- unitid
-
{"value"=>"188301", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc Photo William Seraile Collection", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b23733869", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1919-2023", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1919/2023"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"William Seraile photographs"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1 box", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"0.25 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"William Seraile (born 1941) is a noted African American historian, pedagogue, writer, and community activist who was one of the earliest scholars to teach African American history within an academic department focused on Black studies. Seraile played a large role in the establishment of Herbert H. Lehman College's Black Studies department, and taught there for 36 years. The William Seraile photographs, dating from 1919 to 2023, document Seraile's life, family, and career through formal and informal portraits; images from his childhood and young adulthood; photographs of his wife and children; pictures of Seraile receiving awards from Lehman College and the City University of New York (CUNY), and with university colleagues; and photographs of Seraile's extended family."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Seraile, William,, 1941-", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>William Seraile (born 1941) is a noted African American historian, pedagogue, writer, and community activist who was one of the earliest scholars to teach African American history within an academic department focused on Black studies.</p> <p>Seraile was born in New Orleans, Louisiana as one of seven children, but his family moved to Washington state and he grew up primarily in and around Seattle. He graduated from Garfield High School in Seattle (1959), and received a Bachelor of Arts in social science from Central Washington University (1963).</p> <p>Following his graduation, Seraile volunteered as a teacher with the Peace Corps in northern Ethiopia from 1963 to 1965 (his twin brother Wilfred (\"Dick,\" 1941-1984) served with the Peace Corps in Liberia from 1964 to 1966). Seraile's experience in Ethiopia inspired him to want to learn more about African and African American history. After his return to the United States, he moved to New York City and earned a Master of Arts in history from Columbia University Teachers College (1967). Seraile then volunteered to teach English with International Voluntary Services in Cần Thơ, South Vietnam (1967-1968), an assignment cut short by the Tet offensive. Seraile met and befriended the writer John Balaban during his Vietnam service.</p> <p>Returning to New York, Seraile taught history and worked for the textbook publisher Silver Burdett; he was later a consultant for textbooks and other educational products regarding Black history, advising or writing for the American Book Company, Litton Educational Publishing, and the Anti-Defamation League.</p> <p>In 1971, Seraile quit his job at Silver Burdett to accept a lecturer position on the faculty of Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY), working in what would become the Black Studies department (now Africana Studies). The following year, he entered the CUNY Graduate Center, earning his Ph.D in American history in 1977. His dissertation was on the New York State Black regiments that fought in the Civil War, which later became the topic of his last book.</p> <p>Seraile played a large part in establishing the Black Studies curriculum at Lehman, creating and teaching several courses, such as History of African Americans, the Harlem Renaissance, the 1960s, Blacks in Politics, the Civil Rights Movement, and Black Nationalism. In the early-1990s, following the discovery of the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, he headed Lehman's African Burial Ground Steering Committee, as well as its Genesis Project, which supported research, education, and community outreach related to the burial ground. Seraile was a popular instructor at Lehman, and was the first Black faculty member to receive the college's Teacher of the Year award in 1991. He was eventually promoted to full professor and retired to the rank of Professor Emeritus in 2007.</p> <p>Seraile's published books include <span class=\"title\">Voice of Dissent: Theophilus Gould Steward and Black America</span> (1991); <span class=\"title\">Fire In His Heart: Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner and the A.M.E. Church</span> (1999); <span class=\"title\">Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce</span> (2003); <span class=\"title\">Angels of Mercy: White Women and the History of New York's Colored Orphan Asylum</span> (2011); and <span class=\"title\">New York's Black Regiments During the Civil War</span> (2019). He also authored many articles for both academic journals and lay publications on African American people, issues, and historical topics, as well as book reviews. These articles appeared in venues such as <span class=\"title\">Black World</span>, <span class=\"title\">Essence</span>, <span class=\"title\">Encore</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Journal of American History</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pennsylvania History</span>, <span class=\"title\">Big Red News</span>, the <span class=\"title\">New York Amsterdam News</span>, and the <span class=\"title\">New York Historical Society Quarterly</span>.</p> <p>In addition to his career at Lehman, Seraile advised the Schomburg Center on acquisitions and served on the board of the Schomburg Corporation as historian and archivist. He was also a consultant to the New York public schools and to various community groups in New York City. His long-standing concern was the lack of curricula in the school system regarding African American history. Seraile lectured at public events and libraries, often for the Manhattan branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). (Seraile served as the vice-president of the Manhattan branch of ASALH and president of the Area Council of the New Jersey-New York branches.) Other groups with whom he was active include the Association of Black Educators of New York, the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to Black People (CEMOTAP), and the progressive New Alliance party. Seraile served on the party's Mid-Atlantic Steering Committee and ran on the New Alliance ticket against Congressman Charlie Rangel in the 1986 election. He appeared frequently as a guest on WLIB radio in New York in the 1980s, and hosted television programs on African American history and culture for New York City local cable outlets.</p> <p>In addition to Lehman's Teacher of the Year honor, Seraile's many awards include the ASALH Award for \"Unsung Historian\" (1983), the Marcus Garvey Memorial Foundation-Carter G. Woodson-William Leo Hansberry Award for contributions in history (1989), Central Washington University's Outstanding Alumni award (2009), the ASALH Carter G. Woodson Scholars Medallion (2017), and the Graduate Center Service to City University of New York Alumni Achievement Award (2017).</p> <p>Seraile was married to Janette Grey Seraile (1945-2011), an attorney, from 1970 until her death from cancer. He lives in Harlem, New York.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The William Seraile photographs, dating from 1919 to 2023, document Seraile's life, family, and career through formal and informal portraits; images from his childhood and young adulthood; photographs of his wife and children; pictures of Seraile receiving awards from Lehman College and the City University of New York (CUNY), and with colleagues; and photographs of Seraile's extended family.</p> <p>The portraits date from Seraile's high school and college years, with the rest dating mostly from his career at Lehman College. The shots of his childhood include Seraile's twin brother Wilfred (Dick), who died in 1984. There is one slide of Seraile in Vietnam with a colleague, taken on the morning of January 30, 1968, hours before the North Vietnamese Tet offensive began. The CUNY/Lehman College folder holds images of Seraile receiving the Lehman teacher of the year award in 1991, and the CUNY alumni award in 2017. One folder of photographs of Seraile with colleagues includes images of him with the automotive historian David L. Lewis.</p> <p>The family photographs document Seraile's life with his wife, Janette Grey Seraile, their children, and grandchildren. Other family members with documentation include Seraile's parents, Octave and Marguerite Seraile; and his grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is arranged alphabetically.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by William Seraile in <span class=\"date\">2020</span> and <span class=\"date\">2025</span>.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>See the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, William Seraile papers, Sc MG 993. See the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division for audio and moving image recordings. See the Art and Artifacts Division for buttons.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Matthew Snyder</span> in <span class=\"date\">2025</span>.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1919
- keydate
-
1919
- date_end
-
2023
- date_inclusive_start
-
1919
- date_inclusive_end
-
2023
- extent_statement
-
0.25 linear feet (1 box)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"William Seraile photographs, Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library"}