Found 13 collections related to African American athletes

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

Writings and research files, along with personal papers, and corrrespondence documenting Davis' multifaceted career, 1923-1972. Includes material on the AMERICAN NEGRO REFERENCE BOOK, 1966, edited by Davis; papers relating to Frederick Douglass, including letters to Douglass from his sons, Lewis and Frederick; historical novel about a frontier family in Louisville, Kentucky; compilation of biographies of black athletes called "Jump High;" short stories and poetry; and manuscript about Liberia entitled "Bitter Canaan," by Charles S. Johnson. Correspondents include Mary M. Bethune, Ralph J. Bunche, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. less

Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson (1878-1946) was the first African-American boxer to win the heavyweight title. A controversial figure, Johnson was famous for the furor that surrounded his heavyweight championship, his flamboyant lifestyle, and his association with white women. His victory against retired boxer Jim Jefferies, who was referred to in the press as "the great white hope", triggered riots in many cities throughout the United States. Johnson lost his title in 1915 against white boxer Jess Willard, and continued to box until 1938, when he fought his last professional fight. The Jack Johnson Scrapbooks include numerous newspaper clippings and programs of his fights and the 1967 play, Great White Hope, which was based on his life. There is additional printed material with images of Johnson boxing with a variety of opponents such as Joe Jeannette, Jess Willard, Jim Jeffries, Sam Langford, Tommy Burns, and Sam McVey. The clippings cover all aspects of Johnson's life in and out of the ring, including his run for public office in Chicago. Other articles document his trial and conviction in 1913 for violating the Mann Act. Promotional material and reviews of Johnson's autobiography, Jack Johnson in the Ring and Out (1927), are included. less

John "Snookie" Rendall Walker was a Harlem business entrepreneur and organizer/manager of several Harlem-based youth and professional athletic teams. He lived his entire life in Harlem (1919-1985), opening the Sugar Bowl Restaurant on West 137th Street and Seventh Avenue in 1947, which he co-owned with his wife, Dolores. In 1950, he organized Snookie's Sugar Bowl Five basketball team, which featured semi-professional and professional players and had its glory years from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. In 1951, Walker helped to reorganize the New York Renaissance, or Rens, the well-known professional basketball team, and was the team's manager-coach through the mid-1950s. In 1957, he organized the boys' Biddy Basketball League of Metropolitan New York and became its first commissioner. Walker's "Biddy" teams went on to win national and international basketball tournaments from the mid to late 1960s. He also formed youth leagues in softball and baseball for pre-teens throughout the 1950s to the 1970s, and an all-women's basketball team, the Harlem Globe Travellettes, in the early 1950s. The John "Snookie" Walker scrapbook consists primarily of printed material relating to the activities of several of the athletic clubs Walker organized and managed from the early 1950s to the 1970s. Included are a history of the Renaissance Basketball Team and news clippings about the team under his management, as well as Snookie's Sugar Bowl Five, the Biddy Basketball League, and the Harlem Globe Travellettes. The articles discuss games and players. There are also programs for tournaments in which these teams competed in New York City and out of state, 1950-1974. The collection includes a file of letters written by executives in various athletic organizations as well as from Jackie Robinson (1961) during his tenure as vice president of personnel with Chock Full o'Nuts. Information about "Snookie" himself is foundd in news clippings in addition to letters pertaining to a salute honoring him in 1985, recognizing his many years contributing to Harlem life. less

George Rich Metcalf (born Feb. 5, 1914 in Auburn) was a white American N.Y. State Senator; president of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing; an activist; businessman; journalist; author; and philanthropist. In 1948, he became chairman of the Auburn Housing Authority before being elected to the New York State Senate in 1950. He authored many bills regarding fair housing, civil rights, and public health. In 1965, he left the Senate to write about racial injustice. He authored four books, including two books on Black history. During the 1970s, he taught Black history at Auburn Community College. He died on May 30, 2002. The George R. Metcalf research files are comprised of research material for Metcalf's two books, Black Profiles (13 biographies of prominent African Americans living and deceased), and Up from Within: Today's Black Leaders (a biographical sequence of emerging Black personalities and their contributions to the "Black revolution" in America). Material consists of clippings, correspondence, typescripts, transcribed interviews, notes, and miscellaneous printed material. The material covers notable figures including Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Roy Wilkins, Shirley Chisolm, W.E.B. Du Bois, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Medgar Evers, Jackie Robinson, Eldridge Cleaver, Whitney Young, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Edward Brooke, Julian Bond, James H. Meredith, and Andrew Brimmer, among others. less

