{"value"=>"<p>Subseries contains information pertaining to Childress's first book, <span class=\"title\">Like One of the Family</span>; columns; <span class=\"title\">Black Scenes: Collection of Scenes from Plays Written by Black People About Black Experience</span>, monologues, articles and essays, reviews and other types of writings.</p> <p>Files for <span class=\"title\">Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life</span>, Childress's first published book of anthologized vignettes, contain rich information about the relationship between Childress and her publisher, Arthur Kahn of Independent Publishers, Inc. Several letters between the author's and the publisher reveal a contentious partnership. These letters are accompanied by an agreement detailing the author and publisher's responsibilities, a list of activities undertaken by Childress to promote the book, and letters (one in German) regarding the reprinting rights of the book to a German publisher and notes. In the 1986 file, there is a draft of the introduction for the reprint edition by literary scholar Trudier Harris, with annotations by Childress, along with reviews of the book.</p> <p>There are three files of manuscripts for \"Here's Mildred\", the column Childress wrote for the <span class=\"title\">Baltimore Afro-American</span>, and a file of drafts that appear to be edited copies of columns in a folder titled \"Overheard and Understood\". There is no evidence in the files that these columns were ever published. Childress also penned a column for <span class=\"title\">Freedom</span>, but no manuscripts are found in this collection.</p> <p>There are two files for <span class=\"title\">Black Scenes: Collection of Scenes from Plays Written by Black People About Black Experience</span> containing a draft of the book's introduction, correspondence, reviews, and a copy of <span class=\"title\">The Bird Cage</span>, by Floyd Barbour, which was excerpted in the book. There is one file containing an annotated sample for a monologue called \"Man at the Phone\".</p> <p>Of interest are three articles Childress wrote when she was with the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers Project, \"Brief History of the Minstrel Show and It's Form\", \"Early Days of New York...Negro Residents\", and \"Notes on History of Colored Baseball\". Additionally there are files for published articles that contain drafts, correspondence, reviews, notes, among them \"Knowing the Human Condition\", (<span class=\"title\">Black American Literature and Humanism</span>; \"Why I Write in New York\", (Writers Guild of America); \"Negro Woman in Literature\" (<span class=\"title\">Freedomways</span>; \"A Woman Playwright Speaks Her Mind\" (<span class=\"title\">Negro Life and History</span>); \"Those Were the Days, My Friend\", (<span class=\"title\">New York Times</span>); and an introduction to a reprint of Fannie Hurst's book <span class=\"title\">Lummox</span>.</p> <p><span class=\"title\">Ebony Magazine</span> commissioned Childress to write a story about \"Harlem on My Mind\", the exhibition of the same name featured at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Based on Childress's annotations on one of the drafts, <span class=\"title\">Ebony</span> never published the essay, and she was seeking to publish it in <span class=\"title\">Negro Digest</span>. The file includes drafts with annotations and notes.</p> <p>Another item of note is the program for the \"Negro History Festival, Paul Robeson\" that Childress wrote with Lorraine Hansberry for a black history celebration on February 12, 1952. Childress's eulogy for the son her friend and fellow actress, Hilda Haynes is also found here.</p> <p>There are files for several projects in the collection including a \"Proposal to set up a Dialogue Concerning the Production of an Afro-American Film in the USSR,\" which may relate to her trip to the Soviet Union in the 1970's. There is also a file for a \"Report on the Gold Coast\" (undated) that contains drafts, correspondence, research, and notes.</p> <p>There are two files for an introduction Childress wrote (\"Treasure in Space\") for the book, <span class=\"title\">A True Likeness: The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts, 1920-1936</span> edited by Thomas L. Johnson and Philip C. Dunn. The files contain a draft, correspondence, research and notes. Another file, <span class=\"title\">Pico vs. Board of Education, Island Trees</span> relates specifically to the censorship case related to <span class=\"title\">A Hero Ain't Nothing' But a Sandwich</span>. This file contains a copy of a brief and the ruling, as well as drafts, notes and research material relating to a non-fiction project Childress appears to have been interested in developing about Steven Pico's life. Also of note are clippings from two book banning cases concerning the novel in the Island Trees School District in Long Island, New York, and the Savannah-Chatham Public Schools in Savannah, Georgia.</p> <p>In the 50's, Childress wrote short stories for magazines in order to make ends meet, often under the nom de plume, \"Eddie Franklyn\". Many of the short stories are not dated with a few exceptions, and there is little evidence in the collection that any were published. Most of the files for the stories contain manuscripts and drafts with annotations, and two contain letters. Among the twenty-three stories found here are: \"All About Miss Harriet Tubman,\" \"A Black Christmas Story,\" \"Dunbar - Alice and Doctor,\" \"The Magi Went Seeking\", \"The Story of Ola\", and \"Street Corner Speaker\".</p> <p>Files containing Speeches appear to be only a fraction of the dozens of appearances Childress made over the last four decades of her life. Many of the speeches filed here were found separated from related materials and have been collected to provide a sense of the variety of her speeches. Found here are speeches made at libraries and library associations (\"Address to New York Librarians\", Donnell Library, New York Public Library; \"Banned Authors, Banned Books\", American Library Association; \"Praise and Simplicity\", Roosevelt Island Library); recounting her career as a playwright and actress (\"The Black Experience in Theatre\", ANTA, School of Printing; \"Notes on the Black Theatre\", SUNY at Purchase, NY; \"The Paul Robeson Award to Harry Belafonte\"), and at educational conferences (\"Education and the Black Child\", Black Educators.) There is file for a speech about Langston Hughes that includes his resume, undated, which may have been for a eulogy or a remembrance at a memorial service. There is also a file of drafts and fragments for unidentifiable speeches.</p>"}