Scope and arrangement
The collection consists of one audio recording of Collymore addressing a youth group at the White Plains Community Church.
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- Creator
- Collymore, Errold, 1892-1972
- Call number
- Sc MIRS Collymore 2013-36
- Physical description
- 1 audio_recording
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- Errold D. Collymore audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
- Sponsor
- An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
- Access to materials
- Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.
Errold D. Collymore (1892-1972) was a dentist and civil rights activist from Barbados. The collection consists of one audio recording of Collymore addressing a youth group at the American Unitarian Association's White Plains Community Church.
Biographical/historical information
Errold D. Collymore (1892-1972) was a dentist and civil rights activist from Barbados. He immigrated to the United States in 1912 and graduated from Howard University's dental school in 1923. Collymore moved to New York's Westchester County in 1926, where he became a lifelong civil rights activist.
Collymore and his family integrated the American Unitarian Association's White Plains Community Church when they joined its congregation in 1927. In 1935, he organized a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served as its president for several terms. He helped organize the United Colored Republican Clubs, which worked to get Black people into public office and civil service. He also worked with the YMCA and served on several committees concerned with housing for Westchester County's Black residents. Collymore worked on the desegregation of White Plains's police force, movie theaters, public swimming pools, and schools. He campaigned for equal pay for Black trash collectors and the hiring of the first Black nurses at what is now Westchester Medical Center.
Collymore retired from dentistry in 1971 following a heart attack. In 1972, he died of stomach cancer at seventy-nine years old.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift of James Collymore, 2013.
Processing information
Collection inventoried by Stacey Doyle Ference. Collection processed and described by Ornella U. Baganizi, archivist. Finding aid published in 2024.
Separated material
See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Errold D. Collymore papers, Sc MG 888.
See the Photographs and Prints Division for the photographs.
See the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division for publications and ephemera.
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor