Album contains 106 black-and-white and color photographs mounted in a black-leaf photograph album, bound in Japanese-style lacquered covers. The photographer may be an African American soldier named Tommy, who served in the U.S. Army's 511th Operation and Maintenance Service (OM SVC) Company during the Korean War. It is unclear whether the photographs are from Japan or from Korea. The images depict soldiers at work and enjoying recreational time. Many photographs depict both white and African American soldiers together. Other subjects include local women and children; women with servicemen; the countryside and Japanese-style buildings; and family members and others back home. Collection includes an early 20th century 10 1/2 x 14 inch portrait of four African American children. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.
Delouis Wilson is an African American artist, and jewelry designer, and art collector, based in Durham, North Carolina. The papers comprise her journals (1977-2008); calendars; sketchbooks, art school notebooks, and loose pieces of mixed media artwork. The journals, currently closed to use, document in detail her personal life, travels in the U.S. and abroad, including time spent in Tunisia in the Peace Corps, life in Durham, N.C., and employment as a jewelry designer. The collection also includes 30 large photographic studio portraits of African Americans, almost all hand-tinted crayon enlargements, dating from about 1890 to 1945 and collected by Wilson chiefly in the Southern U.S. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts, the Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, and the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.
Carl Pope (1961- ) is an American artist and printmaker. Collection consists of two black-and-white letterpress posters on 22x14 inch cardboard. The first poster reads, "Black lives matter: it ain't what the news told ya!" The second reads, "Is America the America I learned to imagine?" The original posters were created and published in Pope's book, The Appearance of Black Lives Matter (2018). Pope then re-created them in 2020 in response to current Black Lives Matter movement events, distributing copies of the posters to movement participants for the purpose of displaying them in their respective communities. Acquired by the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Collection comprises items related to the One Person, One Vote: Learning from the Past, Organizing for the Future Voting Rights Conference held September 18-20, 2015 in Durham, N.C. Materials include video of the proceedings, the conference program, contents of a participant notebook, feedback from attendees, and a mailing card for a related multimedia website.
The Mississippi Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary conference was held June 25-29, 2014 at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, to commemorate the Freedom Summer of 1964. Collection contains 9 DVDs of conference sessions. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
The SNCC Legacy Project (SLP) was founded in 2010 to preserve and extend the legacy of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). The SNCC Legacy Project records have administrative files, budget and program materials, and correspondence between board members, including Courtland Cox and Larry Rubin, documenting the activities of the SLP.
The SNCC 50th Anniversary Conference records are documents related to the convening of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) veterans, scholars, and community members to commemorate the organization's 50th anniversary in April 2010. The event took place at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Collection acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Project files from the multi-year SNCC Digital Gateway Project. Made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the SNCC Digital Gateway: Learn from the Past, Organize for the Future, Make Democracy Work is a collaborative project of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC—pronounced "Snick") Legacy Project, Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, and Duke University Libraries.
August Wilson (born Frederick August Kittel Jr. on April 27, 1945) was a Black American playwright whose work examines the experiences of Black people in the United States. He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle, which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the Black community in the United States during the 20th century. The August Wilson Theater collection includes playbills from performances of Wilson's work, as well as programs and ephemera related to the Signature Theatre Company's "August Wilson Series" of productions. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political Black nationalist organization that was founded in Detroit in July 1930 by Wallace D. Fard (Farad Muhammad). Collection inclues sermons, training materials, Muslim-American newspapers, and a photograph of Fruit of Islam members.
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (1924-2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. On 1972 January 25, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Collection comprises 7 mimeographed position papers Chisholm distributed via her California State Headquarters in Los Angeles to promote her candidacy in the Democratic primary. Topics include foreign aid (paper no. 1, 3 pages), the economy (paper no. 4, 4 pages), justice in America (paper no. 5, 6 pages), equal rights for women (1 page), the busing dilemma (1 page), and the Middle East crisis (2 pages). Includes a statement on welfare reform (2 pages) Chisholm made before the House of Representatives, 1971 June 18.
