Amistad Research Center

Current exhibition at Amistad: Athletics and the African American Experience

2012-01-27T14:02:00.001-06:00

At Amistad, we’re starting off this Olympics year fittingly – with an in-house exhibition on athletics within the wider context of American social history. The exhibition showcases correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, etc. on great athletes such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Jackie Robinson; the Negro Leagues; the collection on Southwestern Athletic Conference sports of noted sportswriter Russell Stockard; and, perhaps lesser known, proposed boycotts of the 1968 Summer Olympics that influenced John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s famed Black Power salute protest atop the podium in Mexico City.

Well before the 1968 Olympics, a global boycott of the forthcoming games began to organize in response to the International Olympic Committee’s vote to readmit South Africa into the Olympic games. The American Committee on Africa helped to spearhead a campaign promoting a mass boycott of the games based on the International Olympic Committee’s decision, which seems in stark opposition to the Olympic Charter’s ban on racially discriminatory practices. After this widespread public outcry, the IOC ultimately reversed its position, and the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games went on as scheduled.

(Hall of Famers in their respective sports, Joe Morgan and Jerry West are among the signatories in the Amistad exhibition.)

In a year which saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the violent Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and the ascendance of George Wallace as a viable presidential candidate, it is no surprise that the 1968 Olympics were also highly politicized by American athletes.

The possibility of an Olympic boycott by African American athletes emerged on the campus of San Jose State University, where sociologist Harry Edwards decried the accomplishments of Black athletes amidst wider social inequity: “What value is it to a black man to win a medal if he returns to a hell in Harlem.” Lee Evans, John Carlos, and Tommie Smith – all members of the SJSU track team – were among the most vocal of the boycott’s supporters.

(Tommie Smith and John Carlos, among the signatories above from the San Jose State University track team, seized their moment months later atop the Olympic podium after placing first and second, respectively, in the 200m sprint.)

Though the threat of boycotts to the Olympics and other protests amidst racism in America and around the world never manifested in a widespread boycott, they did foreshadow one of the most poignant, overtly political, statements ever made in a sporting context. The petition above demonstrate that Smith and Carlos’ statement of defiance – raising their fists and refusing the look at the American flag as the “Star-Spangled Banner” played – was not a spontaneous, impulsive reaction.

The contributions of Smith and Carlos, as well as many sporting greats before them, are chronicled in the exhibition at Amistad. The exhibition, "More Than Just a Game: Athletics and the African American Experience," will be on display in the Center's reading room and exhibition gallery through March 29.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(Images from the American Committee on Africa records, Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

The Origins of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2012-01-13T15:03:00.001-06:00

As we approach Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the staff of the Amistad Research Center would like to highlight one of the recently processed collections at the Center, the Lloyd Davis Papers, which provide insight into the foundation of the upcoming holiday.

Lloyd Davis (1928-2007) was a proponent of equal opportunities, a civil rights activist, a fair housing advocate, and longtime senior adviser for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also served as the first vice president and chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and as Executive Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission.

Lloyd Davis, undated photograph

After graduating from Chicago's Tilden Technical High School in 1946, Davis enlisted in the United States Army. He was assigned to the 6th Armed Division at Fort Leonard, Missouri, where he was responsible for the administration of five companies, the supervision of a staff of non-commissioned officers, and the administration of the first program of racial integration at Fort Leonard.

Shortly after graduating from De Paul University, Davis enrolled in graduate school at Loyola University of Chicago in 1958. After graduating from Loyola, he accepted a position as Assistant Director of the New Haven Redevelopment Agency. He also served as the Director of the Dixwell Redevelopment and Renewal Project; the project mission was to relocate 928 families and demolish and renovate 382 structures in New Haven, Connecticut. Davis began his career with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1965 as an Intergroup Relations Specialist. His primary duties included the selection and planning of urban renewal areas, as well as determining the impact of urban renewal projects on cities.

In 1979, Davis became the first vice president and chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which had been founded by Coretta Scott King in 1968. In this capacity, Davis helped plan the building of the Martin Luther King Historic Site and lobbied Congress to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, which was celebrated for the first time in 1986. Davis also created a federal commission to promote, oversee, and raise money for the King Holiday.

The Amistad Research Center processed the Davis papers under a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. This collection reflects Davis’ work as a housing advocate and documents his tenure as the chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The papers include correspondence, photographs, programs, pamphlets, and biographical information, and document Davis' efforts to preserve and celebrate the legacy of Dr. King.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Lloyd Davis Papers, Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Papers of Linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner Donated to Amistad

2011-12-14T14:21:00.000-06:00

The Amistad Research Center works closely with potential donors to acquire collections of historical significance, whether they be the papers of individuals and families or the records of organizations and businesses. Sometimes this process of donor cultivation can take years and sometimes donations can come "out of the blue." A recent donation to the Center came unexpectedly from a long-time supporter of the Center and Amistad is proud to announce the acquisition of a small, but significant collection of materials related to linguist and academic Lorenzo Dow Turner.

Lorenzo Dow Turner (1890-1972) was an African American academic and linguist who did seminal research on the Gullah language of the Low Country of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. His studies included recordings of Gullah speakers in the 1930s. He taught at Howard University and Fisk University, created the African Studies curriculum at Fisk, served as chair of the African Studies Program at Roosevelt University in Chicago, and co-founded a training program for Peace Corps volunteers going to Africa.

Lorenzo Dow Turner

The Turner papers encompass approximately 4.26 linear feet of papers, photographs, sound recordings, and annotated books, offprints, and periodicals, as well as 6 feet of Turner's recording equipment. The papers consist of correspondence, writings (both by Turner and collected), family records, school records, and printed ephemera. Letters of note include a 1967 letter from William Brewer of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in which he provides his opinions on John Hope Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as a 1967 letter from a graduate assistant at Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, Louisiana, discussing "language problems" of her Black students.

Writings include typescripts on Gullah texts and the Sea-Island dialect of South Carolina, writings on African culture, and notebooks and gathered pages with an envelope marked "original of stories and proverbs in the Yoruba." Also present is the text of an address given by Ambassador S.O. Adeba, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, at Roosevelt University in April 1966 and a copy of Turner's dissertation on "Anti-Slavery Sentiment in American Literature Prior to 1865." Additional papers include an invitation to a series of lectures given by Turner at Roosevelt University, news clippings, a draft of a Turner's report on his research conducted on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951, a hand script chart listing the importation of Africans into South Carolina for 1733-1807 by region of origin, and worksheets used for the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada, compiled by Hans Kurath.

Wire recording and field
notes, circa 1950s

Photographic materials include approximately 100 black and white photographs, circa 1911-1930s, including portraits of Turner, as well as candid images of him, his wife, and unidentified individuals. Also present are a number of books, periodicals, and offprints that contain Turner’s ownership signature and annotations in his hand. Of special significance is the presence of a number of wire recordings and lacquer and metal phonograph records that contain Turner's linquistic field recordings from the 1930s and 1950s. As soon as the sound recordings are inventoried, the Center will pursue funding to digitize and make these materials accessible.

Lorenzo Dow Turner was the subject of a 2007 biography by Margaret Wade-Lewis entitled Lorenzo Dow Turner: Father of Gullah Studies and published by the University of South Carolina Press.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Images from the papers of Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

e-Amistad Reports December 2011 edition now online

2011-12-14T14:18:00.000-06:00

The December 2011 edition of e-Amistad Reports is now online. Amistad's quarterly electronic newsletter features news about the Center, its staff and collections, as well as upcoming events. This issue features articles on the the recent acquisition of the personal papers of journalist Evelyn Cunningham and linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner, an exciting contest featuring Amistad's collections, and the Center's Annual Fund Campaign and how you can assist the Amistad in preserving its unique collections. Check it out!

I Found It In The Archives Contest

2011-12-13T13:43:00.000-06:00

A researcher contacted the Center after discovering
this image at Amistad, which may be the first known
photograph of Pokegama Falls, Minnesota, a town
that was lost when a dam was built in 1901.

When the staff of the Amistad Research Center receives a letter of thanks from a researcher who is grateful for our help, we are reminded of the “humanness” of our profession. As a way of celebrating the diverse audience of global researchers who use the Center’s collections, the Center is participating in the Society of American Archivists’ (SAA) “I Found It In The Archives” contest. This contest will give YOU!...our constituents…a chance to tell your story of how items that are important to you are being preserved, cataloged, cared for, and made accessible by archivists!

In conjunction with American Archives Month, Amistad is encouraging SAA’s special effort to involve people who have sought out archival collections by engaging them in a fun contest that makes use of online social platforms. "I Found It In The Archives" is a collective effort to reach out to individuals who have found their records, families, heritage, and treasures through Amistad’s collections.

As part of this contest, we are asking our users, friends, and researchers to share their stories of discovery. Amistad’s contest will seek one winner who has used the Center’s collections for scholarly research, class projects, family history research, documentaries, creative writing, or any other outcome. The winner of Amistad’s contest will receive a gift package of Amistad promotional material, including books, posters, and postcards, and be entered into a national competition, culminating in August 2012 when the national winner will attend the SAA Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

The deadline for submission is February 10, 2012. Three semi-finalists will be selected from a panel of judges and their entries will be posted online for public voting. Time is short! Submit your entry today! Rules and an entry form can be found here.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the American Missionary Records. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Center Acquires Papers of Journalist Evelyn Cunningham

2011-12-13T12:59:00.003-06:00

During 2011, the acquisition of new collections at the Amistad Research Center has been governed by the Center’s collection development policy and managed by a team approach to donor relations. This year, the Center has been fortunate to acquire a number of collections that further the Center’s collecting strengths, while addressing gaps in its holdings. As we begin to wind down the year, the Center’s staff is pleased to announce the acquisition of the personal papers of Evelyn Cunningham (1916-2010), journalist and aide to Nelson Rockefeller.

Evelyn Cunningham (left) on the
telephone in the press tent at the
1963 March on Washington.

The Evelyn Cunningham Papers (circa 1920-2004) consist of 6.6 linear feet documenting her work as a journalist and activist from Harlem, New York, and complement a small of amount of material donated by Ms. Cunningham in 2003. Her papers cover her colorful career as a columnist for the New York edition of the Pittsburgh Courier, for which she wrote a column titled "The Women" chronicling African American social life in Harlem. Cunningham's activities as a journalist provided her the opportunity to meet African American statesmen, celebrities, socialites and activists.

Her journalism career is documented by typescripts, photocopies, and clippings of her columns, as well as a small amount of correspondence. Of note are two undated letters from Cunningham to an unidentified individual that describe her early days with the Courier, as well as a small exchange (two letters) in 1957 with a reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cunningham's notebooks include one dedicated to coverage of Martin Luther King Jr. and two devoted to the legal proceedings resulting from the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Cunningham's notebook for her

coverage of legal proceedings regarding

the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956

The collection also includes materials related to Cunningham's appointment as Special Assistant to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Director of the Women's Unit of the State of New York, as well as her service to Rockefeller while he was Vice President. Cunningham's civic involvement in such organizations as the Apollo Theater Foundation, the Harlem Congregation for Community Improvement, the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women, and others is documented through correspondence, photographs, minutes, programs, and reports.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Images from the Evelyn Cunningham Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Reading Room Closed December 8-9

2011-12-02T16:51:00.000-06:00

The Center's Reading Room will close at 3:00 pm on Thursday, December 8 in preparation for the Center's Board of Directors meeting the next day. The Reading Room will reopen at 8:30 am on Monday, December 12. Be sure to check the Center's website for our holiday hours.

Yes Ma'am documentary at Prytania Theater

2011-10-28T15:10:00.001-05:00

The Prytania Theater in New Orleans is featuring a limited-run screening of the documentary Yes Ma'am: Household Domestic Workers in New Orleans beginning today. Directed by Gary Goldman, the 1982 documentary was sponsored by the Amistad Research Center,which houses the raw footage and interviews conducted for the film as part of the Yes Ma'am Collection. The film provides an in-depth look at the profession of domestic service, race relations, injustice, and the importance of religion in the lives of domestic workers. The old order is contrasted with the new, in which the more militant members of the profession formed the Household Technicians of Louisiana union.

The film continues to be shown in the New Orleans area following the popularity of The Help, the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel of the same name.

Posted by Christopher Harter

Mahalia Jackson Centennial

2011-10-27T14:25:00.009-05:00

This week marks the hundred-year anniversary of the birth of New Orleans-born gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, born in the city's Black Pearl neighborhood.

Mahalia Jackson at Los Angeles train station for departure on return trip to Chicago (July 1957)

The Amistad Research Center offers an array of primary source materials providing insights into Mahalia's life and music career, most notably in the papers of Elliot Von Joseph Beal.

Note on verso from Lourraine Goreau, Mahalia's biographer: "Mahalia living it up at Marymount College (on fruit punch). Occasion: Doctorate of Music (Hon.) June 1971"

Beal, a music educator who worked with the Orleans Parish School System and the New Orleans Recreation Department, also worked around town with various community choruses and churches. Beal also played and toured with Mahalia Jackson as his schedule allowed, typically in the summer months, and collected ephemera and photographs reflect Beal and Jackson's careers in music. Further information on Mahalia Jackson materials at the Amistad Research Center can be found by searching the Center's finding aid database.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(Images from the papers of Elliot Von Joseph Beal. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Finding Aid for Robert Elijah Jones Papers now online

2011-10-07T13:33:00.000-05:00

Robert E. Jones and his
second wife, Harriet
Elizabeth, undated.

The archival staff at the Amistad Research Center is diligently working to increase access to the more than 700 archives and manuscripts collection by entering legacy finding aids, accession records, and biographical and historical sketches into the Center’s collection management database. As we continue to work with these legacy collections, we are re-discovering some of the Center’s most significant collections documenting the life experiences and history of ethnic and racial communities in the United States. The Robert E. Jones Papers are just such a treasure.

Robert Elijah Jones (1872-1960), an African American Methodist Episcopalian clergyman, was the editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate for 16 years, a general superintendent for the Methodist Episcopal Church in New Orleans, and the founder of the Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi. Jones dedicated his career to religion, the racial unification of the Methodist Episcopal Church, racial equality, community development, and education. Jones worked as the editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate between 1904 and 1920. In 1920, Jones became the first African American general superintendent for the Methodist Episcopal Church, where he lived and worked in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1923, Jones founded Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi, which was the first recreational area along the Gulf Coast that was accessible to African Americans.

Brooks Chapel, Gulfside Assembly,
Waveland, Mississippi.

The Robert Elijah Jones papers document the career of Jones, an African American Methodist Episcopalian clergyman, who committed his life to religion, racial equality, education, and community development through his work as the editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a general superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the South, and the founder of Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi. The papers encompass 4.05 linear feet of correspondence, clerical and educational documents, notes, sermons, speeches, writings, receipts, photographs, and collected items. The main strengths are the contents of the correspondence, collected writings, and sermons. These materials capture his life as an editor and preacher, while communicating his lifelong commitment to civil justice. The papers do not adequately document his dominant role played in the Dryades Street Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), his involvement with the Flint-Goodridge Hospital in New Orleans, and his participation with the first Negro Business League.

The papers include 234 items of correspondence, 202 items of incoming and 32 of outgoing, organized topically by family, general correspondence, condolences, "Black Mammy," employment, Gulfside, Harry Hosier, and Valena C. Jones. The general correspondence is organized chronologically, while the other categories are arranged by subject. The major subjects include African America education, the Methodist Episcopal Church, Harry Hoosier, and the Gulfside Assembly. Of particular note is the correspondence related to Jones' interest in the persona of the "Black Mammy." Through correspondence, Jones collected stories and questionnaires from various white people about their interactions with and relationships to their African American domestic nurses, commonly known by the archetype term "Black Mammy," Of note among the respondents was author William Faulkner. Other notable correspondents in the collection include George Washington Cable, Jonathan Daniels, Rivers Frederick, Edwin Holt Hughes, Grace C. Jones, Valena C. Jones, Willis King, Benjamin Quarles, A. Philip Randolph, Emmet Jay Scott, William Howard Taft, Booker T. Washington, and Harold J. Zeringer.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Images from the Robert Elijah Jones Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Digital Images from Civil Rights Print Culture Exhibition

2011-10-05T10:53:00.001-05:00

The online checklist for Amistad's current exhibition "The Revolution Will Not Be...": Print Culture of the Civil Rights Movement now has linked images to selected materials in the exhibition.

