- Creator
- Maruca, Janice
- Call number
- Sc MG 706
- Physical description
- 0.21 linear feet (1 box)
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- [Item], Helene Southern Slater oral history, Sc MG 706, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.
This collection consists of transcripts, drafts, and the final publication of a biography of Helene Southern Slater by Janice Maruca.
Biographical/historical information
Janice Maruca is the author of Helene Southern Slater: Footprints, a First Person Biography, published by 20th Century Women: A Journal of First Person Biography, vol. 7.
Helene Southern Slater worked as a newspaper reporter and civil servant before starting her own public relations firm. Slater was raised in Philadelphia, by a single father after her mother died when she was five. She attended Howard University for one year before having to drop out when her father lost his earnings in the economic crash of 1929. Slater returned to Philadelphia and worked as a report for the Philadelphia Independent, the Baltimore Afro-American, and the Philadelphia edition of the Chicago Defender. She shifted to civil service work, first with the Workmen's Unemployment Compensaton Board, followed by the State Employment Service, and the Civil Service Commission in Washington, DC. She worked for the Russian government for a time during World War II. In 1955, she received her Bachelor's degree in public relations from the New School in New York City, and started Southern-Slater Enterprises, Public Relations and Agents, with her then-husband, musician Chester Slater. She worked in the public relations field for thirty years. Additionally, she was a founding member of the National Association of Media Women, board member of the New Yarlem YWCA, and member of the National Council of Negro Women, among others.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift of Janice Maruca, 2002.
Key terms
Names
Subjects
Occupations
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor