Found 799 collections.

Quincy Troupe (born 1939) is a poet, author, and editor, perhaps best known for co-writing Miles: The Autobiography (1989) with the influential jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. His father, Quincy Trouppe, Sr., was an all-star catcher in Negro league baseball. The Quincy Troupe papers, dating from 1915 to 2008, mainly document Troupe's career from the mid-1970s to 2008. They also hold the scrapbooks of Quincy Trouppe, Sr. less

Born in Toledo, Ohio, activist, entrepreneur, and writer Kevin McGruder attended Harvard University (BA in Economics) and Columbia University (M.B.A. in Real Estate Finance). In 2007, he began his doctoral studies in History at the Graduate Center of the City University New York. In 1990, McGruder opened Home to Harlem, one of the first souvenir shops in Harlem, and currently co-owns Harlemade, a souvenir shop also located in Harlem. He was a board member of Other Countries, a black gay writers collective, and the executive director of Gay Men of African Descent (1997-2001). McGruder's essay, "Colleagues", appears in Other Countries' second journal, Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of AIDS; his essay, "I Hate Basketball", appears in Fighting Words: Personal Essays by Black Gay Men, edited by Charles Michael Smith, and his essay, "To Be Heard in Print: Black Gay Writers in the 1980s", appears in Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora. The collection contains biographical and genealogical information for McGruder and his family; his writings; correspondence, business and financial records, promotional materials, and news clippings for Home to Harlem; minutes from board meetings, strategic plans, journals, membership information, newsletters, flyers, and news clippings related to McGruder's involvement with Other Countries and Gay Men of African Descent. less

Alan L. McLeod is emeritus professor of literature at Rider University, New Jersey, as well as a literary critic and editor of several volumes. McLeod researched and wrote about the life and work of Jamaican born, Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay from 1971-1992. His work on McKay includes editing The Negroes in America (1979), a work by McKay. The Claude McKay research collection (1971-1992) consists of printed material and photocopies of letters, poems, and articles from various manuscript collections. The printed material consists of copies of poems by McKay. The photocopies include letters from McKay to his daughter, Hope; William Stanley Braithwaite; Carl Cowl (Harvard University); Ivy and Harold Jackman; Arna Bontemps; Max Eastman; and Carl Van Vechten (Atlanta University). There is also a folder of McLeod writings on McKay, and a folder of articles about McKay by other authors. less

The Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) was a Black nationalist organization launched by Malcolm X in 1964. The OAAU was a secular institution that sought to unify 22 million non-Muslim African Americans with the people of the African Continent. It was modeled after the Organization of African Unity (OAU), a coalition of 53 African nations working to provide a unified political voice for the continent. The collection includes various OAAU and Malcolm X-related documents, such s two statements issued by Malcolm X in Cairo, August 1964; a typed article that Malcolm X reportedly gave to Peter Bailey, editor of the OAAU newsletter Blacklash, at the Hotel Theresa the day before his assassination; and interview transcripts, press releases, and other printed matter. Also included are Bailey's holograph, "Thoughts Written down Immediately after Bro. Malcolm's Assassination"; a two-page statement by Ella Collins, President of OAAU, Inc., announcing "A ten year economic program based upon 360 degrees of knowledge" and the organization's new motto, "Black Ism" (1965); and writings by Carlos Moore and Lebert Bethune of the Afroamerican Committee in Paris about Malcolm X's banning by the French government and his subsequent assassination. less

A veteran theater artist of the 1960s and 1970s civil rights inspired Black theater movement, Henry Miller has directed a number of plays in the African American drama canon. Between 1962 and 1992, Miller founded three Black theater companies: the Joseph Patterson Players (1962-1965), the Afro-American Repertory Theatre Company (1971-1978) and the James Baldwin Writers' Workshop Theater (1992-2002). The Henry Miller Theater collection chronicles Miller's work in theater, film, and television as an artist and scholar and spans the period 1957-2005. less

Ron Simmons, an early Black LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning) rights activist in the 1970s and 1980s. The Ron Simmons papers contain manuscripts for several of his writings, correspondence, research material, and material related to his professional work. less

Ira L. Jeffries author, playwright and journalist, had a productive career in New York City's off-off Broadway Theater and African American communities. The Ira Jeffries papers consist of biographical material including correspondence, memoirs, notebooks, and journals. less

A founding member of Students for a Democratic Society, Betty Garman helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's challenge to be seated at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. This collection consists of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee-related materials created or collected by Betty Garman. 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

