{"value"=>"<p>This series documents the various strategies, organizational and personal, that Collymore employed in the civil rights struggle. It is arranged into seven subseries: Correspondence; NAACP; United Colored Republican Clubs; Urban League; White Plains Community Church; YMCA; and other organizations.</p> <p>Apart from demonstrating the breadth of Collymore's social awareness, the range of his activism, and the high esteem in which he was held, evidenced through the number of invitations to give talks, or notes of appreciation for talks given, the community involvement and mentorship correspondence also provide a sense of Collymore's commitment to the advancement of upcoming generations. For Collymore the personal was political and his activism interjected into the personal lives of many within Westchester County's black community, tenaciously encouraging various individuals to greater educational and professional heights. Significant facets of this aspect of his activism represented in this sub-series are his efforts to integrate the White Plains police force and his mentorship of several students, including DuDonna Tate who studied at Bennett College.</p> <p>The NAACP sub-series primarily covers Collymore's activities while President of the White Plains NAACP, which he founded. When he became Chairman of the United Colored Republican Clubs, Collymore resigned the NAACP position as he found \"…it was too much to do that and also serve as Chairman of the political organization\" (letter to Mrs. Grace Johnson, April 25, 1938; filed in \"Personal Correspondence\").</p> <p>Reflecting both the organization's and Collymore's concern for the dignity and equality of blacks, this sub-series includes: a February 1937 letter regarding the use of the word \"nigger\" on a local radio station; instructions to newspapers not to mention color or race when describing persons suspected of criminal activity, or even generally, \"unless the fact of color or race is essential to proper presentation\"; and responses to complaints of discrimination at department stores, in the hiring practices of local hospitals, and in attempts to purchase homes in all-white neighborhoods.</p> <p>Overall, the rich documentation of correspondence, records of anti-lynching activities, memoranda, and printed matter in this series offer insights into the local civil rights battles that helped win larger national wars.</p> <p>Rallying behind candidates (blacks or whites perceived sympathetic to African-American concerns), voter education, and assisting qualified black workers with finding employment were key efforts documented in the United Colored Republican Clubs, which also includes materials from other Republican groups such as the Westchester Negro Republican County Committee and the Westchester County Negro Republican Women's League. This sub-series is generally useful for a mapping out of the African-American political landscape in the early twentieth century, as these organizations operated during a time of shifting political loyalties within the African-American community.</p> <p>In addition to correspondence and meeting minutes, the Urban League folder contains research on housing for blacks in Westchester County; an article by Collymore, \"White Plains Forty Years Later\" which ruminates on the condition of blacks in that community since his arrival there in 1926; and some documents relating to Max Meyer, who founded the Urban League of White Plains in 1918.</p> <p>The White Plains Community Church sub-series pertains mostly to his activity as an officer in that congregation; however, there is also correspondence with the American Unitarian Association, with which the WPCC was associated, particularly relating to an intergroup relations commission chaired by Alfred McClung Lee. Also documented is a discussion, some years after his death, about incorporating Collymore's experiences into the church's Sunday school curriculum.</p> <p>Together, the correspondence, notes (such as a 1929 list of \"some fatherless boys\"), clippings, and a few reports on the conditions of local blacks contained in the YMCA sub-series, and the correspondence, reports, and printed matter in the other organizations sub-series further illuminate the plight of Westchester County's black community in the early decades of the twentieth century. Represented in the other organizations sub-series are the Welfare League for Colored People, Westchester Citizens' Committee on the Family Court, White Plains Committee for a Housing Authority, and the Mayor's Committee on Minority Housing, among others. Other views of African-American life are given by a few materials from out-of-state organizations such as the Baltimore Urban League and the Street Manual Training School in Alabama.</p>"}