The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) was founded in 1935 by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune to empower Black women. Hunger USA was an NCNW program that began in 1968 and worked to alleviate hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity in Mississippi and Alabama by establishing community-run food centers and farms. Collection includes circular letters, leaflets, and brochures sent by the NCNW to raise awareness about hunger and malnutrition in the Deep South and NCNW efforts to alleviate it. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture and as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.
The Hartford Times was a daily newspaper for Hartford, Connecticut. Collection consists of 50 black-and-white press photographs taken by Hartford Times staff of Black Caucus protests and marches in Fall 1967, and associated community meetings. Subjects include Black Caucus members, African American residents, student protesters, state and city officials, police, religious leaders, and the press. Protest images show Black Caucus members marching through Hartford and gathering in the State Capitol Building and in Bushnell Park. Individuals highlighted in the images are: John Barber; Boce W. Barlow, Jr.; Rev. Collin Bennett; Lewis Fox; George B. Kinsella; Rev. Robert A. Moody; Robert Morris; and Wilber Smith. Acquired as part of the John Hope Center for African and African American History and Culture, and the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Consists of approximately 50 posters the bulk of which consist of corporate promotions depicting notable African Americans or significant moments in African American history and culture. Posters include biographical sketches of African American writers, scientists, professional athletes, soldiers, civil rights workers and celebrity entertainers. Participating companies include Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), Army National Guard, CIBA-GEIGY, Columbia Artists Management, Federal Home Loan Bank, Honeywell, Nabisco and Pepsi. Also included in the collection are a number of promotional posters produced by and for the NAACP that address the organization's campaigns to reduce poverty, school dropouts and voter registration, as well as calls to join the NAACP. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture and the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
Lewis Hyde (1945- ) is a white American author and literature professor. This collection contains Hyde's original civil rights-era documents and his later drafts and research documenting his participation in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer as a volunteer with the Council of Federated Organizations. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Includes Clippings, typescripts, newsletters, and flyers relating to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and to a presentation by Bob Moses in Long Beach, California on January 23, 1965. The papers were collected by Michael Miran, who was involved with SNCC in Long Beach. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Danny Lyon (1942- ) is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker originally from New York. The collection contains photographs and other writings created while Lyon served as a staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1962-1964, as well as later materials related to his books and films about the civil rights movement and its leaders. The collection also contains a later body of work by Lyon titled the Texas Prison Archive, which includes photographs, correspondence, film, and writings collected and created by Lyon in the late 1960s in the Texas prison system. These materials culminated in "Conversations with the Dead," first published by Lyon in 1971.
Nancy Sours was a white civil rights and human rights activist who volunteered and worked in Mississippi, San Francisco, and Berkeley in the mid- and late-1960s. This collection contains correspondence, collected printed and published materials, and some personal materials documenting her volunteer work; her family's activities and travels; her involvement with various organizations such as Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); her friendships and sexual relationships; her experiences and opinions about her community organizing and activism; her mental and physical health; and her education at San Francisco State College and University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Topics discussed in the various printed materials include civil rights, Black power, socialism and economic reform, gay liberation, women's liberation, reproductive rights, and Vietnam War protests. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture and the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
William Minter is a free-lance writer, researcher, and consultant primarily on Africa-related issues, based in Washington, DC. Collection comprises Minter's personal clippings files on economical, political, cultural and health issues (in particular AIDS and ebola) in Africa, foreign relations, as well as his research files for his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Wisconsin on the Council on Foreign Relations.
Cleveland Sellers is a veteran civil rights activist who helped lead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The Cleveland Sellers Papers consist of SNCC and other Civil Rights-era publications and correspondence, including items from the Holly Springs COFO office and the Virginia Students' Civil Rights Committee.
