews (1930-2006), born in Morgan County, Georgia, was a painter, printmaker, cultural leader, and arts advocate. His work is in the permanent collections of more than 30 major museums. His papers include extensive correspondence with artists, files documenting his career with the National Endowment for the Arts, family correspondence, audio, video, and printed materials documenting his career.
ANDREWS, RAYMOND (MSS 673)
Papers, 1947‑1989; 23 linear ft. (46 boxes)
Raymond Andrews (1934-1991), author of short stories and novels about the African American experience, received the James Baldwin Prize in 1979. The collection contains holograph manuscripts, typescripts, notebooks, proofs, press kits, and reviews relating to his works. The collection also contains correspondence with publishers, professional colleagues, family and friends.
Restriction: Letters of Judi Zygelman are closed until 2042.
ANDREWS, VIOLA P. (MSS 813)
Papers, 1957-1998; 12.5 linear ft. (24 boxes, 2 oversized papers)
Viola Andrews (1912-2006), writer, newspaper columnist, and religious educator, was born and raised in Morgan County, Georgia. During the early years of the Depression, she married sharecropper and folk artist, George Cleveland Andrews. Fed up with the grinding poverty of sharecropping, Viola left her husband, cotton tenancy, and Morgan County, heading to Atlanta where economic and educational opportunities promised her and her children a better life. In 1971, after all her children had graduated from high school, Viola decided to continue her education, and attended the Atlanta School of Biblical Studies. During this time, she integrated the Lakewood Presbyterian Church when she began teaching Sunday school classes there. Viola also found time to write an unpublished autobiography entitled “Body, Spirit, and Soul,” published and unpublished short stories, and a newspaper column. The collection includes her writings, family correspondence, photographs, religious teaching material, and scrapbooks.
ARRINGTON, MARVIN S. (MSS 714)
Papers, ca. 1980- ; 7.5 linear ft. (15 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
Marvin S. Arrington (b. 1941) was the president of the Atlanta City Council and is a 1969 alumnus of the Emory law school. The collection includes correspondence relating to the Atlanta City Council (1986‑1997); speeches and writings on civil rights, racial issues, and civic affairs (including the Sabrina Collins controversy, revitalization of the Auburn Avenue area, the Minority Counsel Program, and other issues); printed materials, including Arrington's Plain Talk (1992), articles about Arrington; photographs; and other materials.
ATLANTA DAILY WORLD (MSS 1023)
Photograph collection, [ca. 1970s-2001]; 94 linear ft.
Photographs accumulated by the Atlanta Daily World, an African American newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia.
ATLANTA MISCELLANY (MSS 572)
1917-1947; .75 linear ft. (2 boxes, 2 oversized papers)
An artificial collection of collected documents. These documents include sketches of the districts damaged by the 1917 Atlanta fire and plans for dividing residents along racial lines in the rebuilt areas. The collection also contains reports about slum clearance in the city, including one entitled “Proposed Areas for Expansion of Negro Housing in Atlanta, Georgia” from 1947.
AVANT, MAMIE WADE (MSS 887)
Papers, 1930-1982; .75 linear ft. (2 boxes, 2 oversized papers)
Mamie Wade Avant was an African American fortune teller who lived in Savannah, Georgia. The collection consists of the papers of Mamie Wade Avant relating to fortune-telling and her involvement with Masonic organizations. The papers include a small amount of personal correspondence, printed pamphlets, Eastern Star materials, handwritten cures and recipes, jewelry, photographs, and a crystal ball. A number of books and pamphlets that are a part of this collection have been cataloged.
BAILEY-THURMAN (MSS 807)
Family papers, ca. 1882-1995; 9.25 linear ft. (13 boxes, 4 bound volumes, 23 oversized papers, 1 framed item)
This collection tracks the political and religious pursuits of the Bailey-Thurman family through three generations, including correspondence, writings, printed material, newspaper clippings, photographs, legal documents, and financial records. The papers of Isaac and Susie Bailey, Baptist religious leaders in Arkansas and colporteurs for the American Baptist Publication Society comprise a significant portion of the collection including print ephemera from Arkansas, books from their lending library, and documentation of a late-19th century literary society they organized. The papers also include extensive correspondence between Susie Bailey and her daughter, Sue Bailey Thurman. The collection includes an extensive photograph archive of Howard and Sue Bailey Thurman, documenting their work at Howard University, Boston University, and The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco.
BAKER, JOSEPH VAUDREY (MSS 982)
Papers; 4 linear ft. (4 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
Joseph Vaudrey Baker, a public relations counselor and publisher, was born in Abbeville, South Carolina, on August 20, 1908. A leading public relations specialist, he operated his own agency, in addition to being a personal advisor to leading college presidents, businessmen and industrialists. He contributed a twice-a-week column to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The collection consists of brochures, proofs, photographs, clipping files, magazines, correspondence, and several scrapbooks of newspaper clippings from the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper.
BAKER, JOSEPHINE (MSS 955)
Collection; 5 linear ft. (8 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was an African American performer, dancer, and silent film star. Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, she performed in Paris, New York, Africa, and the Middle East, and was a crusader for racial equality. The papers include correspondence, fan mail, press books, sheet music, newspaper clippings, and thirteen original hand-drawn posters. The focus of the collection is Les Milandes, established by Baker for children adopted from around the world.
BALDWIN, JAMES (MSS 949)
Letters to David Moses, 1971-1983; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The collection consists of twenty-six letters from James Baldwin to David Moses from 1971-1983. They met at a party when Moses was twenty-one. From then on, Baldwin served as friend, mentor, and confidante to Moses. The letters from Baldwin to Moses span more than a decade and address personal and professional matters, including Baldwin’s current writing projects, as well as his health. The letters also offer insight into the creative,financial, and political challenges of writing and publishing.
BELL, MALCOLM (MSS 761)
Drums and Shadows photograph collection, 1939-1940; .75 linear ft. (2 oversized papers)
This collection consists of photographs of African Americans from coastal Georgia, taken by Muriel and Malcolm Bell in the 1930s, as part of the Work Projects Administrations (WPA) Writers’ Project.
Note: Restrictions on reproduction.
BELL, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS (MSS 888)
Diaries, 1910 and 1932; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
This collection consists of two diaries—one from 1910 and the other from 1932—of William Augustus Bell
(1882-1961). The 1910 diary was written while Bell was teaching at Miles Memorial College in Birmingham, Alabama. The entries discuss daily and social life in Birmingham, his summer at home in Elberton, Georgia, and short trips to Toccoa, Georgia, and Charleston and Beaufort, South Carolina. The entries from the 1932 diary discuss daily and social life in Atlanta and Bell's travels in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky, soon after he was selected as field secretary of the Colored (later Christian) Methodist Episcopal Church.
BERGMARK, JEAN B. (MSS 1047)
GRACE TOWNS HAMILTON AND THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Manuscripts, 1996-1997; 1 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Jean B. Bergmark co-authored Grace Towns Hamilton and the Politics of Social Change with Lorraine Nelson Spritzer. Grace Towns Hamilton (1907-1992) was the first African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. The collection consists of corrected and uncorrected drafts of Grace Towns Hamilton and the Politics of Social Change. The biography was published by the University of Georgia Press in 1997 and commended in a resolution of the Georgia General Assembly in 1998.
CAMILLE BILLOPS AND JAMES V. HATCH (MSS 927)
Archives at Emory University, 1879-2002; 19.5 linear ft. (39 boxes)
The Billops/Hatch Collection in New York began in 1968 while Camille Billops (b. 1933), filmmaker and artist, and James V. Hatch (b. 1928), theatre historian, were teaching art and literature at the City College of New York. Realizing that very little had been published about black American art, drama, and literature, they began collecting primary materials for their students.
The Camille Billops and James V. Hatch Archives at Emory include play scripts by Amiri Baraka, Zora Neale Hurston, Willis N. Richardson, August Wilson, and hundreds of others. It also contains material on Langston Hughes, including a number of adaptations and translations; a small amount of correspondence; and printed materials.
BLACK PRINT CULTURE (MSS 921)
Collection, 1854-1997; 5.5 linear ft. (15 boxes, 36 oversized papers)
The Black Print Culture Collection includes printed matter pertaining to religion and music; items published by the black press; publications relating to fraternities and sororities; to organizations, education, business and professional matters; to arts and entertainment; and, broadsides, posters, and ephemera. The largest part of the collection relates to churches between 1889 and 1989, including souvenir programs, church and funeral service programs, and conference programs.
BOND, EDWARD (MSS 899)
Papers, 1945; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Edward Bond, an African American soldier, was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, during World War II. The collection consists of eleven letters between Edward and his wife, Alva, from June and October 1945. Although the letters contain some references to life in the "Jim Crow" army, the focus of the letters is on personal matters.
BRANCH, G. MURRAY (MSS 856)
Collection, 1952-1976; 2.5 linear ft. (6 boxes)
This collection consists of sound recordings of Branch’s sermons from his years as senior pastor at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. The collection also includes tapes from the C.D. Hubert Lectures at Morehouse, where Professor Branch taught prior to accepting the position of Professor of Old Testament Studies at Interdenominational Theological Seminary.
BRICKTOP (MSS 831)
Papers, 1894-1982; 2 linear ft. (4 boxes)
Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith du Conge (1894-1984), known as “Bricktop” for her red hair, was an international cabaret performer and owned nightclubs in Paris, Mexico City, New York, and Rome. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, religious documents, financial records, and legal documents. Correspondents include Ralph Bunche, United States Ambassador James Dunn, King Farouk Fouad of Egypt, Lady Mendl, Cole Porter, among many others.
BROADSIDE PRESS (MSS 907)
Collection; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Broadside Press was founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1965 by Dudley Randall (1914-2000), librarian at the University of Detroit. Between 1965 and 1983, Randall published 93 individual poems printed on one side only of single sheets of paper. Emory owns a large collection from this Broadside Series, along with a selection of marketing and public relation materials concerning Broadside Press.
BROOKS, BOOKER T. (MSS 848)
Papers, 1931-1980; 2 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Booker T. Brooks was involved in African American Masonic organizations in California. The collection consists of records and memorabilia of northern California Masonic organizations from 1931-1980 collected by Booker T. Brooks. The material includes membership lists, financial records, minutes, correspondence and ephemera. There is also a scrapbook of the California Colored Women's Club.
BROWN, ELAINE (MSS 912)
Papers, ca. 1991-2000; 8 linear ft. (8 boxes)
Elaine Brown (1943- ) is an African American activist and past leader of the Black Panther Party. The papers include correspondence, video recordings, printed material, and manuscripts of her writings. The papers primarily concern Brown's writings and activism during the 1990s and contain almost no information concerning her involvement with the Black Panther Party apart from brief recollections in her correspondence.
BROWNING, JOAN C. (MSS 821)
Papers, 1961-1996; .5 linear ft. (1 box, 1 oversized paper)
Browning became involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961 when she moved to Atlanta. On December 10, 1961, she was arrested in Albany, Georgia, after she and several other Freedom Riders rode the still-segregated Georgia Central Railroad from Atlanta to Albany. This collection consists of correspondence, writings, and other materials about her involvement with the Albany Movement and SNCC, including letters from jail and letters from her attorney, C.B. King. There is also a small notebook with notes Browning took at civil rights meetings and discussion groups during 1960 and 1961.
CARRINGTON, C. GLENN (MSS 1026)
Papers, 1923-1965; .75 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Calvin Glenn Carrington (1904-1975) was an African American collector closely associated with prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance. The collection contains material collected by C. Glenn Carrington. The majority of the papers consists of signed and inscribed manuscripts by Langston Hughes, including poetry, play scripts, and drafts of book-length manuscripts, and a few printed programs and pamphlets featuring Hughes. Of particular interest is a typescript copy of Hughes’ remarks at the National Poetry Festival in 1962 and corrected draft copies of “Tambourines to Glory.” The Carrington papers also include a small amount of personal correspondence addressed to Carrington from Countee Cullen, Harold Jackman, and Arthur A. Schomburg.
Related collections in other repositories: C. Glenn Carrington papers, Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Howard University and Glenn Carrington papers, Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
CHISHOLM, FRANK P. (MSS 808)
Family papers, 1846-1994; 15 linear ft. (30 boxes, 14 oversized papers)
For more than sixty years, Frank P. Chisholm (1879-1977) worked as a northern field representative for Tuskegee Institute, as manager of the Tuskegee Jubilee Singers, and as an agent for the United Negro College Fund. In 1910, Chisholm married Helen “Lou” James (1876-1971), a graduate of Hampton Normal and Agricultural School. After their marriage, Helen focused on free-lance writing. The papers consist of personal, professional, and biographical documents, including correspondence, photographs, writings, legal documents, and printed material. Included are seventy-six letters from Helen Chisholm’s niece, the novelist Ann Petry, and nearly forty letters from the artist Allan Rohan Crite.
CHURCHWELL, ROBERT (MSS 826)
Papers, 1943-2002; 7 linear ft. (5 boxes, 6 oversized papers, 1 oversized bound volume)
Robert Churchwell (b. 1917) joined the previously all-white Nashville Banner in 1950. His pioneering status earned him the nickname “the Jackie Robinson of Journalism.” During the 1960s, Churchwell covered the civil rights movement in Nashville, although his editors rarely printed his stories. He won awards for his education reporting and ended his career as a columnist. His papers include newspaper columns and articles, speeches, and an incomplete copy of his autobiography, “What’s That Nigger’s Name?”
COAN, JOSEPHUS ROOSEVELT (MSS 872)
Papers; 46 linear ft. (62 boxes)
Josephus Roosevelt Coan (1902-2004), an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister and educator, was also a missionary to South Africa (1938-1947). This collection includes diaries, notebooks, correspondence with South African religious leaders and printed material from the AME Church in South African and Georgia, and portions of his library, including many publications by the AME Church.
COKER, GYLBERT (MSS 1042)
Papers; 5 linear ft. (5 boxes)
Papers of African American Gylbert Coker relating to the Art Across the Park project in New York City by Gylbert Coker and David Hammons, ca. 1980. The papers include correspondence with artists as well as documents concerning planning and implementing of the project. The collection also includes research and printed materials.
COLEMAN, HENRY (MSS 987)
Papers, 1943-1962; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Henry Coleman was an African American who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was a member of the United House of Prayer for All People. He served in the United States Army during the early 1940s and was discharged following an injury sometime before 1943. In 1943 he took a job as a porter on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The collection contains mostly correspondence from family members which discusses the weather, family visits, and general news.
CRAWFORD, MATT N. AND EVELYN GRAVES (MSS 882)
Papers, ca. 1932-1967; 10 linear ft. (20 boxes, 8 oversized papers)
Matt Nathaniel Crawford (1903-1996) was politically active in California and nationally from the 1930s until his death in 1996. Born in Anniston, AL, he migrated to Oakland with his family in 1911. His wife Evelyn (1889-1972) was born in San Francisco. The couple married in 1929 and lived in Berkeley throughout their married life. The collection, including books, periodicals, pamphlets, broadsides, and programs documenting Matt Crawford’s involvement in the CIO Minority Commission; Negro Commission/Communist Party USA; National Negro Congress; Civil Rights Congress, International Labor Defense, National Negro Labor Council, and other political groups. The collection includes extensive correspondence with intimate friends Langston Hughes, Louise Thompson Patterson, and William L. Patterson. A list of books originally found in the Crawford family library is available.
CURRY, CONSTANCE W. (MSS 818)
Papers, 1951-1997; 8 linear ft. (14 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
Constance W. Curry (b. 1933) is an author, attorney, community organizer, and political activist. From 1960-1964, she was Director of the Southern Student Human Relations Project of the National Student Association, and she became the first white female on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Her book, Silver Rights, recounts the story of one rural Mississippi family’s struggle for education and for civil rights during the 1960s. The collection includes minutes, correspondence, publicity, and other records from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC), and National Student Association (NSA).
DANA, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (MSS 1033)
Collection, 1932-1938; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1881-1950), grandson of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was a teacher, lecturer, and writer. Dana took an interest in leftist politics and the rights of workers. The collection primarily contains materials collected by Dana concerning the rape trials of the Scottsboro Boys from 1932-1940 including correspondence, broadsides, and newspapers clippings. The majority of this collection concerns activities that took place in Boston, Massachusetts.
Related collections in other repositories: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana papers, 1774-1992, Longfellow National Historic Site, Boston, Massachusetts.
DAVIS, THULANI (MSS 914)
Papers, 1967-1997; 2 linear ft. (4 boxes, 7 oversized papers)
Thulani Davis (1948- ) is an African American journalist, poet, playwright, and novelist. She graduated from Barnard College, and attended graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. In addition to articles in periodicals such as the Village Voice, Nation, New York Times, and Washington Review, she has published several anthologies of her poems, a play, the libretto for an opera, and several novels, including 1959 and the Maker of Saints. The collection contains material collected by Thulani Davis from 1967-1997, including correspondence, subject files, writings, photographs, and printed material. Of particular interest are a number of fliers and posters documenting performances, exhibits, lectures, and other events related to African American history and culture in New York City. The collection also includes recordings of interviews Davis conducted with Jesse Jackson during his presidential campaign in 1987-1988, and other individuals including Marion Barry, Andrew Young, Paul Carter Harrison, Roger Wilkins, Ron Walters, Tom Cavenaugh, Kenny Cockerel, and Coleman Young.