African-American composer, musician, and arranger, Hall Johnson is best known as a choral director and for his arrangements of spirituals. In 1925, Johnson formed the Hall Johnson Negro Choir, which performed spirituals in the traditional style. The Hall Johnson Choir, which he organized in 1928, performed on Broadway in Marc Connolly's play Green Pastures (1930), for which Johnson was music director. Johnson was known for his compositions as well as the articles he authored that discussed the history of spirituals and their performance practice. The Hall Johnson Collection contains a miscellaneous assortment of material including correspondence and news clippings regarding a workshop Johnson held in East St. Louis, Missouri, in 1969; and a letter to Katherine Dunham explaining his need to give more time to the inexperienced chorus. There is a music book with some holographic music; a poem he authored "Changelessness" (1956); and a few notes. This collection also includes biographical notes and personal recollections written in 2001, by Madeline Preston, a friend and member of his choir, along with a letter Johnson wrote to her in 1956. less

The Wallace Bass Boyd collection is comprised of forty-seven journals, biographical accounts and geographical descriptions of Black life in the South, as well as drafts of his writings from 1985-2007. The journals primarily capture Boyd's day-to-day experiences spanning across his undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate years. Four of the forty-seven journals are written to family members and aspiring artists. Notations about art and his artistic practice can also be found throughout the collection. less

Marvel Cooke was a newspaper editor, publisher, magazine and journal editor, and print journalist. Born in April 1903, in Mankato, Minnesota, Cooke attended the University of Minnesota. She became an editorial assistant of the Crisis in New York (1925) and was the secretary to the women's editor at the Amsterdam News in 1928, where she also became the first female news reporter. In 1936, she joined the Communist Party and became the assistant managing editor of the People's Voice, a militant newspaper, in 1942. Cooke also was a reporter for the Daily Compass in New York (1950); the national legal defense secretary for the Angela Davis Defense Committee (1969); and the national vice chair of the National Council for American-Soviet Friendship (1980s). Cooke died in November 2000 in New York, New York. This collection includes an interview transcript with Marvel Cooke, conducted by Kathleen Currie, for the Washington Press Club Foundation project, "Women in Journalism". It was recorded in 1989. Additionally, there is correspondence between Cooke and the Foundation and a typescript draft of "Marvel Cooke: An African American Woman Journalist Who Agitated for Racial Reform" by Rodger Allan Streitmatter and Barbara Diggs-Brown for Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, #16 (July 1992). less

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo ("made one") Church maintains full communion with the Armenian, Syrian, Indian, and Coptic Orthodox Churches, together known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches. In 1959, Abuna Theophilus, the Archbishop of Harar Province in Ethiopia, established the Western Hemisphere branch in New York, Jamaica, and Guyana. In 1990, a congregation was established in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and brought into the diocese. The Holy Trinity EOC Bronx assembly served as the headquarters of the Western Hemisphere and South Africa Archdiocese. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOC) in the Western Hemisphere and Southern Africa records (1939-1998) consist primarily of correspondence but also contain minutes; addresses and speeches by clergy; printed matter; some ephemera; a notebook of members' information (1970); and financial statements and documents (1956-1984). A significant portion of the correspondence (1993-1997) relates to tensions within the EOC generated by the installation of Abuna Paulos, an archbishop elected by the Holy Synod in Addis Ababa to replace Abuna Yesehaq, the Archbishop of the EOC in the Western Hemishphere and Southern Africa, and the Bronx EOC's legal challenge of Paulos's authority over the congregation and its property. The correspondence also records inquiries from persons interested in the liturgy of the EOC; general news of the EOC in Ethiopia, the United States and Caribbean; and needs of the EOC in South Africa. Also represented in the collection are correspondence and financial ledgers of the Ethiopian World Federation (1938-1970) and some records of the Ethiopian Students' Association in North America, including a list of Ethiopian students in the United States in 1965. less

The Grandassa Models Collection consists of printed material regarding the formation of fashion shows that featured these models and included African dancers and theatrical performances. Included are flyers, brochures, and posters that promoted the fashion shows and also featured the AJSASS Repertory Theatre and the Dinizulu African Dance Company. In the collection are two booklets published by AJASS, the "Naturally '63 Portfolio" and "Color Us Cullud! The Official American Negro Leadership Coloring Book" (late 1963) by Cecil Elombe Brath, which was critical of most of the civil rights leaders at that time. less

Pearl Bailey (1918-1990) was an African American actress and singer. In films, she was known chiefly for two roles: Maria in Porgy and Bess(1959) and Frankie in Carmen Jones (1954). She was also known for her starring role on Broadway in an all-Black cast version of Hello Dolly. During World War II, Bailey toured with the USO, performing for American troops. Beginning in 1946, she was a top attraction in nightclubs, variety houses, and television programs in the United States and Britain. At age 67, in 1985, she graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in theology. Between 1968 and 1989, she published six books on her life, cooking, and educational experiences. Bailey served as a special ambassador to the United Nations in 1975 and 1989, and in 1988, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Pearl Bailey letters (1943-1989) consist of correspondence between Bailey and her friend, Lillian Morrison, a published author, compiler, and editor of children's and young adult books as well as a librarian at the New York Public Library, 110th Street Branch. Most of the letters were written by Bailey, and refer to her various endeavors, including her USO work at Fort Huachucha in Arizona; recordings of the song "Tired", which was one of her hit songs; Disney's The Fox and the Hound, for which she provided one of the voices; and her service with the United Nations. As both women were published authors, several of the letters make reference to this fact and to their long friendship and shared birthday, March 29, 1918. The letters do not provide a great amount of detail about Bailey's show business career. less