In addition, the exhibition has already received some attention thanks to reporter Alicia Duplessis Jasmin.

New Exhibition: Print Culture of the Civil Rights Movement

2011-10-04T09:43:00.001-05:00

Flyer for a 1956 civil rights
rally at New York's Madison
Square Garden.

Now through December 22, the Amistad Research Center is featuring an exhibition entitled "The Revolution Will Not Be...": Print Culture of the Civil Rights Movement. The title of the exhibition is derived from poet-musician Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and hightlights the newspapers, posters, broadsides, pamphlets, and other printed ephemera produced by student groups, leading civil rights organizations, and individuals that documented a revolutionary era.

The Civil Rights Movement coincided with rapid changes in a variety of news and communications media, and the expansion of television and documentary filmmaking brought images of the struggles of African Americans and those who supported civil rights into the homes of the American populace. However, control of the tone and content of electronic media was not always in the hands of those who were being documented. It was the democratization of various printed media that allowed civil rights leaders, workers, and organizations to circulate their combined, and sometimes contradictory, voices.

The online checklist for the exhibition will soon feature links to digital images of seleted items from the exhibition and the Center is working to expand this exhibition into an online digital resource, which will include materials currently on display as well as additional items from a number of archival collections housed at the Center. Meanwhile, please visit the Center to view the current exhibition or stay tuned for more information once the digital links are available.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Eric Steele Wells Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

e-Amistad Reports August 2011 edition now online

2011-08-30T12:55:00.002-05:00

The August 2011 edition of e-Amistad Reports is now online. Amistad's quarterly electronic newsletter features news about the Center, its staff and collections, as well as upcoming events. This issue features articles on the donation of a significant library collection to the Center, the Countee Cullen Correspondence Online Project, unique audiovisual holdings, grant news, and more. Check it out!

Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

2011-08-26T11:53:00.000-05:00

This Sunday marks the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and was to be the official dedication day for the new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. Although the dedication day has been postponed, the Amistad Research Center would like to mark the anniversary and has added the finding aid to the Robert G. Sherer Collection to its online finding aid database.

Organizing manual for
the March on Washington

The collection contains photographs, texts of speeches, and other materials that document the march, which took place on August 28, 1963. Organized by leaders of various civil rights organizations, including CORE, NAACP, SNCC, SCLC, and the National Urban League, the day featured speeches by John Lewis, Whitney M. Young Jr., Eugene Carson Blake, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, Mathew Ahmann, and others. It was at this march where Dr. King delivered his I Have a Dream speech.

Included in the Sherer collection are texts for many of the speeches delivered that day, including the advance text of Dr. King's speech, which lacks the improvised "I Have a Dream" section. Also present is the unedited version of the speech delivered by John Lewis of SNCC, which caused controversy among civil rights leaders due to its harsh tone against the Kennedy administration and the fact that the speech was edited prior to Lewis' delivery.

Although the Sherer collection is small (3 folders), it provides a wonderful glimpse into one of the most significant demonstrations of the Civil Rights Movement.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Robert G. Sherer Collection. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Finding Aid for Fannie C. Williams Papers Now Online

2011-08-24T16:41:00.000-05:00

Fannie C. Williams, 1882-1980, was the principal at Valena C. Jones Elementary and Normal Schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, from about 1921-1954. Williams was a pioneer in African American education and public schools in the South, and she served on many boards for a variety of local organizations, as well as participated in conferences hosted by three American presidents. Williams was widely respected as a principal and was devoted to professional development, which motivated her students and teachers to pursue higher education and higher-level positions in the school systems across the country.

Graduates of the Adult Home
Nursing Class at the YWCA Claiborne
Avenue Branch, June 1963

The papers of Fannie C. Williams encompass 1.8 linear feet and reflect her career and life commitment to African American education and work with young people in New Orleans, most notably between 1908 and 1954, when she served as a teacher and principal in the New Orleans public school system. Also of special note are over 250 photographs documenting the Claiborne Avenue Branch of the YWCA in New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams served as an organizer, charter member, and first president of the branch, which served the African American population of the city. The photographs include YWCA activities, from the 1950s and 1960s, particularly for classes, clubs, conferences, and events. Selected photographs have been digitized and are available for viewing via the online finding aid linked above.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Fannie C. Williams Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Finding Aids for Camilla Williams Papers Now Online

2011-08-09T12:18:00.000-05:00

Camilla Williams in the title
role for Madama Butterfly.

The finding aids for the Camilla Williams Papers and an addendum to her papers are now online with an expanded description of the numerous photographs in the collections. Ms. Williams papers document her career as an acclaimed operatic singer and concert artist in the United States and abroad. She has been credited with being the first African American woman to hold a regular position with a leading United States opera company, and Williams’ other accolades include: two-time winner of the Marian Anderson Award; prominent performer of the title role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and protégé of the creator or the role, Geraldine Farrar; “Bess” in the first complete phonographic recording of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; performer of the title role in the Vienna premiere of Menotti’s Saint of Bleeker Street; recitalist; cultural ambassadress for the U.S. State Department; and college teacher of voice.

Amistad is also pleased to announce that Ms. Williams' autobiography, The Life of Camilla Williams: African American Classical Singer and Opera Diva, was recently published by Edwin Mellen Press. Additional online finding aids for the papers of African American classical and operatic singers housed at the Center include those for William Warfield and Anne Wiggins Brown. The John Wesley Dobbs Family Papers also include material related to Mattiwilda Dobbs Janzon, and finding aids for the papers of Carol Brice and Thomas Carey will be online in the near future.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Camilla Williams Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Spider-Man and the Politics of Race

2011-08-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

The latest addition to the Amistad Research Center's growing Comics and Graphic Novels Collection is issue #4 of Marvel Comics' Ultimate Fallout series, which centers on the aftermath following the death of one of the comic world's most well-known characters - Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man. The death of a well-known and long-standing character will always bring about debate among comics fans, but much of the media focus on this issue has been on Parker's replacement, Miles Morales. Matthew Newton at Forbes.com has provided a look at the media coverage and racial politics in his article "How the Media Reacted to News of a Non-White Spider-Man."

Ultimate Fallout #4.
Cover by Mark Bagley.

The points raised by Newton, as well as the ongoing dicussion of a multiracial Spider-Man on various internet blogs, fan sites, and online media outlets, brings to light the importance of maintaining a collection such as Amistad's -- one that reflects how society views not only its various members and communities, but ultimately how it views itself. Time will tell how the public will respond to the new Spider-Man, but the Center will collect the new Spider-Man issues as they become available so that fans, scholars, and the general public can judge for themselves the exploits of Miles Morales.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Rex Madsen and Jimmy Daniels Photograph Collection

2011-08-03T12:30:00.003-05:00

From Harlem and Greenwich Village to Monte Carlo and Paris, nightclub host and cabaret singer Jimmy Daniels made a career of entertaining and performing in some of chicest nightspots on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in Laredo, Texas, in 1908, Daniels grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, before moving to New York City to attend business school. However, he eventually left the office-world to go on stage. After landing a part in Katharine Cornell’s Broadway hit, “Dishonored Lady,” Daniel’s career was launched. He performed in Europe for much of the 1930s, before returning to New York and opening his own nightclub.

Undated photograph of Jimmy Daniels
performing, possibly on a
transatlantic voyage.

Around 1950, Daniels became the host at the Bon Soir on West 8th Street, a chic supper club. Known as a place where African Americans and Whites, as well as gay and straight clientele, interacted without tension, the club was described as having a balance of elegant, intimate, risque, and respectable ambiance. Jimmy Daniels was a popular figure at the Bon Soir for ten years as the host/singer/emcee.

Daniels’ career and his many associations with fellow entertainers, musicians, singers, and society people are documented in the Rex Madsen and Jimmy Daniels Photograph Collection at the Amistad Research Center. Comprised of almost 300 photographs, the collection includes images of Daniels performing and entertaining, as well as a number of inscribed photographs from others to Daniels. Of note are over 50 photographs by Carl Van Vechten of leading African American entertainers and figures, such as Edna Thomas, Harry Belafonte, Joe Louis, Bricktop, Billie Dee Williams, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, and others.

Jimmy Daniels with writer and film
director Kenneth MacPherson and
actress Blanche Dunn.

The finding aid for the Madsen-Daniels collection is now online and provides an item-level description of each photograph in the collection. In addition, a sampling of the photographs have been digitized in order to share a bit of the glamour and style that was the life of Jimmy Daniels. These images can be found via the online finding aid.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Images from the Rex Madsen and Jimmy Daniels Photograph Collection. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Amistad Celebrates 100 Archival Collections!

2011-08-02T08:37:00.000-05:00

In December 2009, the staff of the Amistad Research Center unveiled a new online finding aid database, which has brought unparalleled access to the Center’s unique archival holdings. Beginning with core research collections, such as the American Missionary Association archives, the papers of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, the papers of Harlem Renaissance figures such as Countee Cullen and Richmond Barthe, as well as historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and New Orleans mayor Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the database has continued to grow.

Pages from the life reminiscences of
teacher and missionary Esther W.
Douglass regarding her work in
McLeansville, North Carolina, in 1880.

With the help of students and volunteers, the Center’s staff reached the milestone of 100 online collection inventories when the finding aid for a collection of letters and a diary written by American Missionary Association teacher and missionary Esther W. Douglass went live recently. In addition to the archival finding aids listed in the database, over 500 accession records for various donations given to the Center since its founding in 1966 are also available to a global audience of researchers, students, teachers, and media.

Amistad would like to thank the many individuals who have assisted with this project over the course of the last 18 months. As a commitment toward greater access to its collections, the Center endeavors to continue to add more collections to the database. Look for a couple major announcements regarding new online finding aids in the next few days...

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Esther W. Douglass Papers. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

New Exhibition: Operation Crossroads Africa

2011-07-21T09:49:00.006-05:00

Now through September 29, the Amistad Research Center's manuscripts and art gallery features an exhibition on the origins, outreach, and influence of Operation Crossroads Africa (OCA), including OCA's direct connection to the establishment of the Peace Corps.

Logo for OCA

The burgeoning independence of many African nations in the 1950s led OCA founder James Herman Robinson to Africa in the summer of 1954, where he spent three months visiting eleven sub-Saharan countries. While on this trip, Robinson conceived of the idea for a project where young Americans would be exposed to the life and culture of the peoples of Africa while also volunteering their services to help build infrastructure, whether educational, agricultural, or medical. Established in 1958, Dr. Robinson - an influential clergyman and community activist based out of Harlem - foresaw Operation Crossroads Africa as a "clear, honest, hard-hitting program" in which young North Americans would work at the grassroots level with young Africans. OCA's chief program is the summer service program, which has sent over 11,000 young people to Africa to engage in community and public works projects in over thirty countries throughout Africa.

OCA founder James Herman Robinson

In 1961, when President John F. Kennedy eloquently called young people to action to fight tyranny, poverty, ignorance, and disease, the Peace Corps was a quickly-germinating notion. Executive Order 10924, issued by President Kennedy on March 1, 1961, established the Peace Corps, with Sargent Shriver serving as its founding director for five years. Acknowledged by President John F. Kennedy as the “progenitor of the Peace Corps,” Operation Crossroads Africa predates the Peace Corps by three years and served as its model both in terms of design and ethos. Dr. Robinson himself served as an integral member of the Peace Corps National Advisory Council since its first month of inception in March 1961 through the administration of Lyndon Johnson.

The comprehensive exhibition includes photographs and photo albums, travel journals, printed ephemera, and correspondence. The exhibition is ordered thematically, and features the OCA's public works projects, the life and career of Dr. Robinson, the development of the famed Eastern Clinic in Sierra Leone, the interrogation of Dr. Robinson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and other programs of OCA such as the Singing Crossroaders. An exhibition checklist can be found on the Center's website.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(Images from the James Herman Robinson Papers and the Operation Crossroads Africa Records. May not be reproduced without permission.)

New Poetry Title Examines the Amistad Event

2011-06-29T13:47:00.001-05:00

The events surrounding the abduction, mutiny, and legal trials of the Amistad Africans have been told and retold in a number of stories, books, works of art, and films. Perhaps less well-known are treatments of the topic in poetry. As early as 1853, poet James Monroe Whitfield's "To Cinque" appeared in America: And Other Poems, which was published by James S. Leavitt in Buffalo, New York. More recently, Elizabeth Alexander's 2005 book, American Sublime, featured a poetic cycle on the Amistad Event, and the Amistad Research Center itself was fortunate to publish the poem "In Remembrance of La Amistad and the Slaves Aboard" by student Correena Spangler in the May 2010 edition of e-Amistad Reports.

Cover of Kevin Young's
Ardency.

Poet Kevin Young has now provided the fullest poetic treatment of the Amistad Event in Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011). Young, who is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English and curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University, was inspired by the letters written by the Amistad Africans while jailed during the course of their legal pursuits. Those letters, housed in the American Missionary Association Archives at the Amistad Research Center, as well as other sources provided the historical background to Young's work, which he discussed in an interview with The Paris Review earlier this year.

Young's Ardency now joins the numerous titles listed in the Center's Bibliography of the Amistad Case. It, as well as other works by Young, are also housed and preserved at Amistad as part of the Center's library collection.

Posted by Christopher Harter

e-Amistad Reports May 2011 edition now online

2011-05-31T20:16:00.000-05:00

The May 2011 edition of e-Amistad Reports is now online. Amistad's quarterly electronic newsletter features news about the Center, its staff and collections, as well as upcoming events. This issue features articles on new donations to the Center, Amistad's zine and comics collections, the Countee Cullen Correspondence Online Project, news about the Chicago Friends of Amistad, and more. Check it out!

Irene Dobbs' European Travel Diary, vol. 7... Home Sweet Home!

2011-05-31T08:58:00.000-05:00

From March 7th to May 8th, 1952, John Wesley Dobbs and his wife Irene traveled throughout Europe to visit with their daughter Mattiwilda. It was the couple’s first trip to the continent. Irene Dobbs’ travel diary records their experiences as they toured France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and England.

Saturday and Sunday, May 17- 18, 1952
Back in New York, Mr. and Mrs. Dobbs visited with family and friends and took in a show by Nat King Cole.

Click on the images to read Irene's entries

Saturday, May 24, 1952
After leaving New York, the Dobbses drove down the East coast, stopping in New Jersey to visit a Masonic Lodge and in Durham, North Carolina and to stay with daughter Josephine’s family. They finally arrived in Atlanta on May 24, glad to be home.

Previous diary entries:

Diary entry: vol. 1

Diary entry: vol. 2

Diary entry: vol. 3

Diary entry: vol. 4
Diary entry: vol. 5
Diary entry: vol. 6

Posted by Kristin E. Wanek

(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Papers, Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Irene Dobbs' European Travel Diary, vol. 6

2011-05-27T08:15:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, May 7, 1952

The Dobbses boarded the Queen Elizabeth to begin the journey back across the Atlantic. Irene was happy to be eating on the ship once again as, “The food wasn’t so good in London.”

Click on the images to read Irene's entries

Saturday and Sunday, May 10- 11, 1952

The days on the Queen Elizabeth passed with bouts of sea sickness, letter writing, extravagant meals, and movies.

