Herman J. Russell 

1930-2014

The Auburn Avenue Research Library honors the life and legacy of Mr. Herman J. Russell.  Mr. Russell's vision and architectural achievements for the city of Atlanta are documented in the personal papers and organizational records of the Rev. Hosea Williams, Ambassador Andrew Young, Harmon Perry and the Atlanta Chapter of the NAACP.  

For more information about the life and work of Mr. Russell, please visit the New Georgia Encyclopedia  (Chenault, Wesley. "Herman J. Russell
(b. 1930)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 05 June 2014. Web. 17 November 2014.)

-Photograph courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Hosea Williams Photograph Collection

GA State Representative Robert “Bob” Holmes, PhD

 Politics in the Archives

Dr. Robert Holmes served as a State Representative in the Georgia General Assembly from 1975 to 2009. Over the years, he rose to be one of the most influential members of that body, becoming the first African American to serve on the Budget Sub-Committee. He served as Director of the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy from 1985-2005, headquartered at Clark- Atlanta University.

Dr. Holmes was also the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute from 2002-2005, an organization dedicated to maintaining the rich legacy of

 Du Boisian scholarship.

Dr. Holmes completed his PhD in political science at Columbia University at the age of 25 and went on to hold several prestigious fellowships, including Fellow, Southern Center for International Studies, 1978-1981. He also served as a Danforth Foundation Associate, 1975-1986.

His collection in the AARL Archives includes photographs, correspondence, records of his political contributions, committees served on, national boards of directors served on, speeches, state and national awards; papers presented and published journal articles.

The collection also highlights his role as a founding member of one of the first African American running clubs in the southeastern United States. Holmes has been an avid runner since the early 1970’s.

-Eleanor L. Hunter, Librarian

Auburn Avenue Research Library

Celebrating Baseball:  

Atlanta Black Crackers

In celebration of the 2014 World Series, the AARL Archives travels back to an Atlanta treasure found in the pamphlet collection.  The Atlanta Black Crackers, formerly known as the Atlanta Cubs, began playing minor league baseball in Atlanta in 1919.  The team played in the Negro Southern League and the Negro American League during the first half of the twentieth century.  According to the 1945 Atlanta Black Crackers Publicity Manual, "Well stocked with prewar stars, the Black Crackers have their eyes formed on Southern League pennant for the second straight year, and will display the same brand of ball that made the Atlanta club a tremendous drawing card last season."

For more information on the history of the Atlanta Black Crackers, please visit our previous post about the team.  

To Keep or Not to Keep: What's Really in the Archives

Andrew J. Young Papers, AARL Archives Division

You never really know what you might find in the archives. This is part of the excitement- both for a researcher looking at a collection for the first time, but also for the archivist processing the collection before it is open to the public. Researchers hope for that special something that will help strengthen their thesis or that document they weren’t expecting that might set their work apart from other previous work. It is not the job of the archivist to interpret documents for future researchers, but, in deciding what to keep and what not to keep- what we call appraisal- it is important to consider what kinds of questions future researchers might be interested in. In Gregory S. Hunter’s Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives, Hunter argues that “the archivist must be aware of current research trends and interests, using this information to extrapolate what may be of interest to future researchers. This is a weighty responsibility” (Hunter, 52).

This responsibility is one that archivists at Auburn Avenue Research Library, like all archival repositories, take very seriously. When donors give collections to a repository, they typically sign a deed of gift agreement that lays out the guidelines for the collection. Donor agreements vary widely- some donors give archives free reign to open anything found in the collection to the public. Other agreements may specify that any sensitive information, such as documents containing personal information, remain closed for a period of time. These agreements are necessary because donors are entrusting our archives with their papers- whether they are family or individual papers, or their life’s work. Often, even if a person is donating his/her own papers, one may not realize everything that it is in the collection. Some collections are so large and, in the case of politicians or business collections that have been handled by many people, the donor may not realize that someone’s family photos or birthday cards or cigarette cartons, may be hiding in a box. In these cases, the archivist may refer to the deed of gift agreement for clarification, or, in the case of the cigarette carton or candy wrapper, simply discard it; unless the carton is very old and in good enough condition that it might make an interesting exhibit piece. You can see where this gets complicated, even with items that might seem like everyday trash.

Of course, there are times when an archivist may find documents of greater concern, either because of privacy issues or because the document’s potential research value is outweighed by its salacious nature. Medical records, adoption records, and disturbing or violent photos are just a few examples- in these cases, archivists would close or destroy the items to protect the parties involved. If the donor is still alive, the archivist may even return the items in question.

As Hunter said, appraisal is a “weighty responsibility” indeed. Every repository is constrained by space and storage concerns and even if we want to, we just can’t keep everything. That is why archivists at AARL spend a great deal of time processing collections, thinking about what visiting researchers might be interested in, and doing our very best to honor those whose papers we’ve collected.

Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives: A How-to-do-it-Manual. 2nd edition. Gregory S. Hunter. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. 2003.

