Collections in Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (PIB), formed in 1944, was the first African American parachute unit to actually use parachutes in the military; the first to become smoke jumpers who fought forest fires; and the first African American battalion to integrate the armed forces just months before President Truman officially directed the integration of the United States military.This collection is comprised of newspaper articles, letters, photocopies of pictures, and lists of members. less

The AMAS Musical Theatre production files consist of documentation for thirty-six plays produced by AMAS, including both original plays and well known plays such as "It's so nice to be civilized," "Bojangles," "Jam," "Juba," "Blackberries," and "The buck stops here." Revivals have included "Bye Bye Birdie," "Carousel," and "My Fair Lady." A variety of material can be found in the files; however not every kind of material will be available for each production. The following list provides a sampling of files: attendance sheets; audition sheets, budgets, cast lists/contact sheets; casting lists and notices; contracts; costume inventories; cue sheets; equity contracts; flyers and programs; memoranda and correspondence; music and lyrics; performance reports; production schedules; rehearsal logs, schedules and reports; reviews; scene breakdown sheets; scripts-blocking/production/master/music; set design and illustrations/lighting/props; sound; stage manager's notes; and VIP lists. Additionally, the collection includes background information about AMAS and Rosetta LeNoire, AMAS's Eubie Blake Youth Theatre, programs and flyers for productions not represented in the files, and certificates awarded to AMAS. less

The Abyssinian Baptist Church Oral History Project consists of transcripts of interviews with ten African-American women -- all Abyssinian members -- about their recollections of Abyssinian Baptist Church as well as their Southern roots, their spiritual experiences and their political and Christian education. All of the women interviewed were more than seventy years old, and one was over ninety, at the time the interviews were conducted in 1992. The interviewees are: Helen Brown, Robbie Clarke, Susan Craig, Gwendolyn Jones, Esther McCall, Estelle Noble, Fannie Pennington, Olivia Pearl Stokes, Amy Terry, Grace Jones and Laura B. Thomas. Their remembrances date to the late 1920's, but the primary time period under discussion is from 1940 to1970. Located in Harlem, Abyssinian was the first black Baptist church established in New York State (1808) and the fifth in the United States. The interviewer was Martia G. Goodson, an assistant professor at Baruch College at the time of the project. less

The Wilhelmina F. Adams Papers (Additions) consist principally of her files chronicling her work as a civic leader primarily with New York Democratic club activities, the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs (NANBPWC) and the National Council of Negro Women. These files contain correspondence, newsletters, programs, brochures, minutes of meetings, official memoranda, reports, invitations, and news clippings. Files of the NANBPWC also include membership records, directories of officers, handouts, annual conference programs, and the constitution. Scrapbooks of the NANBPWC document annual events such as contests, parties and conferences from 1968-1972, and contain programs, invitations, certificates, handmade illustrations, newsletters, correspondence, and news clippings. less

Civic leader of New York City and a major figure in local Democratic Party activities. Official correspondence, minute books, press releases, photographs, invitations, annual convention and activity programs, printed material, and news clippings, chiefly relating to Adams' participation in various social, political, and civic organizations in New York, including the Aeolian Ladies of Charity, Democratic Club, Friends of the Northside Center, a child guidance center for the prevention of delinquency and maladjustment, Harlem Cooperating Committee on Relief and Unemployment, Harlem Hospital Chaplaincy Committee, Nannie H. Burroughs Philanthropic Club, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, National Committee for the American Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Liberia, National Council of Negro Women, New York State Committee on Discrimination in Housing, New York Urban League, New York World's Fair Committee of Negro Women, and the Utopia Neighborhood Club, a nursery center for small children, as well as several local New York City organizations. Also included are personal papers and memorabilia. less

SDiane Adamz-Bogus (b.1946) is a writer, educator, and new age healer; who is also known as Shariananda Adamz and The Oracle Soul-Joiner. The SDiane Adamz-Bogus papers date from 1946 to 2002, and document her work and life through correspondence, journals, photographs, scrapbooks, teaching files, files for the Woman in Moon publishing company, and writing files. less

Cultural organization. Contract between Asadata Dafora (Horton) and the Academy and others to organize a production of "Africa - A Tribal Operetta," financial report for the Academy, miscellaneous correspondence, and a certificate of appreciation to Ruth Foster. less

The Afro-American Investment and Building Company was founded in 1893 by Frederick R. Moore, who also served as president. The company's offices were in Brooklyn, New York, and it managed property in New Jersey. The Afro-American Investment and Building Company collection consists of correspondence and an agreement regarding the mortgage of David C. Pinckney of Asbury Park, New Jersey. All the letters were written by Frederick R. Moore to John S. Applegate, attorney for the investment company. less

