Found 58 collections related to Authors, Black

The In the Life Archive (ITLA), originally known as the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive (BGLA), was created by Steven Fullwood in 1999, to aid in the documentation and preservation of cultural materials produced by and about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people of African descent. In 2004, the collection was donated to the Schombuurg Center for Research in Black Culture, and it was renamed around 2013. The name ITLA was inspired by In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, edited by Joe Beam (1986). The ITLA contains materials dating from the mid-1950s to the present, documenting the experiences of LGBTQ men and women of African descent primarily in the United States, with some files for London and several countries in Africa. The archive is divided into two main groups: (1) Individual collections, whch include collections on individuals, such as Donna Allegra and Kevin McGruder; organizations, such as Other Countries; and research collections and (2) Miscellaneous collections, which include one-to-three folder collections containing a variety of original and printed materials including manuscripts, typescripts, galleys, correspondence, letters, reviews, and clippings. This finding aid describes the Miscellaneous collections. The bulk dates are the 1990s, but there is information about underdocumented individuals, organizations, and subjects from the 1980s, when many organizations formed in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. These Miscellaneous collections cover productive periods for the Black LGBT movement, documenting the "Black gay and lesbian renaissance" for the 1980s, as well as the 1990s and 2000s. The collection also contains HIV/AIDS information designed to reach African American communities, during the late 1980s through the present, created primarily by white institutions and the state and federal government, as well Black AIDS service organizations instituted in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. less

An African American career soldier, Jesse J. Johnson authored eight books and several plays about the military service of black men and women. The Jesse J. Johnson military collection consists primarily of secondary sources and printed material, along with typescripts of his plays and one of his books. less

This collection consists of typescripts of novels, biographies, essays, and poems on historical, sociological, and educational issues, and conference papers. Some of the typescripts appear as final drafts, others as working drafts with author's annotations and corrections. Manuscripts included are "A Talk to Teachers: The Negro Child, His Self Image" by James Baldwin; "Slavery and Capitalism" by Eric Williams; "Life in a Haitian Valley" by Melville J. Herskovits; "American Dilemma" by Gunnar Myrdal; and poems by Waring Cuney, among others. Other authors represented are Arna Bontemps, Horace Mann Bond, Lloyd Brown, Helen Buckler, Henrietta Buckmaster, John H. Clark, Benjamin Davis, Ralph Ellison, Arthur Huff Fauset, and E. Franklin Frazier. Conference material includes Melville J. Herskovits and the Future of Africana Studies (Schomburg Center, May 1988); Marcus Garvey Centennial Conference (Jamaica, November 1987); and the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (Nigeria, 1977). less

Stanley Crouch (1945-2020) was a Black American music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, and biographer. Crouch's photographs date from 1928 to 2012 (bulk dates 1940s-2012) and contain prints, negatives, and slides that primarily depict his professional and personal life during the 1990s and 2000s. Also included are photographs of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker that Crouch used for his book, Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker. less

Akasha Gloria Hull (born 1944) is a writer, poet, and Black feminist scholar. The Akasha Hull papers, mostly dating from the 1970s to the 2000s, document Hull's writing projects, including poetry and scholarly works, her involvement in the Combahee River Collective, and her academic career as a professor of literature and women's studies, primarily at the University of Delaware and University of California, Santa Cruz. less

Harriet Pickens joined the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1944 as a member of the Women's Reserves in the U.S. Naval Reserve. She was one of two African American women to be sworn in as an officer, and she was commissioned as a lieutenant following her training, the first to receive this high rank. The Harriet Pickens papers primarily contain documentation regarding her military service as a lieutenant in the WAVES (1944-1946) and her public service work. less

Gertrude Hadley Jeannette was an actor, playwright, director, and producer. Additionally, she is believed to be the first woman to get a taxi license and drive a cab in New York City. Her papers consist of personal material, correspondence, printed matter, and drafts and manuscripts of her writing. less