Jessica Perkins-Smith, LSU MLIS graduate student, AARL Archives Intern

The Donald L. Hollowell Papers at AARL

Donald Hollowell, Rev. Samuel Williams, head of the Atlanta NAACP, and Hamilton Holmes, at the University of Georgia. January 1961. The UGA Arch seen here is just to the left of the admissions building where Holmes and Charlayne Hunter had just become the first African American students to register at the University. Forty years later, the building would be named the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building.

Photo courtesy Donald L. Hollowell Papers, AARL Archives Division.

The Auburn Avenue Research Library’s Archives Division recently acquired Donald Hollowell’s papers, which will soon be open to the public for research. Donald Hollowell was an Atlanta attorney who practiced for over fifty years and, most notably, argued many high profile civil rights cases successfully during the 1960s. Hollowell was born in 1917 in Kansas, served in the military during World War II, and graduated law school from Loyola University in Chicago. According to University of Georgia History professor Robert Pratt’s book, We Shall Not be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia, Hollowell decided to set up his practice in Georgia in the 1940s, in part because he’d met his future wife Louise there, but also because there were very few African American lawyers in the South at the time, and Hollowell was interested in “using the law to break down racial barriers” (53). In 1956, Hollowell became a part of the NAACP legal team defending Horace Ward, an African American student who for years had been repeatedly denied entrance to the University of Georgia’s law school for no apparent reason other than the color of his skin.

The Ward case later grew to include two other African American students who’d been denied entrance to UGA’s undergraduate program, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes. In the 1960 complaint Hollowell and the NAACP filed on behalf of the students, he explains that the suit was being brought because the University has refused to “consider the application of Negro residents of Georgia for admission to the University of Georgia upon the same terms and conditions applicable to white applicants; and from failing and refusing to act expeditiously upon applications received from Negro applicants; and from refusing to approve the applications of qualified Negroes for admission to the University of Georgia, solely because of the race and color of such applicants.”

While Hollowell’s case files are fascinating on their own, research on Hollowell also shows that he had a compassionate, humane side that helped to make him an even better attorney. In his book, Pratt quotes Charlayne Hunter-Gault: “Hollowell was like a father figure; he was very close to my family, very avuncular, and very reassuring, always slow and deliberate in his speech. I never hesitated to call him at home, because he really felt like a family member. He always appeared to be in total control; he never panicked. He was attentive to little things, like making sure that I was eating right” (129).

Hollowell’s own papers further illuminate his humanity and concern for his clients and for people in general. Through correspondence between Hollowell and Mary Blackwell, another African American student who was admitted to UGA in 1962, the semester after Hunter and Holmes won their case, it is apparent that, for Hollowell, helping these students gain admission to college was not the end of the road. He was genuinely concerned for their well being and was willing to do whatever he could to help ensure that they would be able to graduate. Between 1963 and 1965, Hollowell corresponded with Blackwell, who, though she’d been admitted to college, was struggling to pay for her school expenses with no help from her family. Hollowell found financial help for Blackwell from a Baltimore businessman who was actively interested in civil rights cases in the South and wanted to help. Through these letters, Blackwell expresses her ongoing appreciation to Hollowell for finding her assistance, and Hollowell shows his continued support for Blackwell and his concern for her safety and success in school.

It should be noted that Mary Blackwell Diallo went on to graduate from UGA in 1966 and later received an MA from the school in 1973. Diallo is currently a professor of French at Florida A&M University. Through Hollowell’s papers, researchers will be able to gain insight into Hollowell’s case history, but also will be able to see his concern for people and what made him such a successful civil rights attorney.

-Jessica Perkins Smith, LSU MLIS graduate student, AARL Archives Intern

Diallo, Mary. “Fear was rampant.” “Celebrating Courage: 50th Anniversary of Desegregation at UGA.” Georgia Magazine. March 2011.

Pratt, Robert A. We Shall Not be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2002.

Documenting Sports: 100% Wrong Club of Atlanta

Mrs. Margaret Jacobs donated the historical records of the 100% Wrong Club to the Auburn Avenue Research Library. The majority of the records were collected by her late husband, Joseph H. Jacobs, a member of the club.  Established in 1934 by the Sports Department of the Atlanta Daily World, the club’s members surveyed college teams and athletes for recognition and awards. The club has expanded its scope by continuing to recognize and award college and high school athletes, local community leaders, and national pioneers in the field of sports and social justice. Each year, after the college bowl games, the club selects college and high school student athletes to attend the annual "Sports Jamboree" weekend. The collection includes photographs, minutes, news clippings, correspondence and ephemera.

The collection is now available for use:   http://aafa.galileo.usg.edu/aafa/view?docId=ead/aarl0011-007-ead.xml;query=wrong;brand=default

Posted by Kerrie Cotten Williams, Archivist and Manager of the AARL Archives Division

Meet Our New AARL Archives Intern for Summer 2012

The AARL Archives Division hosts graduate interns who desire practical experience in special collections.  This year we have another dynamic student, Jessica Perkins Smith.  I asked her a few questions about her background and interests...