Previous diary entries:

Diary entry: vol. 1

Diary entry: vol. 2

Diary entry: vol. 3

Diary entry: vol. 4

Diary entry: vol. 5

Posted by Kristin E. Wanek
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

From the Archives: Paul Robeson and High School Athletics

2011-05-26T16:38:00.002-05:00

Identified by serendipity and chance, we have strong reason to believe that the photographs here depict Paul Robeson on the baseball and football teams at Somerville High School.

(Somerville High School football team, circa 1913; middle row, second from right)

Robeson, who graduated from Somerville High School in 1915, went on to letter in four sports at Rutgers University. Not only did Robeson become only the second African American All-American football player (in 1917 and again the next year), but he also won Rutgers' oratory competition all four years, was selected Phi Beta Kappa, and spoke at his graduation as the valedictorian of his class - all portending to the Renaissance man that Robeson soon became.

(Somerville High School baseball team, 1914; bottom row, second from right)

Ample primary materials on Robeson and his wife, Eslanda Goode Robeson, can be found at the Amistad Research Center, particularly in the papers of Lillian Voorhees, Carol Brice, and Countee Cullen. Additionally, the Center has a copy of the Robesons' FBI file.

Posted by Andrew Salinas
From the papers of Stanley M. Douglas, who is also depicted in the above photographs. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

Irene Dobbs' European Travel Diary, vol. 5

2011-05-25T10:33:00.000-05:00

From March 7th to May 8th, 1952, John Wesley Dobbs and his wife Irene traveled throughout Europe to visit with their daughter Mattiwilda. It was the couple’s first trip to the continent. Irene Dobbs’ travel diary records their experiences as they toured France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and England.

Monday, April 28, 1952
Still in Holland, Irene’s birthday was celebrated with tulips and a visit to the Hague to introduce themselves to a family of a prominent Dutch Masons.

Click on the images to read Irene's entries

Friday, May 2, 1952
The Dobbs’ European excursion concluded in London, where they made daily sightseeing tours despite the rainy, cloudy weather.

Previous diary entries:

Diary entry: vol. 1

Diary entry: vol. 2

Diary entry: vol. 3

Diary entry: vol. 4

Posted by Kristin E. Wanek
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Zine Collection to chronicle self-expression by zinesters of color

2011-05-23T15:33:00.000-05:00

Zine \zēn\ n [abbreviation for the word magazine]: a small-circulation, self-published, non-commercial publication of original or appropriated text and images that focuses on the self-expression of the author or authors.

Before there were blogs and Facebook, there were zines - small, self-published booklets that were often photocopied, stapled, and circulated among one's community in order to provide an outlet on topics ranging from racism and classism to the environment, musical genres, or just daily life. The history of zines is often traced back to science fiction fanzines beginning in the 1930s, but zines as they are know today emerged during the 1980s as do-it-yourself publications created, published, and distributed by individuals as an alternative to more commercial, mainstream magazines.

A sampling of zines recently
acquired by Amistad.

While zines have provided outlets for many voices, as similarly mentioned in a recent blog entry on the new Comics and Graphic Novels Collection at Amistad, diversity among zine writers has been a concern for those who create and read zines, as well as those with an interest in collecting them. Since the 1990s, a number of libraries have recognized the value of documenting these publications, and zines have become a popular area of study among students and academics. However, "zines of color" as they are commonly called (zines by African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, etc.) make up a small percentage of the zines produced and those collected by archives and libraries.

To assist in documenting zines that provide a voice to underrepresented communities, Amistad has begun to collect zine titles that chronicle those voices. Center staff are currently seeking donations of relevant materials in good condition to add to the Center's growing Zine Collection. Materials added into the collection will be listed in a planned online database that will make the collection information accessible to scholars across the globe. If you are interested in donating materials or learning more about the collection, please contact Director of Library and Reference Services Christopher Harter at (504) 862-3222 or reference@amistadresearchcenter.org.

Posted by Christopher Harter
(Image from the Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

From the Archives

2011-05-20T16:48:00.003-05:00

Post Rapture Journal. Vol. 1, no. 1.

Posted by Andrew Salinas
From the Homer C. McEwen papers. Image may not be reproduced without permission.

Plessy v. Ferguson Anniversary

2011-05-18T15:59:00.001-05:00

Today marks the 115th anniversary of the ruling in the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case that originated right here in New Orleans. On May 18, 1896, the United States Supreme Court upheld the earlier ruling of the Louisiana Supreme Court, which in turn upheld the constitutionality of the "separate but equal" law of 1890.

At the Amistad Research Center, there are many avenues for primary source research on the Plessy case, particularly in the papers of A. P. Tureaud, Charles Rousseve, and Nils Douglas.

The pamphlet depicted here reflects the keen interest of the Plessy case among contemporary African American lawyers, most notably Louis A. Martinet. Martinet, in his newspaper The Crusader, decried the original "separate car bill" in an editorial shortly after its 1890 ratification. Subsequent generations of African American lawyers, including Douglas and Tureaud, researched the legacy of the Plessy case.

Posted by Andrew Salinas
(Image from the Charles Rousseve papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Irene Dobbs' European Travel Diary, vol. 4

2011-05-17T10:25:00.000-05:00

Sunday April 20, 1952
After reuniting in Rome, the Dobbs traveled on to Florence and then Venice. Irene wrote about St. Mark’s Cathedral, the gondolas, and the pigeons of this “fairyland town.”

Irene, John Wesley, and Mattiwilda Dobbs in Venice


Click on the images to read Irene's entries

Saturday, April 26, 1952
Upon arriving in Amsterdam, Irene Dobbs was immediately impressed by the “riot of colors” of Holland’s infamous tulips.

Previous diary entries:

Diary entry: vol. 1

Diary entry: vol. 2

Diary entry: vol. 3

Posted by Kristin E. Wanek
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Irene Dobbs' European Travel Diary, vol. 3

2011-05-17T08:11:00.000-05:00

While John Wesley Dobbs traveled on his own, Irene and Mattiwilda vacationed in Sorrento and took excursions to the Isle of Capri and Pompeii. Here, Irene described Easter Sunday in Sorrento and referred to the celebration the next day as “a regular Mardi Gras.”

Click on the image to read Irene's entries


John Wesley Dobbs' Solo Trip Itinerary

Previous diary entries:

Diary entry: vol. 1

Diary entry: vol. 2

Posted by Kristin E. Wanek
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Irene Dobbs' European Travel Diary, vol. 2

2011-05-11T09:26:00.004-05:00

Tuesday, March 12, 1952

John Wesley and Irene Dobbs’ first destination was Cherbourg, France where they were met by Mattiwilda (or “Geekie” as she is known to the family). They took a train to Paris where the Dobbs would spend two weeks sightseeing. Irene wrote about seeing the Unesco Building, the United Nations, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and Versailles.

Click on the images to read Irene's entries

Sunday, March 30, 1952

The Dobbs traveled to Geneva and then Rome where Mr. and Mrs. Dobbs would part ways; he on a “flying trip” to Athens while Irene went on to Sorrento accompanied by Mattiwilda.

Previous diary entry:
Diary entry: vol. 1

Posted by Kristin E. Wanek
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Irene Dobbs' European Travel Diary, 1952

2011-05-10T10:36:00.002-05:00

From March 7th to May 8th, 1952, John Wesley Dobbs and his wife Irene traveled throughout Europe. It was the couple’s first trip to the continent. Irene Dobbs’ travel diary records their experiences as they toured France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and England.

In France, they met their daughter, Mattiwilda, who was living overseas pursuing her career as a coloratura soprano. Mattiwilda traveled with her parents during the two-month journey, parting occasionally for performances. For two weeks, John Wesley Dobbs, left Irene and Mattiwilda in Sorrento, Italy, while he traveled on his own visiting Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Egypt.

March 6, 1952
The Dobbs boarded the Queen Elizabeth in New York City directly after attending a N.A.A.C.P. meeting at Madison Square Garden and Irene began writing in her diary before the boat set sail at midnight. She gave a detailed description of the “wonderful boat,” their accommodations, activities, and the food.


Click on the pages above to read Irene Dobbs' first entry

Irene Dobbs aboard the Queen Elizabeth

Posted by Kristin E. Wanek
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

John Wesley Dobbs Family papers: The Six Dobbs Daughters

2011-05-09T11:59:00.003-05:00

L to R, June Dobbs Butts, Millicent Dobbs Jordan, Mattiwilda Dobbs Janzon, Willie Dobbs Blackburn, Irene Dobbs Jackson, Josephine Dobbs Clement

John Wesley Dobbs taught his daughters to never accept segregation unless it was absolutely necessary. He forbade them from going to segregated theaters or amusement venues because it was "no pleasure to go in the back door." He often worked numerous jobs to ensure he could provide for his daughters' education. All six daughters graduated from Spelman College, obtained master's degrees, and two earned their doctorates.

Dr. Irene "Renie" Dobbs Jackson (1908-1999), the eldest daughter, is the mother of the first African American mayor of Atlanta, Maynard Jackson Jr. (1938-2003). She was the first African American to obtain a library card from the Atlanta Public Library. She graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College (1925) and earned her master's and doctorate degrees (1956) in French from the University of Grenoble and the University of Toulouse in France, respectively. She also served as the head of the French department at Spelman and as a chair of the Modern Languages department of North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina.


Maynard Jr.'s graduation from Morehouse, June 1956

Proclamation, City of Atlanta: "Irene Carolyn Dobbs Jackson Day."

Willie Dobbs Blackburn (1910- ), the second born, graduated at the top of her class from Spelman College (1931) and received her master's degree from Atlanta University (1934). She moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where she served as chairman of the language division of Jackson State University. The Willie Dobbs Blackburn Language Arts Building on Jackson State University's campus is named in her honor.

Millicent Dobbs Jordan (1911-1991), the middle daughter, was a college professor especially interested in Africa, African American history, and African art. During her lifetime, she made frequent trips to the continent of Africa. She received her bachelor's degree from Spelman College (1933) and her master's degree in speech and drama from Columbia University (1938). She returned to Spelman to teach English and African American literature. She also taught at Georgia State, Arkansas State, and Morris Brown Colleges.

Millicent Dobbs Jordan with husband Dr. Robert H. Jordan and children: Robert, and twin boys James and Dobbs

Josephine Dobbs Clement (1918-1998), the forth born, was a community advocate and civil rights leader focused on the political and social justice movements of Durham, North Carolina. She graduated from Spelman in 1937 College and received her master's degree from Columbia University the following year. After moving to Durham in the late 1940s, Clement was actively involved in desegregating the YWCA and the League of Women's Voters. She was appointed to the Durham City-County Charter Commission and also chaired the city's board of education. She was also a member of the city-county library board in Durham, a director of Durham's Better Health Foundation, and a volunteer worker at the Durham Children's House. The Josephine Dobbs Clement Early College High School in Durham was named in her honor.

Josephine Clement for Durham City Board of Education

Mattiwilda "Geekie" Dobbs Janzon (1925- ), the fifth born, is an internationally-known concert performer and one of the first African Americans to sing at the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. She received her bachelor's degree in music and Spanish from Spelman College (1946), where she graduated first in her class. She moved to New York and pursued vocal lessons with German soprano Lottie Leonard while studying Spanish at Columbia University, where she ultimately earned her master's degree (1948). She vowed never to sing to a segregated audience and performed many major festivals and opera houses throughout Europe and the United States. Upon retiring from the stage in 1974, she taught at the University of Texas, Spelman, and Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Mary McLeod Bethune with Mattiwilda Dobbs, undated

June Dobbs Butts, undated

Dr. June Dobbs Butts (1928- ), the youngest daughter, is one of the first African American sexologists. She obtained her bachelor's degree in sociology from Spelman College (1948) and her master's degree in counseling (1950) and doctorate in family life education from Columbia University. She taught in the psychology department at Fisk University, Tennessee State University, and Meharry Medical College. She also worked for the Masters and Johnson Institute, a clinical and research foundation which studied human sexuality. She has authored many books and articles on sex, teenage pregnancy, and AIDS.

Posted by Amber L. Moore
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

John Wesley Dobbs Family papers (1873-2001)

2011-05-09T11:30:00.007-05:00

John Wesley Dobbs, undated

Amistad staff are pleased to announce that the guide for the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers is available online. John Wesley Dobbs, civil rights activist and patriarch of a prominent family in Atlanta, Georgia, fought for African American suffrage and integration. The father of six daughters, Dobbs insisted his children pursue excellence and stressed the importance of education and first class citizenship. He founded the Georgia Voters League (1935) and headed the Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Freemasons (1932-1961).

J.W. Dobbs and sister Willie, circa 1890

Dobbs, son of William and Minnie M. (nee Hendricks), was born on March 26, 1882, in Kennesaw, Georgia. When Dobbs was two years old; his parents separated and his mother moved to Savannah, Georgia, to find work. For the first nine years of his life, Dobbs and older, sister Willie, lived with their paternal grandparents on a farm in near Marietta, Georgia. In 1891, Minnie sent for her children to live with her in Savannah. There, Dobbs completed grammar school (1897) at West Broad Street School while working various jobs, such as delivering the Savannah Press newspaper and shining shoes at the local barber shop.

At the age of 15, Dobbs moved to Atlanta where he obtained his high school diploma from the Atlanta Baptist College (Morehouse College) in 1901. He enrolled in the freshman class of Morehouse College, but left shortly thereafter to return to Savannah to take care of his ailing mother. Although he never earned his college degree, he maintained "a thirst for knowledge" and independently studied literature, history, and philosophy throughout his life. In 1903, he took the civil service examination and was certified with the railway mail service for the Atlanta to Nashville mail run, a post he held for 32 years. He started as a clerk and was later promoted to Chief Clerk in charge of a crew of white men.

In 1906, he married Irene Ophelia Thompson (1885-1972) of Columbus, Mississippi, and the couple bore six daughters: Irene Carolyn, Willie Juliet, Millicent Doris, Josephine Ophelia, Mattiwilda, and June Serena.

June 1946, Fortieth Wedding Anniversary: Irene, June, Mrs. Dobbs, Willie, Mr. Dobbs, Millie, and Josephine

Excerpt from a love letter from J.W. Dobbs to Irene (1905)


Invitation- Wedding of Irene Thompson to John Wesley Dobbs

Marriage Certificate- John Wesley Dobbs and Irene Thompson, 1906

He joined the Prince Hall Freemasons, a fraternal order which attracted the black middle class, in 1911. He served as the Grand Lodge Officer (1914-1924) and Secretary-treasurer of the Masonic Relief Association (1924-1924), which was the financial department of the Grand Lodge. In 1932, he was elected as Grand Master of the State in the United Supreme Council, Thirty-Three Degree, Southern Jurisdiction and re-elected every year for the remainder of his life.

In 1935, he founded the Atlantic Civic and Political League and became first president. The goal of the league was "to awaken Atlanta Negroes to their civic and political consciousness" through the use of the ballot. He was also the founder and president of the Georgia Voters League which registered approximately 175,000 African American voters in 1961. He headed the Georgia State-Wide Registration Committee, co-founded the Atlanta Negro Voters League, and served as vice-chairman of the Georgia State Central Committee of the Republican Party and national vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The papers document the personal and professional lives of the John Wesley Dobbs family of Atlanta, Georgia. The key topics are civil rights, education, integration, race relations, and African American suffrage. The main strengths are the civil rights activities of the family as well as J.W. Dobb's tenure as Grand Master of Prince Hall Masonic Grand Lodge of Georgia. The collection encompasses 5.8 linear feet of correspondence, photographs, programs, sound recordings, speeches, and news clippings.

Posted by Amber L. Moore
(Images from the John Wesley Dobbs Family papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Cataloging of Tom Dent Library completed

2011-04-28T15:39:00.000-05:00

Poet and playwright
Tom Dent

When authors are asked "What makes a good writer?", a common answer is "A good writer starts as a good reader." This oft-quoted maxim is an excellent way to describe the relationship between poet and playwright Tom Dent and his personal library, which is housed at the Amistad Research Center along with Dent's personal papers. The cataloging of Dent's library, totaling over 1560 titles, was recently completed by cataloger Laura Chilton.

