Finding Aid for the Ephemera from the Arthur B. Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature, 1912-1964

Processed by Dennis Tyler, with assistance from Laurel McPhee, Fall 2004; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé and edited by Josh Fiala, Laurel McPhee and Amy Shung-Gee Wong.

UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections

Manuscripts Division

Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library

Box 951575

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575

Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu

URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/

Descriptive Summary

Title: Collection of material from the Arthur B. Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature,

Date (inclusive): 1912-1964

Collection number: 923

Extent: 5 boxes (2.5 linear ft.) 1 oversize box

Abstract: The collection consists of pamphlets, brochures, advertising material, and newspaper and periodical clippings related to African Americans.

Language: English

Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.

Los Angeles, California 90095-1575

Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

Administrative Information

Restrictions on Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Provenance/Source of Acquisition

Items in this collection were removed from the Arthur B. Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature at Howard University.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Ephemera from the Arthur B. Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature (Collection 923). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

Biography

Arthur B. Spingarn was born on March 28, 1878 in New York City; AB (1897), AM (1899), and LL.B (1900), Columbia University; LL.D, Howard University, 1941; L.H.D., Long Island University, 1966. He began practicing law in 1900 and became chairman of the national legal committee, then vice-president (1911-40), and president (1940-66) of the NAACP. He collected books about African Americans and was a member of bibliographic societies in London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Virginia. He founded the Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature at Howard University before his death on December 1, 1971.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of ephemera including pamphlets, photographs, programs, invitations, newspapers, and clippings related to African Americans, especially African American literature and the struggle for equality and civil rights. Notable items include single issues of early civil rights newspapers, promotional literature from the NAACP advocating membership, recruitment, and suffrage, and exhibition programs for African American artists.

Organization and Arrangement

Arranged in the following series:

Africa, 1932-1964.
Arts and culture, 1928-1963.
Civil rights, 1912-1964.
Literature, 1943-1964.
Miscellaneous, 1930-1963.
NAACP, 1914-1964.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects

African Americans--History--Sources.

African Americans--Civil rights.

Other Index Terms Related to this Collection

Spingarn, Arthur B. (Arthur Barnett), 1878-1971.

Related Material

Arthur Barnett Spingarn Papers (Collection 1476) . Available at Department of Special Collections, UCLA.

Container List

Series I: Africa

Box 1, Folder 1

Africa. 1945-1962

Physical Description: 13 items.

Scope and Content Note

Pamphlets, brochures, programs, and printed material related to African history and culture.

Includes:

W.E.B. Du Bois' "Africa: Colonialism, Racialism, Imperialism".
Copies of "New Africa", programs from the American Society of African Culture
English-Kamba.

Box 1, Folder 2

Buganda. 1953

Physical Description: 1 item.

Scope and Content Note

A.B. Mukwaya pamphlet: "Land Tenure in Buganda: Present Day Tendencies".

Box 1, Folder 3

Congo. 1961 May

Physical Description: 1 item.

Scope and Content Note

Resolutions du Premier Congres de l' UGEC.

Box 1, Folder 4

Ethiopia. n.d.

Physical Description: 1 item.

Scope and Content Note

Program: “The visit of His Majesty Haile Selassie I Emperor of Ethiopia”.

Box 1, Folder 5

Ghana. 1962 September

Physical Description: 1 item.

Scope and Content Note

K.A. Ghedemah pamphlet: "'It will not be work and happiness for all'! An open letter to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah".

Box 1, Folder 6

Kenya. 1950

Physical Description: 2 items.

Scope and Content Note

Pamphlets: "A Girl's Education", and "Some Thoughts on Native Tribunals in [Kenya]".

Box 1, Folder 7

Liberia. ca. 1962

Physical Description: 3 items.

Scope and Content Note

Brochure, "Liberia Today".
The Liberian Review.
Letter from W.V.S. Tubman, President of the Republic of Liberia.

Box 1, Folder 8

Nigeria. 1945-1964

Physical Description: 6 items.

Scope and Content Note

Pamphlets and brochures about education, politics, and culture in Nigeria.
Letter from George S. Schuyler.

Box 1, Folder 9

Senegal. 1959-1961

Physical Description: 3 items.

Scope and Content Note

Congres Constitutif du P. F. A. (parti de la Federations Africaine).
Pamphlet on African Socialism.
Address by Leopold Sedar Senghor (President) to Fordham.

Box 1, Folder 10

South Africa. 1932-1957

Physical Description: 5 items.

Scope and Content Note

"Africa South"
D.D.T. Jabavu pamphlet: "Native Disabilities in South Africa".
"South Africa Behind Bars".

Series II: Arts and Culture

Box 1, Folder 11

Art and exhibitions (1 of 2). 1933-1963

Physical Description: 20 items.

Scope and Content Note

Exhibition catalogs and promotional materials for Robert S. Duncanson, Selma Burke, Charles White, Beauford Delaney, William Johnson, Yemi Bisiri, Roth Brall, and other African American artists.

Box 1, Folder 12

Art and exhibitions (2 of 2). 1928-1962

Physical Description: 19 items.

Scope and Content Note

Exhibition catalogs and promotional materials for Kofi Antubam, Charles McGee, and other African American artists.

Note

See Box 6 for oversize items about Haitian artists and exhibition poster for Wifredo Lam.

Box 2, Folder 1

Theater. 1947-1961

Physical Description: 9 items.

Scope and Content Note

Programs and playbills for African American dramatic productions, including "Our Lan'", "The Trial of Hitler", "Phyllis Wheatley", "A Raisin in the Sun", and plays by Tennessee Williams, Langston Hughes, and Ogali A. Ogali.

Box 2, Folder 2

Music. 1945-1962

Physical Description: 5 items.

Scope and Content Note

Critique of Duke Ellington.
Festival program, "Sing America".
Leaflet, "I glorify the colored race".

Box 2, Folder 3

Photographs. 1941-1962

Physical Description: 6 items.

Scope and Content Note

Black and white photographs of Robert Russa Moton, Herbert Gorman, Zora Neale Hurston, Septima Poinsetta Clark and Harry Golden.
"Negro Slave Singing" clay.

Series III: Civil Rights

Box 2, Folder 4

Education. 1917-1964

Physical Description: 7 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted printed materials regarding equality in education.

Box 2, Folder 5

Housing. 1958-1960

Physical Description: 3 items.

Scope and Content Note

Pamphlet, "In Search of Housing".
Urban segregation.

Box 2, Folder 6

Legal system and laws (1 of 2). 1942-1955

Physical Description: 14 items.

Scope and Content Note

Pamphlets and printed materials about the court system (including the Supreme Court), Article One, legislators, and Congress.
Includes writings by Thurgood Marshall.

Box 2, Folder 7

Legal system and laws (2 of 2). 1941-1947

Physical Description: 2 items.

Scope and Content Note

Historical Papers of The Trinity College Historical Society: "The Road From Monticello, A Study of the Virginia Slavery Debate of 1832" by Joseph Robert Blake.
Report: "To Secure These Rights."

Box 2, Folder 8

People's National Movement. 1956-1963

Physical Description: 10 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted printed materials on the People's National Movement, including programs, speeches, and addresses by Eric Williams.

Box 2, Folder 9

Protest movements. 1956-1963

Physical Description: 6 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted printed materials regarding freedom marches and boycotts.

Box 2, Folder 10

Public Affairs pamphlets. 1945-1958

Physical Description: 4 items.

Scope and Content Note

Pamphlets on race riots, segregation, and neighborhoods.

Box 2, Folder 11

Race and religion. 1954-1960

Physical Description: 5 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted printed materials reflecting on civil rights and religious beliefs, including religious perspectives on school integration.

Box 3, Folder 1

Race relations (1 of 2). 1912, 1927-1963

Physical Description: 18 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted pamphlets on race relations and civil rights, including discrimination, police brutality, African American women, "Negro liberation", and politics.
Includes "The Negro at work in New York City", by George Edmund Haynes.

Box 3, Folder 2

Race relations (2 of 2). 1945-1964

Physical Description: 16 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted pamphlets on race relations and civil rights, including job discrimination, lynching, the Smith Act, "Negro liberation", Jim Crow, and the South.

Note

See Box 6 for newspaper, "Jim Crow schools".

Box 3, Folder 3

Suffrage. 1954

Physical Description: 2 items.

Scope and Content Note

Zora Neale Hurston article, "A Negro Voter sizes up Taft".
"Southern Negroes at the Ballot Box".

Series IV: Literature

Box 3, Folder 4

Book lists. 1943-1954

Physical Description: 11 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted lists and catalogs of African American literature.

Box 3, Folder 5

Book reviews. 1946-1964

Physical Description: ca. 60 items.

Scope and Content Note

Clippings of book reviews for African American literature.
Includes reviews for Eric Williams, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, William A. Nolan, and many others.

Note

See also Box 6 for oversize clippings of book reviews and dustwrappers.

Box 3, Folder 6

Literary materials. 1945-1960

Physical Description: 10 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted booklets and pamphlets of a literary nature.
Includes writings by Henry Miller, Elizabeth Lawson, George Schuyler, Kobena Nortey, Clyde Black, Archie Waters, James A. Ivy, Emmett Campbell, Mary White Ovington, and others.

