Found 26 collections related to African American women

Born in San Francisco in 1943, Antonia Cottrell Martin became one of the first African-American flight attendants for Pan American World Airways in 1967. A descendent of a California black pioneer family, she became interested in tracing her family's roots, and joined the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS). In 1989 she helped found the Jean Sampson Scott Greater New York Chapter of AAHGS and became its president. Inspired by the women in her family, Martin also established the Foundation for African American Women, and served as its president for a number of years. The mission of the Foundation was to find solutions to problems particular to African-American women and to the larger African-American community. The Antonia Cottrell Martin Papers consists primarily of records of the organizations with which Martin was associated: the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Foundation for African American Women, and the Schomburg Corporation. Files for the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), including the Jean Sampson Scott Greater New York Chapter encompass by-laws, minutes of meetings, information about genealogical fairs and resources, newsletters from other chapters, memorial programs for deceased members, correspondence, financial records, a chapter establishment handbook, and related documents, 1990-1994. There are also notebooks containing workshop-related and other conference material (but not the papers presented by the speakers) for three conferences sponsored by the AAHGS, 1998-2002. less

Fashion model, writer. Sims was one of the top African-American fashion models of the 1960s and 1970s. Typescripts and research materials for books written by Sims, including ALL ABOUT HEALTH AND BEAUTY FOR THE BLACK WOMAN (1976), HOW TO BE A TOP MODEL (1979), and ALL ABOUT BLACK HAIR FOR THE BLACK WOMAN. Also, some personal and business files including contracts for television shows, the Ford Agency, material on speeches and panel discussions, news clippings, and fan mail. less

The Daisy George Papers reflect her numerous activities, particularly her efforts to aid women and children via the various administrative posts she held with many organizations. The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs (NANBPWC) material contains reports, correspondence, printed matter, newsletters, programs, news clippings, and related material she collected as the United Nations' NGO representative regarding coordination of programs. Included are files pertaining to the U.N. Decade for Women (1975-1985), the International Women's Year conference held in Mexico City in 1975 and her attendance to the world conference in Nairobi in July 1985. Other NANBPWC files include information about study tours to Africa and fund raising activities for projects in Africa. The collection also documents the role played by Mary E. Singletary, president of NANBPWC, in advancing women's rights. less

The Jewel Plummer Cobb Papers document Cobb's career as a cancer researcher, professor at several colleges and a college administrator. The collection consists of biographical material including news articles, in addition to correspondence with friends and colleagues and with organizations for which she was a board member. Her scientific career is represented by her Ph.D. dissertation entitled "Mechanics of Pigment Formation" (1950), notes and progress reports on her cancer research, lecture notes, course outlines, and copies of her scientific publications. less

Florence Mills (1886-1927), world renowned entertainer during the 1920s. She starred in Lew Leslie's Plantation Revue and Blackbirds after a successful run as the lead in Shuffle Along. Collection contains personal papers that include biographical information and letters; and professional papers, including letters, contracts and printed materials. less

The Glenn Carrington Papers document the personal life of an African-American homosexual from the 1920's to the 1960's, before the advent of the gay pride movement. Among Carrington's friends and acquaintances were Alain Locke; sociologist Ophelia Settles Egypt, a fellow student at Howard University; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, grandson of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and a "surrogate" mother to Carrington, Georgia Douglas Johnson. There is correspondence related to Carrington's position as a parole officer and as a psychological social worker. Many of the young men Carrington counseled remained friends with him throughout his life and frequently corresponded with him. The correspondence between Carrington and the young men is included in the collection. There is also correspondence with Carrington's gay male friends. less

Incoming letters from W.E.B. Du Bois, Leigh Whipper, Mary McLeod Bethune, Langston Hughes, Ralph J. Bunche, James Weldon Johnson, Fannie Hurst, Booker T. Washington, Franz Boas, Benjamin Brawley, Countee Cullen, and others. Other letters from librarians and other professionals at black institutions; letters of congratulations on achievements, 1948-1950; and additional letters of a personal and professional content. Papers include programs, articles, text of a speech given at a commencement banquet, and minutes of the Bi-Racial Committee in which the motion to establish a separate Alabama Negro Library Association was passed, 1952. Several photographic portraits of Delaney are included in the collection. less