Rather than a collection consisting solely of "high spots" of African American literarture and history, Dent's collection is a working library that reflects his associations with a variety of fellow writers and publishers, his interests in music and modernist drama, and served as resource for Dent's research and writing. The collection is particularly strong in African American small press publishers, such as Dudley Randall's Broadside Press, Haki R. Madhubuti's Third World Press, and Naomi Long Madgett's Lotus Press, and greatly expands Amistad's holding by these seminal publishers of African American poetry and prose.

Inscription from artist Tom Feelings to
Tom Dent in Dent's copy of Feelings'
The Middle Passage.

A number of the books contain Dent's annotations, which provide insight into Dent's use and analysis of the books he owned, as well as inscriptions from friends and fellow authors, such as Felipe Smith, Andrew Young, Alvin Aubert, Tom Feelings, Kamau Brathwaite, Kalamu ya Salaam, Jerry Ward, Lorenzo Thomas, and others.

The Tom Dent Library is cataloged in Tulane University's library catalog and can be located by performing a keyword search using the term "Dent Thomas C former owner" in quotation marks.

Posted by Christopher Harter
(Top image from the Tom Dent Papers. Bottom image from the Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Amistad begins Comics and Graphic Novels Collection

2011-04-27T11:11:00.002-05:00

Issue #1 of Barack the
Barbarian

Following his election as President in November 2008, one of Barack Obama’s advisors gave an interview to a reporter from a British newspaper in which it was revealed that President Obama collected Spiderman and Conan the Barbarian comic books. A few months later, the newly elected president appeared on the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #583 for the story “Spidey Meets the President!” President Obama’s depiction within comic books actually dates to July 2007, when then Senator Obama appeared in an issue of LicensableBear TM, but since his inauguration, he has appeared in over eleven comic books, including Barack the Barbarian, which depicts the President as a Conan-style figure in adventures rife with political satire.

Depictions of African Americans and other underrepresented minorities within comic books and comic strips have typically been characterized by common racial stereotypes throughout the years. African American characters typically spoke in dialect, World War II-themed superhero comics (like Captain America) battled buck-toothed, slant-eyed Japanese villains, and Latinos were usually depicted with sombreros or as crazed Pancho Villa-like revolutionaries. The list goes on and on.

This situation was fueled in many respects by the fact that the comics industry had very few minority writers, artists, and publishers. There were, however, exceptions to the rule. Jackie Ormes’ 1950s-era Torchy Brown character has been cited as a progressive representation of African Americans and women. George Herriman’s Krazy Kat is considered by many to be one of the masterpieces of 20th century comic art. Artists such as Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez have worked within the mainstream superhero realm of DC and Marvel comics for many years, and the 1990s saw a rise in diversity of themes, artists, writers, and publishers within the comics industry. Today, publishers such as Blue Corn Comics and artists such as Kyle Baker, Gene Yang, and Keith Knight bring a wider voice to comics and graphic novels.

Recent publications about African
Americans, Native Americans, and
Latinos in comics are aiding
Amistad in its new collecting area.

In order to document the history of diversity within comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels (both the highs and the lows), the Amistad Research Center is embarking on a new area of collecting. Center staff are currently seeking donations of relevant materials in good condition to add to the Center's growing Comics and Graphic Novels Collection. Materials added into the collection will be listed in a planned online database that will make the collection information accessible to scholars young and old across the globe. If you are interested in donating materials or learning more about the collection, please contact Director of Library and Reference Services Christopher Harter at (504) 862-3222 or reference@amistadresearchcenter.org.

Posted by Christopher Harter
(Images from the Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

"Richmond Barthé: Builder of Pictures" now on display

2011-04-21T16:40:00.004-05:00

Barthé with his Mask of a
Boy, circa 1931.

The Amistad Research Center is pleased to announce the opening of its latest exhibition, Richmond Barthé: Builder of Pictures, which is on display at the Center through July 8, 2011. This exhibition celebrates the life of Mississippi-born artist Richmond Barthé. The subject of a recent biography by art historian Margaret Rose Vendryes, Barthé is known for his eclectic and sensual visual language that allowed him to create an oeuvre that defied race and sexual orientation while, at the same time, elevating Black subjects above contemporary caricatures to render them timeless.

Taken mostly from the Richmond Barthé Papers at the Amistad Research Center, the materials on display include letters, photographs, sketches, writings, and sculptures related to his artistic journey from a student in Chicago to Harlem Renaissance star to expatriate in Jamaica. The exhibition checklist is available on Amistad's website. The display is open during the Center's hours of M-F, 8:30-4:30.

Individuals interested in Barthé's life and works should also make plans to visit the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art, which is currently showing the exhibition Richmond Barthé: The Seeker, curated by Margaret Rose Vendryes.

Posted by Christopher Harter
(Image from the Richmond Barthé Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

New Orleans Public School Desegregation Panel Now on YouTube

2011-04-19T15:01:00.000-05:00

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of public school desegregation in New Orleans, the Amistad Research Center, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice and the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, Arkansas, presented a series of panels by participants in the school integrations, as well as scholars of the topic.

The Amistad Research Center is pleased to announce that the reunion discussion with Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost Williams, Gail Etienne Stripling, who integrated McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, and retired Deputy U.S. Marshals Herschel Garner, Al Butler, and Charlie Burks, who assisted with the integration efforts at McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz, is now available online via YouTube. Part I includes introductions and information about the panelists, while Part II includes the panel discussion.

The Amistad Research Center would like to thank the panel participants and the audience for an outstanding and informative evening. The Center also thanks Tulane University's Instructional Media Services for preparing and hosting the videos.

James H. Hargett: Honolulu (Hawaii) Ministry files, 1955-1958

2011-04-19T12:27:00.014-05:00

Rev. James H. Hargett

The Amistad Research Center received funding from The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Cataloging Hidden and Special Collections Program to process nine manuscript collections documenting Civil Rights era organizational history. The James H. Hargett papers were processed under the CLIR grant.

Reverend Dr. James Hester Hargett, community advocate and civil rights activist, spent over forty years as a United Church of Christ pastor in churches located in the states of California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. His ministry focused on the recruitment of African Americans in Christian service and activities in the areas of community advocacy, education, human relations, mental health, and social justice.

Hargett was born on July 24, 1930, in Greensboro, North Carolina, the son of Afro-Christian pastor Reverend Frederick A. Hargett and Florence A. Hargett. He received a bachelor's degree from Johnson C. Smith University (1952), a master's degree from Yale Divinity School (1955), and a Doctor of Ministry (1975) from Colgate-Rochester Seminary. His studies at Colgate-Rochester Seminary involved work with the peoples of Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, Haiti, and the sea islands of South Carolina. He was ordained to ministry of the Congregational Church in 1955, and served as an associate minister of the predominately Japanese American Church of the Crossroads United Church of Christ (UCC) in Honolulu from 1955 to 1958. He was the first African American minister called to serve a Protestant-established church in Hawaii.

The Honolulu (Hawaii) files consist of Hargett's personal minister's record book (1955-1957) which includes information about marriages he performed, as well as sermons he preached while in Hawaii.

Rev. Hargett's Personal Minister's Record Book, 1955-1957

A scrapbook containing correspondence, greeting cards, essays, ephemera, photographs, news clippings, and newsletters is also included. Of particular note in the scrapbook are Hargett's notes to his congregants published in The Crossroads News (September 1955), which detail his first airplane trip to Hawaii with his wife, Louilyn and infant daughter, Meloni; thank you notes from Roosevelt high school students after his speech on segregation (November 1955); programs for his installation service (December 11, 1955); a birth announcement for his son Darryl published in The Crossword Chimes (May 1957); and a handmade Christmas card and photograph (December 1957) sent to the Hargett family from the Andrew Young family.


The Crossroads News (September 1955)

Thank you notes from Roosevelt High school students, 1955

Rev. and Mrs. Hargett with daughter Meloni and newborn son Darryl

Christmas card from Rev. and Mrs. Andrew Young and family

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(Images from the James H. Hargett Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Marr-McGee: Family History papers, 1914-1994

2011-02-23T11:02:00.000-06:00

The Family History papers of the Marr-McGee Family papers contain both original and secondary materials documenting the genealogy of the African American and Caucasian branches of the Marr family of Virginia and New England, as well as, the McGee family. Warren Marr II, the unofficial family historian, thoroughly researched his paternal and maternal familial lines in attempts to shed light on his diverse background. Marr's great-great grandparents were John Quincy Marr, the first Confederate casualty of the Civil War and Eliza Nickens, his Cherokee mistress. See images below.

John Quincy Marr, undated

Eliza Nickens, undated

In 1967, Warren published a volume titled, Genealogy of the Marr Family in the United States, registered it with the Library and Congress, and then circulated it throughout the Marr family. Before Marr published his volume, many family members had known nothing about their genealogy. The materials include a copy of Warren’s volume on the Marr family genealogy and family tree, as well as biographical information of family members. Of particular note is Marr’s, The Marr Family: What Do We Know? (November 1987) which gives a brief summary of the genealogy of the Marr family of Virginia and New England.

Below: Marr House, Warrenton, Virginia. Erected 1830. One of the show places of Warrenton. Home of Captain John Quincy Marr.

Also included is Marr's book, The McGee Family: Mid-1800 to 1994 which contains his recollections of old family history, data sheets from family members in 1986, and reprints of published biographical articles about the McGee family. Family members were asked to complete biographical data sheets which asked for their names, their parent’s names, birthplace, educational background, employment experience, and organizational membership and honors. The data sheets for nearly fifty McGee relatives are included in the materials.

Below: McGee Family before 1915. (Top, left to right) Charles, Ruth, Lewis, Antoinette, Grace. (Bottom) Charles Armstead, Gay Ruth, Richard

A full run of The Mars Exchange (1978-1985), a family newsletter started by Nancy Miller, is available and its purpose was to gather and distribute all Marrs family material (including all spellings of the surname). The notes and clippings contain wedding announcements, samples of the tartans of Scottish clans, and sketches of the House of Mar [sic] Coat of Arms. A brief outline of the McGee Family History secured from Gay Ruth Ankrum McGee (maternal grandmother) is also included, as well as, Warren Marr’s handwritten notes.

Of particular note are the papers and records of various Marr-McGee family members. These materials include funeral programs, sermons, obituaries, the original marriage license (1915) of Marr’s parents, a handwritten autobiography of Warren Q. Marr, Sr., a copy of Warren Q. Marr, III’s manuscript, Dedicated to Women with Love (1982), among other items. The Marr-McGee Family Papers are currently being processed as part of the Amistad Research Center’s Hidden Collections project funded by the Council of Library and Information Resources. The papers largely document the lives and careers of Warren Marr, II, his wife Carmel, and his sister Grace Marr Nugent.

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(Images from the Marr-McGee Family Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Marr-McGee Family Papers: Early Entrepreneur files

2011-02-09T08:35:00.004-06:00

The Warren Marr Management files and the House of Marr, Inc. files of the Marr-McGee Family Papers document the early entrepreneurial endeavors of Warren Q. Marr II. Both companies were established by Marr and represented his interests in the creative arts and printing.

In 1942, Marr created his own management company, Warren Marr Management, which promoted budding authors and classical musicians. These files include a brief write-up about Marr, the establishment of his company, correspondence, contracts and paraphernalia relating to Marr’s many clients.

During 1947-1948, Marr presented “five concerts in artistic good taste” at Times and Town Halls in New York which featured five of his clients: Coreania Hayman, soprano; Ozan Marsh, pianist; William Veasey, baritone; Patricia Benkman, pianist; and Kathryn Ward; soprano.

Below is a promotional flyer for the 1947-1948 concert series (Click to enlarge):

Marr was also the proprietor of the House of Marr, Inc., which specialized in “art” printing and greeting cards. These files (1950-1962) include correspondence, invoices, legal documents and minutes. However, the bulk of the materials include printing samples, such as Christmas and other greeting cards, pamphlets, programs and stationary.

Below are some samples of Christmas cards produced by House of Marr, Inc.(Click to enlarge):

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(Images from the Marr-McGee Family Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Marr-McGee Family Papers: Grace Marr Nugent (1919-1969)

2011-02-08T10:53:00.000-06:00

Grace Elizabeth Marr Nugent, the first African American nurse to hold the positions of instructor at Teachers College, Columbia, and senior supervisor of nursing education in the New York State Department of Education, was the younger sister of Warren Q. Marr II.

Above: Grace Marr Nugent, undated. Click image to enlarge.

Daughter of Rev. Warren Q. Marr, Sr. and Cecelia A. Marr (née McGee), Grace was born on January 25, 1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received her early education at Peabody High School in Pittsburgh. After obtaining her nursing diploma (1941) from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, she stayed at the school and taught chemistry (1941-1944) eventually serving as director of education (1949-1951).

Grace was hired to teach microbiology at the Teachers College of Columbia University in New York (1944-1949), where she received both her bachelor of science (1945) and master’s degrees (1948). She was the first African American to hold a position on Columbia’s staff. In 1951, she achieved another first for African Americans when she became supervisor of nursing education for the New York State Department of Education, a position she held for two years.

In 1953, when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), of which she had been a longtime member, merged with the American Nurses Association (ANA), she became assistant executive secretary (1953-1959) of the combined organization working in the Intergroup Relations Unit. Her responsibility was to travel the country in order to monitor and enforce the group’s race relations program. Upon leaving her position at the ANA, Grace devoted the rest of her life to “Operation Democracy,” a self-help program she founded to help attain “universal acceptance and understanding of people of all races and cultures.”

Grace was a lifetime member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the American Nurses’ Association, the National League for Nursing, the American Academy of Political Science, the Commission on Community Organizations, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Commission Committee on Problems Arising from Integration, the Committee of Human Relations, the National Council of Negro Women, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was married Richard Bruce Nugent (1952-1969), a Harlem Renaissance writer of fiction and poetry.

Grace Marr Nugent died on December 4, 1969.

The Marr-McGee Family Papers are currently being processed as part of the Amistad Research Center’s Hidden Collections project. The papers largely document the lives and careers of Warren Marr, II, his wife Carmel, his sister Grace Marr Nugent, and related families.

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(Image from the Marr-McGee Family Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

My Internship Experience: Processing the Jason Berry Papers

2011-01-31T09:56:00.000-06:00

My name is Beryl and I’m a graduate student in Museum Studies at Southern University at New Orleans. For the past few months, I have been interning in the processing department at the Amistad Research Center. The initial reaction when entering the reading room is one of respect as historical facts surround you. Every person in the Center from the director to the permanent employees, interns and volunteers, plays a vital part in the Center. I have found working in an environment focused on cultural preservation and learning the archival method to be of value. I am currently processing the Jason Berry papers (1966-1987), which are an important contribution to researchers of the civil rights movement. The Berry papers document the development of a writing career during a period when the landscape of American society was rapidly changing.

Berry, a New Orleans native, is an acclaimed author, prolific journalist, and film director who has written extensively on Southern politics, culture and religion. The documentation of Berry’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement provides interesting insight from the perspective of a young career-minded college graduate who landed a job as press secretary for Charles Evers during his bid for governor of Mississippi in 1971. Charles Evers, mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, was the brother of slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evers. Berry published his first book, Amazing Grace: With Charles Evers in Mississippi (1973), which provided insight into Southern election practices, voter fraud, and violence at the polls.

The Berry papers focus primarily on race relations, politics, and voting practices in Mississippi during the 1970s. Articles, audio-taped speeches, correspondence, and video productions related to Evers’ gubernatorial campaign make up the bulk of this collection. Also included is correspondence from Berry’s mentors: David Chandler, of Life Magazine; Hodding Carter III, of the Delta Democratic Times; and Berry Morgan and Walker Percy, both southern writers who Berry consulted for advice.