William "Pop" Gates was a professional basketball player. He played for several professional teams, ending his career with a five year (1950-1955) tour of duty with the Harlem Globetrotters, as both a player and a coach. This collection consists of a scrapbook on Gates. less

Born Anna Jackson in 1913, Anna Jackson Smith attended East Rutherford High School in New Jersey where she distinguished herself on the "Wonder-Girls" Basketball Team of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Anna Jackson Smith papers focus on Smith's athletic achievements at East Rutherford High School. less

This scrapbook consists of clippings, dating ca. 1918-1940, which denote Huiswoud's career as a referee as well as reflect his management of the New York Blue Belts. The clippings are from various newspapers, such as the Amsterdam News, the Tittler Tattler, and the Liberator. The scrapbook also contains general sports articles and his sports column. less

Louis R. Sharp, African-American singer and actor graduated from the University of Kansas, where he sang with the University quartet. Moving to California in 1926, he studied voice with Theodore Ricardo, and settled in Harlem in the 1930s. A tenor, Sharp performed in concerts and recitals, singing in six languages. In 1931 Hall Johnson hired Sharp as a choral member of The Green Pastures in which he also played Cain. He had a major role as Toussaint L'Ouverture in the 1938 Federal Theatre Project's production of Haiti opposite Canada Lee's Christophe. Sharp was also in the original Broadway cast of such productions as Conjur Man Dies, Mamba's Daughters, Cabin in the Sky, South Pacific, St. Louis Woman, Finian's Rainbow, and Set My People Free. The Louis Sharp scrapbooks are comprised of two volumes. The first (1926-1946) contains news clippings and programs regarding Sharp's career, initially as a tenor performing in concerts, later as a singer and actor in Finian's Rainbow and in Broadway's St. Louis Woman, and Haiti, among other productions. There are several congratulatory letters and telegrams, including from Cab Calloway. The second scrapbook (1942-1947) consists of news clippings about African-American sports figures such as boxer Joe Louis and baseball player Jackie Robinson. less

Grover C. "Buster" Miller was a sports reporter who worked for The New York Age and whose columns included "Sports Parade" and "Sports of the Age." In 1938, he was credited as a guest columnist and from 1939 onwards as the sports editor. Buster Miller Scrapbooks (5 volumes) contain mostly clippings about blacks in sports, particularly Negro National League (baseball), boxing, tennis, collegiate athletics and football, 1938-1942. Also included are ticket stubs, correspondence with college athletic departments regarding black student athletes, writings including several write-ups on Black jockeys and a compilation of important American racing stakes won by Black jockeys, and printed matter. less

Morris Levitt served as a consultant for the Negro History Associates, founded by Middleton "Spike" Harris in 1963, whose purpose was to educate the public and school children about the role of African Americans in American history. Levitt was a co-author with Harris of The Black Book (1974), a survey of African-American history from the time of slavery through the 1940s, emphasizing contributions in many fields of endeavor. He also co-authored three articles about historic and sports figures. The Morris Levitt Research Collection consists principally of handwritten notes and photocopies of documents and articles Levitt compiled concerning African-American history, particularly the Revolutionary War period and sports. Nearly all of the notes have no attribution, i.e. no sources are given, and there are frequently no citations for photocopies of news clippings and images, other articles, and pages from books. In addition to the published articles Levitt co-authored, the collection contains typescripts (1970) concerning Fleet Walker (1856-1926), the first black major league baseball player; notes about Weeksville in Brooklyn, New York; and Levitt's research letters and photocopies of the writings of the Pennsylvania poet and painter, Edwin Garnet Riley. less

Harry Wills was a professional boxer and leading heavyweight contender in the 1920s. The Harry Wills collection consists of passports, correspondence, clippings, a program of his fight with Luis Firpo in 1924, a poster, and two volumes of the Everlast Boxing Record, 1922 and 1925, listing Wills's major matches. less