Black Academy of Arts and Letters audio collection

circa 1969-1972

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters was founded March 29, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, by Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, professor of religion and sociology at Union Theological Seminary. The Academy was established to "define, preserve, promote, cultivate, foster and develop the arts and letters of black people," as stated by Dr. C. Eric Lincoln in his founding address. The founding committee was chaired by Lincoln, with a board of directors comprised of Dr. Charles V. Hamilton; Dr. Vincent Harding; Robert Hooks; John O. Killens, vice president; Lincoln, president; Alvin F. Poussaint, treasurer; Doris Saunders, secretary; Charles White, and John A. Williams. The Academy was incorporated in New York City in 1970, and the Twentieth Century Fund financed initial operating expenses, providing $50,000 each year to hire staff and open a temporary headquarters on Riverside Drive in March 1970. The Academy later received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Johnson Publishing Company.

At the first awards banquet in September 1970, the Academy inducted the late W.E.B. DuBois into the Hall of Fame. This resulted in the removal of longstanding visa restrictions by the State Department on Shirley Graham DuBois to enable her to attend the ceremony. Other honorees that year included poet Amiri Baraka, singer Lena Horne, historian C.L.R. James, singer Paul Robeson, and actress Diana Sands for longstanding contributions to arts and letters. Among the first recipients of the Academy's Annual Letters competition were Mari Evans for poetry, George Jackson for nonfiction, William Melvin Kelly for fiction, and Franklin W. Knight for scholastic work.

In 1972, the Academy closed their offices. The Board of Directors and committees functioned through 1973, although there were no further annual meetings.

Adapted from the biographical note of the finding aid for the Black Academy of Arts and Letters records, Sc Micro R-5916.