I believe that Berry’s perseverance is impressive and inspiring. He never gave up his love for investigative reporting despite whether the subject matter was controversial or un-popular. Processing the Jason Berry papers has been a very rewarding experience for me.

Posted by Beryl Hunter

Keeping the Music Alive

2011-01-20T20:36:00.002-06:00

“Playing in that band would mold my life. I had no idea back then that I would actually become a musician.” – Harold Battiste, Unfinished Blues: Memoirs of a New Orleans Music Man

Harold Battiste

When Harold Battiste began playing clarinet in the school band at New Orleans’ Gilbert Academy, he initiated a lifetime of musical innovation and accomplishments. As the founder of All for One (AFO) Records, the first African American musician-owned record label, Battiste has documented the second fifty years of New Orleans jazz by recording some of the top musical talent in the Crescent City. Apart from his AFO work, Mr. Battiste has played with and arranged or produced works from such artists as Sam Cooke, Dr. John, Tom Waits, Sonny and Cher, and others.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of AFO Records, as well as completion of the processing of the Harold R. Battiste Papers at the Amistad Research Center. In celebration of both events, Amistad is presenting the exhibition Harold Battiste: Keeping the Music Alive from January 18 through March 31, 2011 in the Center’s Exhibition Gallery. Highlighting Mr. Battiste’s career and his many musical associations, the exhibition includes letters, photographs, musical scores, AFO business records, phonograph records, and other highlights drawn mainly from his papers.

The Harold R. Battiste Papers measure 39 linear feet and include correspondence, personal and family records, photographs, collected publications and news clippings, records related to Mr. Battiste's teaching career at the University of New Orleans, and audiovisual materials. Also included are business records related to AFO Records and other music-related relationships led by Battiste, as well as an extensive collection of scores, copyright notices, and other records of works authored, arranged, or produced by Mr. Battiste.

Please join us in celebrating Mr. Battiste’s and AFO’s efforts to “keep the music alive.”

R. Sargent Shriver, 1915-2011

2011-01-20T10:44:00.002-06:00


Letter to James Herman Robinson from Shriver.

The Amistad Research Center mourns the recent passing of R. Sargent Shriver, pioneer for social change, founding director of the Peace Corps, and quiet champion of civil rights. Shriver and his wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics among many other accomplishments in a life devoted to social change, are the only husband-wife team to have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Executive Order 10924, issued by President Kennedy on March 1, 1961, established the Peace Corps, with Sargent Shriver serving as its founding director for five years. As its first director, Shriver laid the foundation for the Peace Corps, often noted as the most lasting contribution of the presidency of John F. Kennedy, Shriver’s brother-in-law. The Peace Corps was modeled after Operation Crossroads Africa (OCA), a volunteer organization which has sent hundreds of North American volunteers annually to Africa since its founding in the late 1950s. OCA founder, James Herman Robinson, served as an intimate advisor to Shriver and other key Peace Corps personnel in its earliest years, and Robinson was acknowledged by President Kennedy himself as the “progenitor of the Peace Corps.”

Later this year, the Amistad Research Center will host an exhibition and related programming to mark the relationship between Operation Crossroads Africa and the Peace Corps. Please stay tuned for further details.

The Amistad Research Center holds over fifty letters between James Herman Robinson and Sargent Shriver, delineating Operation Crossroads Africa’s influence over the design and ethos of the Peace Corps. These, as with the above letter, are found in the James Herman Robinson papers.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(Image from the James Herman Robinson Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Warren Q. Marr’s Crisis Files: Jonestown, Guyana, 1978

2010-11-18T08:07:00.000-06:00

Processing an individual’s personal papers can bring to light interesting, and often little known, aspects about that person’s life and work. Recent work on the Marr-McGee Family Papers has revealed a file of materials related to the now infamous Peoples Temple, the organization founded by Jim Jones in the 1950s and the center of a mass-suicide in Guyana, South America, in 1978. The documents and photographs provide a look at how the Temple viewed itself and was viewed by others as supporting civil rights.

Warren Q. Marr II served as the editor of The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1974 to 1981. During his tenure, Marr periodically received submissions to the magazine from a wide variety of sources. In July of 1978, he received a 16-page manuscript with accompanying photographs from Richard Tropp of Jonestown, Guyana. Tropp, a member of the Peoples Temple, hoped Marr would find his words “suitable for publication” in order to show the church in a positive light as it had come under increasing scrutiny by the media.

Click image above to enlarge and read the caption.

Tropp, chief of the Temple’s letter writing unit, enclosed a manuscript titled, “On the Frontier for Social Justice” which detailed the origin and mission of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. It begins:

“In the tropical forests of northern Guyana, on one of the world’s largest frontiers, an incredible invasion is taking place. Close to 1,500 people have come from America’s inner-cities to make a new start. They are part of perhaps the most militant civil rights church in the United States: Peoples Temple.”

Click image above to enlarge and read the caption.

Long before he founded the Peoples Temple, Jim Jones preached equality. He began his first church in Indianapolis, Indiana, after he was prevented from integrating the congregation where he served as a student pastor. As the leader of the Temple, Jones stressed socialist and equalitarian values and encouraged membership that crossed racial and economic lines. Eventually, African American membership in the church reached nearly 50%.

Marr also received a letter from Grandvel A. Jackson, first vice president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, encouraging him to publish an article about Jonestown. Although Jackson was not a member of the Temple, he stated “the church and its congregation have been very supportive of the programs of the NAACP” and the article should receive “serious consideration for publication.”

However, four months following Tropp’s submission, he and 917 others died at Jonestown after Jim Jones ordered his congregants to drink cyanide-laced grape Kool-Aid. Marr’s files include clipped articles about the mass-suicide from the New York Times. Tropp’s submission was never printed in The Crisis, but these materials reflect what, for many, is likely a little known aspect of the story behind the Peoples Temple and its work in the area of race relations.

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(Images from the Marr-McGee Family Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

50th Anniversary of Public School Desegregation in New Orleans - This Weekend

2010-11-11T09:59:00.001-06:00

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of public school desegregation in New Orleans and the end to Amistad's year-long work to document and commemorate this historic event. Over the past months, the Center has entered into our online finding aid database the inventories for eleven collections of personal papers and organizational records related to school integration in New Orleans. Many items from these collections are currently on display in the Through a Crowd, Bravely exhibition.

This weekend, the Amistad Research Center, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice and the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, Arkansas, are presenting a series of panels by participants in the school integrations, as well as scholars of the topic. These public presentations are free and open to the public.

On Thursday, November 11th, at 6:00 pm, at the Louisiana Humanities Center, 938 Lafayette Street, Dr. Raphael Cassimere of the University of New Orleans will moderate a panel discussion on the conditions and activism in the city that led to the events of November 1960. The panel will feature Dr. Nikki Brown (UNO), Dr. Donald Devore (Univ. of South Alabama), and A.P. Tureaud, Jr.

On Saturday, November 13th, at 6:00 pm, Amistad Research Center will host a reunion discussion with Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost Williams, Gail Etienne Stripling and retired Deputy U.S. Marshals Herschel Garner, Al Butler, and Charlie Burks, who assisted with the integration efforts at McDonogh No. 19 and William Frantz. The discussion will take place in Freeman Auditorium in the Woldenberg Arts Center on the campus of Tulane University. This panel is being co-hosted by the Louisiana Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice and the U.S. Marshals Museum.

Posted by Christopher Harter

October 2010 e-Amistad Reports Newsletter Online

2010-11-01T16:00:00.002-05:00

The October 2010 edition of e-Amistad Reports is now online. This issue serves as the Center's Annual Fund Appeal and profiles some of Amistad's generous donors. Support from these individuals helps make our holdings more globally accessible, funds programming and outreach efforts, and assists us in preserving the rich history of contributions by African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the United States. Please read and enjoy this issue of e-Amistad Reports and consider your donation to the Amistad Research Center today.

Posted by Lee Hampton

Birthday Wishes to Two Musical Pioneers and Amistad Donors

2010-10-29T14:32:00.000-05:00

The Amistad Research Center would like to send birthday wishes to two individuals whose musical careers are well documented in the Center's archival collections -- Harold Battiste and Camilla Williams.

Harold Battiste

Composer, musician, educator, and record producer Harold R. Battiste celebrated his 79th birthday on October 28. In recognition of his accomplishments, the day was declared Harold Battiste Day by the City of New Orleans in 1998. As a jazz musician and record producer Mr. Battiste worked with such musicians as Sam Cooke, Sonny and Cher, Tom Waits, and Dr. John. He founded the first African American-owned record company, All for One (AFO) Records, in 1961. The label produced Barbara George’s hit record “I Know” as well as works by Ellis Marsalis, James Black, Melvin Lastie, Edward Blackwell, Alvin Batiste, and others. In 1989, Mr. Battiste joined Ellis Marsalis as part of the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of New Orleans.

Camilla Williams in the title role
for Madama Butterfly

Camilla Williams, a lyric soprano, has been credited with being the first African American female to hold a regular position with a leading United States opera company. Williams’ accolades are as follows: two-time winner of the Marian Anderson Award; prominent exponent of the title role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and protégé of the creator or the role, Geraldine Farrar; “Bess” in the first complete phonographic recording of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; performer of the title role in the Vienna premiere of Menotti’s Saint of Bleeker Street; recitalist; cultural ambassadress for the U.S. State Department; and college teacher of voice. Ms. Williams celebrated her 91st birthday on October 18.

The Amistad Research Center is honored to house the personal papers of Mr. Battiste and Ms. Williams and thanks them for allowing the Center to make both collections available to researchers worldwide.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Images from the Harold R. Battiste Papers and the Camilla Williams Papers. May not be reproduced without permission.)

New Grant Helps Center Preserve Its Audiovisual Holdings

2010-10-15T11:00:00.004-05:00

The Amistad Research Center is pleased to announce that it has received funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to identify and appraise the Center's substantial audiovisual holdings. To aid in this goal, Amistad welcomes our newest staff member, Brenda Flora, who brings extensive knowledge and experience working with audiovisual collections at the British Universities Film and Video Council's Newsfilm Online Project and the BBC, as well as library/archival experience from Tulane University's Recover Center and the University of New Orleans. She is a member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, the Louisiana Archives and Manuscripts Association, and the Greater New Orleans Archivists.

Approximately one quarter of the Center's archival collections contain some form of sound and/or moving image recordings. This project will allow for unprecedented access to these materials at Amistad, which are of increasing interest to the public, while at increasing risk due to technical obselesnce and physical deterioration as outlined in a recent publication sponsored by the Library of Congress.

Amistad's audiovisual holdings include oral history interviews,
musical performances, and other recordings in a variety of formats.

The Center’s audiovisual collections are of great significance both regionally, nationally, and internationally. Highlights include: the Kim Lacy Rogers-Glenda Stevens Oral History Collection, which chronicles the experience of New Orleans’ leaders in the Civil Rights Movement; the Tom Dent Papers, which contain hundreds of interviews with civil rights leaders in Mississippi and Louisiana, as well as the personal narratives of those most closely affiliated with the development of the twentieth century New Orleans jazz aesthetic; the American Committee on Africa Archives and the George Houser Film Collection, which chronicle African nationalist movements and the United States’ relation with Africa; the Saddest Days Oral History Collection, which represents one of the more substantive oral history collections in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; the J. Susannah Norton Papers and the Sybil Kein Papers, which document Caribbean and Creole folklore and endangered languages in North America and the Caribbean; and the Ed Pincus Film Collection, which consists of the raw film footage shot in 1960s Mississippi in the creation of two significant civil rights movement documentaries.

The Center also houses collections with substantial field recordings, performances, and interviews with some of the country’s most notable musicians. These include the personal papers of the following: Harold Battiste, who worked with musicians such as Sam Cooke, Sonny and Cher, and Dr. John, and founded the first African American musician-owned record company, All for One (AFO) Records; operatic singer Carol Brice; Anne Wiggins Brown, the original Bess in George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; William Warfield, who also gained notoriety in Porgy and Bess; Ellis Marsalis Jr., patriarch of America’s most noted jazz family; and famed composer and arranger of American gospel and spirituals Moses Hogan. Various collections of individual or family papers, such as the Robert and Lillie Mae Green Papers, include amateur film footage documenting the daily lives of middle-class African American families, which provides glimpses of social and economic factors in the lives of these families.

The NHPRC grant funds phase two of a three-phase project undertaken by Amistad to document its audiovisual holdings and the implementation of a formal preservation and reformatting program at the Center. We look forward to providing updates as we continue this project and make more of our sound and moving image materials available to researchers and the public.

Amistad's staff wishes to extend its appreciation to the NHPRC for this opportunity.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image provided courtesy of Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Varnette Patricia Honeywood, 1950-2010

2010-09-21T16:10:00.010-05:00

Artist and businesswoman, Varnette Patricia Honeywood, died September 12 in Los Angeles of cancer. Born December 27, 1950, in Los Angeles, she was a graduate of Spelman College and the University of Southern California. She taught art and administered art programs before partnering with her older sister, Stephanie, to establish a series of publishing and distribution companies (Black Lifestyles Today, Black Lifestyles Fine Art, and Black Lifestyles Classics). Celebrating themes of family, spirituality, and community, her colorful works, depicted cultural traditions and told the stories of the black experience in America. Her paintings, prints and collages have been exhibited in major galleries and museums, and adorn the covers of several adult and children’s books.

Varnette Honeywood wears an apron, at home with her mother (Center seated) and family on August 30, 2003.

In August of 2003, I visited Varnette and her mother in their Los Angeles home, where I spent an entire afternoon listening to Varnette detail her family’s rich history in Louisiana and Mississippi. Her parents, Lovie and Stepney Robinson Honeywood, were school teachers who migrated to Los Angeles from Louisiana and Mississippi. She shared her love for history and the journey of her family through photographs, letters, and documents. As Varnette described the business operations of her Black Lifestyles Companies, I discovered how she and Stephanie succeeded in getting positive images of black art into small galleries and bookstores. Attributing much of the business success to Stephanie’s organizational skills, she showed me how they packed and shipped orders for posters and note cards across the country. I listened, as she recalled Bill Cosby’s request for samples of her work. After loading her car with paintings and driving to meet with him, she said, “I was so surprised when he purchased everything”. That was the beginning of their partnership, which introduced her work to TV audiences. Several of Varnette’s paintings were included in the set decoration for The Cosby Show. She also partnered with Bill Cosby to illustrate twelve books in his award winning Little Bill Books for Beginning Readers.

On that August afternoon, I experienced authentic southern hospitality alive and well in Los Angeles. Varnette and Lovie prepared the most wonderful meal, and a delicious pastry called monkey bread. At the end of a long day of going through papers and assisting with dinner, Varnette carefully signed posters and inscribed a set of the Little Bill books for the Amistad Research Center. Then, with great care, she selected poems and writings from her sister, Stephanie, a gifted poet and author who died of multiple sclerosis in 2002. We talked of possible educational programs and an exhibition of her work at the Amistad Research Center. The following year, I had the opportunity to treat Varnette to a meal in my home with art historian Dr. Regenia A. Perry, and was introduced to Varnette’s New Orleans’ cousins. The following selection from Stephanie Honeywood’s writings, now preserved in the Varnette Honeywood Papers, highlights the legacy of Varnette Patricia Honeywood.

February, 1988

Order

Legacy: inheritance of wealth, stature, destiny.

We dedicate this effort to our parents, Lovie Varnette Allen and Stepney Robinson of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Your love of our family, your integrity, dignity, pride-and

Courage continues to inspire us.

Thank you for cherishing the wealth and traditions passed

to you and diligently guiding us as we learned them.

Ancestor Worship

Africans worship their elders and their ancestors. Every

Culture, for that matter, does.

The beginning of knowing who we are is to know where we

Came from. This is the key to knowing where we are, why

we are here and realizing the reality of this moment.

So thru the eyes and words of elders and ancestors, we know our history.

We thank God for you, Varnette. Thank you for sharing, for caring, and for continuing the story-telling of our people. We will all miss you.