DAWSON, WILLIAM LEVI (MSS 892)
Papers, 1903-1990; 70.25 linear ft. (120 boxes, 93 oversized papers)
William L. Dawson (1899-1990) founded and directed the School of Music at Tuskegee. Under his direction, the Tuskegee Choir achieved national and international fame. The collection includes original music scores for Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, premiered by Leopold Stokowski in 1934, along with scores for many of his other compositions and arrangements of Negro spirituals; correspondence and photographs of other African American composers, writers, and artists; a large record collection; field recordings made in West Africa in 1952-53; and books from his personal library.
For additional information, see also http://marbl.library.emory.edu/dawson/web/.
DAY, BUTTS, AND SEABROOKS FAMILIES (MSS 1044)
Papers, [ca. 1900-1986]; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
The Day, Butts, and Seabrooks families are African American families from Atlanta, Georgia. The papers include funeral bulletins of family members, discharge papers of Marion Day, a certificate from the Adelphi Club, a bank book from the Mutual Federal Savings and Loan Association of Atlanta, Georgia and other financial papers belonging to John L. Seabrooks, and a 1949 yearbook from Booker T. Washington High School.
DELORME, GRACE MCKINLEY HOLMES (MSS 910)
Papers; 4 linear ft. (4 boxes)
Grace McKinley Holmes DeLorme (1906-199?) was a prominent African American from Atlanta, Georgia who taught biology at Spelman College. The collection includes personal, family and professional papers including photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks, and printed materials relating to the DeLorme family, of Atlanta.
DERBY, DORIS ADELAIDE (MSS 935)
Papers; 29 linear ft. (29 boxes)
Doris Adelaide Derby, African American educator, activist and artist, was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a founder of the Southern Free Theater. : The collection contains the personal papers of Doris Adelaide Derby from the 1960s to the 1980s. The papers include correspondence, printed material, photographs, and materials concerning civil rights efforts in Mississippi.
DOBBINS, JOHN S. (MSS 322)
Papers, 1834-1916; 2 reels microfilm
These papers include correspondence and other papers of a slave-holding family that comment on slaves and freedmen. It also includes letters from freedmen, slave receipts, agreements for hire, and other materials. Other letters in the collection discuss the problems of Reconstruction in Georgia.
DOVE, PEARLIE CRAFT (MSS 846)
Papers, 1958-1996; 1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
This collection consists of the personal papers of Pearlie Craft Dove, educator and Cluster Coordinator for The Atlanta Project which was a community-based project to improve neighborhood schools. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, her vita, speeches, writings, oral history interviews, black history calendars and records relating to The Atlanta Project. The materials relating to The Atlanta Project (1992-1996) consist of minutes, newsletters, proposals, strategic plans, reports, and information on programs and projects sponsored by the project. Also, the collection contains a videotape from the Washington Cluster of The Atlanta Project.
DUNNIGAN, ALICE ALLISON (MSS 929)
Papers, 1958-1981; 1.25 linear ft. (3 boxes)
Alice Allison Dunnigan (1906-1983), journalist and author, was the first African American woman admitted to the White House press corps. The papers include correspondence, financial records, photographs, printed material, subject files, and writings by Dunnigan. The papers include correspondence relating to her appointment to the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, and her efforts to publish a book on Black Kentuckians. Also included are reports and speeches written by Dunnigan, photographs, and a typescript of the book published as The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians: Their Heritage and Tradition. Printed materials include newspaper articles written by Dunnigan.
EDMISTON, ALTHEA BROWN (MSS 883)
Papers, 1918-1981; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
Althea Brown Edmiston (1874-1937) was an African American missionary to the Congo. This collection includes books, hymnals, the first dictionary of the Bakuba language (which Edmiston wrote), Presbyterian conference materials, biblical texts, missionary newspapers, and Sunday school materials printed in Africa. The papers also include her husband Alonzo Edmiston's sermon notes and books by and about him.
EDWARDS, ROBERT PARIS (MSS 841)
Papers, ca. 1906-1936; 1 bound volume
Robert Paris Edwards was a composer, choirmaster, poet, and singer. This collection consists of his personal scrapbook of Edwards from his years as a choirmaster in Buffalo and in Toronto, where he was also president of the local chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
ELISOFON, ELIOT (MSS 847)
Collection; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
This collection consists of nineteen photographs taken by Elisofon, a noted photographer now based in New York City. The images document African culture and focus on the sculpture, jewelry, dance, and tribal life of the Dan, Ashanti, Dogon, and other tribal groups.
ELLISON, ALICE ROBERTA PARKS (MSS 906)
Papers, 1934-1960; .5 linear ft. (1 box, 3 oversized bound volumes)
Alice Roberta Parks Ellison was a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, in the West End district, during the first half of the twentieth century. The papers consist of material collected by Ellison, mostly documenting her participation in African American social and religious organizations in Atlanta, Georgia. They include scrapbooks, photographs, a small amount of correspondence, church bulletins, and programs from events in Atlanta, Georgia.
The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings and invitations, programs, and other printed material from and about the many African American social and religious organizations in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1935 to 1960. Programs and bulletins in the collection include the Shiloh Baptist Church, Atlanta Negro Music Club, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, American Woodmen, the Atlanta Public Schools, Morris Brown College, and a number of local clubs such as the Hi Hi Social Club and the Smart Set Club. There is also a small amount of personal correspondence and photographs, mostly unidentified.
EMANUEL, CHRISTOPHER H. (MSS 959)
Family papers, 1915-1948; 1 linear ft. (1 box)
Christopher H. Emanuel (1868- ) was an African American Baptist minister from White Plains, New York. The papers include family photographs, pamphlets, and photographs from the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, several diaries and correspondence. The collection also includes a diary kept by Christopher Emanuel’s employer, who worked on the Panama Canal.
FABRE, MICHEL (MSS 932)
Archives of African American Arts and Letters, 1910-2003; 15 linear ft. (36 boxes, 12 oversized papers)
Michel and Genevieve Fabre founded the Center for Afro-American Studies at the University of Paris and have been leading scholars of African American culture in France. The archive comprises correspondence, writings, and printed material relating to expatriate writers, artists, musicians and cultural figures including Margaret Burroughs, Horace Cayton, William Demby, Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, Ted Jones, Margaret Walker, Richard Wright, and Frank Yerby.
FATHER DIVINE (MSS 840)
Collection, 1932-1977; 14.25 linear ft. (17 boxes, 2 oversized papers)
Father Divine, born George Baker (1879-1965), saw that many African American churches were not socially active and decided that the influence of the church could be used to create social change. He began The Peace Mission Movement to provide relief for the poor and to break down the barriers of segregation. He taught his followers to reject the idea of an afterlife and instead to strive for eternal life on Earth by finding unity with God’s internal spirit. Divine and his followers believed he was the Messiah and Savior of humankind. This collection includes typescripts of Father Divine’s sermons, correspondence, writings, songs, newspaper clippings, periodicals, many photographs, and memorabilia.
FINGER, JOHN A. (JOHN ADAM) (MSS 1051)
Desegregation research files, ca. 1960-1979; 8 linear ft. (8 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
John Adams Fingers, Jr. (1920-2006) was a professor of Education at Colgate University, Brown University and Rhode Island College. Finger served as a consultant to the NAACP for school desegregation cases during the 1960s and 1970s. The collection contains research material and reports collected and written by John A. Finger concerning school desegregation cases from ca. 1960 to 1979. The case files contain notes, reports, and maps, and are roughly arranged by state.
FISHER, RUDOLPH (MSS 1008)
Collection, 1925-1926; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Rudolph Fisher (1897-1934) was a physician, novelist, dramatist, musician, and orator. He was most noted for his literary works. The collection consists of material relating to the publication of his short story, “The Shadow of White.” In addition to an undated typescript of this short story, the papers include correspondence between Fisher and Paul Kellogg, the editor of Survey Graphic, which was a monthly illustrated periodical associated with Survey, the premiere journal of social work in American in the 1920s.
FORD-GORDON-HARRIS-PINDER (MSS 842)
Family papers; 2 linear ft. (2 boxes)
This collection consists of the family papers of an extended New England family. The collection includes an extensive photographic archive, correspondence, autographed books, and a valuable collection of rare printed pamphlets.
FOWLER, MANET HARRISON (MSS 978)
Papers, 1923-1949; .75 linear ft. (2 boxes, 3 oversized papers)
Manet Harrison Fowler (1895-1976) was an African American musician and educator from Fort Worth, Texas. The collection includes scrapbook pages and photos from her educational years (graduation photo from Tuskegee in 1913); photos from Prairie View College where she taught; photos, programs, and correspondence from the Texas branch of the Association of Negro Musicians; and photos, correspondence, and programs from the Mwalimu School (which she founded in 1925). There is also a printer’s block for the Mwalimu Club.
