Chronological Files, approximately 1940s-2017

Please Note:

This collection is currently undergoing processing. The Academia series, Events and Engagement series, and Research Materials series are unavailable until approximately June 2026.

Scope and content:

The Chronological subseries of the Writings Series contains drafts of Wynter's scholarly and general audience works dating from the 1950s through the 2010s. This includes book drafts, published essays, lectures, and conference talks. The subseries includes handwritten drafts, notes, and/or typescript drafts; many works also include related research materials, typically excerpts of published material that was foldered with drafts or notes, and which were sometimes annotated by Wynter.

The Chronological Files contains original drafts or versions of many of Wynter's most well-known works, including 1865: A Ballad for a Rebellion, "Lady Nugent's Journal", "We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Talk About a Little Culture", "Jonkonnu in Jamaica", "The Ceremony Must Be Found", Do Not Call Us Negroes: How 'Multicultural' Textbooks Perpetuate Racism, "A New Model as Demonic Model", "After Man, Its Last Word", and many others. This subseries also includes some possible drafts of Black Metamorphosis and related works. Not included in this subseries are materials related to the writing of the novel The Hills of Hebron or the play Under the Sun, and only limited materials related to the writing of the play Maskarade. A timeline of Wynter's articles, talks, guest lectures, seminars, and other works produced was compiled during processing and is available.

Writings in this subseries include a broad range of topics including Jamaican history, especially the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion; Christopher Columbus's voyages to the Americas and the 1992 Quincentenary of those events; African slavery in the Americas and its representations in art, literature, and culture; Jonkonnu and Caribbean cultural traditions and literature; the formation and evolution of Black studies as an academic discipline; Spanish Golden Age theatre, especially its representation of Black people; Marxism and its relationship to race, gender, and literature; feminism and its relationship to race and politics; literary criticism, especially in the Caribbean and related to the works of Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Walter Rodney, George Lamming, Chinua Achebe, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and others; multicultural education and curriculum development, particularly related to grade-school textbooks in California in the 1900s; the philosophy of human nature, especially in relation to race; and many other subjects. Also included are materials related to an open letter, conference, and organization Wynter wrote and co-organized called No Humans Involved, formed in the wake of the verdict acquitting police officers who beat Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991, and publicity around use of the code N.H.I. by police officers to refer to Black men.

There is significant overlap between the Chronological Files and all other subseries in the Writings series. Wynter's propensity for revisiting her works means that titles often reappear as revised or related versions elsewhere in her papers.

A timeline of Wynter's writings, lectures, workshops, and other engagements compiled during processing is available here.

Processing information:

Original folders were often unmarked, and the likely work was inferred from content or format. Handwritten materials were often undated, and some dates were inferred from surrounding materials.

Sticky notes on original folders were removed, attached to archival paper, and included in the folder. If any information other than just the title of the work was written on the original folder, that portion of the folder was retained and included in the new folder.

Many of these folders include notes in the form of sticky notes and notepads, folded 8.5"x11" sheets (often several together), and loose portions of cut 8.5"x11" paper. Many of these types of notes were held together with paperclips, and were often nested within other groups of notes held with paperclips. While original order and groupings were maintained wherever possible, many paperclips were removed and many small pieces of paper were not held together at all and/or had no apparent order. Researchers must use extra caution when reviewing these materials to ensure materials remain together.

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