Alma John was a radio talk show producer, registered nurse, and newspaper columnist. She was the first African-American female director of a school of practical nursing in New York State. As Executive Director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, she hosted and wrote the scripts for the radio program, Brown Women in White. The collection consists of personal papers; correspondence; radio scripts; typescripts and news clippings of her columns; and printed matter and newsletters. less

Henry C. Bunton's papers consist of personal papers, writings, chaplaincy records, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church records, and correspondence. These papers principally document Bunton's role as a bishop with the C.M.E. Church. Church records consist of copies of sermons, office files, correspondence, denominational records, pamphlets and related material from his years in the ministry. Denominational records include correspondence with other bishops from the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church such as J. Claude Allen, Norris S. Curry, Chester Kirkendoll, Elisha P. Murchison, P. Randolph Shy, and P. Julian Smith regarding plans for meetings, annual conferences, expansion of the church and other church activities. There is also correspondence with individual pastors, and officers from the many member churches in Bunton's district regarding requests for assignments and transfers, securing property and other church business, as well as financial reports. Among the churches represented are Israel Metropolitan Church in Greenville, South Carolina; Mount Olive Cathedral in Memphis, Tennessee; and Russell Memorial Church in Durham, North Carolina. less

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) organized railway porters (traditionally an occupation for African-Americans) to bargain with the Pullman Company which held a virtual monopoly on the nation's sleeping car facilities. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters collection includes printed matter, correspondence, legal documents, addresses by A. Philip Randolph, and other material reflecting the activities of this union. less

Born in 1881 in Washington D.C., Rosina Corrothers Tucker worked as a union organizer for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and served as the first president of the union's Ladies Auxiliary. She assisted in the planning for a March on Washington in 1941 to demand fair employment practices for African Americans, and also helped organize laundry and domestic workers in the District of Columbia. A prominent church, civic and community activist in Washington D.C., she helped found the Northeast Women's Club, served as the first president of the Public Interest Civic Association, and was the driving force in a campaign for the expansion and construction of better public schools in Washington D.C. She is the author of an autobiographical work "My Life As I Lived It," and was the narrator for the television documentary "Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggles," produced in 1982. Correspondence, certificates and awards, speeches, printed matter and other documents marking the celebration of Rosina Tucker's 100 birthday, her contribution to the trade-union movement and her many achievements as a community and civil rights organizer. less

In 1992 and 1993 City Lore coordinated an oral history project focusing on the Northern migration experience and the maintenance of southern folkways within New York City's African-American church community. Fifty men and women who migrated from the South to New York during the post World War II years were interviewed. Topics covered in the interviews include how and why individuals left the South (generally for economic reasons, not blatant racism and violence); their experiences adjusting to life in New York; their retention of Southern cultural practices (food, especially soul food, gospel music, crafts including quilting, worship practices and church activities); the individuals' ongoing connections to the South through regular family visits, homecoming, etc.; and their thoughts on moving back to the South (or for those few who had already moved from New York, they compared their lives in both areas). The informants recount their positive relations with other black families and with white neighbors in the South and school experiences with strict yet caring black teachers. Neighborhood life in Harlem, central Brooklyn and parts of Queens during the 1940's through the early 1960's were recounted, as well as discussions covering life up to the early 1990's during the time of the interviews is included. The New York City interviews were conducted by City Lore Project Director Ray Allen and the Virginia interviews were conducted by Dr. Marilyn White. less

Jill Nelson was born and raised in Harlem and has been a journalist for over twenty years. She is the author of the memoir, "Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience" (1993), "Straight," "No Chaser: How I Became A Grown-Up Black Woman" (1997), "Sexual Healing," (2003), "Finding Martha's Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island" (2005) and editor of "Police Brutality: An Anthology" (2000). Nelson's work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Essence, The Washington Post, The Nation, Ms., The Chicago Tribune and the Village Voice. The Jill Nelson papers document Nelson's career as a writer and editor and press agent for C. Vernon Mason's campaign for Manhattan District Attorney. There is also promotional material and reviews for Nelson's books, as well as research notebooks and other materials, and articles she wrote for various publications. Additionally, there is a file containing information about Nelson's stint as a press agent, and her involvement with the Mike Tyson Parade in Harlem after his release from jail in 1995; the protest of the police killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999; and a file of correspondence created by Nelson while she was an adjunct professor at City College of New York. 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 Frank Wuttge Jr. research file is comprised of material Wuttge gathered about Mary Elizabeth Bowser and the Bowser family. Included are research notes, correspondence with researchers, publishers, television and movie producers and others regarding documentation about Bowser's life. There are also committee materials and the 1977 tree dedication ceremony announcement. Wuttge's interest in Arthur Schomburg and the Schomburg family is documented by letters from Wuttge to Schomburg biographer James Egert Allen, notes on the Schomburg family, and the origin and history of the surname. There is also printed material regarding Alexandre Dumas and other prominent black men. less