FRANCES E. W. HARPER LITERARY AND SOCIAL CIRCLE (SAVANNAH, GA.) (MSS 986)
Record Book, 1915-1929; 1 linear ft. (1 box)
The collection consists of the record book by a group of African American women living in Savannah, Georgia, with entries dating from 1915-1929. The record book contains the minutes for each meeting; financial records concerning the payment of dues and costs for outings; and occasional committee reports.
FREEMAN V. PITTS SCHOOL DESEGREGATION (MSS 1036)
Case files; 12 linear ft. (12 boxes)
The files consist of records relating to Freeman v. Pitts, a DeKalb County school desegregation case, including legal memos, newspaper clippings, transcriptions, expert reports, and other materials relevant to the case.
FRONTIERS INTERNATIONAL. ATLANTA CHAPTER (MSS 843)
Records, 1954-1997; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
Frontiers International, Inc. is a national service organization founded in 1936. The records include correspondence, meeting minutes, newsclippings, brochures, pamphlets, invitations, and membership applications. The meeting minutes of the Atlanta Chapter of Frontiers International, Inc. are dated from 1982-1989, with the bulk of the minutes ranging from 1985-1986.
The collection also includes some personal papers of Port R. and Annie Scott, dated 1954-1961, which contain dress patterns, financial information, and Christmas cards.
GOOD, PAUL (MSS 1025)
Audio recordings, 1963-1964; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Paul Joseph Good, Jr. (1929-2005) was a television and print journalist known for his coverage of the civil rights movement. The papers consist of audio recordings (26 CDs) compiled by journalist Paul Good concerning the civil rights movement. The recordings include speeches; reports from marches, rallies, and clashes over school integration; and interviews of civil rights leaders such as Andrew Young, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis and of Klan Wizard Robert Shelton.
GRACE, DADDY (MSS 968)
Collection, 1953-2000; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
Charles Manual "Sweet Daddy" Grace (1881-1960) was an evangelist and founder of the United House of Prayer for all People. Although many items include photographs and references to Daddy Grace, the bulk of the collection was printed after his death and concerns his successor Bishop Walter McCullough. The collection includes printed programs, periodicals, a songbook, postcards, letterhead, church fans, and other items produced by the United House of Prayer.
GRAND UNITED ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS IN AMERICA (MSS 962)
Sub-committee on Management minutes, 1849-1887; 2.25 linear ft. (6 boxes)
The minute books of the Sub-Committee of Management of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows date from January 7, 1850 through October 11, 1887. The minute books are inlaid with various printed material. Also includes November 30, 1849 letter.
GRANT, JULIAN E. (MSS 919)
Papers; 1.25 linear feet (2 boxes)
Julian E. Grant (1894-1989) was an African American physician from Newberry, South Carolina. Dr. Grant began practicing medicine in the early 1920s and was the first African American doctor licensed to practice in the western part of South Carolina. The collection contains photographs and printed material belonging to Dr. Grant. There is also a small amount of material relating to Dr. Samuel Nance.
GRISSON, GUS J. (MSS 988)
Papers, 1938-1945; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Gus J. Grisson (1924- ) was an African American soldier who served during World War II at Fort Warren, Wyoming. The papers include correspondence from family members discussing the health and well-being of the family and other personal news; an undated and unidentified photograph of an African American man; and a premium receipt book from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, dating from 1938-1944 and probably relating to the Grisson family.
HAMPTON, EARNEST AND CYNTHIA SHERMAN (MSS 1078)
Family papers; 1 linear ft. (1 box, 1 oversized paper, 3 oversized bound volumes)
Photographs, printed material, and scrapbooks, ca. 1909-1985 concerning the Hampton and Sherman families, two African American families from Georgia.
HANLEY-BELL FUNERAL HOME (ATLANTA, GA.) (MSS 893)
Records; 60 linear ft. (60 boxes)
Jesse Howard Hanley founded the Hanley-Bell Funeral Home in 1917. It became one of Atlanta’s leading African American funeral homes. After Hanley’s death in 1948, Hilman Hanley and Gladys Willingham took over the business. This collection consists of ledger books that document cause of death, place of residence, occupation, and surviving relatives; church and funeral programs; ambulance records; financial records; and hand-written obituaries provided by friends and relatives of the deceased. MARBL also holds a number of books from his personal library.
HARDING, VINCENT (MSS 868)
Papers, 1952-1974; 29.25 linear ft. (59 boxes, 27 oversized papers)
The papers of Vincent Harding (b. 1931), theologian, historian, and activist, document his work with the Mennonite Church, Spelman College, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center, the Institute of the Black World, and include subject files, writings, printed materials and personal papers. The bulk of the collection includes papers from Harding's years in Atlanta, Georgia (1966-1974). The largest part of the collection consists of papers of The Institute of the Black World (1968-1974), which Harding directed from its inception as a component of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center (1969) through its early years as an independent organization (1970-1974). Included in the papers of the Institute are correspondence, including general correspondence (1968-1974) and a large number of inter-office and committee memoranda.
These papers also include files documenting Harding's teaching career at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia (1966-1969); his tenure as the first director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center and the Library Documentation Project at the Center from 1968-1970; and his work with the Mennonite Church from 1968-1970. There are also extensive files of printed materials in various formats indicating a wide interest in a variety of topics. In the subject files there is evidence of his commitment to establishing programs relating to African American curricula in colleges and universities (1960s). There is also evidence of his interest and participation in many national efforts and organizations relating to African American causes.
HARRIS, HELEN CURL (MSS 977)
Papers, 1936-1980; 1.25 linear ft. (3 boxes)
Helen Curl Harris was a black business owner and professional hair dresser from Philadelphia. The collection includes business correspondence; photographs of her hairstyles (some signed by her clients); and a large amount of printed material, including newspaper clippings, advertisements, and magazines. There is a small amount of material related to black women’s organizations and clubs. Also included are two cigarette lighters and a number of rubber stamps.
HARVEY, THOMAS W. (THOMAS WATSON) (MSS 1066)
Papers, ca. 1924-1972; 7 linear ft. (7 boxes and 1 oversized paper)
Thomas Watson Harvey (1893-1978) was a leader in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He served in the United States Army before becoming involved with the UNIA in 1919. He was associated with Marcus Garvey as a part of the Pan-African movement. Harvey was elected President-General of the UNIA from 1950-1978. He died on June 27, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The collection contains papers of Thomas W. Harvey from circa 1924-1972 related to his involvement with the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The papers include pamphlets and other printed material, photographs, rare periodicals correspondence, including 80 letters signed by Marcus Garvey, and reports of the UNIA.
HOLDEN, MIRIAM (MSS 862)
Papers; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The collection consists of the personal papers of Miriam Holden, Vice Chairman of the Local Graduate Nurses Association of New York from ca. 1936-1946 and contains correspondence including letters from Mabel Keaton Staupers, minutes, reports, clippings, and printed material.
HOLIDAY, BILLIE (MSS 1035)
Collection, 1953-1981; .75 linear ft. (2 boxes and 2 oversized papers)
Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was an African American blues and jazz singer. The collection contains materials relating to the personal life and career of Billie Holiday, her husband Louis McKay, and her estate from 1953-1981. The collection includes correspondence, legal documents, financial statements, and photographs.
HUDGINS, JOHNNY (MSS 1029)
Papers, 1927-1988; 1 linear ft. (2 boxes, 1 oversized bound volume and 3 oversized papers)
Johnny Hudgins (1896-1990) was an African American vaudeville performer and a part of the Harlem Renaissance. The papers mostly concern Hudgins’ professional career and include photographs, sheet music, a scrapbook, printed material and correspondence. The photographs include publicity photographs of Hudgins in blackface, photographs of his performances, and autographed photographs of other African American performers. Of particular interest is a scrapbook kept by Hudgins from 1938-1950. It contains photographs, programs, newspaper clippings, and correspondence concerning his travels and performances in South America, Europe, and the United States.
INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
(SAVANNAH, GEORGIA) (MSS 490)
Records, 1880-1960; 15 reels of microfilm
Reel 4 of this collection contains a list of communicants, pastors, elders, deacons, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and African American members (book 1: 1831-1893, book 2: 1828-1909). Reel 9 contains minutes of First African Sabbath School (book 1: 1826-1835, book 2: 1836-1839; “Colored” Sunday School, list of scholars, 1844; communion roll contains marriage registers for African American members, 1829-1887). Reel 12 contains certificates of dismission of black members from other churches to the Independent Presbyterian Church, 1929-1944. Reel 15 consists of loose papers, including letters of dismission, certificates, transfer of membership and application for membership, 1816-1930. The records include information on members who were slave owners and the names of their slaves. This collection was microfilmed in 1965 from the original records by the Georgia Department of Archives and History.
JACKSON, DELILAH (MSS 923)
Papers, 1852-2001; 26.25 linear ft. (54 boxes, 62 oversized papers)
Delilah Jackson established the Black Patti Research Foundation in New York City to document the lives and work of African American performers in Harlem. The foundation is named after singer Sissieretta Jones who performed under the name "Black Patti."