Posted by Brenda Billips Square

(Top image courtesy of Spelman College Archives. Bottom image courtesy of Brenda Billips Square. Images may not be reproduced without permission.)

50th Anniversary of New Orleans Sit-In Protests

2010-09-17T15:07:00.002-05:00

This month marks the 50th anniversary of sit-in protests at the lunch counters of McCrory's and Woolworth's on Canal Street. As noted in a recent article in The Times-Picayune, and in Kim Lacy Rogers' book Righteous Lives: Narratives of the New Orleans Civil Rights Movement, though the demonstrators adhered to the nonviolent philosophy of the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, ardent segregationists were often violent in response. Demonstrators had pepper blown in their faces, coffee and ammonia poured on their heads, and were assaulted in the streets. New Orleans lunchcounters were slower to desegregate than most Southern cities, and picketing and sit-in demonstrations went on for over two years.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(From the Constance B. Harse papers, Amistad Research Center. Images may not be reproduced without permission.)

Essayists to Discuss Desegregation Movement in New Orleans

2010-09-17T11:56:00.003-05:00

Pamphlet issued by the community
organization Save Our Schools in 1960
and returned to the group by an irate
segregationist.

On Tuesday, October 12th, the Amistad Research Center will host two featured essayists during the opening of the exhibition Through a Crowd, Bravely: The 50th Anniversary of Public School Desegregation in New Orleans. The event will begin at 6:00 pm.

The program will feature essays by Southern University professors Dr. Clarence Holmes and Dr. Cynthia Levy. Dr. Levy's essay will discuss the role of New Orleans' Jewish community in the desegregation movement, especially around the time of the integration of William Frantz and McDonogh No. 19 elementary schools in November 1960. Dr. Holmes' essay provides his personal remembrances of integrating Warren Easton Senior High School in 1968.

The Through a Crowd, Bravely exhibition will run from October 4 - December 22, 2010, in the exhibition gallery of the Amistad Research Center. The exhibition will feature materials from the Center's archival, printed, and art collections that document not only the integration of the William Frantz and McDonogh No. 19 schools by Ruby Bridges, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost, and Leona Tate, but the events leading up to and beyond November 14, 1960.

As part of its commemoration of the anniversary, the Amistad Research Center is partnering with the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana State Museum/Civil Rights Museum Project, the U.S. Marshals Museum, and the Tulane University History Department for additional public events in November. Details on upcoming events are forthcoming. This exhibition and related events are funded in part by a grant from the Keller Family Foundation.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(From the Save Our Schools records, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Processing the Harold R. Battiste Papers

2010-09-16T13:36:00.000-05:00

In 1998, the City of New Orleans proclaimed October 28th as Harold Battiste Day in honor of New Orleans composer, musician, educator, and record producer Harold R. Battiste Jr. This recognition is one of many that Mr. Battiste has received throughout his lifetime, and his many honors and accomplishments are well documented in the Harold R. Battiste Papers currently being processed at the Amistad Research Center.

Mr. Battiste’s papers chronicle his career as a musical performer, professor of Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans, and the founder of All For One (AFO) Records, the first African American musician-owned record label. The collection includes correspondence, family records, photographs, news clippings, business records, and audio recordings. It is especially rich in musical scores composed and arranged by Mr. Battiste and others associated with AFO Records and New Orleans jazz dating from the 1960s onward.

Harold Battiste, Darlene Jones, and student assistant Newton
Hippolyte discuss the arrangement of Mr. Battiste's papers.

The Battiste papers have been of interest to researchers for a number of years and provided key information for publication of his recent memoir, Unfinished Blues: Memories of a New Orleans Music Man. However, final processing and arrangement of the papers will provide global access with an extensive finding aid posted in Amistad’s online database. The Center will mount an exhibition in honor of Mr. Battiste in early 2011. Stay tuned for more information in the near future.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image provided courtesy of Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Andrew Young to speak on Tom Dent

2010-08-20T11:56:00.002-05:00

Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young will speak in a Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture to commemorate an exhibition celebrating the life and career of New Orleans poet, playwright, and oral historian Tom Dent (1932-1998) currently on display at the Amistad Research Center.

Young, a New Orleans native, grew up with Tom Dent, and the two men shared many struggles in the fight for civil rights in the 1960s. Co-sponsored by the Amistad Research Center and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Young's talk, "My Journey with Tom," will take place on September 8 at 7 p.m. at Tulane University's Dixon Hall. Admission is free.

The Amistad exhibition, "Tom Dent: A Heavy Trip Through the South," examines Dent's life and career through his many literary artifacts, including letters, manuscripts, photographs and more. The exhibition runs through September 30th. Young's association with Tom Dent is detailed in the Tom Dent Papers at the Center, which also houses the papers of Andrew Young's mother, Daisy F. Young.

UPDATE: You can view a few images of Andrew young talk and visit to Amistad here.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image provided courtesy of Andrew Young. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Tom Dent Reception and Exhibition

2010-08-02T11:26:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the Center's reception honoring the life of New Orleans writer Tom Dent and the opening of the exhibition Tom Dent: A Heavy Trip Through the South. From old-time friends to young students who were introduced to Tom's work, the evening was filled with food, drink, stories, poems, remembrances, and laughter. Photographs from the evening can be found on Amistad's Facebook page, and are courtesy of Nika B. Carter. The Center sends a special thank you to the evening's featured speakers: John O'Neal, Kalamu ya Salaam, and Quo Vadis Breaux, as well as Brenda Marie Osbey, who read her poem "Requiem for a Tall Man" in honor of Tom.

l-r: Quo Vadis Breaux, Kalamu ya Salaam, and John O'Neal

Portions of the finding aid for the Tom Dent Papers are now online, and the entire finding aid should be completed by the end of August.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Image from the Amistad Research Center by Nika B. Carter. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Reception and Exhibition Honoring the Life of New Orleans Poet, Playwright, and Oral Historian Tom Dent

2010-07-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

The Amistad Research Center will host a reception celebrating the opening of the Tom Dent Papers and a related exhibition on the life and careers of one of New Orleans' most treasured poets, playwrights, and oral historians.

DATE:

Thursday, July 29, 6:00 pm

LOCATION:

Tilton Hall, Tulane University

The brief program will feature conversations about Tom Dent by John O'Neal, Artistic Director of Junebug Productions, and New Orleans poets Kalamu ya Salaam and Quo Vadis Breaux. The audience of friends and colleagues will be encouraged to participate in an "open mic" forum to share their personal reflections on Dent. More information about his life and work can be found here.

The exhibition, entitled Tom Dent: A Heavy Trip Through the South, will run through September 30, 2010, in the exhibition gallery of the Amistad Research Center. Taken largely from Dent's collection of personal papers housed at Amistad, materials on display relate Dent's early interest in writing, his departure and return to New Orleans, and the many theatrical, literary, and oral history projects he engaged in throughout his life.

In reviewing Dent's poetry, fellow poet and friend David Henderson said, "Magnolia Street is a heavy trip through New Orleans." Tom Dent's papers are indeed a heavy trip through the culture, history, and literature of the South during the late 20th century.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Images from the Tom Dent Papers, Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Beyond the Blues Closing Weekend Events

2010-07-07T08:53:00.000-05:00

The Amistad Research Center and New Orleans Museum of Art will close the Beyond the Blues exhibition with a weekend full of events July 9 - 11.

All events take place in the Great Hall or Stern Auditorium at NOMA.

Friday, July 9
NOMA open 10:00 am - 2:00 am Saturday

6:30 pm - Film screening of Endangered Species about the ongoing struggle to preserve the culture of New Orleans
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm - Live music by Tanya and Dorise (of Mother Tongue)
10:00 pm - 1:00 am - Live music by J. Monque'D Blues Band

Saturday, July 10
NOMA open 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

2:00 pm - Film screening of Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans

Sunday, July 11
NOMA open 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm - Family art making activities
2:00 pm - 4:30 pm - Voices of New Orleans performance featuring Chuck Perkins and Mardi Gras Indians

LOCATION:
New Orleans Museum of Art
One Collins C. Diboll Circle, City Park

ADMISSION:
LA residents (w/ photo ID): Adults, $8; Seniors (65+), $7; Children 3-17, $4; Children under 3, free
Out of state residents: Adults, $10; Seniors (65+), $9; Children 3-17, $5; Children under 3, free

Please join us as we celebrate the closing and successful run of the Beyond the Blues exhibition.

For more information, call (504) 862-3222.

Posted by Christopher Harter

Lloyd Davis, First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the MLK Center on Nonviolent Social Change

2010-06-14T11:25:00.000-05:00

Lloyd Davis (1928-2007) was a proponent of equal opportunities, a civil rights activist, and a fair housing advocate. Davis served as the first vice president and chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and was a longtime senior adviser for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Lloyd Davis, undated photograph

After graduating from Chicago's Tilden Technical High School in 1946, Davis enlisted in the United States Army. He was assigned to the 6th Armed Division at Fort Leonard, Missouri, where he was responsible for the administration of five companies, the supervision of a staff of non-commissioned officers, and the administration of the first program of racial integration at Fort Leonard.

Shortly after graduating from De Paul University, Davis enrolled in graduate school at Loyola University of Chicago in 1958. After graduating from Loyola, he accepted a position as Assistant Director of the New Haven Redevelopment Agency. He also served as the Director of the Dixwell Redevelopment and Renewal Project; the project mission was to relocate 928 families and demolish and renovate 382 structures in New Haven, Connecticut. Davis began his career with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1965 as an Intergroup Relations Specialist. His primary duties included the selection and planning of urban renewal areas, as well as determining the impact of urban renewal projects on cities.

In 1979, Davis became the first vice president and chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which had been founded by Coretta Scott King in 1968. In this capacity, Davis helped plan the building of the Martin Luther King Historic Site and lobbied Congress to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, which was celebrated for the first time in 1986. Davis also created a federal commission to promote, oversee, and raise money for the King Holiday.

The Amistad Research Center has started processing the Davis papers under a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. This collection reflects Davis’ work as a housing advocate and documents his tenure as the chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The papers include correspondence, photographs, programs, pamphlets, and biographical information.

Posted by Shannon Burrell

(Image from the Lloyd Davis Papers, Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

Chuck Perkins Trio Music & Spoken Word

2010-06-09T15:38:00.000-05:00

The Amistad Research Center in partnership with the New Orleans Museum of Art will present a music and spoken word performance by the Chris Perkins Trio. This performance builds upon the current Beyond the Blues exhibition at NOMA.

Poet and performer Chuck Perkins has garnered a lot of attention in New Orleans and beyond with his blend of spoken word and music. In addition to a host of local musicians and poets, Chuck has performed with former Poet Laureate Mark Strand, Mark Smith (creator of the Poetry Slam) and Umar Bin Hassan of The Last Poets.

In early 2009, Chuck performed to a sell-out crowd at New York's Bowery Poetry Club backed by Antoine Drye, Donald Edwards, Kevin Ferrell, Lezlie Harrison and Brian Lynch. He followed this performance with his first international showing at the Banlieues Bleues Blues Festival in Paris.

He ended the year by opening New Orleans' 2nd annual Song Writers Festival. His poetry appears in the best selling anthology Spoken Word Revolution and in his 2008 book Voices of the Big Easy: A Love Song for NOLA. Chuck has performed with many of New Orleans top musicians, including Donald Harrison, Henry Butler, Bill Summers, Nicholas Payton, Herlin Riley, Glen David Andrews, Dave Torkanowsky, and Shannon Powell to name a few.

Chuck's recent performance at The Jazz Gallery in New York City on May 15th with New Orleans piano great Henry Butler can be viewed here. Come see Chuck's unique blend of words and music as the Amistad Research Center and the New Orleans Museum of Art continue to celebrate the Beyond the Blues exhibition.

Date: Sunday, June 13

Time: 2:30pm-4:00pm

Location: Stern Auditorium, New Orleans Museum of Art

One Collins C. Diboll Circle, City Park

* FREE with Museum Admission*

NOMA ADMISSION PRICES

Louisiana Residents (with Photo ID)

Adults - $8; Seniors, Students, Military - $7; Children 3-17 - $4

Out-of-State Visitors

Adults - $10; Seniors, Students, Military - $9; Children 3-17 - $5

In Memoriam: Lesley Himes

2010-06-02T16:03:00.000-05:00

We report the very sad news of the passing of Lesley Himes, expatriate journalist and librarian, wife of author Chester Himes, and longtime advocate for the Amistad Research Center. She died in Spain after enduring a lengthy illness.

Lesley met Chester in Paris in 1959. The two were drawn to each other almost immediately. When he suffered a stroke in 1962, she became his caretaker and nurtured him back to health. After a lengthy engagement, the couple married in 1978, and for the next fourteen years lived in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. It was in Spain where both Chester and Lesley spent their final years.

In his second autobiography, My Life of Absurdity, Chester Himes describes his first impressions of his future wife, then Lesley Packard:

"I arrived in Paris about four o'clock the next morning and knocked at Lesley Packard's apartment and asked if she'd let me sleep there on the sofa the rest of the night. I had met Lesley before on one of my trips to Paris. She worked as a librarian and wrote a shopping column called 'Monica' for the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. She was Irish-English with blue-gray eyes and was very good looking...." (p. 185)

Correspondence in the Chester Himes Papers, held at the Amistad Research Center, and transcribed in My Life of Absurdity characterizes the playful nature of their relationship and Lesley's seemingly endless capacity for patience and support:

"You should marry me, Lesley, or at least work toward it before some of these young French girls (lots of 'em) with a sharp eye for business grabs me; I don't suppose it will be too hard if one sets it as her goal. As a matter of fact, looking at it cold and clinically, the average girl couldn't lose. So I figure you ought to think about it too." (p. 297)

More information about Lesley and Chester Himes can be found in the Chester Himes Papers at the Amistad Research Center.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(Images from the Chester Himes Papers, Amistad Research Center. May not be reproduced without permission.)

New Orleans Desegregation Project Update

2010-05-20T16:35:00.000-05:00

ARC staff are pleased to announce two more processed collections pertaining to the project commemorating the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of New Orleans public schools.

Jane T. Lemann papers

Jane Lemann's personal papers reflect her wide civic involvement throughout New Orleans, particularly in issues of educational reform and school desegregation. The collection consists largely of collected publications from a wide range of activist organizations and related correspondence.

Catholic Council for Human Relations records

This collection documents the desegregation of New Orleans' parochial schools, and includes correspondence, a scrapbook, and collected publications.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

Lecture on Julius Rosenwald Fund

2010-05-11T13:58:00.000-05:00

Longue Vue House and Gardens in partnership with the Amistad Research Center and the New Orleans Museum of Art will present a free lecture by Daniel Schulman entitled "Anyplace But Here: African American Art and Rosenwald Fellow's Travel." The lecture builds upon the current Beyond the Blues exhibition at NOMA by exploring the artistic legacy of the Julius Rosenwald Fund.

Created by Chicago businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, the Fund's Fellowship Program awarded stipends between 1928 and 1948 to hundreds of African American artists, writers, teachers, and scholars, as well as white Southerners interested in race relations.

In conjunction with the lecture, Longue Vue will display serigraphs from Jacob Lawrence's Toussaint L'Ouverture Series, 1986-1997, held at the Amistad Research Center. Lawrence received three consecutive Rosenwald fellowships from 1940 to 1943. Like other artists supported by Rosenwald's philanthropy, Lawrence helped to pave the way for equal participation by African Americans in American arts and life, a cause taken up by Rosenwald's daughter and son-in-law, Edith and Edgar Stern, the founders of Longue Vue.