Playwright Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was the first Black woman to have a play performed on Broadway. Collection contains four items: a theater program and issue of Playbill magazine for Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, and a theater program and issue of Playbill magazine for Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Dr. C.C. Adams (1884-1976) was a Black minister and active member of the National Baptist Convention, serving as secretary of the Convention's Foreign Mission Board from 1941 into the 1960s. Collection consists of correspondence and accompanying items Adams received as secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, mostly from members of the Pilgrim Baptist Mission in Issele-Uku, Nigeria. This correspondence documents the Foreign Mission Board's support of Pilgrim Baptist Mission's financial requests, expenditures, and growth. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Collection comprises an accordion-bound photograph album containing 158 black-and-white and a few color photographs, belonging to African American soldier Henry Heyliger, named numerous times in the album. Most of the photographs document the 610th Port Company based in Yokohama, Japan, 1947, and many are labeled with soldier's names and some locations. In addition to a few formal portraits, there are many snapshots showing African American soldiers marching, working at the base, relaxing, and posing with Japanese women. One image shows a few U.S. soldiers, including Heyliger, visiting and eating with the family household of a young Japanese man, possibly a worker at the base. A large group photograph shows 18 members of the 120th Tng (Training?) Company and Regiment. There are two U.S. photographs, showing African Americans enjoying Hamid Pier beach in Atlantic City, and an Atlantic City postcard. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.
Small bound album holding 34 black-and-white snapshots and one photographic postcard. The photographs document a close-knit group of African American soldiers of the U.S. Army's 3909th Quartermaster Truck Company in Munich, Germany, August 1945, during the last weeks of World War II. The snapshots are of individuals and groups in uniform, in casual settings; scenes include the men standing in line at mealtime, enjoying leisure time in what appears to be an un-segregated pool facility, posing with Army trucks, and standing in front of a bombed-out building in Munich. Most have handwritten captions with last names, nicknames, and some comments. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center of African and African American History at Duke University.
Dr. Daniel Collins was a dentist from South Carolina, and the first African American on the faculty of the School of Dental Science at the University of California at San Francisco. The Daniel A. Collins Papers span the years 1946-1986 and document aspects of the career and life of Collins, politically active Bay Area resident. The collection consists of a few items of correspondence; newspaper clippings about personal friends and family members; copies of his transcripts from UC Berkeley; materials on the history of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and other documents. The papers also house a folder of records from the Cocoa Merchants' Association of America in which Collins was involved through his import business, Beacol Enterprises, Ltd., for which there are also a few records. Photographs from trips to Indonesia and Africa complete the collection. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
The Dykes were an African American family residing in Akron, Ohio, in 1940. Collection comprises 69 items, primarily family correspondence between Lawyer and Hattie Dykes by their brothers, Leo Dykes and Benjamin J. Peavy, from their military posts during World War II. Subjects common to both sets of letters include the weather, often hotter than both men are accustomed to in Ohio; pay and the recognition of the stability it affords; leave and plans for it; entertainment offered at the base; each man's war fatigue; and family news and greetings. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Ruth Stokes (1918-1992) was a Black woman from North Carolina who married Pervis Stokes (1919-2012) in 1942. Pervis Stokes joined the U.S. Navy in 1944. Collection consists of letters from Ruth to Pervis documenting their relationship during and after World War II, particularly their struggles and reconciliation. Frequent topics of discussion include general updates, inquires into when Pervis will return, sexual desires, financial and health struggles, and Ruth's pregnancy and the subsequent birth of their son, Reginald. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture and as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
The Workers' Defense League was an American socialist organization devoted to promoting labor rights. Collection comprises material mailed by the Workers Defense League primarily as part of fundraising efforts, particularly on the part of legal cases undertaken by the organization.