Harry Belafonte is a Jamaican-American musician, actor, and activist best known for popularizing calypso music with international audiences, and his involvement in the American Civil Rights movement. His collection contains project files, correspondence, scrapbooks, press materials, scores, lyrics, and scripts that chronicle his career as a singer, songwriter, actor, public speaker, and advocate for political and humanitarian causes. Belafonte's papers reveal the business aspects of his performance projects, source material for his acting and singing career, and organizing efforts associated with the political causes he championed. 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

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a Black Martinican poet, politician, and social critic. As a student at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he was a key figure in the literary and political movement known as Négritude, along with Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal and Léon-Gontran Damas of French Guyana. While students, the three men also created the literary review L'Étudiant noir (The Black Student). Returning to Martinique in 1939, Césaire taught at Lycée Schoelcher where he tutored a young Frantz Fanon. Césaire was elected Mayor of Fort-de-France and Deputy to the French National Assembly in 1945; in 1958, he founded the Parti Progressiste Martiniquais (PPM). He continued his literary and critical work, founding the journals Tropiques and Présence Africaine (now a major publishing house). His literary output includes the book-length poem Cahier d'un retour au pays natal; a historical essay on Toussaint Louverture, "Discours sur le colonialisme", which was published in Présence Africaine in 1950; and the plays Une tempête (a response to the racist depictions in Shakespeare's The Tempest) and Une saison au Congo, about the death of Patrice Lumumba. Césaire served as President of the Regional Council of Martinique from 1983 to 1988. He retired from politics in 2001. He died in April 2008, and proclaimed as a national hero in Martinique in 2011. This collection, donated by Martinican social geographer François Rosaz, contains commemorative materials about Aimé Césaire, mostly from 2008-2009. Materials consist of memorial programs and eulogies, including one given by Serge Letchimy, a member of the National Assembly of France; conference and theater programs, including a 2007 conference highlighting Césaire's relationship with the French Communist Party and his break from it in 1956; articles on Césaire (including a copy of a special issue of Small Axe from October 2008, and three commemorative issues of Le Progressiste, the PPM's weekly magazine); four issues of the newspaper France-Antilles from the days immediately following Césaire's death; bibliographies; commemorative postcards and stamps; and posters. less

Cheryl Clarke is a Black lesbian poet, writer, critic, scholar, and activist. This collection is a testament to her life's work as a Black, lesbian, feminist activist and demonstrates her commitment to promoting Black lesbian visibility and voices through writing as activism. less

The Stormé DeLarverié papers document DeLarverié's long career as a singer, male impersonator, and gay rights activist from the 1980s-2008. The bulk of the collection contains personal and professional correspondence, biographical information, passport, promotional material, death certificate, and funeral arrangements. less

Jack Hunter O'Dell was an African American civil rights and political activist; he was known for his work with Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition, where he was the policy adviser to Reverend Jesse Jackson and director of international affairs. The Jack Hunter O'Dell papers consist mostly of professional papers related to his work with Operation PUSH, the National Rainbow Coalition, and various other civil rights organizations. less

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

Alan Bell is president of BLK Publishing Company, Inc., founded in 1988 to publish magazines targeted to the Black lesbian and gay community. At present, the firm concentrates on graphic design and custom publishing with a special focus on developing materials for non-profit organizations that target underserved communities. In 1977, he founded Gaysweek, New York City's first mainstream weekly lesbian and gay newspaper and the first owned by an African American. For 11 years, Bell was the film critic at the Los Angeles Sentinel. He has edited three books and appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Among his many honors, he is recipient of a Premier Print Award (known colloquially as a Benny), the most prestigious award in the printing trade. In March 2015, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution commending him for Exceptional Achievement and Dedication. Bell holds BA and MA degrees in sociology, and a BS degree in business. This collection consists of printed matter, such as flyers, press releases, programs, and mailers, some of which are in the form of emails, about international LGBTQ events, organizations, and conferences, all of which was presumably collected by Alan Bell. Organizations include Other Countries and Brother 2 Brother (an annual men's retreat in California), among others. Events include a conference on HIV prevention for Latinos in Philadelphia and Black Gay Cruise (from Los Angeles to Baja, Mexico), also among others. There are also general press releases, such as one about a study on woman to woman sexual violence. less