Date: Thursday, May 20
Time: 6:30 pm with reception to follow
Location: Longue Vue House and Gardens, 7 Bamboo Road, New Orleans

Seating at this lecture will be first-come, first-served. Contact Joe Baker for more information at 504.488.5488, ext. 400 or jbaker@longuevue.com

Posted by Christopher Harter

(Contemplation by Jacob Lawrence, serigraph, 1993, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Public School Desegregation in New Orleans

2010-04-26T14:37:00.000-05:00

On November 14, 1960, four young African American girls entered the formerly all-white elementary schools William Frantz and McDonogh 19 in New Orleans. Despite the insults and rotten food cast their way, Ruby Bridges, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost, and Leona Tate provided the capstone of what historian Liva Baker called “The Second Battle of New Orleans” -- the hundred-year struggle to end segregation of the city’s public schools. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of this historic event in New Orleans, the Amistad Research Center has embarked on a project to commemorate the struggles and the triumphs of the individuals and community organizations that led to the desegregation of the Orleans Parish public schools.

Newspaper clipping from November 14, 1960, showing a crowd

protesting the integration of William Frantz School.

With a grant from the Keller Family Foundation, the Center is currently processing six archival collections that document desegregation efforts in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Two collections, the Natalie Midlo Collection and the A.M. Trudeau Jr. Papers, have been completed and the finding aids are now available online. Other collections include the records of the Catholic Council on Human Relations and the personal papers of community activists Rosa Freeman Keller and Jane T. Lemann, as well as the research collection of Dr. Alan Wieder, which includes three scrapbooks of newspaper clippings contemporary to the integration of the Frantz and McDonogh schools.

The finding aids for six additional collections that have already been processed will also be posted online. By expanding access to these collections, Amistad will provide the primary source material -- letters, fliers, legal papers, and others -- that documents the events around November 1960 and the resulting impact on the city of New Orleans and beyond. In addition to the work with the Center's archival collections, Amistad is also planning a related exhibition that draws from a variety of its holdings. The exhibition, entitled Through a Crowd, Bravely: The 50th Anniversary of Public School Desegregation in New Orleans, will be on view in the Center's exhibition gallery from October 4-December 22, 2010. Public programming events will also be held, and more information on those will be made available in the future.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(From the Alan Wieder Collection, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Beyond the Blues Opens to the Public

2010-04-23T13:53:00.000-05:00

The exhibition Beyond the Blues: Reflections of African America in the Fine Arts Collection of the Amistad Research Center is now open to the public at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). With over 150 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper representing over 125 years of artistic endeavors, the exhibition highlights not only the contributions of African American artists, but works that reflect the African American experience, as well. Over 300 guests previewed the show on April 10th, and an introductory lecture by artist and scholar David C. Driskell was presented during opening day.

Works by Richmond Barthe and William Artis

on display in Beyond the Blues

Conceived of not simply as an exhibition of artworks, but as an educational forum, a full slate of lectures and public events, as well as school tours, will accompany the show while at the Museum. A calendar of events and information on tours can be found on the Beyond the Blues website. Amsitad staff will be posting photos of these various events on the Center's Facebook page and this blog throughout the duration of the exhibition, which runs through July 11.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalog (shown on the right) that documents not only the show, but the majority of Amistad's fine arts collection. Featuring Elizabeth Catlett's color lithograph, Blues, as the cover illustration, the catalog's foreword by David C. Driskell and essays by exhibition curator Margaret Rose Vendyres and scholars Lowery Stokes Sims, Michael D. Harris, and Renee Ater make the catalog an essential tool for art scholars and a pleasurable read for all art lovers. The catalog is available from NOMA's Museum Shop or directly from the Amistad Research Center. More information is available by calling (504) 862-3222 or emailing info@amistadresearchcenter.org.

Complementing Beyond the Blues is a related exhibition entitled Creative Circles: Exploring Community in African American Art, which is on display in Amistad's own exhibition gallery. Drawing from the papers of artists Elizabeth Catlett, Hale Woodruff, John T. Scott, and William Pajaud, as well as other sources, this exhibition provides a more intimate understanding of the interconnected lives and careers of some of the artists represented in Beyond the Blues. Creative Circles will be on display through June 30.

Amistad invites everyone to visit the Center and NOMA to partake of these wonderful exhibitions and to share them with family and friends.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(From the Amistad Research Center. Images may not be reproduced without permission.)

Warren Q. Marr II, 1916-2010

2010-04-22T14:40:00.000-05:00

The Directors and staff of the Amistad Research Center are saddened to announce the death of Warren Q. Marr II. Mr. Marr passed away on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, after devoting a significant portion of his life to preserving the legacy of the Amistad Event. He was instrumental in the founding of the Amistad Research Center, served as Executive Director of Friends of Amistad, and helped found Amistad Affiliates and the creation of a replica of the schooner La Amistad.

Warren Q. Marr II was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 31, 1916. He attended Wilberforce University, where he studied journalism and printing. He worked as a linotype operator for The St. Louis Argus beginning in 1938, and worked in that same capacity and as assistant editor for The Plaindeader in Kansas City, Kansas, from 1939 to 1942. Following his newspaper work, Marr worked as a concert promoter and for James Lassiter and Sons in Madison, New Jersey, as a drapery maker and assistant. Marr continued his interest in printing as the proprietor of The House of Marr, a print shop specializing in "art" printing and greeting cards. In 1968, Marr was hired as an assistant in the public relations department of the NAACP and served as editor of the organization's house organ, The Crisis, from 1974 to 1980.

Mr. Marr and Carmel Carrington were married in 1948 and had two children, Warren Quincy III and Charles Carrington.

It was during the early 1960s, while working for the American Missionary Association (AMA), that Marr developed a keen interest in the Amistad Event and the legal history of the Africans aboard La Amistad. It was Marr who asked the Amistad Research Center's founding and long-time director, Dr. Clifton H. Johnson, to develop the proposal for the foundation of the Center. Marr's vocal support within the AMA's offices facilitated the establishment of the Center in 1966 at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Marr was also influential in establishing a support network of Friends of Amistad organizations around the country.

Friends of Amistad officers shown at organizing meeting in New York City, 1971. (l-r):

Warren Marr II, Eleanor Shoenfeld, Branford Taitt, Aaron Brown, Carmen Rodriguez, and Clifton H. Johnson.

Marr's interest in the Amistad Event and in educating the general public about its legacy led to the formation of Amistad Affiliates, a non-profit corporation devoted to Marr's dream of seeing a replica of La Amistad fitted as a floating museum and educational center. The origins of the replica, known today as the Freedom Schooner Amistad, can be traced to Operation Sail '76, a parade of tall ships on the Hudson River held during the Bicentennial. Marr and Michael Clement chartered a suitable ship, temporarily renamed it La Amistad, and entered it in the parade. More information on the Freedom Schooner Amistad can be found here.

Throughout his life, Warren Marr II received numerous civic awards for his dedicated efforts to document the United States' ethnic history, race relations, and the Amistad Event. Mr. Marr was also an accomplished painter and photographer. Many of his photographs can be found within the archives of the AMA housed at the Amistad Research Center. His painting, One Society, is currently featured in the exhibition Beyond the Blues: Reflections of African America in the Fine Arts Collection of the Amistad Research Center at the New Orleans Museum of Art through July 11, 2010. In addition, the Center holds an extensive collection of personal papers related to the Marr Family.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(From the Amistad Research Center archives, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Happy Birthday to Elizabeth Catlett

2010-04-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

Today is the birthday of sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett. Born April 15, 1919 at Freedman's Hosptial in Washington D.C., she was the third child of Mary Carson Catlett and John Catlett. In 1931, she enrolled at Howard University and began her studies as a design major, but later changed to painting. At Howard, she studied under Lois M. Jones, James Herring, James Wells, and James Porter.

Catlett later studied at Iowa University to pursue a master's degree in art and majored in sculpture. In 1940, she would become the first African American to receive an MFA in sculpture from the university. While at Iowa, she studied under painter Grant Wood. It was Wood who encouraged her to work with wood and depict subjects with which she could directly indentify. She took his advice and worked on images of African American women, mothers, daughters, and children. Her thesis piece, Mother and Child, became a characteristic theme of her art.

Elizabeth Catlett at work in her studio, circa 1983

After completing her studies at Iowa, Catlett studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago before joining the Art Department at Dillard University in New Orleans. She taught drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and art history. One incident profoundly affected the focus of her art during her time at Dillard. Intending to take her art class to see a retrospective exhibition of Picasso's paintings at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the class had to enter the museum directly from the bus due to the fact that the museum's entrance was through City Park, which was closed to African Americans due to Jim Crow laws.

The Julius Rosenwald Foundation awarded Catlett a grant in 1945 to create a series of prints and sculptures on the theme of African American women. The series would be entitled The Negro Woman and conveyed the determination of African American women in the face of overwhelming odds. In 1945, Catlett traveled to Mexico and returned in 1947, marrying painter and printmaker Francisco Mora. The couple had three sons, Francisco Jr., Juan, and David. Catlett joined the Taller de Grafica Popular (People's Graphic Arts Workshop) of printmakers who were committed to maintaining the social and political ideals of the Mexican Revolution. She became a Mexican citizen in 1960.

The political activism of the 1960s and early 1970s was seen in a variety of Catlett's works of that era, such as Black Unity, Homage to My Young Black Sisters, Target, and The Torture of Mothers. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and commissions, and continues to work and reside in Mexico.

The Amistad Research Center is honored to house the personal papers of Elizabeth Catlett, as well as a number of examples of her work in its fine arts collection. The staff of Amistad extend their heartiest birthday wishes to not only a wonderful artist and creator, but a longtime friend and supporter of the Center.

Posted by Christopher Harter

(From the Elizabeth Catlett Papers, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Benjamin Hooks, 1925-2010

2010-04-15T13:35:00.001-05:00

Staff of the Amistad Research Center are saddened to learn of the death of Benjamin L. Hooks, celebrated civil rights leader. Hooks, who died early this morning, is best known for his term as a former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during the Nixon administration and his lengthy stint as the Executive Director of the NAACP.

Born in Memphis in 1925, Hooks came from one of the most influential African American families in that city. Growing up, he worked at his father’s photography studio on Beale Street, and he enrolled at LeMoyne College in Memphis when he was sixteen. Hooks’ studies were interrupted by his service in World War II, where he served for over three years in Italy. Hooks returned to the United States in 1946, and he earned a law degree from DePaul University two years later.

After graduating from DePaul, Hooks became only the second African American practicing law in Memphis. In addition to his private law practice, Hooks participated in several entrepreneurial ventures with community businessmen – he organized a federal savings and loan association, served as president of the Mahalia Jackson Chicken franchise, among other ventures. Hooks hoped that his entrepreneurial endeavors would serve as a model for other African Americans to follow.

By the 1960s, Hooks focused his energies more on public service, and, ever the pioneer amidst the recalcitrant power systems in the mid-century South, Hooks amassed an impressive range of notable “firsts”. In 1961, Hooks became the first African American public defender in Memphis, and in 1965 Tennessee Governor Frank Clement appointed Hooks to serve as a criminal court judge in Shelby County. With this appointment, Hooks became the first African American judge to serve in the South since Reconstruction. In 1972, President Nixon appointed Hooks to serve as the Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), representing another first for African Americans.

In Hooks’ civic life, too, he utilized his hard-earned positions of authority to broker change within his sphere of influence. To name just a few examples, during his judgeship in Tennessee, Hooks worked to change the selection process for jury pools. As FCC commissioner, Hooks frequently and publicly decried the dearth of African American-owned broadcasting channels; Hooks fought to install affirmative action programs within the entertainment industry, and minority employment in the entertainment industry increased fivefold by the end of his tenure with the FCC.

In 1976, Hooks was elected to serve as Executive Director of the NAACP, a position he held until 1992. Hooks assumed leadership of the NAACP during a difficult period in the organization’s history, during which it struggled to garner national attention after decades of vigorous participation in the civil rights movement. Hooks led the NAACP in its protest against South African Apartheid, which influenced American public opinion on the issue. Hooks also presided over the NAACP’s public stance against the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court and the condemnation of the court system in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict.

In 1979, Hooks donated papers to the Amistad Research Center which chronicle his work with the FCC. The Benjamin Hooks Papers include speeches, memoranda, and correspondence which reflect the impact that Hooks had on the FCC, especially in the area of affirmative action, and offer insight into the life and career of this civil rights pioneer.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(From the Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Dr. James Egert Allen papers

2010-04-01T15:56:00.000-05:00

James Egert Allen (Seated), President of NAACP New York State Conference with unidentified members, 1949

Dr. James Egert Allen (1896-1980), educator, community advocate, civil rights activist, and author, was an active promoter of African American studies in New York. He was the first president of the New York Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1933-1938), a longtime public school teacher in New York City (1926-1946), and the author of three books: The Negro in New York (1964), Black History: Past and Present (1971) and The Legend of Arthur A. Schomburg (1975).

Shortly after graduating from Johnson C. Smith University in 1916, Allen enrolled in graduate classes at Columbia University in New York. During summer school at Columbia in 1921, Allen witnessed a parade sponsored by Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and while a student, he learned more about Garvey's movement, its objectives, and the interest it uncovered in New York City. Allen said that the movement was one of the earliest signs of the interest of African Americans in their own story, contributions, and history. He believed that African Americans now were determined to "achieve a place in the sun."

Allen was involved in both the educational and community relations in New York. He took the lead in the reestablishment of the New York City Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1933. He was elected as its first president from 1933-1938; and also served as the first president of the New York State Conference of the NAACP from 1937-1952. During his tenure, he helped establish chapters of the association throughout the state.

The Amistad Research Center has created a searchable finding aid for the James Egert Allen papers. In this collection, there is a sub-series of Allen’s NAACP activities. The correspondence (1929-1971) contains both incoming and outgoing letters from Allen and the NAACP Board of Directors as well as invitations, meeting requests and confirmations, and speaking engagement requests. Conference materials (1936-1964) include programs from the first annual NAACP New York State Conference in 1937 and subsequent years, along with programs from out of state NAACP conferences in Baltimore and Ohio.

The majority of the NAACP material is printed material (1936-1969) including agendas for NAACP meetings and events; programs for banquets, concerts and dinners; and publications about the history of the NAACP. Of special interest is a pamphlet for “Teacher’s Salaries in Black and White” (1941) which details the salary discrepancies between teachers in segregated schools.

The original NAACP Branch files for New York City (Manhattan), 1915-1940, and the NAACP New York State Conference, 1936-1939 are held by the Library of Congress.

The Amistad Research Center received funding from The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Cataloging Hidden and Special Collections Program to process nine manuscript collections documenting Civil Rights era organizational history. The James Egert Allen papers were processed under the CLIR grant.

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(From the James Egert Allen papers, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

My Internship Experience at the Amistad Research Center

2010-03-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

My name is Nika and I’m a graduate student in Museum Studies at Southern University at New Orleans. For the past seven months, I have worked as an intern here at the Amistad Research Center in the processing department. When I first started interning here, I spent most of my time writing biographical notes and inputting data into Archon, the searchable archival database. I found it to be interesting because I would get the chance to research a historical figure or organization.

One of the first collections I entered was the Frank Smith Horne papers. I’d never heard of him until I started at the Amistad Research Center. Horne was an optometrist, poet, writer, college administrator, and government official. It amazed me at how much this man accomplished in his life. Who would have ever thought that an optometrist could become a government official? I would attribute this career change to the times. During the early 20th century, there was a move to end discrimination against minorities in the United States. This would have been one of the primary reasons for Horne to make a shift toward working with the National Committee against Discrimination in Housing and other federal agencies that contributed to the fight against discrimination.

Most recently, I was asked to arrange the newspaper clippings from the James Egert Allen Papers. At first glance, this task seemed like it would take a day or two of work. But, the day or two turned into taking two weeks! First, I organized the clippings chronologically. Then, I photocopied each article onto acid free paper.

Even though care was taken to preserve the original newspaper clippings, due to the fragile nature of the acid newspaper, several miniscule pieces of disintegrated newspaper clippings were everywhere. The picture below is an understatement. Preservation of the text of the newspaper clippings was exactly why I was transferring the clippings to acid-free paper.