Andrew Goodman, along with hundreds of other students, was a volunteer in the Mississippi Summer Project launched in June 1964 to register Black Mississippi residents to vote and to establish Freedom Schools. The Andrew Goodman Memorial collection consists primarily of news clippings and other printed material related to the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. less

These interviews consist of six oral history interviews conducted by Theodore Kornweibel in 1970-1972, to provide firsthand accounts for his book No Crystal Stair: Black Life and the "Messenger," 1917-1928, published in 1975. The book examines the political, economic, and social alternatives available to Black people in the 1920s, including Garveyism, socialism, and trade union movements. Interviewees are: Arna Bontemps, James Ivy, Theophilus Lewis, Ernest Rice McKinney, A. Philip Randolph, and George S. Schuyler, all of whom either contributed articles to the Messenger or were on its board. less

This collection includes Witherspoon's published and unpublished poetry, including his best known works: An American Haiku Novel and On the Stair, both in his signature style of linked-haiku or renga. A travel journal kept in Africa, a critique of the Kenyan educational system, a play about the Black hijacker of a bus, an educational program report, various printed material, notebooks, and miscellaneous correspondence complete the collection. less

Father Divine (aka George Baker) was an African American religious leader and founder of the Peace Mission movement. The Father Divine collection consists primarily of material related to the broadcasting of Father Divine's sermons and messages over two radio stations. less

Robert Hamburger (1943-), professor of creative writing and literature with a focus in civil rights, is the author of numerous books that cover a variety of genres from oral history and personal journalism to travel and memoir. The Robert Hamburger transcripts and research materials consist of interview transcripts, interview outlines, introductory essays, critiques, and research material that Robert Hamburger collected and produced for his books Our Portion of Hell: Fayette County, Tennessee, an Oral History of the Struggle for Civil Rights (1973) and A Stranger in the House (1978), a book about the lives of domestic workers working for white families in New York City; and other works, including "The Whitehall Hotel: A Community of Outcasts, a Proposal for an Oral History Project", "Castaways: or Last Chance Hotel", and "A Journal of the Plague Year". less

Maxwell T. Cohen was an attorney who represented South African singer, Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) in the late 1950s, when she was married to musician Hugh Masekela. By 1966, Cohen no longer represented Makeba, but remained friendly and continued to correspond with the family. Makeba separated from Masekela and later married Stokely Carmichael, the former head of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The collection consists of copies of 35 letters and items written primarily by Maxwell Cohen to Miriam Makeba, Sibongile "Bongi" Makeba, her only daughter from a previous union, and her two former husbands, Stokely Carmichael (aka Kwame Ture) and musician Hugh Masekela. Subjects of the letters are business-oriented in nature, but there are a few personal letters Cohen penned to Makeba's daughter, "Bongi," urging her to stay in school. The majority of the letters refer to Makeba's business interests in Nassau, The Bahamas, and consist of exchanges between the lawyers and suppliers who were working with her to open a boutique. In response to Carmicheal's anti-Zionist rhetoric (reportedly in 1967, Carmichael publicly proclaimed that "the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist" when Israel was attacked by the armies of several Arab nations), Cohen wrote a three-page letter to Carmichael specifically addressing a clipping (not in the collection) featuring an anti-Jewish Carmichael quote on the involvement of Jewish people in the Civil Rights movement and other human rights struggles. In addition, Cohen wrote letters of a general nature to Masekela, whom he also managed at one point. This collection contains no letters written by Makeba, her daughter, or Carmichael or Masekela. less

The Church of St. Simon the Cyrenian held membership in the African Orthodox Church denomination. Under the leadership of Reverend Doctor William Russell Miller, its only pastor, the church was based in Brooklyn, New York from the 1940s through the 1970s. The records of the Church of St. Simon the Cyrenian span a thirty-year period (1940-1979) but contain significant gaps. There are two general ledgers (1947-1949, 1956-1978) documenting the finances of the church, and vestry records for the 1960s and 1970s, as well as marriage licenses (on index cards). Other records include church programs and announcements for fund raising events to benefit the church, letters, Miller's sermons, eulogies, and a few daily diaries noting Miller's appointments and other activities. less