Owen Middleton Papers

1945-1953

Born on March 3, 1888 in Cleveland, Ohio, Owen Middleton was an African-American furniture draftsman and graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago who worked as a quick sketch artist for the Chicago Tribune. Middleton also worked as a syndicated columnist for several African-American newspapers and wrote a weekly newsletter on United Nations issues relating to blacks. Additionally, he served as a volunteer art teacher at a Congress of Industrial Organizations' Community Center in Brooklyn. Owen Middleton died in 1954. Three certificates from the New York City Board of Elections designating Owen Middleton as a Delegate to the 1952 New York State Convention of the American Labor Party, and nine letters of recommendation supporting his application to the title of director of interracial relations at an unnamed institution (1953). Correspondents include: Howard Willard; Arthur Schutzer, New York State Executive Secretary of the American Labor Party; Rev. William Melish, minister of the Church of Holy Trinity in Brooklyn; Marvel Cooke, director of the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions; and others.