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Creator
Northeasterners, Inc.
Call number
Sc MIRS Northeasterners 1988-17
Physical description
7 video_recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Northeasterners, Inc. moving image 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.

The Northeasterners, Inc. is one of the oldest social organizations for African American women in the US, founded in New York in 1930. The collection consists of seven videos about the Northeasterners, Inc., dating from circa 2000 to 2011.

Biographical/historical information

The Northeasterners, Inc. is one of the oldest social organizations for African American women in the US. Their activities include social events, volunteer work, and charitable contributions to organizations including the Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), and numerous university scholarship funds, cultural institutions, and hospitals.

The Northeasterners, Inc. was founded in 1930 by Agatha Scott Davis (d. 2002), the wife of Brigadier-General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. He was the first African American general officer in the United States Air Force. Agatha Davis served as the first national president of the Northeasterners from 1929 to 1931. The organization was known as the Gay Northeasterners until the name was changed officially to the Northeasterners, Inc. in 1979. The chapters expanded to include the cities of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, and the states of Connecticut and New Jersey. Music composed for the Northeasterners include "O What a Gal," a tribute song written by Virginia Lewis in 1983.

Former president Thomy D. Joyner advocated for preserving the legacy of the Northeasterners at an African American memory institution. In 1990, Vivian D. Hewitt, the organization's historian, presented the collection to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of seven videos about the Northeasterners, Inc., dating from circa 2000 to 2011. They are organized alphabetically by title and then by date. Recordings include tribute videos for Katherine Banks (May 2, 1912 - July 26, 2008), the president of the New Jersey chapter; a short documentary about the history of the Pittsburgh chapter; a twentieth anniversary celebration of the Cleveland chapter; and interviews with members of the Detroit chapter, conducted by member Amyre Makupson. Square brackets indicate partial information or unclear spelling.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Vivian D. Hewitt, 1991 and 1995; Gail Allen, 2015.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Valerie Wingfield. Collection processed and described by Lyric Benjamin-Hunter, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Northeasterners, Inc. records, Sc MG 349.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the photographs.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.