Collection consists of 60 small black-and-white photographs dating roughly from the 1930s to the 1950s, belonging to Amy Ashwood Garvey, feminist and activist who traveled extensively and lived in West Africa, where most if not all of these images originated. The majority of the images are portraits of Amy Ashwood Garvey's many male and female acquaintances in Africa, who include female friends, politicians, heads of states, lawyers, and students. Other subjects include locales and native inhabitants of Nigeria and other unidentified places; gatherings such as meetings, a funeral, and a public hanging; and street and market scenes. Although there are photographs with inscriptions, names, and descriptions of the scenes, the majority are unlabeled; the few dates that appear are from the late 1940s. The travel snapshots are likely to have been taken by Amy Ashwood Garvey, but there are images that were sent to her by individuals as mementos, and some images of her taken by another unidentified person. Acquired by the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Collection features the photographic work of African American photographer, sculptor, and professor of art William J. Anderson (1932-2019), from his earliest years as an art student in the 1960s, to the late 2000s. Fifty-one large black-and-white gelatin silver prints are accompanied by over 500 negatives spanning his career, as well as contact sheets, slides, and smaller photographs in black-and-white and in color. Anderson's images primarily document the southern U.S., with a focus on portraits of African American adults and children, families, the elderly; church gatherings; jazz musicians; poverty and homelessness in the city and country; life on the Sea Islands; and political rallies, riots, and Civil Rights movement events. Two significant bodies of work were taken at Daufuskie Island and a recreated African Yoruba village, both in South Carolina; there are also images are from Mexico, Central America, and France. Also included are photographs of his sculptures and exhibit openings. as well as professional correspondence, fliers and posters chiefly relating to exhibits, and a sketchbook from about 1957. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Roscoe Conkling Simmons was an African American orator, journalist, and community leader who strongly supported the Republican party in the early twentieth century. This collection consists of pamphlets, speeches, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera documenting his public life and service to the Republican party.
Edward Parker Read (1868?-1944) was a Black pharmacist, jurist, entrepreneur and activist based in the Philadelphia area. Collection includes flyers, mailers, postcards, pamphlets and broadsides that advertise a range of products and services provided by Edward Reads's several business entities: patent medicines; herbal remedies; mineral-spring tonics; sanitarium facilities; palm readings; perpetual calendars; and ready-reference encyclopedias. Company and product names reflect contemporary interests in health spas, folk medicine; spiritualism; and Native American imagery. Materials also reflect an interest in economic development and social networking within the Black community. Acquired as part of the History of Medicine Collection, the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture, and the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
John Hope Franklin was a historian specializing in Southern and African American history. The papers document his entire career as well as his personal life and political interests: his prolific writings on African American and Southern history; his role as a mentor and colleague, including his time as professor at Duke University; his role in associations such as Phi Beta Kappa, the American Historical Association, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and others; his participation in the civil rights movement, including his work with the NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and Justice Thurgood Marshall; and his engagement with numerous civic, community, and educational organizations such as the Board of Foreign Scholarships and Fisk University's Board of Trustees. There is also a significant amount of material from Franklin's work on President Clinton's Advisory Board for the President's Initiative on Race in 1997 and 1998. Items in the collection include files of correspondence in original order; research sources and notes; writings by and about Franklin; materials relating to family history; papers and diaries of other family members, including his father, and wife, Aurelia; printed material; event folders; many informal and publicity photographs; video and sound recordings; and awards and other memorabilia. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.
Anna Jean and Lillian Snowden were two Black women born in Lexington, K.Y. Anna Jean became a teacher, and Lillian became an accountant and important figure in the Indepedent Order of St. Luke. Collection includes event programs, photographs, clippings, and other material that document the education and social lives of both women, especially their involvement in the Black community. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
The Robert A. Hill Collection covers the period of 1800 to 2014 and documents Hill's research, writing, and publications about Marcus Garvey's life and work and the founding of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), as well as Hill's many other projects. Items in the collection include research material assembled by Hill, writings by and about Garvey, manuscripts, correspondence, printed material, clippings, microfilm, photographs, video and sound recordings, and objects. Series 1-4 contain the production papers of the Marcus Garvey Papers Project: American Volumes (AM), African Volumes (AF), Caribbean Volumes (CA), and Project Administration (PA). Hill's other projects and writings are included in Series 5-6 as Other Works by Robert A. Hill (OW) and Hill Personal (HP). The remaining Series 7-10 consists of Microfilm (MF), Primary Sources (PS), Research (RE), and the unprocessed Jamaica (J). The collection was acquired by the John Hope Franklin Research Center in 2015.