The Stanley Crouch papers mostly consist of materials related to his writing; these materials include various drafts, manuscripts, and final versions of his newspaper columns, articles, and books, both published and unpublished. There is also a vast amount of research material (including publications by other authors) and interview transcripts, mainly for his biography of Charlie Parker. There is a small amount of personal papers, which includes family correspondence and some biographical information. Additionally, the collection includes correspondence, both personal and professional, and other professional matter, such as address books, day planners, and material related to his participation on various boards and committees, including the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation (LAEF) and the PEN American Center (now, PEN America). Finally, the collection consists of printed matter, which includes publicity material for Crouch's publications and appearances, reviews of his work, and interviews. less

Clyde Murphy, a lawyer, pursued social justice throughout his career. Born on June 26, 1948, in Topeka, Kansas, Clyde moved to Miami, Florida, along with his father and stepmother, when he was four years old. He attended high school at North Dade Junior-Senior High School, where he excelled academically, wrote and took photographs for the school paper, and played the trumpet. He also attended the Yale University Summer High School for two summers, 1965-1966. Murphy graduated from Yale University in 1970, and Columbia University School of Law in 1975. Prior to law school, he worked as a community organizer and Assistant Director for Program Administration at Kings County Addictive Diseases Hospital in New York. After receiving his law degree and passing the New York State Bar in 1976, he worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) from 1975-1990; as assistant counsel, he focused on cases involving employment discrimination, police misconduct, and voting rights. One case of note was Westinghouse Electric Corp v. Vaughn, which he successfully argued in front of the United States Supreme Court. At LDF, Murphy also served as deputy director-counsel and director of the Voting Rights Project. In 1995, Murphy became the executive director of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (CLCCRUL). His areas of concern continued to be employment discrimination and voting rights, along with fair housing, predatory lending, and affirmative action. One of Murphy's achievements, Lewis v. City of Chicago, alleged that the 1995 firefighter entrance exam's cutoff score favored white applicants; Murphy and the CLCCRUL filed the lawsuit in 1998 and the Supreme Court ruled in the African American applicants' favor in 2010. Throughout the years, Murphy also lectured and taught at New York University (NYU) School of Law and Vassar College. Murphy's additional accomplishments include admission to the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eight and Eleventh Circuits, and the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districs of New York. Murphy died in 2010. The Clyde Murphy papers primarily consist of professional materials related to his positions at NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (CLCCRUL). There is a limited amount of personal material, such as high school and college documents and some correspondence. Additionally, there are some writing samples, including excerpts from journals and drafts of essays related to civil rights and Barack Obama. The series on Murphy's work at LDF contains case materials, which is composed of reading material (briefs from previous cases, academic papers, and articles), briefs, and correspondence. Also, this series consists of administrative material, such as staff memos and grant information; other writing by Murphy (speeches and articles); statements by LDF on various topics (for example, whether or not to represent Angela Davis); and publications by LDF. The series on Murphy's work at CLCCRUL is structured in a similar manner; there is administrative material, such as memos, address lists, and monthly calendars, followed by case materials (briefs, correspondence, and reading material), other writing by Murphy, and CLCCRUL publications. In addition, this series contains outreach material, or material on task forces and committees on which Murphy served, under the auspices of CLCCRUL, for other organizations. The series on teaching is the smallest; it consists of one folder, a reading packet for a course that Murphy taught at NYU. The last series, printed or reading material, contains writing by others, some published and some unpublished; the majority of this material is related to legal issues pursued by Murphy, such as police misconduct, civil rights, and voting rights. This material includes published articles, chapters from books, newspaper clippings, and books; it also includes unpublished dissertations, papers delivered at conferences, speeches, and manuscripts. less

