- Creator
- Burnham, Louis E.
- Call number
- Sc MG 292; Sc Micro RS-889
- Physical description
- 0.54 linear feet (2 reels, 2 boxes)
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- [Item], Louis E. Burnham newspaper collection, Sc MG 292, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Request access to this collection.
The Louis Burnham collection reflects Burnham's socialist interests and consists of a complete run of Freedom, a monthly newspaper published by Paul Robeson from 1950-1955 and edited by Burnham; newsclippings of articles Burnham wrote for the National Guardian (1958-1960); copies of various souvenir journals and other printed matter of the Southern Negro Youth Congress; and a copy of Burnham's Behind the Lynching of Emmet Louis Till.
Biographical/historical information
Louis E. Burnham was the Editor of Freedom, the newpaper Paul Robeson founded; Associate Editor of the National Guardian in the 1950s; and a well-known lecturer on African American affairs.
Born in 1915 and educated in Harlem, New York, Burnham attended City College of the City University of New York. As a college student, he became interested in the Civil Rights Movement and joined the American Student Movement and the Young Communist League. He later travelled around the country and organized the first chapters of the American Student Union on Black college campuses and was the Youth Secretary of the National Negro Congress. He served as Executive Secretary of the Southern Negro Youth Congress and was editor of its newspaper and its right to vote campaigns. Burnham also helped organize the sharecroppers movement and was active in many campaigns to end segregation in the south. Burnham died in 1960.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift of Dorothy Challenor Burnham, 1988.
Revision History
Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2021 February 17)
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor
Access to materials
Request access to this collection.Conditions Governing Use
Researchers are required to use either the microfilmed versions of Freedom or the photocopied versions in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.