Found 57 collections related to Black author

The Frederick O'Neal Papers document the theatrical, labor, and civic activities of this actor and labor leader, mostly from the 1940s through the 1990s. The collection consists primarily of personal papers, correspondence, speeches and addresses, writing, and information about the theatrical productions in which he appeared. There are also research materials about the 19th century African-American actor, Ira Aldridge, and files pertaining to the many organizations with which O'Neal was associated. less

Personal papers, family and general correspondence, writings, field notes and research materials, working papers, office files and printed matter documenting Ralph Bunche's personal life and professional career, from his enrollment at the University of California to his retirement in 1971. less

William Haywood Burns was a civil rights activist, lawyer, educator and dean of the City University of New York Law School at Queens College. He is the author of The Voices of Negro Protest in America, published in 1963. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, Burns served as legal counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., from 1967-1969. He was one of the founding members and became the first director (1970-1973) of the National Council of Black Lawyers (NCBL), an organization that helped to acquit Angela Davis of murder and kidnapping charges that also represented other black political activists, including Black Panther members and Vietnam War resisters. Highly recognized for his work with the Attica prison uprising in 1971, Burns spent much of his career working tirelessly to recruit more people of color into the legal field, and was committed to educating lawyers about the complexities of representing underserved communities for the public good. Also active in the anti-apartheid for a quarter of a decade, Burns was a member of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. During one of his trips to South Africa, he was killed by a speeding lorry. The Haywood Burns Papers is organized into seven series: Personal, Correspondence, Legal, Writings, City University of New York (CUNY), Subject Files and Organizations. The majority of the Papers represent Burns' legal work and the various organizations with which he was connected including the National Council of Black Lawyers, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Community Service Society of New York, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, National Lawyers Guild, ACLU's National Prison Project, New World Foundation, Twenty-First Century Foundation, and the Vera Institute of Justice. less

The Canada Lee Papers document two of the careers of this multi-talented man: his profession as an actor and his career as a boxer. The papers consist principally of personal and professional correspondence; speeches; and contracts, correspondence and other material generated during the production of a play or movie in which he performed. A significant part of the collection is newsclippings and other material housed in a series of scrapbooks. Also included are financial records, and a few artifacts. less

Claude McKay, born in Jamaica, is known as one of the major artists of the Harlem Renaissance, and authored several published and unpublished poems and novels. The Claude McKay collection (additions) consists of correspondence, manuscripts, a galley, and related printed material. less

This collection consists of ten letters from George Padmore (1903 - 1959) to his friend and confidant Cryil Ollivierre, MD, a fellow Trinidadian. The letters are informal and warm, summarizing some of the major events taking place in Padmore's life at that time. His views of the world and people are also expressed in his letters. The collection includes a booklet, The Voice of Coloured Labour: The Speeches and Reports of Colonial Delegates to the World Trade Union Conference, 1945. less

Rietta Hines Herbert (1940-1969) (also Rietta May Herbert) was an African American social worker in New York City from 1935-1965. She spent most of her career as a social investigator and supervisor of child welfare in the Harlem offices of the Department of Welfare. less

Robert H. Beecher was a Panamanian-born educator who worked as a high school teacher, administrator, and community liason in the Bronx, then as an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Education Foundations at Hunter College. The Robert H. Beecher papers contain personal papers, correspondence, writings and research materials relating to education in the Panama Canal Zone and the education of minorities in the United States. less

Ted Poston was the first full-time African-American journalist for the New York Post. The Ted Poston Scrapbook contains newspaper articles by Poston for four series: "Dixie's Fight for Freedom" (1959) called the Little Scottsboro Case concerning three African-American youth convicted of raping a white woman in Tavares, Florida in 1949, "Nine Kids Who Dared: Human Drama in Little Rock" (1957), "Inside the Policy Racket" focusing on the Harlem numbers racket (1960), and "Prejudice and Progress in New York," n.d., all published by the New York Post. less

