Scope and arrangement
The Henry Lee and Mollie Moon papers consist of personal and professional materials related to their activism, careers, and volunteer activities. The personal materials include resumes and CVs, information from educational institutions, financial documents, awards and honors, and memorial service programs. Correspondence, which also is personal, contains letters written by Henry Lee and Mollie Moon to each other, their daughter and other family members, and friends. Professional papers contain materials related to both Henry Lee and Mollie Moon's various careers; these materials include correspondence, printed matter, and writing. Also included in the professional papers are materials related to Henry Lee and Mollie Moon's volunteer work, such as correspondence, meeting materials, and printed matter. Writing consists mostly of writing by Henry Lee Moon, which includes both published and unpublished articles, books, speeches, and lectures; there is a small folder of speeches by Mollie Moon. Also found in this series is writing by other authors. There is a small series of printed matter on the Moons, some of which contains reviews of Henry Lee Moon's two books. The final series, Subject files, contains research material and printed matter on various topics, about which Henry Lee Moon wrote.
The Henry Lee and Mollie Moon papers are arranged in six series:
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1917-1990
This series consists of the personal papers of Henry Lee and Mollie Moon. These papers include resumes and CVs, cover letters, family records, and memorial service programs and obituaries. Henry Lee Moon's personal papers also contain papers written for classes at Howard University, The Ohio State University, Brookwood Labor School, and American University. Also included are Ted Poston's last will and testament, which named Henry Lee Moon as executor. Mollie Moon's personal papers also consist of a graduation program from Meharry Medical College and materials related to two lawsuits in which Mollie Moon was the plaintiff. The last subseries consists of materials related to the couple, such as financial, medical, and insurance documents, and awards and honors.
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1921-1998
The correspondence in the first subseries is between Mollie and Henry Lee Moon. Many of the correspondents in the Friends subseries also were colleagues of the Moons; since the Moons developed personal relationships with them or had personal friendships with them prior to their professional relationships, they are included here. Also in this subseries, more general correspondence, or correspondents with few letters, are included in the general alphabetic letter folders.
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1904-1990
This series consists of the professional papers of Henry Lee and Mollie Moon. Both subseries are arranged in a similar fashion, chronologically by job, followed by committee work. The Henry Lee Moon subseries also includes professional correspondence, mostly with editors and publishers for his published articles and books, and institutions for speaking engagements. The bulk of this subseries consists of materials related to Moon's work with the NAACP as public relations director and editor of The Crisis. The bulk of the Mollie Moon subseries contains materials related to her work in the public relations field and her volunteer work, especially with the National Urban League Guild (NULG) and the National Advisory Drug Committee (NADC) of the Food and Drug Administration. The materials in both subseries consist of correspondence and memos; research material and writing (in the case of H. L. Moon), especially for the CIO Political Action Committee (CIO-PAC) and the NAACP; handwritten notes; printed matter (publications of the NAACP, clippings, and NULG programs, among others); reports; meeting minutes; and budget information.
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1897-1989
This series primarily consists of writing by Henry Lee Moon, both published and unpublished. Most of the published material contains handwritten notes, drafts (typescripts with edits), final published versions, and reprints of articles for newspapers, magazines, and book chapters, including The New York Times, New York Amsterdam News, and Phylon, among others; and two books, Balance of Power: The Negro Vote and The Emerging Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois: Essays and Editorials from The Crisis. Also included is one poem, published in The Crisis in 1928. The Unpublished subseries includes various unpublished articles, mostly as typescripts; books, including one on the Black market, another entitled "What Democracy?" (initially cowritten with Frank Horne and later reworked by Moon, possibly as a different publication), and Moon's memoirs; speeches and lectures; works written on behalf of others; fiction; and handwritten notes. Additionally, there is one folder of Mollie Moon's writing, which mainly consists of drafts and final versions of various speeches. The final subseries encompasses work (mostly writing, but in one case, a drawing) by other authors, both published and unpublished, either used by Moon as research for his own writing or works of colleagues.
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1926-1990
This series contains printed matter (mostly newspaper clippings and articles) on Henry Lee and Mollie Moon. The Reviews subseries consists of reviews and publicity (book announcements in catalogs and ads) for Henry Lee Moon's two published books, while the General subseries includes printed matter on or about the Moons.
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1912-1984
This series includes mostly printed matter (clippings, articles, reports, brochures, and flyers) on various individuals, organizations, and topics. Most of the geographic topical files focus on politics and voting; Henry Lee Moon likely used these files as research for his first book. Most of the folder titles are updated versions of Moon's; titles in quotes are his.