Scope and arrangement
Personal papers, professional and literary correspondence, office files, research notes and printed matter documenting the professional and literary activities of Léon-Gontran Damas, an author, lecturer and acting-chairman of the department of African Studies and Research Program at Howard University (1975-1976). Smaller bodies of materials document his earlier career as representative of French Guiana to the French National Assembly in the 1950s. Damas's research notes and printed matter include a voluminous compilation of writings and biographical sketches of Brazilian authors of African descent from the 18th century to the 1950s. The Négritude movement is documented throughout the collection with published and unpublished essays, biographical and bibliographical articles, student papers from Howard University and the Federal City College in Washington, D.C., conference materials, and selected records of the Lépold Sédar Senghor Foundation.