The collection contains materials related to the history of African American dance, theater, and music, particularly from the Harlem vaudeville era. The papers include personal correspondence, scrapbooks, subject files on individual performers, photographs, scripts, programs, oral history interviews, short films, and the records of Delilah Jackson's organization, the Black Patti Foundation. There are some early photographs from the turn of the twentieth century, but the bulk of the photographs date from the 1920s through the 1940s. Of particular note are the rare photographs of little known vaudeville performers, dancers, and singing groups. The oral history interviews are also a very notable part of the collection. There are over 300 recorded interviews with Cotton Club dancers, singers, musicians, photographers, and other performers who recall the culture of Harlem and their own experiences as Black performers over the years.
JAMES, ARCHER AND BELLE (MSS 810)
Papers, 1941-1954; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The collection consists primarily of correspondence of Archer and Belle James from 1941-1954. The correspondence begins with letters from 1941 through 1945, when Belle was living in Birmingham, Alabama, and Archer was in Buffalo, New York. Also included are letters from Belle's Uncle Daniel Eatman of Thomaston, Alabama in 1953, which discuss financial concerns. These letters reflect the daily lives of a mid-twentieth century middle class African American family.
JOHNSON, GEORGE LEON (MSS 889)
Papers, ca. 1930-1941; .25 linear ft. (1 box, 1 oversized paper)
George Leon Johnson was an African American soloist, composer and conductor. The collection consists of newspaper clippings, four broadsides, six sheet music booklets, an unidentified photograph; a program of an undated performance for the Chatham County Colored Citizens Council; and sample stationary.
JOHNSON, HALL (MSS 965)
Collection, 1933-1943; .5 linear ft. (1 box, 1 oversized bound volume)
Francis Hall Johnson (1888-1970) was an African American choral director, composer, and arranger. The materials include a press book of newspaper clippings, photographs, typescripts, and programs.
JOHNSON, JAMES WELDON (MSS 797)
Papers, ca. 1886-1980; 3 linear ft. (6 boxes, 4 oversized papers, 6 bound volumes)
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was an African-American educator, journalist, diplomat, lyricist, poet, and human rights activist. The papers include correspondence, literary manuscripts (by Johnson and others), printed materials, photographs, sheet music, legal documents, financial records, and general ephemera. A small portion of the collection is correspondence, including letters to and from family, friends, and associates in literary and other professional fields. Prominent correspondents include William Stanley Braithwaite, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Carl Van Vechten, Arna Bontemps, J. Rosamond Johnson, and Charles S. Johnson.
Also significant are typed drafts of Johnson's individual poems and speeches and copies of his pamphlets, programs, promotional matieral, and sheet music with his song lyrics. In addition, there are various tributes in journals and programs, and other materials honoring Johnson's life and work particularly relating to his association with the Harlem Renaissance movement and his work at Fisk University and for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Printed materials collected by Johnson's family include catalogs, pamphlets, booklets, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera. An extensive collection of photographs depict Johnson; his wife, Grace Nail Johnson, their families and friends; and their country home, Five Acres, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Among the important figures represented in the photographs are W.E.B. Du Bois, Walter White, and Carl Van Vechten (whose photography is also included).
MARBL also holds Johnson’s own copies of books he wrote, as well as books from his private library.
KELLEY, WILLIAM MELVIN (MSS 1038)
Family papers; 7 linear ft. (7 boxes)
William Melvin Kelley (1937- ), an African American author, is the son of newspaper editor William Melvin Kelley, Sr. (1894-1958) and the brother of chemist Sinah Estelle Kelley (1916-).
The collection contains the papers of William Melvin Kelley, William Melvin Kelley, Sr., and Sinah Estelle Kelley. The papers include business and family correspondence, writings, photographs, and printed material.
KENNEDY & SONS, FINE PRINTERS (MSS 908)
Collection; 3.5 linear ft. (5 boxes, 3 oversized papers)
The African American commercial printing business, Kennedy & Sons, Fine Printers, was founded by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1995. The collection contains books and printed material by Kennedy & Sons, Fine Printers.
KILLENS, JOHN OLIVER (MSS 957)
Papers, 1937-1987; 54 linear ft. (86 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
John Oliver Killens (1916-1987) was an African American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, political activist, mentor and teacher. The collection consists of the personal papers of John Oliver Killens including correspondence, writings by Killens, writings by others, and printed material. The papers document his personal, intellectual, professional and political life. The correspondence includes family letters, incoming and outgoing correspondence, correspondence with various organizations and with publishers. The writings by Killens series includes critical writings; forewords and prefaces; essays; speeches; novellas and novels; plays; screenplays; scripts; and story ideas. The collection also includes writings by colleagues and students, printed material, and miscellaneous papers.
LARKINS, JOHN (MSS 858)
Scrapbook, ca. 1914-1932; 1 oversized bound volume
This collection consists of a scrapbook documenting part of the career of “Jolly” Jon Larkins, a noted vaudeville performer and motion picture actor. The scrapbook includes movie reviews, programs, advertisements, newspaper clippings, as well as broadsides relating to Larkins’ vaudeville performances with the Dandy Dixie Minstrels.
LEWIS, SARAH EVELYN (MSS 819)
Papers, ca. 1920-1940; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
Sarah Evelyn Lewis, an African American physician, graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1927. This collection consists of material relating to Howard University, including programs for events, medical newspapers, the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, and dance cards, as well as material about the Lewis family.
LINCOLN INSTITUTE (JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI) (MSS 837)
Centennial exhibit, 1876; 1 bound volume
This bound volume is the centennial document prepared by students at Lincoln Institute for Missouri’s educational exhibition at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Lincoln Institute was founded by the officers and men of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry in 1866. The Institute’s building was completed in 1871 after money was raised through subscription and other donations. The hand-bound volume includes a sketch of the school’s history and exhibits of class work in Mental Philosophy, Geology, Zoology, Botany, Rhetoric, History, Grammar, Geometry, and other subject areas.
LITWACK, LEON F. (MSS 1027)
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RELIGIOUS AND FRATERNAL
Collection, 1905-1922; 3 bound volumes
The collection contains materials collected by Leon F. Litwack, the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History at the University of California-Berkeley, relating to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and fraternal organizations in Southern California from 1905-1922.
MACK, ISAIAH S. (MSS 964)
Papers; 1.5 linear ft. (1 box, 2 bound volumes)
Personal papers of Rev. Isaiah S. Mack of Atlanta including correspondence, photographs, church fans, and printed material. Also included is a bound volume of minutes of the Progressive Brothers and Sisters of Light, Grand Lodge, Fairburn (Ga.), October 1923-October 1938.
METTS FAMILY (MSS 984)
Papers, 1919-2002; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The Metts family descended from George Washington White and his wife, both slaves living in Rex, Georgia. The collection consists of a family Bible and miscellaneous photographs and genealogical materials of the Metts family from 1919-2002. The collection includes a letter that details family accounts of life under slavery written by W. Franklin Carmichael, Jr. in 1998.
MILLER, KELLY (MSS 1050)
Papers, ca. 1897-1939; 43 linear ft. (32 boxes, 14 bound volumes)
The collection consists of the papers of African American educator and writer Kelly Miller (1863-1939) and includes correspondence, typed drafts and final manuscripts of Miller's articles and other writings, printed copies of his pamphlets, numerous editorials and articles, several scrapbooks, photographs and a few pieces of ephemera.
MILLER, MAY (SULLIVAN) (MSS 1080)
Papers; 20 linear ft. (21 boxes)
Poet May Miller (1899-1995) was a poet and writer who had a literary salon in Washington, DC. Her papers include correspondence, writings, photographs, and printed material. She was the daughter of Kelly Miller, whose papers MARBL also holds.
MITCHELL, HENRY H. AND ELLA PEARSON (MSS 1018)
Papers; 24 linear ft. (24 boxes and 1 oversized paper)
The Rev. Dr. Henry H. Mitchell (1919- ) and the Rev. Dr. Ella Pearson Mitchell served as co-mentors in the Doctor of Ministry Program at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio; and were founders of the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies in Los Angeles. The collection contains material from 1981-2002, including cassette tapes of sermons, course syllabi and corresponding audio recordings of classes taught by Henry H. Mitchell; dissertation notes and drafts by Ella P. and Henry H. Mitchell; recorded sermons by Ella P. Mitchell; book manuscripts, family photographs, and subject files.
NEWSWEEK, INC., ATLANTA BUREAU (MSS 629)
Records, 1954-1979; 19 linear ft. (19 boxes)
The Atlanta bureau was the hub of Newsweek’s southern network. From Atlanta, correspondents and stringers fanned out across the region to write stories for the editorial office in New York. These stories were edited, combined, and consolidated in New York for publication as a single article. Newsweek reporters filed stories about the civil rights movement from Albany, Atlanta, Birmingham, Little Rock, McComb, Montgomery, New Orleans, Orangeburg, St. Augustine, and Winston Salem. The Atlanta bureau files include press clippings, drafts of stories, handwritten notes, press releases, correspondence, and printed materials. There are also subject files on organizations, such as the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and the KKK, files on prominent individuals such as Charles Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Meredith.