Personal and professional papers, writings, office files and printed matter documenting Preston Wilcox's dual career as an educator and community organizer. Included are biographical and autobiographical narratives; some correspondence and organization files; an extensive writings series; proposals, minutes, reports and other documents dating from 1958 to 1965 pertaining to the East Harlem Project, the East Harlem Summer Festival, and the Massive Economic Neighborhood Development (MEND); confidential files from the 1964 Princeton Summer Studies Program, the pilot project for the pre-college Upward Bound program; compilations of material on public schools, decentralization and community control; and Afram's surviving records. Some of the main themes explored in the writings are: decentralization and parental decision-making, community organization and economic development, Black Power versus integration, social policy and white racism, empowering the poor, and black studies and black schools. The Afram files comprise the following subseries: Administrative, Publications, Parent Participation in Follow Through, Malcolm X Lovers Network and Vertical Files. The latter two categories are compilations of articles and other printed matter, with editorial notes by Wilcox, on Malcolm X, and on selected topics and personalities, including education, community control, reparations, Harlem, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr., Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and Leonard Jeffries. less

Sammy Price was a recording artist, house pianist, recording supervisor, and band leader at Decca Records in New York. Additionally, he was the Executive Director of Neighborhood Board no. 2. The Sammy Price Papers, 1929-1992, consist of materials pertaining to his musical and political career. less

The Alice Childress papers document Alice Childress's career as a writer and actress, and her activities in the theatre for five decades in New York City. The Personal Papers series includes correspondence, an oral history conducted by Ann Shockley, Childress's FBI file, diaries, calendars, interviews, educational materials, family letters, files for her two husbands, and biographical information about Childress. Significant correspondents include writers Kay Bourne, Harold (Hal) Courlander and Susan Koppleman. less

The J. Alfred Smith, Sr. Papers primarily document Smith's roles as author, pastor of the Allen Baptist Temple Church (ATBC) and his activities with the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc (PNBC) as well as other church organizations. Over half of the papers document Smith's career during the 1970s and '80s as pastor of ATBC and president of the PNBC. Smith's papers include very little documentation on his career and professional activities during the 1950s and '60s, his vice presidency and presidency of the Progressive State Baptist Convention of California and Nevada headquartered in Los Angeles, or his first and second vice presidencies of the PNBC. less

Ted Poston was the first full-time African-American reporter for the New York Post, where he worked from 1936 covering many major black-oriented news stories, until his retirement in 1972. The Ted Poston Research Collection consists of biographical information about Poston and a transcript of an interview that Professor Luther P. Jackson did with Ted Poston on "interracial reporting" in October 1968. Most of the collection consists of typescripts of articles and columns written by Poston (1927-1971) collected and prepared by the donor, Kathleen Hauke. less

Alphonso H. Johnson, a Harlem resident, was a sleeping car porter with the Pullman Company and a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Alphonso H. Johnson Papers contain personal letters primarily from female friends who lived in Montreal and along the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., and correspondence relating to his employment with the Pullman Company. There is also some documentation for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. less

Uriah Gittens was the Executive Secretary of the New York Local of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) during the 1920s. He appears to have assumed this position some time prior to the imprisonment of Marcus Garvey, founder and president of UNIA, in 1925. A collection of 24 letters (1925-1929) primarily written by Uriah Gittens, the Executive Secretary, New York Local of the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The Gittens' letters detail the factionalism and infighting that plagued the UNIA at all levels and contributed significantly to the demise of the New York Local, as well as the creation of the Garvey Club. The letters are addressed to Marcus Garvey during his imprisonment in the Federal Prison in Atlanta, Georgia and later in Jamaica, West Indies following his deportation. Correspondents include George A. Weston, Vice-President of the New York Local-UNIA and William Sherrill, Acting President General, UNIA-Parent Body, relating to Weston's attempt to remove Gittens from the position of executive secretary of the New York Local. less

Clergyman, author and educator. Steward became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1861 and served congregations in Macon, Georgia, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, Washington, D. C., and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was also the chaplain for the 25th Infantry where he served in the Philippine Islands and Cuba. In 1907 he joined the faculty of Wilberforce University, with which he was associated until his death, serving as vice-president, chaplain and professor of history, French and logic. Correspondence, writings, deeds, documents related to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and journals. The journals constitute the largest section of the papers and cover his early years in the ministry in Georgia (1868-71), Haiti (1873), where he established a church in Port-au-Prince, and Philadelphia (1880s); his chaplaincy in Ft. Missoula and the Philippine Islands (1890s); and his years at Wilberforce University (1907-24). The journals contain a variety of items and are not arranged chronologically: drafts of sermons, essays, speeches; accounting notes; lecture notes and course notes. Two journals record marriages, baptisms and funerals performed by him in the Philippines. The correspondence includes letters to Steward from his children, Frank, Charles, Theophilus Bolden, Gustavus, his brother William and a letter from John W. Cromwell. less