Box 3, Folder 7

Poetry. 1950-1963

Physical Description: 5 items.

Scope and Content Note

"Freedom Train" by Langston Hughes.
Invitation for a Leroi Jones reading, "When Me Mudder Used to Make Dat Kalaloo" by F. Nicholsen".

Note

See also Box 6 for a 1942 original of the Carmel Pine Cone, with a woodcut of Langston Hughes.

Box 3, Folder 8

Press releases. 1946-1964

Physical Description: ca. 30 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted press releases for African American authors and texts.
Includes releases for Langston Hughes and many [others].

Series V: Miscellaneous

Box 4, Folder 1

Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. 1953, 1962

Physical Description: 3 items.

Scope and Content Note

Seating list and program for the annual breakfast.

Box 4, Folder 2

Caribbean and South America. 1942-1963

Physical Description: 14 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted printed materials on travel, politics, and race relations in Haiti, Trinidad, Brazil, and the West Indies.
Includes memorandum on federation and self-government of the West Indies.

Note

See Box 6 for article by John Hearne re British.

Box 4, Folder 3

Magazines, newspapers, and periodicals. 1963

Physical Description: 2 items.

Scope and Content Note

Ebony special issue (100th anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation).
Newsweek.

Note

See Box 6 for civil rights newspapers: The Union (1950), The Nation (1954), El Combate (Puerto Rico, 1958), and Bags and Baggage (1941).

Box 4, Folder 4

Medicine. 1930-1953

Physical Description: ca. 30 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted reprints and pamphlets on African Americans and the practice of medicine.

Box 4, Folder 5

Miscellaneous. 1954-1962

Physical Description: 6 items.

Scope and Content Note

Miscellaneous programs, letters, and leaflets.

Box 4, Folder 6

Obituaries. 1953-1959

Physical Description: 4 items.

Scope and Content Note

Clippings and a pamphlet commemorating the passing of Alain Leroy Locke, Paul Laurence Dunbar, George Padmore, and J.E. Amos.

Note

See Box 6 for W.E.B. Du Bois.

Box 4, Folder 7

Talladegan. 1942-1948

Physical Description: 4 items.

Scope and Content Note

Original copies of the Talladegan, a publication of Talladega College.

Box 4, Folder 8

World War II. 1944

Physical Description: 3 items.

Scope and Content Note

92nd and 93rd Division summaries of operations.
The history of the struggle in the East and West (Chinese) by K. Mitsukawa.

Series VI: NAACP

Box 5, Folder 1

Civil rights. 1952-1961

Physical Description: 6 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted printed material on civil rights, including pamphlets published by the NAACP and the American Jewish Congress.

Note

See Box 6 for original copy of the NAACP Bulletin (September 1948).

Box 5, Folder 2

Conferences and conventions. 1947-1962

Physical Description: 14 items.

Scope and Content Note

Programs, brochures, and assorted printed material from NAACP events.
Includes addresses by Roy Wilkens and Author Spingarn, seating lists, and materials on civil rights.

Box 5, Folder 3

Crisis (The). 1945

Physical Description: 1 item.

Scope and Content Note

Single issue includes articles on collective bargaining, college news, Waldemar Rannus, and an Arthur B. Spingarn bibliography on African-American texts.

Box 5, Folder 4

Du Bois, W.E.B. 1947-1964

Physical Description: 6 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted printed material by, or relating to, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP.

Box 5, Folder 5

Lynching. 1919-1921

Physical Description: 4 items.

Scope and Content Note

Chronological listings of lynchings.
A statement from Governor Hugh Dorsey.
Thirty years of lynching in the United States.

Box 5, Folder 6

Membership pamphlets (1 of 2). 1945-1963

Physical Description: ca. 30 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted membership, voting, and recruitment brochures.

Box 5, Folder 7

Membership pamphlets (2 of 2). 1945-1963

Physical Description: ca. 30 items.

Scope and Content Note

Assorted membership, voting, and recruitment brochures.

Box 5, Folder 8

Reprints (1 of 2). 1914-1962

Physical Description: ca. 20 items.

Scope and Content Note

Reprinted pamphlets and reports about the NAACP and African American issues by various authors, including Mary Ovington White, Roy Wilkens, Thurgood Marshall, and others.

Box 5, Folder 9

Reprints (2 of 2). 1940-1960

Physical Description: 20 items.

Scope and Content Note

Reprinted pamphlets and reports about the NAACP and African American issues by various authors, including Roy Wilkens, Walter White, Chester Davis, and Ruby Hurley.

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