ODUM, JONAS (MSS 844)
Papers, 1919-1957; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
This collection consists of business records, deeds, wills, correspondence, and other family records of Jonas Odum, a wealthy African American farmer from Baker County, Georgia. The papers also include copies of several letters relating to Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
PAGE, F. GERTRUDE (MSS 861)
Papers, 1910-1917; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The personal papers of F. Gertrude Page of Brockport, New York, includes correspondence from her uncle James E. Mason, Livingstone College and members of the Frederick Douglass family, photographs, and ephemera.
PATTERSON, LOUISE THOMPSON (MSS 869)
Papers, 1909-1996; 21 linear ft. (33 boxes, 3 oversized papers, 1 bound volume, 1 CD)
Louise Thompson Thurman Patterson (1901-1999) was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance and an active campaigner for civil rights, racial and sexual equality, economic justice, and international human rights. The collection includes extensive correspondence with Langston Hughes; correspondence concerning the film on the Negro in American life to have been made in the Soviet Union, 1932; documentation of the Harlem Suitcase Theatre co-founded with Langston Hughes; and records of the Sojourners for Truth and Justice, a national black women’s organization co-founded with Beah Richards. MARBL also holds the personal library of Louise Thompson Patterson.
PEACOCK, FRANCES (MSS 857)
Papers, 1927-1937; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Frances Peacock (1903-1998), educator, taught 6th and 8th grade at Boylen-Haven School in Jacksonville, Florida. The school, designed for the education of African-American girls, was under the direction of the Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. In January 1930 she began teaching at the Mather Academy in Camden, South Carolina, a co-educational boarding school for African Americans. The papers consist of a scrapbook containing photographs (1927-1937) of Boylen-Haven School, and the Mather Academy. The photographs depict student activities and school personnel, as well as scenes in and around the two schools. Also included is biographical information regarding Miss Peacock, a small amount of correspondence, a transcript of an interview conducted in 1979 by the University of Delaware’s College of Education, and some family photographs.
PHILLIPS, J. J. (MSS 970)
Papers; 8 linear ft. (8 boxes)
J.J. (Jane) Phillips (1944- ) was an African American author, whose first novel was Mojo Hand. The papers include correspondence with family, friends, and editors; drafts of Mojo Hand and other published poems and writings; various printed material from the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute; and a recording of J.J. Phillips as a child.
POMERANTZ, GARY M. (MSS 890)
Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn research files and interviews, 1991-1996; 13 linear ft. (26 boxes)
Gary M. Pomerantz, author and journalist with the Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, is the author of several books. The collections consists of the papers of Gary Pomerantz relating to the publication of his book, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn (1996), a chronicle of the lives of the Dobbs and Allen families of Atlanta, Georgia. The papers include research files and audio tapes and transcripts of interviews.
POWELL, SADYE HARRIS (MSS 1041)
Family papers, 1919-1991; 2 linear ft. (3 boxes, 2 oversized bound volumes, and 7 oversized papers)
Sadye Harris Powell (1889-1964) was an African American nurse from Atlanta, Georgia. She was married to Charles W. Powell and together they founded the William A. Harris Memorial Hospital in 1928, the first and one of the only privately available hospital facilities for African Americans in Atlanta. The papers include photographs of family members, incorporation papers for the William A. Harris Memorial Hospital, a scrapbook documenting the Atlanta Baptist College football championship team in 1910, a photo album with images of Atlanta and Cuba, and a scrapbook kept by an African American member of the United States Maritime Service with images of Europe and soldiers during World War II. There is also some printed material from Atlanta churches, colleges, and African American organizations and family correspondence.
PRIMO, QUINTIN E. (MSS 1079)
Family papers; 3 linear ft. (3 boxes, 1 oversized bound volume)
The papers of African American minister Quintin Primo (1877-1958), Alvira Primo (1892-1958), and Margaret Primo (1911-) , including correspondence; manuscript drafts of sermons; a membership roll of the Ebenezer Second Church (Presbyterian) of Limerick, Georgia; a record book of baptisms, confirmations, and marriages; photographs; and printed material.
RANSOM, REVERDY C. (MSS 1043)
Collection, 1936-1975; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
Reverdy C. Ransom (1861-1959), 48th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church from 1924-1952, served as a pastor in numerous AME congregations across Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Illinois. He also served as an editor of the AME Church Review and chairman of the Board of Trustees of Wilberforce University from 1932-1952. The collection contains printed minutes and conference material related to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, particularly in Ohio and New England, reports and minutes from Wilberforce University, and a small amount of correspondence, photographs, and collected material.
Related collections in other repositories: Reverdy Cassius Ransom papers, Rembert E. Stokes Learning Resource Center, Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio.
RECORD, WILSON (MSS 846)
Papers; 41 linear ft. (41 boxes)
Wilson Record (1916-1997), a sociologist, kept up an extensive correspondence with scholars and political leaders on issues of race including Ralph Bunche, Horace Cayton, and A. Phillip Randolph. The collection also includes Record’s research files, drafts of professional papers, and documentation about the emergence of the field of Black Studies.
REED, CURTIS (MSS 951)
Collection, 1972-1985; .75 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Curtis E. Reed was an African American entertainer and musician from Georgia. He also was an occasional songwriter and ran his own recording/management business, Goodly Productions. The papers pertain to Reed's career as a singer/songwriter and as president and founder of Goodly Productions and include contracts, business cards, promotional materials, copyright applications, promotional and personal photographs, correspondence, and biographical material. The collection also includes several folders of lyrics and scores collected and written by Reed.
REED FAMILY (MSS 884)
Papers, 1867-1957; 1 linear ft. (2 boxes, 2 oversized papers)
The Reed family was an African American landowning family who lived in southeast Texas from Reconstruction through the oil boom. By 1876, the Reeds owned at least 50 acres in San Jacinto County. The property is often referred to as the Berry Beasly place. They farmed the land, growing everything from cotton to peanuts, and were involved in early oil drilling projects. The majority of the family lived in Evergreen, Texas, although Conroe, Cold Springs, Huntsville, and Shepherd also factor in the family history. An oath of citizenship dated 1871 and a registration to vote certificate for W.F. (Frank) Reed are among the earliest documents in the collection.
The papers include correspondence, financial records, legal documents and writings, documenting the agricultural, business, and religious lives of an African American family in Southeast Texas. The collection contains a preacher’s license and certificate of ordination for J.L. (John) Reed, who was called to serve at Spring Hill Baptist Church in 1891, received a preacher’s license in 1900, and was ordained in 1902. The collection also contains a number of handwritten herbal remedies, giving detailed prescriptions for medicinal remedies, prayers, and bible verses to cure a variety of mental and physical ills.
The collection also contains records of the poll taxes paid by the Reed and Denson families from 1905-1956, military service records for Jimmie Reed and Comet Monie Reed, correspondence concerning Peter Denson’s work with the WPA, and correspondence with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Adjustment Agency during World War II. Of particular interest are a number of receipts and records concerning the family’s involvement with the oil industry in Texas. The correspondence files provide a detailed look at daily life, as well as documenting business relationships and courtship. Denson family records and correspondence are also included as the two families were related through marriage by 1908. Some variation of spelling exists with the two principle families: Reed (Reid) and Denson (Denison).
ROBINSON, ARWILDA G. (MSS 860)
Papers; 1933-1950; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Arwilda G. Robinson was a member of the First Colored Wesley Methodist A.M.E. Zion Church, Philadelphia. She went to Liberia on February 12, 1934, and served as a missionary at the Mt. Coffee Mission Station at least through 1937. Her papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, printed material, and a half-dozen Church buttons and ribbons.
SAMUELS, JOHN (MSS 952)
Collection, 1922-1977; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The collection consists of materials relating to John Samuels, African American musician of Atlanta and includes original scores by Samuels, as well as photographs of Samuels and other entertainers including Sammy Davis, Jr., and May Britt.
SCARBOROUGH, W. S. (WILLIAM SANDERS) (MSS 1021)
Scrapbook; 1890-1926 (1 bound volume)
Scarborough (1852-1926), African American author, educator, lecturer, was born a slave in Macon, Georgia. Despite state restrictions, he learned to read and write. In 1875 he graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. Shortly after completing a master’s degree from Oberlin, he became a professor of Latin and Greek at Wilberforce University. He was appointed president of Wilberforce University in 1908 and served until his resignation in 1920.
The collection contains a scrapbook concerning W.S. Scarborough and Wilberforce University from 1890-1926. It contains newspaper clippings, relating to lectures given by Scarborough, African American politics, Wilberforce University, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and African American education.