Born in Toledo, Ohio, activist, entrepreneur, and writer Kevin McGruder attended Harvard University (BA in Economics) and Columbia University (M.B.A. in Real Estate Finance). In 2007, he began his doctoral studies in History at the Graduate Center of the City University New York. In 1990, McGruder opened Home to Harlem, one of the first souvenir shops in Harlem, and currently co-owns Harlemade, a souvenir shop also located in Harlem. He was a board member of Other Countries, a black gay writers collective, and the executive director of Gay Men of African Descent (1997-2001). McGruder's essay, "Colleagues", appears in Other Countries' second journal, Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of AIDS; his essay, "I Hate Basketball", appears in Fighting Words: Personal Essays by Black Gay Men, edited by Charles Michael Smith, and his essay, "To Be Heard in Print: Black Gay Writers in the 1980s", appears in Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora. The collection contains biographical and genealogical information for McGruder and his family; his writings; correspondence, business and financial records, promotional materials, and news clippings for Home to Harlem; minutes from board meetings, strategic plans, journals, membership information, newsletters, flyers, and news clippings related to McGruder's involvement with Other Countries and Gay Men of African Descent. less

Ron Simmons, an early Black LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning) rights activist in the 1970s and 1980s. The Ron Simmons papers contain manuscripts for several of his writings, correspondence, research material, and material related to his professional work. less

African-American composer, musician, and arranger, Hall Johnson is best known as a choral director and for his arrangements of spirituals. In 1925, Johnson formed the Hall Johnson Negro Choir, which performed spirituals in the traditional style. The Hall Johnson Choir, which he organized in 1928, performed on Broadway in Marc Connolly's play Green Pastures (1930), for which Johnson was music director. Johnson was known for his compositions as well as the articles he authored that discussed the history of spirituals and their performance practice. The Hall Johnson Collection contains a miscellaneous assortment of material including correspondence and news clippings regarding a workshop Johnson held in East St. Louis, Missouri, in 1969; and a letter to Katherine Dunham explaining his need to give more time to the inexperienced chorus. There is a music book with some holographic music; a poem he authored "Changelessness" (1956); and a few notes. This collection also includes biographical notes and personal recollections written in 2001, by Madeline Preston, a friend and member of his choir, along with a letter Johnson wrote to her in 1956. less

The Wallace Bass Boyd collection is comprised of forty-seven journals, biographical accounts and geographical descriptions of Black life in the South, as well as drafts of his writings from 1985-2007. The journals primarily capture Boyd's day-to-day experiences spanning across his undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate years. Four of the forty-seven journals are written to family members and aspiring artists. Notations about art and his artistic practice can also be found throughout the collection. less

This collection includes Witherspoon's published and unpublished poetry, including his best known works: An American Haiku Novel and On the Stair, both in his signature style of linked-haiku or renga. A travel journal kept in Africa, a critique of the Kenyan educational system, a play about the Black hijacker of a bus, an educational program report, various printed material, notebooks, and miscellaneous correspondence complete the collection. less

Successful in animation and film for four decades, Tee Collins was the first creative designer to produce the premiere animated spot for Sesame Street. Known primarily for his creation of "Wanda the Witch" (1969), a character on Sesame Street, Collins also received the Children's ACT award for his invention of the first animated Black princess, "The Songhai Princess." He developed his own studio in New York, working in both national and international television for which he created many award winning animated spots. Collins also taught animation at the University of Central Florida for 11 years. The Tee Collins collection is made up of biographical matter, including a resume, lists of awards and credits, University of Central Florida material and Collins's basketball memorabilia; tribute materials celebrating Collins's 40 years in animation and film, consisting of flyers, brochures, and programs (some photocopies) of events that took place at UCF, the Schomburg Center, and the Harlem Collective; correspondence, including a letter from Joan Ganz Cooney; and articles covering Collins's accomplishments in his career in animation. less

Cecil Anderson, also known as the "Duke of Iron," was an internationally known Calypso performer and composer. A native of Trinidad, Anderson moved with his family to New York in 1923. During his active years (1930s-1960s), he was influential in promoting the spread of this Afro-Caribbean music genre throughout the United States. Among his most popular songs are "Matilda", "Out De Fire", "Last Train to San Fernando", "Ugly Woman", "Big Bamboo", and "Don't Stop the Carnival.". The Cecil "Duke of Iron" Anderson collection contains newspaper clippings, a scrapbook, performance flyers and programs, invoices, booking requests, and copyright certificates. Some materials pertain to his daughter, Velma M. Anderson. less