Executive Director of Black and Non-White YMCA Volunteers and Staff, 1969-1981, and Director of the Human Rights Unit of the National YMCA, 1973-1981. Personal office files of Alexander reflecting his leadership role with the National YMCA, including records of the Human Rights Unit consisting of correspondence, 1975-1979; affirmative action reports; speeches and historical profiles of black YMCAs prepared for the 125th anniversary celebration of the YMCA; reports on the efforts made by the YMCA regarding equal employment opportunities; reports dealing with the struggles and continued existence of black YMCAs, and publications. Also, records of the National Conference of Black and Non-White YMCA Volunteers and Staff including minutes of the board of directors, correspondence, conference reports, membership lists, budgets, and publications, 1969-1980. less

The Donna Allegra Papers, 1981-2002, contain twenty-five published essays, short stories and poems spanning across Allegra's writing career. Prominent subjects include race and anti-black racism, feminism, social class, and butch gender identity. Allegra draws on her experiences as a construction electrician and a dancer in her fictional work, and her memoir writing explores her strained relationship with her mother and her travels in Guinea studying dance. less

Journalist, lecturer. Letters regarding two annual events organized by Allen, the celebration of the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and a pilgrimage t o the New York University Hall of Fame to honor Harriet Beecher Stowe and Booker T. Washington. Also, a statement issued by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey concerning elimination of discrimination in the state. less

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) is the first African American Greek Sorority. It was founded in 1908, by nine college students on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. AKA currently has members in graduate and undergraduate chapters across the world. Their mission is to encourage high scholastics and ethical standards, promote sisterhood, and help young girls and women to improve their social stature. The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Collection consists of historical sketches and other related materials for several New York State chapters, including Delta Mu Omega, Delta Rho Omega, Epsilon Phi Omega, Theta Iota Omega, Xi Chi Omega, and Zeta Nu Omega Chapter. In addition there are letters, news articles, flyers, and programs. less

The American Negro Ballet Company scrapbook consists of news clippings and programs about the company founded by Eugene von Grona. Included are reviews of its performances in New York City and in Brighton, England in 1937 and 1938, are programs for the ANB and Lew Leslie's "Blackbirds" of 1939, which featured dances choreographed by von Grona. A program and a news clipping refer to performances honoring the company, 1981 and 1983. less

The American West Indian Ladies Aid Society (AWILAS) Collection contains documentation and correspondence from 1915 to 1965 (bulk dates 1924-1939). The collection is fragmentary in content making it difficult to determine the actual transition of officers and other organizational activities, the exception being sick and death claim requests and payments. There are also some financial and medical records and related correspondence, minutes, a few membership applications, and a folder of printed material, consisting of tickets, raffles, flyers, programs, invitations to events hosted by different organizations, Communist Party literature, bulletins, commercial solicitations and political literature. less

The American Society of African Culture educated Americans regarding African culture through publications, lectures, and conferences. The records consist largely of printed material, a book and play, reviews, speeches, and conference programs concerning many aspects of African culture in transition; minutes of an annual meeting, 1961; correspondence with John A. Davis and Brooke Aronson, 1962-1966; and budgets. less

Born in 1950 in Nassawadox, Virginia, Wilmer Ames was best known as the founder and editor-in-chief of Emerge, a monthly newsmagazine which addressed social, political, and economic issues from a black perspective. Ames received his BA from Lincoln University and his MA from Columbia University's School of Journalism. He studied medicine at Rutgers University for two years before returning to journalism. Ames also worked as a reporter and freelancer for a number of publications before he founded Emerge, including Time, Sports Illustrated, People, GQ, and New York magazines. Emerge targeted upwardly mobile blacks and covered popular news stories of the day, as well as in-depth portraits of leading figures in the 1990s such as Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, and Clarence Thomas. The collection contains biographical information on Ames; published articles and research materials for Time and Sports Illustrated; typescripts for a pilot television series; personal and professional correspondence with editors; reviews; and a manuscript for the book Chuck Norris: Being Physically and Mentally Fit (which he co-authored). The bulk of the collection concerns the formation and development of Emerge. Found here are board minutes and memoranda, detailed plans, proposals, financial records, advertising and marketing plans, and articles submitted to and published in the magazine. less