Victoria (Vicki) Garvin was an African-American trade union and political activist as well as a pan-Africanist and internationalist. The Vicki Garvin papers document aspects of Garvin's work as a trade union organizer, especially among African-Americans in the 1950s; her teaching experience in Shanghai (1964-1970); and her support of communism both in the United States and China. less

Doris Thompson moved in social and cultural circles in Chicago and Harlem where she met and became friends with many African-American artists, writers, and professionals, among them the artist William Edouard Scott, newspaper editor Wendell Dabney, Manet Harrison Fowler, founder of the Mwalimu School in Chicago, and bibliophiles Arthur A. Schomburg and Henry P. Slaughter. She was married four times; her third husband was Andrew Robinson, a graduate of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania). According to one source, she was a professional dressmaker, and in the 1940s during her marriage to Andrew Robinson, she was an active member of the Ladies Auxiliary of Lincoln University. The Doris Thompson Papers reflect a few aspects of Thompson's life and that of her third husband, Andrew Robinson. Thompson maintained a correspondence with several individuals and organizations including William Lloyd Imes, pastor of Harlem's St. James Presbyterian Church; Manet Harrison Fowler, founder/director of the Mwalimu School, who featured Thompson in recital (1938) in one of the New York chapter's programs; and actress Vinie Burrows, whom Thompson met during Burrow's childhood. less

Michele Wallace is best known for her first book, Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, which is considered the first collection of essays published by a black woman, and the first book published by a black feminist. The Michele Wallace papers document her career as a cultural critic, journalist, and intellectual since the late 1970s. less

Jewelle Gomez is a self-identified "Black", "Native", lesbian feminist poet and playwright. She has published nine books, including three books of poetry, a novel, a play, an essay collection, and two books of collaboration. Gomez is best known for her double Lambda Award winning novel, The Gilda Stories, and its subsequent theater adaptation, Bones and Ash: A Gilda Story. Born in 1948, Gomez was raised in a poor, Black neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, by her great-grandmother Grace, to whom she dedicated her first book of poetry, The Lipstick Papers (1980). The Jewelle Gomez papers include manuscripts, interviews, reviews, articles, speeches, and essays. The collection contains a photocopy of the original self-published book of poetry The Lipstick Papers, and versions of her play, "Waiting for Giovanni", which is based on James Baldwin's life right before the publication of his second and controversial novel, Giovanni's Room" in 1956. less

Marilyn Clement was an activist and a professional organizer in the social justice movement. The Marilyn Clement papers, 1967-2005, consist primarily of printed material, which document her activities as an activist with the organizations where she was either employed or worked as a volunteer. less

Known as the "Mother of Medicine in Harlem", Muriel Petioni was a doctor and community leader. The Muriel Petioni papers reflect primarily on her participation in various organizations including the Gayap Organization; they also include professional correspondence; African diaspora related documents; and Harlem related documents. less

Anne Forrester, activist, political scientist, Africanist, diplomat, and international civil servant, began her career as a pan-African scholar and activist, then later turned to diplomacy. The Anne Forrester collection contains a range of personal and professional materials from 1959 to 2006, underlining Forrester's life long pursuits as an Africanist. less

The Lorraine Hansberry Papers document Lorraine Hansberry's life as an award-winning playwright and activist, and chronicles her activities during the Civil Rights Movement. Virtually all of Hansberry's writings, autobiographical materials, journals, diaries, personal and professional correspondence are included here, as well as related materials generated by her late husband, Robert Nemiroff, and his third wife, Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff, as the executors of Hansberry's state. Significant correspondents include Daisy Bates, Louis Burnham, Julian Mayfield, Robert Nemiroff, and William Worthy. less