Loading...
Creator
Beam, Joseph
Call number
Sc MG 455
Physical description
7.4 linear feet (20 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Joseph Beam papers, Sc MG 455, 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.Restrictions apply

The Joseph Beam Papers consist of correspondence, conference materials, prison letters, writings by Beam and other authors, files of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays and its organizational journal Black/Out, and printed matter. The Correspondence series is divided into five subgroups: Family, General, Individuals, Organizations and Prison Letters. Significant correspondents include Barbara Smith, Essex Hemphill, Daniel Garrett, Renee McCoy, Assoto Saint, Colin Robinson, Craig Harris, Isaac Julien. Beam's writings and correspondence dealt with issues of gay life and civil rights for blacks and other minorities, and with contemporary developments in Philadelphia, including the police bombing of the MOVE headquarters in 1985. Other writings in the collection were destined for publication in the two anthologies conceived by Beam and the journals Black/Out and Other Countries. Contributors included Audre Lorde, Pat Parker, Samuel Delany, Melvin Dixon, Gilberto Gerald, Michelle Parkerson, Michael J. Smith, and Alice Walker. Also included are minutes of board meetings, financial reports, correspondence, memoranda, conference papers, and printed matter of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, and subject files on AIDS awareness and prevention, prisoners' support groups, gay and lesbian entertainers and South Africa. The collection also documents activities of Black and White Men Together, Blackheart Collective and other black gay organizations.

Biographical/historical information

Born in Philadelphia in 1954, Joseph F. Beam was an African-American gay rights activist and author who worked to foster greater acceptance of gay life in the black community by relating the gay experience with the struggle for civil rights in the United States. His father Sun Beam worked as a bank security guard in Philadelphia. His mother, Dorothy, became a wage earner while still an adolescent, and attended evening classes to obtain her high school diploma. She later earned a college degree in elementary education and a master's degree from Temple University. She worked for more than twenty years as a teacher and guidance counselor in the Philadelphia school system.

Baptised a Catholic, the young Beam studied mainly in parochial schools, including the Malvern Preparatory School, St. Thomas More High School and Franklin College, a small Baptist college in rural Indiana. An only child, his boyhood was difficult and solitary; he was often the only non-white pupil in his classes. Later, at Franklin College, he was influenced by the civil rights and the Black Power movements, and played an active role in the local Black Student Union. Also, as a member of the Franklin Independent Men, he helped organize several conferences on campus and was active in college journalism and radio programming. After graduation in 1976, Beam remained in the Midwest, enrolling first in a Master's Degree program in communications and then working as a waiter in Ames, Iowa. He returned to Philadelphia in 1979.

Giovanni's Room in the Center City District in Philadelphia was one of the main bookstores and contact points for lesbians and gays in the 1970s and 1980s. Beam became well acquainted with local and national gay figures and institutions while employed there in the early 1980s. His articles and short stories began appearing around the same time in numerous gay newspapers and magazines, including Au Courant, Blackheart, Changing Men, Gay Community News, Philadelphia Gay News, The Advocate, New York Native, Body Politicand the Windy City Times.The Lesbian and Gay Press Association awarded him a certificate for outstanding achievement by a minority journalist in 1984. The following year, he was hired as a consultant by the Gay and Lesbian Task Force of the American Friends Service Committee. He joined the Executive Committee of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays in 1985, and became the editor of their new journal Black/Out.

Beam began preparing and collecting materials for an anthology of writings by and about black gay men in 1982. His goal was to counteract the absence of positive images of gay men of color in the media and their exclusion from the cultural world of white gay rights activists. Inspired by the humanism of the black feminist and lesbian movement, he saw his work as part of a broad effort to correct and redefine the reality of race, sex, class and gender in the United States. Through his writings, he sought to alleviate the alienation of black homosexuals and help create a community of their own. In the Lifewas published by Allyson Press in 1986. It was ignored by most African-American critics and institutions, but was greeted as a literary and cultural milestone in the gay community.

Joseph F. Beam was working on a sequel to In the Lifeat the time of his death of HIV related disease in 1989. This work was completed by Dorothy Beam and the gay poet Essex Hemphill, and published under the title Brother to Brotherin 1991. Both books were featured in a television documentary, "Tongues United," in 1991. "As a writer, Joe was more profound than prolific," wrote his friend Craig Harris after his death. "His articles and essays were poetic, containing turned phrases and puns, metaphors in meters that made his writing musical with penetrating meaning. He took great pride in his skill and devoted time to multiple rewrites, crafting his work to create the style which other writers of the Black genre dubbed `Beamesque'." ("Your Life's All In Your Dreams and Your Dreams Are All Your Life," Gay Community News,Feb. 5-11, 1989.)

Scope and arrangement

The Joseph F. Beam Papers document the life and career of an African-American gay activist and author, and his efforts to connect the black gay experience with the struggle for civil rights in the United States. The collection is divided into the following series: PERSONAL; CORRESPONDENCE; CONFERENCES; WRITINGS; "IN THE LIFE;" NATIONAL COALITION OF BLACK LESBIANS AND GAYS; and GENERAL. Selected letters, research materials and other documents which reveal intimate details of gay relationships or the identity of people not publicly gay are restricted until the year 2042.

