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Creator
Tyson, Cyril D.
Call number
Sc MG 636
Physical description
6.0 linear feet (6 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Cyril D. Tyson papers, Sc MG 636, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
Home to Harlem Project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Cyril D. Tyson Papers consist of documents Tyson compiled for the publication of his three monographs. The first of the books is "The 'Unconditional War' on Poverty and the Use of Computer Technology by Community Action Agencies, 1965-1972. As this book covers the use of computer technology by community action agencies between 1965 and 1972 in New York City, Boston, Hartford, St. Louis, Missouri, Harris County in Texas, the Ozarks in Missouri, and Wisconsin, the files pertain to these geographic localities. Included are interviews, many case study drafts, correspondence with administrators from other agencies during the period Tyson served as the deputy administrator of Community Relations in New York City's Human Resources Administration, reports he prepared, and office memoranda, 1970-1972.

Biographical/historical information

Born in 1927 in New York City, Cyril de Grasse Tyson held a number of positions in New York City government agencies, several during the administration of Mayor John Lindsay. From 1958 to1960, he was with the City of New York's Commission on Intergroup Relations. He held three administrative positions with the Commission on Human Rights, between 1960-1963, first, as director of the Education Unit in the Community Relations Division, then chief of the Community Relations Division, followed by his appointment to chief of the Business and Employment Division. In 1963 Tyson was hired as the project director of Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited in Central Harlem, an organization that worked to increase opportunities for young people who lived in Harlem. He later became the executive director of HARYOU-ACT. Tyson then applied his expertise in Newark, New Jersey where he became executive director of that city's United Community Corporation.

Among other positions, Tyson was the deputy administrator of the Human Resources Administration, commissioner of its Manpower and Career Development Agency in New York, 1966-1970, and vice president of Public and Community Affairs of The City College of New York, 1978-1985. From 1985-1990 he was with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and served as the assistant director for Community and Intergovernmental Relations of the Government, Community and Public Affairs Department, 1985-1987, and then assistant director of the Office of Transportation Planning. Tyson had the distinction of being the first African American to hold most, if not all, of the positions that he held.

Tyson researched and wrote three books based upon his experiences working with urban poverty and manpower programs: "The 'Unconditional War' on Poverty and the Use of Computer Technology by Community Action Agencies, 1965-1972" (1997); "2 Years Before the Riot! Newark, New Jersey and the United Community Corporation Inc., 1964-1966: the Full, Real Story of the Anti-Poverty Program" (2000); and "Power and Politics in Central Harlem, 1962-1964: the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited Experience" (2004). He co-edited Technological Development in Nigeria, published in 1979, and wrote and edited various manuals and articles in the fields of transportation, management and education. From 1970 to 1971 he was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Institute of Politics, and was a research associate at Harvard's Program on Technology and Society. Tyson has also given addresses about poverty, labor, social service agencies and related topics.

Scope and arrangement

The Cyril D. Tyson Papers consist of documents Tyson compiled for the publication of his three monographs. The first of the books is "The 'Unconditional War' on Poverty and the Use of Computer Technology by Community Action Agencies, 1965-1972. As this book covers the use of computer technology by community action agencies between 1965 and 1972 in New York City, Boston, Hartford, St. Louis, Missouri, Harris County in Texas, the Ozarks in Missouri, and Wisconsin, the files pertain to these geographic localities. Included are interviews, many case study drafts, correspondence with administrators from other agencies during the period Tyson served as the deputy administrator of Community Relations in New York City's Human Resources Administration, reports he prepared, and office memoranda, 1970-1972.

Additional files provide documentation for Tyson's second book, "2 Years Before the Riot! Newark, New Jersey and the United Community Corporation Inc., 1964-1966: the Full, Real Story of the Anti-Poverty Program." There is correspondence maintained by Tyson as executive director of the UCC with heads of other Newark organizations and with UCC's board of trustees, UCC documentation prepared for a 1965 City Council investigation and the UCC response to this investigation, as well as minutes of board of trustees and executive committee meetings, correspondence, and memoranda. Also in the collection are reports of Newark's councilmen to the Federal Anti-Poverty program, 1964-1965, minutes of the Newark City Council in regard to the UCC, and addresses and statements presented by Tyson concerning the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, a.k.a. the War on Poverty.

The third of Tyson's books is "Power and Politics in Central Harlem, 1962-1964: the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited Experience." Documentation related to this book includes Tyson's speeches, addresses and publications while at the Commission on Intergroup Relations and the Commission on Human Rights, and files regarding the Harlem Neighborhood Association's proposal to the City of New York for a program to plan youth services in Harlem, 1961-1962, which would later become HARYOU. There are also interviews with HARYOU personnel, job descriptions, case study drafts, minutes of board meetings and of the executive committee of HARYOU, and of HARYOU-ACT's Joint Negotiating Committee, budgets, and printed descriptions of HARYOU. Of interest is the last draft of a study prepared by HARYOU entitled "Youth in the Ghetto: A Study of the Consequences of Powerlessness and a Blueprint for Change," 1963, for the publication of the same title. Both the complete printed version as well as the comic book version (both 1964) form part of this collection.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift, Cyril D. Tyson, 1998

Revision History

This finding aid was updated by Allison Hughes. (2020 September 28)

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