Parker Pillsbury (1809–1898) was an American minister, lecturer, newspaper editor, and advocate for abolition and women's rights. The collection is composed of 33 pocket diaries Parker Pillsbury kept for the years 1864 to 1896. The diaries offer a consistent, uninterrupted record of Pillsbury's life during these years, particularly his work fighting for the rights of women and African Americans and promoting Free Religion. Pillsbury records his interactions with leading social reformers of the nineteenth century, including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Abby Kelley and Stephen S. Foster, Gerrit Smith, Wendell Phillips, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Robert Ingersoll, Charles Sumner, Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Tilton among many others. His entries occasionally are accompanied by tipped in newspaper clippings about national events.
Union soldier in the 102nd Regiment Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops. Collection consists of 21 personal letters of Alonzo Reed written while stationed in South Carolina during the latter part of the Civil War. Reed seems to have written some of the letters himself, while others were written for him by friends; all are addressed to his mother. He seems to have been in a camp in Detroit, Michigan, then was stationed in Hilton Head, S.C. in the summer of 1864; he remained there until 1865, when he was sent to Charleston, S.C., and then to Savannah, Georgia, and back to eastern S.C. for the duration. The letters indicate that Reed's regiment was often on picket duty, but also provide some descriptions of warfare and the ransacking of plantations. Reed, who was nearly illiterate, provides brief insights into daily camp life in terms of references of illnesses, hunger, not being paid for many months, and life as a soldier in the midst of war. Reed occasionally refers to the reception they received from both whites and blacks in the South. He also writes about fixing railroad supply lines and utilizing surrendered Confederate soldiers to aid in this work. In November 1864, he inquires as to whether African American men are being allowed to vote in the North and indicates that they are in the South. Arranged in chronological order.
James M. Priest was a formerly enslaved person who moved permanently to Liberia, where he served as Presbyterian missionary in King Will's Town, and later Greenville. Collection comprises a letter in a newspaper and five other letters writen by Priest, primarily to members of the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church, but also to a ship's captain, and a fellow minister.
Marcia M. Mathews (1904-1990) was an art historian and author residing in Durham, North Carolina. Collection comprises materials relating to two research projects conducted by Mathews: one on Roger Fenton, lawyer and early English photographer; and a later project on African American sculptor Richmond Barthé. The Fenton series includes letters (1940s-1950s) from Fenton descendants, many of which comment on the aftermath of the war; images of the family home, Crimble Hall in Rochdale, England; photographs of Fenton and his family (1860s); and modern copies of his own photographs (1850s). The Barthé papers consist of a draft biography by Mathews, and 134 photographs of his sculptures and other artwork, as well as early portraits of Barthé and his family, and were acquired by the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture. Although Barthé had relationships with men over his lifetime, the biography appears to make no overt mention of his sexuality. The collection also includes a large scrapbook for the year 1939 containing U.S. news stories and articles about the war and on Fascism in the U.S.
Collection contains materials from the Walker Family of Cumberland County, Virginia, dating from the early 1800s through 1865. Items include slavery records from William Walker, a Revolutionary War soldier and plantation owner; William B.B. Walker, his son; and William D. Walker, his grandson. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Collection of manuscript items relating to American slavery assembled over a number of decades by the staff of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University. Collection contains items documenting the sales, escapes, and emancipations of enslaved people from colonial times through the Civil War, and to a lesser extent, materials relating to slavery in the United States dating from the post-emancipation period.
Collection comprises correspondence, documents and print materials belonging to merchant, land owner, and enslaver Robert Anderson of Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia. The materials date from 1735-1908, with the bulk dating from 1735 to 1859, and consist of over eighty letters, both incoming and outgoing, many legal and financial papers, other manuscript documents, and ephemeral print items such as broadsides and circulars. One folder contains military muster lists and fines stemming from Anderson's service as clerk of the 68th regiment of the Virginia militia. Topics in the correspondence include slavery and the slave trade, particularly in Virginia, colonization efforts, emancipation, the status of mixed-race individuals, Virginia and U.S. politics, Virginia military history, religion and church affairs, and education. Of particular note are several letters and documents relating to Anderson's children, who he fathered with one or more enslaved women; one of these children, Haidee, was sent to Eaglewood, a boarding school run by abolitionists Angelina Grimké Weld and Theodore Dwight Weld. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.