Kenny J. Williams papers, 1971-1995

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Summary

Creator:
Williams, Kenny J. (Kenny Jackson), 1927-2003
Abstract:
Kenny Williams was a professor of English at Duke University. Her collection includes memorabilia, correspondence, department memoranda and manuscripts.
Extent:
3 Linear Feet
2, 000 Items
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
UA.29.02.0118
University Archives Record Group:
29 -- Papers of Faculty, Staff, and Associates
29 -- Papers of Faculty, Staff, and Associates > 02 -- Individuals

Background

Scope and content:

Contains greeting cards, brochures, correspondence, departmental memoranda, course materials, committee minutes, and manuscripts of Williams' article "The Masking of the Novelist" and her book In the City of Men: Another Story of Chicago. Also includes documents relating to the President's Council on Black Affairs, the Nixon Library controversy, and the Phi Beta Kappa selection committees. Minutes, private correspondence and reports of the English Department and the University should be restricted. Receipts, recommendation letters, grade disputes and ephemeral correspondence were discarded for processing. Correspondence was removed from envelopes and foldered.

Biographical / historical:

Born in Omaha, NE, Kenny Williams grew up in Chicago where her father served as a Baptist pastor. She received a B.A. from Benedict College in 1949, her first M.A. degree from De Paul University in 1950, and her second M.A. and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959 and 1961, respectively. After teaching at Tennessee A and I State University, and at Northeastern Illinois State University, she joined the faculty of the Duke English Department in 1977, where she specialized in Midwestern and African-American literature. In 1991 she was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to the advisory counsel of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Among her published works include They Also Spoke: An Essay on Negro Literature in America, 1787-1930, In the City of Men: Another Story of Chicago, Prairie Voices: A Literary History of Chicago from the Frontier to 13 and A Storyteller for a City: Sherwood Anderson's Chicago. At the time of her death in 2003, Williams had been writing on literature of the Civil War era for the Dictionary of Literary Biography series.

Acquisition information:
The Kenny J. Williams Papers were received by the University Archives as a transfer in 2004.
Processing information:

Processed by Jessica Wood, November 2006

Encoded by Sherrie Bowser, November 2006, updated by Kimberly Sims, April 2014

Accession A2004-14 is described in this finding aid.

Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

For a period of twenty-five years from the origin of the material, permission in writing from the office of origin and the University Archivist is required for use. After twenty-five years, records that have been processed may be consulted with the permission of the University Archivist.

In off-site storage; 48 hours advance notice is required for use.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Kenny J. Williams Papers, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.