The Joseph Beam papers are arranged in eight series:

  • PERSONAL

    The Personal series begins with Biographical Materialswhich comprise diaries, resumes, reviews and articles about Beam and his writings, obituaries, memorial tributes and ephemera. The remaining subseries document his education, employment and financial situation. Some research materials showing various influences on Beam are also included. The Educational filesconsist primarily of yearbooks for Malvern Preparatory School and Franklin College where Beam was a sophomore in 1969 and 1974 respectively. Also included is a photographic essay, "Padanaram Village," a college project on a cooperative lumber village in Indiana. The Employmentsection mainly records Beam's consultancy with a task force of the American Friends Service Committee on lesbian and gay issues. The Financialsection relates to income generating activities, utilities and rent.

  • CORRESPONDENCE

    Beam maintained an active domestic and international correspondence as a way of nurturing an expanding network of gay writers and friends. There are five subseries: Family, General, Individuals, Organizationsand Prison Letters.The Familysubgroup consists mainly of letters from Beam to his parents while at Franklin, prior to his self-identification with homosexuality. These letters reveal a penchant for loneliness and adolescent depression, but also a growing political and cultural awareness. General Correspondenceis divided into letters sent (1982-1988) arranged chronologically, and letters received (1976-1988) arranged alphabetically. Beam corresponded with a wide range of people, from gay and lesbian activists, to poets and other writers from the general population. Individualand Organizationfiles comprise incoming and outgoing letters and deal mainly with gay and lesbian issues, and related activities. Significant correspondents include Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, Essex Hemphill and Daniel Garrett. Prison Letterscomprise an important body of correspondence with an aspiring Muslim writer and various gay prisoners. Those letters touch on issues of sexuality, human rights, prison conditions and African-American culture.

  • CONFERENCES

    Files in this series date from the publication of In the Lifein 1986 and consist of letters of invitation, speaking notes, conference packets and research materials, arranged alphabetically. The most substantive conference file documents the 1987 Convention of Black and White Men Together, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Other conference materials are located in the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays series.

  • WRITINGS

    Writings are divided into Writings by Joseph F. Beamand Writings by Other Authors.The series begins with two clipping files and a scrapbook of published articles and essays, interviews and reviews created by Beam. Manuscripts and typescripts of articles, short stories and essays are arranged alphabetically by titles. "Brother to Brother" and "No Cheek to Turn," two short stories that received critical attention, are accompanied by several drafts and handwritten notes. Typescripts of interviews with authors Sonia Sanchez and Audre Lorde, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, and others form a separate subgroup. Other authors in this series include Essex Hemphill, Michelle Parkerson, Sandra Karp, Assoto Saint, and contributors to the first issue of Other Countries,a black gay journal launched in New York in 1988.

  • IN THE LIFE

    Materials relating to In the Life,the black gay anthology edited by Joseph F. Beam, are divided into three subseries:

    Contributors' Files, Editor's Filesand Manuscripts.Arranged alphabetically by authors' last names, the Contributors' files comprise correspondence with Beam, manuscripts and typescripts of articles and interviews in various stages of editing, biographical sketches and printed matter. Letters and writings by authors Samuel Delany, Melvin Dixon and Essex Hemphill are located here. The Editor's files include correspondence with Allyson Press, chapter outlines, contract, galley proofs and graphic materials, advertisements and reviews, and reception and program handouts. The Manuscripts subseries consists of complete sets of submitted materials, in their final stage of editing.

  • NATIONAL COALITION OF BLACK LESBIANS AND GAYS

    This series consists of Executive Board materials and files relating to Black/Out,the organization's journal edited by Beam. The Black/Outsubseries is further divided into manuscripts, galley proofs and layouts, arranged by publication dates; and administrative files, comprising correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, financial records, mailing lists and prison letters. Also included are two small but substantive files for Alice Walker and the black lesbian poet Flyin Thunda Cloud. The Executive Boardsubseries contains minutes of board meetings, financial reports, correspondence, memoranda, conference papers, printed matter, and chapter files for Chicago and Philadelphia.

  • GENERAL

    The General series consists of subject files on South Africa, prisoners' support groups and AIDS awareness; printed matter on gay and lesbian activities, including handbills, newsletters, newspapers and other publications; and research materials on lesbian and gay entertainers. Materials from the National Conference on Blacks and Gays organized by the New Alliance Party are also located here. Single issues of gay publications, including Au Courant, Painted Bride Quarterlyand Gay Community News,all featuring articles by or about Beam, are filed in a separate box.

  • Restricted material

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Mrs. Dorothy Beam, 1992.

SCM 92-10

Processing information

Processed by Andre Elizee; Machine-readable finding aid created by Apex Data Services; revised by Terry Catapano.

Separated material

The following items were removed from the JOSEPH F. BEAM PAPERS

Accession Number: SCM 92-10

Donor: Mrs. Dorothy Beam

Date received: 1992

Date transferred: December 1992

The item(s) listed below have been sent to the division indicated, either to be retained or disposed of there. Any items that should receive special disposition are clearly marked.

Schomburg Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division:

Two audiocassettes:-- "Weekend edition" interview with Essex Hemphill and Dorothy Beam

-- Black and White Men together Convention, 1987

One videocassette (title unknown).

Schomburg Photographs and Print Division:

Joseph F. Beam's portrait file, including family portraits, school photos, Beam at Giovanni's Room.

Photographs of performing artists and authors, including Barbara Smith, Cassellberry-DuPrée, Linda Tillery, Sarah Dash, Michelle Parkerson, Pat Parker, Blackberri, Mary Watkins, Sweet Honey In the Rock, and the gay activist Lawrence Washington. Also photographs of protests and activities of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays.

Processed by:A. Elizee

Date:September 1992

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor

Access restrictions

Series 8 is restricted.