Emmett "Babe" Wallace is a singer, composer, actor and writer. He has performed in cabarets, musical revues, films and the theater. As a composer and writer, he has produced a voluminous body of musical compositions, poetry essays and journals. Music, songs, poetry, prose, daybooks, scripts, personal papers, printed material, and other papers, relating to Wallace's career in cabarets, musical revues, films, and theater in the United States, Canada, France, and Israel. Themes in his creative work include personal life, civil rights, religion, and politics. less

The T. Thomas Fortune Scrapbook consists primarily of clippings of Fortune's articles from the "New York Age," 1890-1898, in which he discussed events and issues affecting African Americans nationwide as well as overseas. There are also articles from other newspapers such as the "Evening Telegram, the "New York Sun," the "Texas Morning News, the "Galveston Daily" and the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle," some of which he authored, and articles written about him by fellow journalists, 1889-1904. less

Curtis Powell, African-American scientist and Black Panther Party member, was born in Orange, New Jersey in 1935, and died in Queens, New York in 2002. After serving in the military, he studied Chemistry, first at Seton Hall University, then abroad before receiving his PhD from the University of Stockholm in 1968. Upon his return to New York, Powell joined the Black Panther Party (BPP). A year later, despite limited evidence, Powell and twenty other BPP members (eventually known as the "Panthers 21") were jailed for over two years before being acquitted. Following his release, Powell moved to Africa and developed a vaccine for Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). He returned to the United States in 1994 to try to bring his vaccine into production. The Curtis Powell Papers contain letters, research data, scientific reports (most in several drafts), published articles, presentations, and patent documentation for his vaccine, as well as copies of Black Panther Party documents and publications, including organization and planning documents for the BPP's 25th Anniversary Celebration. less

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was one of the most renowned and celebrated voices in American literature. The Maya Angelou papers consist of original manuscripts, computer generated typescripts, galleys, and proofs of published work as well as manuscripts for unpublished work and dozens of poems. Additionally, there is personal and professional correspondence, teaching files, printed matter, and materials from public and academic appearances and engagements. less

Born in Topeka, Kansas in 1898, Aaron Douglas became the most celebrated artist-illustrator to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance. He attended the University of Nebraska (F.B.A.), Columbia University Teachers College (M.A.) and l'Academie Scandinave in Paris. Douglas' career spanned sixty years of painting, drawing and illustrating. He created numerous murals, usually of allegorical scenes on the historical life or cultural background of African Americans. In 1937 Douglas became a professor of art and chairman of the Art Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained until 1966, when he retired as professor emeritus. Fisk University bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts upon him in 1973. Douglas died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1979. The Aaron Douglas papers consist of personal correspondence, letters of introduction, invitations, programs, and printed material. Of particular interest are the eighty-three undated letters, which make up the bulk of the collection, that Douglas wrote to his future wife, Alta Sawyer. Most of the letters were written during an approximate two-year period while she was still married to her first husband and before she and Douglas were married in 1926. Douglas wrote Sawyer endearing letters that were also philosophical in tone and discussed his artwork, aspirations, and the social scene in Harlem. Included are two letters to Douglas from writer Arna Bontemps and an open letter from Douglas on the letterhead of the short-lived magazine "Fire!!.". less

Lyonel C. Florant, an African American economist, was employed by the Carnegie Corporation's "Study of the Negro in America" project. Florant authored several documents for the project, and he, along with others, completed the report, "Negro Population Movements, 1860 to 1940: In Relation to Social and Economic Factors". The Lyonel C. Florant papers consist of reports and some research files Florant prepared and gathered primarily regarding African American migration and population studies across the country, mostly for the Negro in America study. less

Jean Blackwell Hutson (1914-1998) was a librarian who served as curator of the Schomburg Collection from 1948 to 1972, then chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 1972 to 1980. The Jean Blackwell Hutson papers include materials relating to Hutson's personal life and family, library career at the Schomburg Center and the University of Ghana, and teaching, writing, and other activities. less

Zora Neale Hurston (1901?-1960) author of several novels, short stories, poetry and an autobiography, was a trained anthropologist who also wrote ethnographic studies. The Zora Neale Hurston collection consists of nine poems, a short story entitled "The Conversion of Sam," and correspondence with William Clifford and Lawrence Jordan. All material is photocopied. 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