SCHAFFER, MATT (MSS 755)
Collection, 1969-1970; 1 linear ft. (3 boxes, 14 oversized papers)
Matt Schaffer, author and scholar of West African and Caribbean literature, conducted audiotape interviews with a number of poets, dramatists, and novelists associated with the cultural life of Dakar, Senegal. Among those represented are the following Sengalese, Martinque, French Guyanese, and Haitian writers: Aime Cesaire, Leon-Gontran Damas, Lamine Diakhate, Bertene Juminer, Annette Mbaye d’Erneville, Felix Morisseau-Leroy, Ousmane Sembene, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Ousmane Soce, Paulin Vieyra, and Joseph Zobel. Also present is a single audiotape interview with the French novelist Jean Paul Sartre. In addition, the collection includes transcripts of a number of talks delivered at the First Pan African Cultural Festival held in Algiers in 1969 as well as a small amount of related printed material. The collection also includes a small collection of ephemera published by the Georgia printer William Haynes at the Ashantilly Press.
SCOTT, WILLIAM A. (WILLIAM ALBERT) (MSS 976)
Papers, 1920-1962; .25 linear ft. (1 box, 1 oversized paper)
William Albert Scott (1905-2001) was an African American Baptist minister who served as a chaplain in the United States Army during World War II. The papers include photographs, transcripts from Scott’s graduate and undergraduate education, and military service records. Scott’s military records from his service as a chaplain in the 46th Quartermaster Regiment and the 45th Engineer Regiment make up the majority of the collection and include commissioning papers, separation reports, military orders to Algeria, Tunisia and North Burma, and a certificate Scott received upon his promotion to the rank of captain.
SCOTT, WILLIAM H. (WILLIAM HENRY) (MSS 1082)
Family papers, 1878-1918; 5 linear ft. (5 boxes)
William H. Scott (1848-1910), Baptist minister and political activist, was one of the original members of the Niagara Movement, predecessor organization to the NAACP. William H. Scott, Jr. (1887-1976) was the son of William H. Scott and Laura Ann Fields Scott. Scott followed his father's interest in politics and was active in the National Equal Rights League. He wrote for radical periodicals, including The Clarion and The New Negro.
The collection consists of the papers of the William H. Scott family from 1878-1918, and includes correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, pamphlets, broadsides, sermons, writings, and other collected material of William H. Scott and his son William H. Scott, Jr. The majority of the correspondence concerns the political activities of William H. Scott. Also of interest in the collection are a number of letters written by William H. Scott, Jr. to his wife while he was serving in the military from 1918-1919. The correspondence details black life in the army during the Jim Crow era. Scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings from African American newspapers concerning politics, African American history, and family history. Sermons and writings are by both William H. Scott and William H. Scott, Jr. Photographs are mostly of family members and many were taken by William H. Scott, Jr. Printed material consists of pamphlets and announcements concerning political and religious activity in the African American community in Massachusetts and Washington, DC, during the early 20th century. The collection also includes a Civil War era sword.
SIMON, WALTER AUGUSTUS (MSS 1057)
Papers, 1921-1979; 2 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Walter Augustus Simon (1916-1979) was an artist and a professor of art education and art history. The papers include correspondence, certificates and awards, writings, lecture materials, photographs, and documents associated with his work as a cultural affairs officer in Cairo, Kabul, and Colombo, and printed material.
SOUTHALL, GENEVA (MSS 1004)
Papers; 22 linear ft. (22 boxes, 5 oversized papers)
Geneva Southall (1925-2004) was an African American musician, educator, activist, and author. She was the first woman to receive a PhD in piano performance and music literature at the University of Iowa and was a professor at South Carolina State University and the University of Minnesota. The papers include collected materials relating to African American composers including biographical information and sheet music, research files on Blind Tom and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, files relating to the National Association of Negro Musicians, photographs, and audio-visual materials.
SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS (MSS 917)
Records, 1895-2003; 16.5 linear ft. (29 boxes)
This collection contains the organizational records of the Association of Colleges and Schools from the 1930s-2000 including minutes from the Board of Trustees and various committees, reports, publications and conference materials. Included are reports concerning African American schools.
SOUTHERN REGIONAL COUNCIL (MSS 933)
“Southways” sound recordings, 1991-1992; 8 linear ft. (8 boxes)
"Southways" was a weekly documentary radio show which explored a different person, place or event in the South. Although the programs were regionally focused, the show was broadcast on public radio stations across the country. "Southways" debuted on May 3, 1991. "Southways" was produced and syndicated by the Regional Radio Network (RRN), a radio network established by the Southern Regional Council (SRC). The SRC established the network to produce and syndicate programs about the South and "Southways" was the first program the new network created. The SRC hoped RRN would fill a void in radio programming, because most radio shows were produced either locally for a particular city or state or nationally by large corporate networks.
The "Southways" audio recordings consist of reel-to-reel and cassette tapes of "Southways" programs. The recordings cover a diverse range of topics from "Illiteracy in Savannah," "The Houma Indians of Louisiana," "Growing Up in the [Mississippi] Delta," to "Phosphate Mining in Florida," "High School Brass Band of New Orleans," and "Louisiana and David Duke." Besides these topical shows, "Southways" also featured profiles of intriguing southerners such as Stetson Kennedy, folklorist, historian and infiltrator of the Ku Klux Klan, as well as musicians Etta Baker, the "Queen" of the Piedmont blues, and "Queen Ida" Guillory, a Louisiana-born Zydeco musician who rose to prominence far from the bayou out on the West Coast.
SOUTHERN REGIONAL COUNCIL (MSS 934)
“Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” program files and sound recordings; 21 linear ft. (55 boxes)
"Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: An Audio History of the Civil Rights Movement in Five Southern Communities and the Music of Those Times" is an awarding-winning radio documentary. Produced by the Southern Regional Council (SRC), it chronicles the struggle to end segregation in Atlanta, Georgia, Columbia, South Carolina, Jackson, Mississippi, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Montgomery, Alabama. While other documentaries about the civil rights movement concentrate on national leaders and national organizations, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" focuses on "the essential local character of the places and people who collectively became the Movement." In order to capture the undocumented side of the movement, the producers conducted over a hundred original interviews with civil rights activists and combed through archives across the country for oral histories and other materials. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" aired on Public Radio International (PRI) affiliates across the country in 1997, and it won a prestigious George Foster Peabody Award the same year.
The "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" program files consist of interview transcripts, audiovisual materials, scripts, program research files, and production files. The largest part of the collection is made up of materials related to the interviews that give "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" its unique perspective. Series 1 and Series 2 contain transcripts and tapes of interviews conducted by the SRC as well as transcripts and tapes from other archival repositories. Besides the interviews, the audiovisual materials also include rough mixes of the individual episodes of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" Series 3 contains materials the documentary's staff used to develop scripts for the twenty-six episodes, including notes, outlines, drafts, and outtakes, and final versions of the scripts.
The program research files consist of inventories of archival collections, correspondence with archival repositories as well as historical materials, including biographical sketches, chronologies, notes, newspaper clippings, articles, excerpts from books, and guides for each city. The production files relate to the production and administration of documentary. Of particular interest in this series are the comments from listeners about the documentary as well as the station carriage lists, which list the radio stations that carried "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" in the United States
SPENCE, MARY E. (MSS 811)
Papers, 1853-1950; 1 linear ft. (2 boxes, 2 oversized papers)
Mary Elizabeth Spence (1865-1962) was professor of classical languages and literature at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father, A.K. Spence, was on the faculty at Fisk and so she, like many other children of white faculty members, was educated at Fisk. The collection affords an insight into the career of two generations of Fisk professors.
The Mary E. Spence papers are composed mainly of personal and family correspondence and an autograph book (1882-1883). The collection also contains a variety of printed materials relating to black education institutions—especially Fisk—and churches.
SPENCER, RITA EVELYN (MSS 1048)
Papers, [ca. 1907-1931]; .25 linear ft. (1 box and 3 bound volumes)
Rita Evelyn Stoney Spencer was an African American teacher who graduated from Talladega College in 1930. She taught for a year in Winston-Salem, North Carolina before marrying Dr. James Lorenzo Spencer, a graduate of Howard University, on June 21, 1931. The papers include photographs of friends and family, two photograph albums, and a scrapbook from Talladega College. The collection also includes a number of photographic portraits of unidentified African Americans, unidentified elementary school pictures of African American children from circa 1907, a Talladega College pennant, and a 1930 commencement program from James Spencer’s graduation from Howard University.
SPIVEY, VICTORIA (MSS 809)
Papers, ca. 1960-1976; 8.75 linear ft. (17 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
Victoria Spivey (1906-1976), blues artist, actress, and the owner of Spivey Records, was born in Houston, Texas. She recorded her first record, Black Snake Blues, in 1926 on Okeh Records, and four years later she appeared in the first all-African American musical, Hallelujah! During the 1930s she recorded and toured across the country with performers such as Louis Armstrong and Blind Lemon Jefferson before going into semi-retirement in the 1950s. She returned to performing and started her own record company in 1962.
