Found 4 collections related to Race discrimination -- New York (State) -- New York

Philip Watson was an African-American attorney who practiced law in Harlem and later served as an assistant attorney general for the State of New York. Watson was a member of the Alpha Chapter of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and the Golden Fleece Lodge 7887 in Manhattan. The Philip Watson papers consists of letters (1929-1931), primarily from Elise Johnson prior to her marriage to Watson, and legal papers. Included is a completed questionnaire for Watson's admission to the New York State Bar in 1932 and several affidavits in support of the application. The questionnaire provides biographical information about Watson such as schools attended and his employment record. Of interest is a legal brief for a case Watson argued regarding the refusal of the owner of a bathhouse at Playland in Rye, New York to admit a Black person in 1935. The collection also contains an agreement settling a lawsuit between a local chapter and the national Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, with Watson as the attorney for one of the defendants, his membership certificate for the Alpha Chapter, and a handbook of the constitution and by-laws of the Golden Fleece Lodge. less

The Frederick W. Wells Papers consist of letters, telegrams and newsclippings documenting a cross burning incident by the Ku Klux Klan as part of an effort by white students to have Wells, an African American Columbia University School of Law student, removed from his on-campus dormitory. The collection dates from January through May of 1924 and consists primarily of 61 letters of support from organizations, friends and members of the public, both Black and white. The letters came from supporters primarily in the United States, although the West Indies is also represented. Letter writers include: William M. Ashby, Executive Secretary of the New Jersey Urban League; J. B. Matthews, President of the Wilberforce Club of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Rev. John W. Robinson of St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City; and Jedediah Tingle, philanthropist. A letter from the Dean of the Law School, Herbert E. Hawkes, reassured Wells's father, Charles W. Wells, that safety precautions were being taken to protect his son. less