Found 2 collections related to Civil rights workers, Black

Akua Weekes is an activist, Black Nationalist, freelance journalist, and writing professor at Touro College. Her activism dates to her undergraduate years at American University in Washington, D. C. Weekes participated in the student take-over of a building at Howard University in 1968; at American University, she organized residents of the Capital View Community, where she lived, to publish The People's Voice, a community newsletter. In 1977, while a graduate student at Howard University, Weekes was recruited by the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (AAPRP), a socialist political party founded in 1972 that strove for Pan-Africanism and the freedom and unification of Africa; according to its brochure, the AAPRP organized students on the campus to "organize the masses of African people scattered all over the world". Weekes became the lead organizer of the press for African Liberation Day, which was organized by the AAPRP. In 1982, she moved to New York City and worked with the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, the Afrikan Nationalist Pioneer Movement, Women for Justice, the Amadou Diallo Coalition, and the Grassroots Leadership Council of the Amadou Diallo Coalition. More recently, she has written for such publications as Emerge Magazine and New York Amsterdam News. Currently, she is a member of the Louis Reyes Rivera Writers Workshop and a writing professor at Touro College. The Akua Weekes collection reflects her involvement with various activist organizations. There is a very small personal file on Weekes; it consists of a few pieces of correspondence, a resume, notes and briefs for a case on which she served as a juror, and some memorabilia. The bulk of the material is concerned with the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (AAPRP). Files for this organization include committee memos and minutes; recruiting files; and program files for workshops and seminars on political education, Pan-Africanism, liberation, the land question, and Democratic capitalism. Additionally, there is a file for the Media Task Force, which Weekes managed. There are also files related to other organizations with which she worked, including The People's Voice, Afrikan Nationalist Federation, Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and Basadi Ba Azania, African Women's Alliance, Women for Justice, the Amadou Diallo Coalition, and the Grassroots Leadership Council of the Amadou Diallo Coalition. These files consist of newsletters and other printed matter (clippings and publications), correspondence and memos, flyers, bylaws and mission statements, and press releases. The final part of the collection, Subject files, contains printed matter on various organizations (such as the Empire of Nubia), individuals (such as Al Sharpton), and topics (such as South Africa and apartheid). Additionally, there is a file of event flyers and programs, mostly for plays and other performances in New York City. less

Bill Strickland is a scholar, activist, and professor emeritus of the Department of Afro-American Studies at University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst. A native of Boston, Strickland graduated from Boston Latin School and Harvard University. After serving in the Marine Corps, he became active in civil rights and Black liberation work, serving as Executive Director of the Northern Student Movement; working in Mississippi for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; and serving as the Northern Coordinator of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's Congressional Challenge. He was a founding member of Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American Unity in 1964, and in 1969, he also was a founding member of the Institute of the Black World in Atlanta. Strickland was a key member of the faculty in Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst, teaching history and politics, and serving as Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers. Strickland consulted on various documentaries including Eyes on the Prize (1987), about the civil rights movement; Malcolm X: Make It Plain (1994), for which he also wrote the companion book, also published in 1994; and W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices (1996). He retired in 2013. This collection consists of the research files of William Strickland on various topics. These topics include the documentary Eyes on the Prize, for which Strickland served as a consultant, and Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/Push Coalition (now the National Rainbow Coalition); Strickland worked on Jackson's presidential campaign in 1988. Other topics include the Black Panther Party, Black Radical Congress, Arna Bontemps, H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Benjamin Chavis and the NAACP, civil rights leaders and movements, Katherine Dunham, Maulana Karanga, racism, and Roots (television program). Most of the files include notes and some writing by Strickland, but the majority of the files consist of printed matter (clippings, articles, mailings, conference materials), correspondence, and writing by some of the previously mentioned individuals. Additionally, there is one folder of correspondence to and from Strickland, mostly unrelated to the research files. less