The collection consists of her personal papers and materials about Spivey gathered by her last husband, Len Kunstadt. It includes documents chronicling the resurgence in her career and her involvement in Spivey Records; her music, a small collection of her correspondence, writings by and about Spivey, and a few photographs. The lyrics in the collection include drafts, lead sheets, and copyrights of her published works after 1960 and materials that were never published. Her business records include business correspondence, record sales, and records of her royalties.
STEELE, GUSSIE ALFREDA (MSS 985)
Papers, 1949-1992; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Gussie Alfreda Steele was an African American descendant of revolutionary leader Nat Turner. She married Percy Howard Steel, Jr. in 1949. He organized the Morris County Urban League in New Jersey in 1947 and served as its executive director until 1953. He then organized and led the San Diego Urban League until 1964 when he became the head of the Bay Area Urban League.
The papers include photographs, newspaper clippings that mostly concern her husband’s activities, correspondence, and printed material related to the Urban League. There is also a small amount of correspondence addressed to Steele’s mother and programs from the Gullah festival in South Carolina, the Juneteenth festival in San Francisco, and the funerals of friends.
SULLIVAN, PATRICIA (MSS 621)
Progressive Party oral history interviews, 1975-1982; 2 linear ft. (5 boxes)
Patricia Sullivan has served as a member of the history faculty at Emory University and as director of the Center for the Study of Civil Rights at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies, Charlottesville, Virginia. The collection consists of oral history interviews with persons involved in the 1948 Progressive Party campaign in the South conducted by Patricia Sullivan from 1975-1982. Interviewees include John Abt, Randolph Blackwell, William Holmes Borders, James Dombrowski, Virginia Durr, Floyd Hunter, Curtis MacDougall, Claude Pepper, John Popham, Glenn Rainey, Pete Seeger, Studs Terkel, Strom Thurmond, and F. Palmer Weber. The collection also includes transcripts of portions of the interviews.
SUTTLE, J. FREEMAN (JAMES FREEMAN) (MSS 1017)
Correspondence, 1898-1931; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
J. Freeman Suttle (1866-1934), a White merchant, planter, and postmaster, was born in Perry County, Alabama. The letters discuss a number of issues including Alabama politics, African American education and fraternal organizations, black codes, agricultural conditions, and the convict leasing labor system. The majority of the correspondence concerns the leasing of African American convicts in Alabama. Correspondents discuss runaway convicts, convict behavior, and financial concerns.
TOY, MILTON MARVIN (MSS 898)
Papers, 1920-1943; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Milton Marvin Toy served in the U.S. Army, 4048th Quartermaster Truck Company during World War II. The collection consists of correspondence, military service records, photographs, certificates, a newspaper clipping, and religious material. Correspondence to Daisy Bell Warner, his mother, discussing his experiences after he was inducted into the Army in 1943 comprises the majority of the collection.
UNION MISCELLANY (MSS 99)
Collection, 1861-1865; 1 linear ft. (4 boxes)
An artificial collection of miscellaneous manuscripts (or copies of manuscripts) written from the Union perspective, including volunteer enlistment agreements (September-October 1863) for three Georgia African Americans enlisting in the Union army at Fort Smith, Arkansas (file: Kansas Infantry, Colored) and miscellaneous records of the 38th Colored Troops of Virginia (1863-1865), including receipts for supplies, clothing and equipment.
UTOPIAN LITERARY CLUB (ATLANTA, GA) (MSS 991)
Records, 1927-2004 (bulk 1984-2003); .75 linear ft. (2 boxes)
The Utopian Literary Club was founded in 1916 by a group of African American women in Atlanta, Georgia. Meeting for the simple purpose of “the mental advancement of its members,” the Utopian Literary Club is primarily a social club that assembles regularly to discuss literature, listen to lectures and music, and debate current events.
The records include minutes, programs, financial reports, photographs, the club constitution, and biographical files of members. The majority of the material is from 1984 to the present, although some historical sketches of early club history are included. The annual yearbook is particularly detailed concerning club activities, listing yearly programs, officers, and the names and addresses of club members. Minutes and committee reports document the business of the Utopian Literary Club, although most are scattered and incomplete.
WALKER, GEORGE (MSS 1022)
Papers, ca. 1940-2006; 30 linear ft. (30 boxes, 81 oversized papers, 1 oversized bound volume)
George Theophilus Walker (1922- ), African American composer and winner of the first Pulitzer Prize in Music by an African American. The papers include printed and original manuscript scores, photographs, correspondence, clippings, programs, and posters concerning performances of his works, plaques and awards, subject files concerning his Pulitzer Prize, a painted portrait, and audio-visual material.
WEST VIRGINIA COLORED INSTITUTE (MSS 851)
Photographs, 1921-1923; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The West Virginia Colored Institute was founded in 1891 in Charleston, West Virginia, for the education of African Americans. In 1929, it became West Virginia State College. The collection contains photographs of the West Virginia Colored Institute from 1921-1923. The photographs are of individuals, groups, and buildings. The collection also includes a typed copy of the school’s fight song.
WHEATLEY, PHILLIS (MSS 796)
Collection, ca. 1757-1773; .25 linear ft. (2 volumes)
Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), poet, was born in Africa. She was kidnapped, transported to Boston, and finally sold as a slave to John Wheatley, a merchant tailor, in 1761. After learning English quickly, Wheatley published her only book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773.
The collection consists of two eighteenth-century copybooks ca. 1754-1773. The copybooks contain unattributed and attributed verse including poetry published in newspapers and magazines. The larger copybook includes a previously unpublished variant of her poem, "A Hymn to Humanity." The poem, dated December 12, 1773, contains significant textual changes and identifies for the first time the person to whom the poem is dedicated.
WHITE, BILLY (MSS 1053)
Papers, 1931-1949; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
William (Billy or Billie) White was an African American performer, singer and orchestra leader. He performed mostly in Chicago and Kansas City during the 1930s in shows such as the “Blackbird Follies of 1937,” the “Sepia Serenade,” and the “Black and White Revue.” The papers include contracts, business correspondence with the Musicians Protective Union, photographs of Billy White and his wife Gertrude, fliers from his performances at Chicago and Kansas City nightclubs, scripts from radio broadcasts, and scrapbook pages containing newspaper clippings and reviews.
WILEY, BELL IRVIN (MSS 521)
Papers, ca. 1860-1980; 140 linear ft. (216 boxes, 10 oversized papers)
The papers of Emory history professor Bell Wiley (1906-1980) contain research materials for his books and articles and materials from his courses relating to African American history. Series 2: Writings—Books contains Wiley’s notes and collected research material for his books, including Slaves No More. Series 5: Teaching Files contains lecture notes for his courses on the Civil War and the role of African Americans in America. Series 6: General Research Files contains collected research materials relating to African Americans and other Civil War topics and microfilms of the Freedmen’s Bureau records that Wiley obtained from the National Archives. Series 6 also has Wiley’s handwritten notes from his interviews with former slaves (1932-1934) and photographs of the former slaves he interviewed (Box 2, folder 32). The collection also includes files on African American soldiers in World War II and Korea (Series 1: Personal Papers). Other materials relating to African Americans are scattered throughout this large collection.
WOODSON, CARTER GODWIN (MSS 1040)
Collection; 2 linear ft.
Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was an African American historian, author, journalist and the founder of Black History Month which began in 1926. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915 and its Associated Publishers in 1920. The collection includes printed ephemera and photographs relating to Woodson’s association with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the Associated Publishers. MARBL also holds the library of Carter G. Woodson and of the Association, and a printed catalog of that collection is available for purchase.
YARBROUGH, DEAN S. (MSS 989)
Papers, 1925-1945; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Dean S. Yarbrough (1903- ), an African American college professor and sociologist, was born in Athens, Georgia. The papers include correspondence; financial records, memos and reports created when Yarbrough served as the director of the American Red Cross Overseas Service club in Italy from 1944-1945; and a small amount of printed material from the West Federal Street Branch Y in Youngstown, Ohio. The correspondence, dating from 1925-1945, mostly concerns his work in various organizations and commissions, including the Urban League, the YWCA, the YMCA, the New York Department of Public Welfare, and the American Red Cross.
YOUNGBLOOD, S. RUFUS (SANDY RUFUS) (MSS 979)
Papers; 1.5 linear ft. (2 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
S.R. Youngblood was an African American educator in South Carolina and Oklahoma. This collection includes his teaching certificates, licenses, letters of recommendation from civic and college officials, family photos, an obituary, and manuscript speeches. There is also a ledger book kept by Youngblood for the Dickson estate in South Carolina with an autobiographical sketch of his life. A small amount of material concerns his son (a dentist), including a birth certificate and patient records.