While sorting the clippings, I realized that they play a major role in figuring out the context of the times. Besides the focus of the clippings on specific events, I was interested in the adjacent articles. These clippings can be used to give a picture of the culture and fashion of the era in which they were produced. Below are clippings from the “Week’s Top Tunes” of January 14, 1961 from the Courier and another article from Afro American Magazine about twelve Spelman students listed in the Who’s Who among Students in American Universities and Colleges for 1966.

I think that the most thought provoking clippings were articles by J.A. Rogers. James Egert Allen collected the “Your History” clippings from The Pittsburgh Courier.

I came across Rogers’ editorials several times. They captivated me because of the arrangement. Each article had an illustration of the subject Rogers was writing about. I thought that it was an ingenious way of presenting historical information about Black history. I felt enlightened, but unsettled. I wanted to know more about Rogers. I wanted to know more about his background and how he developed his passion for African American history. Also, I wanted to know his role in the documenting of Black history. This is going to be the start of my thesis! I owe it all to the task of photocopying the newspaper clippings. It may have been tedious, but it has become the groundwork of my research.

Posted by Nika B. Carter

(From the James Egert Allen papers, Amistad Research Center. Images may not be reproduced without consent.)

Beyond the Blues: An Art Exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art

2010-03-23T15:21:00.000-05:00

The Amistad Research Center in partnership with the New Orleans Museum of Art will present Beyond the Blues: Reflections on African America from the Fine Arts Collection of the Amistad Research Center from April 11 through July 11, 2010.

This multifaceted project illuminates the contributions of African American artists over the past 125 years with over 150 paintings, works on paper, sculpture and other media. The exhibition is augmented by pertinent selections from the personal papers of the artists held at the Amistad Research Center. The manuscripts component of the exhibition facilitates a deep contextualization of the artists' lives and their work, offering a perspective rarely seen in a museum setting.

The Center's art collection is best known for its works by Harlem Renaissance artists, and works by such luminaries as William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Sargent Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Richmond Barthe, Hale Woodruff, Aaron Douglas, and Ellis Wilson are a concerstone of this project. However, the contributions of African American artists extend far beyond this glorious period. Thus, important late 19th and early 20th century artists such as Edward Bannister and Henry O. Tanner, as well as those whose careers occurred in later decades, such as Selma Burke, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, John T. Scott, and Jeffrey Cook, among others, are featured in this exhibition.

After its closing, the exhibition will travel to selected venues throughout the United States.

The official website of the exhibition includes artist biographies, selections, and further details regarding the exhibition and pulic programming.

New Orleans Museum of Art
Admission: Wednesdays are free for all museum visitors.
Louisiana residents with valid photo identification: Adults, $8; Seniors (65 and up), $7; Children 3-17, $4; Children under 3, free.
Out-of-state visitors: Adults, $10; Seniors (65 and up), $9; Children 3-17, $5; Children under 3, free.
Hours: Wednesdays: 12-8pm; Thursdays to Sundays: 10am-5pm. The New Orleans Museum of Art is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

1st image: Aaron Douglas' Portrait of a Lady
2nd image: Richmond Barthe's Shoeshine Boy
3rd image: Edward Bannister's Cows in Landscape

(Images from the art collection of the Amistad Research Center and may not be reproduced without explicit permission.)

Moses Hogan and His Music

2010-03-12T13:19:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow marks the birthday of famed composer Moses Hogan, one of the most renowned arrangers of classic spirituals and gospel music. Born in New Orleans in 1957, Hogan was strongly influenced by the African American choral music he grew up around, including that of his home church, New Zion Baptist Church. Hogan, along with fellow classmate Branford Marsalis, was among the first graduates of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and he continued his formal study of music at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio.

Hogan was an accomplished pianist before the age of ten, and he earned a degree in piano performance from Oberlin in 1979. After graduating, Hogan continued his studies in piano performance at Julliard and enjoyed a brief career as a solo pianist. Hogan worked as an accompanist to opera singer Martina Arroyo at Louisiana State University from 1985 to 1986, but he ultimately abandoned work as a pianist to devote more time to composing.

In 1980, Hogan founded the New World Ensemble in New Orleans, an all-volunteer choral group made up of local music educators. While leading this group, Hogan became concerned about the decreasing popularity of traditional spirituals. This sparked Hogan's interest in working to revive choral singing of spirituals by composing new arrangements. Hogan remained committed both to New Orleans and to spirituals. In 1993, Hogan began as artist-in-residence at Dillard University, and he formed the Moses Hogan Chorale. This group performed concert spiritual arrangements to international audiences.

Yet another group, the Moses Hogan Singers, was formed through national audition and gained even more notoriety than his other groups. The Moses Hogan Singers performed at the Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House, among other places, and they released their debut album, Give Me Jesus, with EMI in 2002.

Though he was an extraordinary instrumentalist, Hogan's legacy is as a composer and arranger. Hogan published numerous arrangements with Hal Leonard and was the editor of the 2002 Oxford Book of Spirituals. His major arrangements appear in the 2003 compilation This Little Light of Mine. Hogan is almost single-handedly responsible for the emergence of concert spirituals into the standard choral repertoire, and he is credited with the popularization of professional choral spiritual singing. Though he died in 2003, Hogan's arrangements are today standard works for high schools, churches, and professional and community choirs. His arrangements - often a cappella - are marked by rhythmic and harmonic complexity.

Ths Moses Hogan Papers are held at the Amistad Research Center. The collection consists of personal correspondence, music scores, film and audio reels from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, audio reels of the Moses Hogan Chorale, and other related materials. For any inquiries on this or any collections, please email the reference staff at the center.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(From the Moses Hogan Papers, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

The Lucile L. Hutton Papers

2010-03-08T14:35:00.000-06:00

Lucile Levy Hutton, 1916. Photo credit: A.P. Bedou

Amistad staff are pleased to announce that the guide for the Lucile Hutton papers is now available online. Lucile Levy Hutton, a New Orleans native, was an active participant in New Orleans music circles. She was a longtime music teacher at Valena C. Jones Elementary School, a piano teacher, and a member of the B-Sharp Music Club and the Gentilly Dirt Dobblers among other musical affiliations.

Hutton began teaching in the New Orleans Public School System in 1916 and remained until her retirement in 1962. She taught at Valena C. Jones Elementary School for 12 years, and later served as consultant in vocal music for 23 years. She acted as commentator for the Booker T. Washington Series of Young People's Concerts sponsored by the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra and as coordinator of the annual Music Festival of Negro Public Schools held in the Municipal Auditorium from 1948 to 1962. She also conducted a private piano studio at her home.

Hutton was also a long time member of Central Congregational United Church of Christ, serving as its historian from 1958 to 1983. She authored the church's history covering 116 years in a publication entitled, "This is a Grand Work: A History of Central Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) New Orleans, Louisiana, 1871-1977." She was a member of several professional, civic, and cultural organizations, among which were Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Dillard University Alumni Association, Friends of the Amistad Research Center, New Orleans Retired Teachers Association of the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association, and the New Orleans Y.W.C.A.

This collection contains correspondence; oral history interviews with Hutton; biographies of her ancestry; commencement and class reunion programs (1936-1985) from Valena C. Jones School; programs of school musical events (1936-1962), a copy of her publication, "This Is A Grand Work: A History of Central Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) New Orleans, Louisiana, 1871-1977"; catalogs from Straight University (1902-1930); photographs (1852-1982) of her family and friends; and by-laws and constitution for Amistad Research Center, B-Sharp Music Club (1951, 1985) and the Gentilly Dirt Dobblers (1951-1959).

Access to Hutton’s full biography and guide is available here at the Center’s searchable archival database.

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(From the Lucile Hutton papers, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

The Ronnie Moore Papers

2010-03-03T10:28:00.001-06:00

Amistad staff are pleased to announce that the guide for the Ronnie Moore papers is available online. Ronnie Moore is a civil rights activist, community development consultant and photographer from New Orleans. He was a field secretary in the South for the Congress of Racial Equality (1961-1965) and the executive director of the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, Inc. (1965-1973).

Moore began working full-time as a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1961. In this position, Moore worked on CORE's Southern program where he established voter registration initiatives in the South. In 1965, Moore was appointed as the executive director of the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, Inc. (SEDFRE), a leadership training organization committed to serving civil rights organizations and producing community leaders. As executive director, Moore was responsible for staff recruitment and the development of leadership programs in more than 25 states.

The majority of his collection consists of photographs (1964-1972) from his involvement in the 1965 Voter Registration Drives in Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina; various conferences; elections; demonstrations and workshops in Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina; and other activities in the South, Connecticut, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Virginia.

Bogalusa, Louisiana Demonstration, 1964

The online guide for the Ronnie Moore papers can be found here at the Center’s searchable archival database. The Amistad Research Center received funding from The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Cataloging Hidden and Special Collections Program to process nine manuscript collections documenting Civil Rights era organizational history. The Ronnie Moore papers are one of the first to be processed under the CLIR grant.

Posted by Amber L. Moore

(From the Ronnie Moore papers, Amistad Research Center. Images may not be reproduced without permission.)

Happy Birthday to A. P. Tureaud

2010-02-26T11:24:00.000-06:00

Today is the birthday of A. P. Tureaud, prominent civil rights attorney and contemporary of Thurgood Marshall. Born in New Orleans in 1899, Tureaud grew up acutely aware of the racial segregation which conditioned virtually all aspects of daily life. Tureaud left New Orleans in his teens, and after shifting around for a few years - between cities including Chicago and New York - he entered Howard Law School in 1922 and received a bachelor of laws degree in 1925. Tureaud passed the District of Columbia bar exam shortly after graduating, but ultimately decided to return to New Orleans.

Tureaud was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1927, and he served as Louisiana's only active African American lawyer between 1937 and 1947. Tureaud maintained a long association with the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, and he helped push this group toward playing a more aggressive role in challenging the state's deeply entrenched institutional discrimination. This activism led to lawsuits challenging pay inequality in Louisiana public schools (Joseph P. McKelpin v. Orleans Parish School Board, for example), as well as segregation in higher education (such as Viola Johnson v. Board of Supervisors of Louisiana). Other suits involved the integration of New Orleans Public Schools, city parks, and other public facilities.

Tureaud retired in 1971, intending to turn his efforts to writing his autobiography and collecting documents and artifacts to found a museum on Louisiana African American history. However, a diagnosis of cancer foreshortened these projects.

The Amistad Research Center houses the personal and professional papers of A. P. Tureaud, reflecting his career as Louisiana's most active civil rights lawyer. These papers include ligitation records, as well as documents related to desegregation in transportation and municipal facilities. Other materials include biographical items and collected items pertaining to Tureaud's activities in documenting African American life in Louisiana. An online guide to this collection can be found here at the Center's searchable archival database. This database, Archon, reflects a recent initiative at the Center to increase access to collections on the web. Though only a small percentage of our collections are available on Archon at this time (all presently available are viewable here), this number will increase gradually to eventually include all collections.

Other items relating to Tureaud, including the documentary Journey for Justice, can be found through the Tulane University Libraries catalog.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(From the Alexander Pierre Tureaud papers, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

African American School Newspapers Collection: Project Complete!

2010-02-18T16:28:00.000-06:00

Amistad staff are pleased to announce the conclusion of a grant-funded project cataloging rare school newspapers and periodicals from the Depression-era South. Termed the African American School Newspapers Collection, the collection totals 160 titles from 121 African American elementary schools, high schools, community colleges, universities, and law and medical schools. The collection is especially valuable to those interested in life and education in the Jim Crow South, and it provides a useful resource to alumni groups and genealogists as well.

Due to the social conditions at the time of these materials’ publication, the collecting of African Americana was then widely de-emphasized. Additionally, resources for HBCU libraries were scant and archival components of HBCU libraries were then virtually nonexistent. These factors combined make the African American School Newspapers Collection an especially valuable American heritage resource. Of the 160 titles, 60% are not reflected in the OCLC national catalog, and it can be assumed that for many of these titles the only extant copies are in the Amistad Research Center’s collection.

To search the collection, go to the Tulane University Library catalog and search with the keywords “African American school newspapers collection.”

The Center would like to thank the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation for their generous support of this project.

Depicted above is a 1949 issue of The Washington News-Flash of Tulsa, Oklahoma, John Hope Franklin’s alma mater.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(From the library collection of the Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

NAACP Turns 101

2010-02-10T16:09:00.000-06:00

This Friday marks the 101st anniversary of the NAACP. Founded in 1909 – a hundred years to the day of Abraham Lincoln’s birth – the NAACP launched its official organ in 1910: The Crisis. Deriving its name from James Russell Lowell’s 1844 poem “The Present Crisis,” the publication is among the longest-running African American periodicals. Only occasionally did the official subtitle of The Crisis, “A Record of the Darker Races,” appear on the cover. This subtitle was abandoned altogether in 1997, when the publication was then known as The New Crisis: The Magazine of Opportunities and Ideas. The publication has since returned to its original name and it now published quarterly. The inaugural issue, shown here, was printed only in 1000 copies.

Numerous manuscripts collections at the Amistad Research Center reflect the work of the NAACP through the years. To cite just two examples, the papers of Daniel Ellis Byrd and Alexander Pierre (A. P.) Tureaud reflect the heroic and indefatigable efforts of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the long fight for equality.

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(From the library collection of the Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Best Wishes to the New Orleans Saints

2010-02-05T14:44:00.000-06:00

The staff of the Amistad Research Center would be remiss if we did not send a little "Who Dat!" cheer to the New Orleans Saints as they prepare for the Super Bowl this weekend. The holiday card below was sent out by the Saints' Bonnes Amies Dancers in 1977 and received by incoming New Orleans mayor Ernest "Dutch" Morial. The card is housed in the Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial Papers at Amistad. We feature the card here as a way to return the well wishes to the Saints.

Posted by Chris Harter

(From the Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial Papers, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)

Greetings

2010-02-04T14:08:00.000-06:00

Greetings from the staff of the Amistad Research Center. We intend for this blog to act as a space to inform the public about events, exhibits, initiatives, acquisitions, and other news. This blog will also serve as a more informal forum for showcasing highlights from our rich collections. We welcome any comments or questions about items showcased or our holdings in general.

The Amistad Research Center was founded in 1966 to document the modern civil rights movement and today is the nation's largest independent archives specializing in chronicling America's rich ethnic heritage. The Center traces its earliest roots to the Amistad Committee (a precursor to the American Missionary Association), a proto-Abolitionist group who initially banded together in 1839 to represent the Mende Africans following their rebellion on the Cuban vessel La Amistad. Their case ultimately went to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the captives were represented by then-former President John Quincy Adams.

Shown here is a May 1841 letter of thanks to Adams, written by some of the Mende Africans. It reads in part:

Dear Friend,
We thank you very much because you make us free because you love all Mendi people. They give you money for Mendi people and you say you will not take it because you love Mendi people. We love you very much and we will pray for you when we rise up in the morning and when we lie down at night. We hope the Lord will love you very much and take you up to heaven when you die. We pray for all the good people who make us free. Wicked people want to make us slaves but the great God who has made all things raise up friends for Mendi people he give us Mr. Adams we write our names for you.
Kali

Mr. Adams,
Dear Friend, We write this to you because you plead with the Great Court to make us free and now we are free and joyful we thank the Great God. I hope God will bless you dear friend. Mendi people will remember you when we go to our own country and we will tell our friends about you and we will say to them Mr. Adams is a great man and he plead for us and how very glad we be and our friends will love you very much because you are a very good man and oh how joyful we shall be. Mendi hope the great God will send down His Holy Spirit upon you and have mercy upon you and that our dear saviour Jesus Christ will bless you and give you a new heart. We write this because you plead for us. We give you good love.
Kinna

Posted by Andrew Salinas

(Letter from the American Missionary Association Archive, Amistad Research Center. Image may not be reproduced without permission.)