Born in Richmond, VA. in 1890, Martha Pryor Anderson was an African American woman poet and dramatic performer. She founded the Pryor's Dramatic Players in Richmond in the 1930s, but later moved to New York where she started the group anew. She made her debut at Carnegie Hall in the early 1940s. She travelled extensively, appearing in churches, local schools and colleges. Her repertoire included some of her own poems and dramatic works. She died in Harlem in 1993. Correspondence, notebooks, programs, printed matter and scrapbooks documenting Martha Pryor Anderson's activities as a poet and diseuse, and her membership in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York. The collection also includes materials documenting her 95th birthday trip to Richmond where she was honored by the Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Governor's office. less

The papers document Andrews' personal life and professional career and activities. Correspondence, reports, printed material, and writings are included. The papers include manuscripts of Andrews' plays Climbing Jacob's Ladder, The Man Who Passed, and Matilda; the posthumously published The Black New Yorkers and an unpublished manuscript "Women ...With Banners and Human Rights: Laws, Statutes and Amendments in the Constitution of the United States." Andrews' professional activities at the Washington Heights Branch of the New York Public Library are, in part, very well documented by a series of scrapbooks containing photographs, broadsides and other printed material of the "Family Night at the Library" programs. Also included among the papers are some family correspondence, clippings, and a scrapbook relating to Andrews' husband, attorney and assemblyman William T. Andrews. less

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was one of the most renowned and celebrated voices in American literature. The Maya Angelou papers consist of original manuscripts, computer generated typescripts, galleys, and proofs of published work as well as manuscripts for unpublished work and dozens of poems. Additionally, there is personal and professional correspondence, teaching files, printed matter, and materials from public and academic appearances and engagements. less

The Antigua and Barbuda Progressive Society was established on August 22, 1934 by a group of 22 Antiguans in New York City under the leadership of Bishop James P. Roberts. The Society provided charitable assistance to Antiguans, Barbudans and the neighboring community, as well as lent assistance to institutions on the home island. In the early 1960s the Society purchased a brownstone on 122 Street in Harlem which still functions as the Society's headquarters. The Antigua and Barbuda Progressive Society Records, 1934-1984, contain correspondence, membership application forms, meeting minutes and financial documents which offer views into the running of the Society, members' lives and the practical assistance disbursed such as "sick aid" and help with burial costs. Of particular interest are several letters, such as the 1938 and 1949 recommendations sent to the Royal West India Commission and Secretary of State for the Colonies respectively, which divulge immigrants' political sensibilities, diasporic sympathies and nascent pan-Caribbean identification. Letters from Antigua, including two from V.C. Bird, the first prime minister of sovereign Antigua, while commending the Society for the work it pursued for citizens at home, also outline conditions on the island. The collection also documents the interactions between the Society and other Caribbean associations in New York such as those founded by immigrants from Anguilla, Bahamas, Dominica, Montserrat and St. Vincent. less

The Archambeau family consisting of John Nicholas Archambeau and his two children, Lester and Sybil immigrated to the United States from Jamaica in 1908 and 1919, respectively. John Nicholas attended Howard University, became a dentist, and married Julia Hood of Virginia. His daughter Sybil graduated from Teachers Training School in New Jersey in 1927, and in 1938 married Clyde Ewart St. Hill, Jr., originally from Barbados. Lester Archambeau married Thelma Woodward and had two children, Jason and Rita Louise Archambeau. The Archambeaus owned and operated the Old Ladies Home in Hackensack, New Jersey. The Archambeau and St. Hill family collection consists of papers pertaining to family members before and after they immigrated to the United States from Jamaica and Barbados. Documents for the Archambeau family include copies of the marriage certificates for John and Elizabeth Jane Archambeau, John Nicholas Archambeau's parents, who were married in Jamaica in 1869, and Emile Archambeau, a member of the family who owned members of John Archambeau's family during slavery. Other documents for the Archambeau family include several copies of nineteenth century baptismal certificates, Elizabeth Jane Archambeau's passport and immigration documents for her grandchildren Lester and Sybil, as well as deeds and other legal documents regarding the foreclosure of the family house in Hackensack, New Jersey, (1932-1933). less

The Arthur Ashe papers document the wide range of Ashe's political, athletic, business, and philanthropic activities. Although they contain some significant material from the 1960s and 1970s, the papers are concentrated more heavily on Ashe's activities following his retirement from competitive tennis in 1980. less

Born in 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland, Bernard F. Ashe, an African-American lawyer, served as general counsel to the New York State United Teachers (1971-1996), and as assistant general counsel to the International Union, United Auto Workers (1963-1971). He is a graduate of Howard University and the Howard University School of Law. The Bernard F. Ashe Papers document this labor lawyer's career from the early 1960s until his retirement in 1996. less