KCW:  What is your academic institution?

JPS:  Louisiana State University School of Library and Information Science.  I will graduate in December '12 with an MLIS, with an archives focus.

KCW:  Why did you select AARL as an internship site?

JPS:  I have a history and archival research background, and the Civil Rights movement has always been my main area of interest. Interning at Auburn Avenue is allowing me to work with collections that interest me, but I also knew that I would learn from the archivist here by getting great hands on experience in processing, writing finding aids, and helping researchers.

KCW:  What is your internship assignment/project?

JPS:  I am currently working on processing the papers of Atlanta attorney Donald L. Hollowell. Hollowell was instrumental in several prominent Civil Rights cases in Atlanta and throughout Georgia.

KCW:  What is the most interesting item you've handled?

JPS:  Hollowell represented Preston Cobb, the 15 year old African American teen convicted and sentenced to death for killing a white man in 1961 in Georgia. Hollowell succeeded in getting Cobb's execution stayed and, eventually his death sentence was commuted and Cobb served 18 years in prison. In processing Hollowell's papers I found correspondence between Hollowell and a Baltimore businessman, Abe Blumenthal, who had taken an interest in Preston Cobb's case and wanted to help. Blumenthal wanted to help Cobb continue his education while in prison and helped by sending money and writing Cobb letters.

Posted by Kerrie Cotten Williams, Archivist and Manager of the AARL Archives Division

What Does a Picture Say to You?

Ellie Weems photograph collection, ca. 1951

When I attended an open house for the Auburn Avenue Research Library’s archives I knew I wanted to become a volunteer. As an aspiring archivist, I was very interested in learning about the profession. I was placed on the Ellie Weems photograph collection in which I had expressed interest. Weems was a local Atlanta photographer who later moved to Jacksonville, Florida where the majority of his large collection was created. Over the years, however, the collection became jumbled and needed organization. So far my job has been simple: taking the photos and placing them into envelopes to help preserve and organize them.

Rehousing the photographs offers a unique look into the past. The images provide a window into people’s homes, into their schools, and into their happiest and saddest moments. I have seen hundreds of photographs of simple portraits, church functions, school events, weddings, and even funerals. All of the pictures have a story to tell about the lives and realities of black Americans. Most of the photos are self-explanatory but every so often my work is livened up by photos I cannot explain.

On my first day with the collection, I came across a picture from 1951 that has intrigued me ever since.  In it a group of school children are dressed in white t-shirts with Confederate battle flags while they are waving American flags. While such a picture would no doubt cause a visceral reaction today, I do not have such a context from this time period. I have speculated on what could possibly be going on in the picture. Could it be a form of self-racism or a form of protest? Was the Confederate battle flag not as controversial then as it is now? Or perhaps things were just different in Florida. As a historian, I am very curious to know what the photo depicts because it would add another dimension to black history.

So far, my time in the archives has been informative and interesting. If anyone happens to know what the context of the picture might be, feel free to share.

Posted by Jasmine Talley, AARL Volunteer

First Encounters: Atlanta and the KKK

Southern Regional Council Collection
Auburn Avenue Research Library Archives Division

I don’t know much about the Ku Klux Klan.  Today at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, I saw a photograph from the 1940s of members of the Klan in buses.  They were on their way to perform initiation rites on Stone Mountain.  The buses were chartered from the city of Atlanta.  The Klansmen look normal in their suits and hats.  The buses are all lined up and waiting for their last passengers before leaving.  It seems eerie that this photo was taken right downtown in Atlanta.  The Klansmen surprise me that they were en masse in public and that their buses were assisted by policemen who cleared traffic.

From watching footage of Klansmen in documentaries and in movies, I’ve learned to be wary of them.  But looking at this photo, where they appear like regular people, I don’t fear them.  However, if I had been there on the day that this photo was taken, I would have been in awe of these men who chose to be part of the Klan.  I would hope that they wouldn’t attack me physically or with verbal insults.

As a former New Yorker, I can say that the majority of the people of New York have reservations about the South due to perceived racism, former slavery, and other things that divide the North and the South culturally.  Before moving to Georgia, I was worried about encountering bigotry and racism.  Georgia has its share of problems, but it is like anywhere with people who try live together in harmony.

I am blind to many bad things that happen.  I tend to concentrate on what is positive than on what is negative.  Bigotry and racism are still problems of the world, but the Ku Klux Klan seems to be less of a problem these days.

I don’t know how I would react if I suddenly encountered a Klan member today.  Would I even believe the person?  Does the Klan still act today or are they… dead as an organization?  I know it is better not to fear others, but having never witnessed Klan activity, I will only know my reaction if I encounter them.  I hope that I could counter them with peace, love, and justice.

Posted by Aaron Brown, San Jose State University/MLIS Graduate Student

AARL Intern

Greatest Hits

As 2011 ends, many lists of greatest hits and memorials to famous men and women circulate; Joe Frazier was and could deliver one of the greatest “hits” of all time. As a tribute to his passing in November, this post highlights the long legacy of African American achievement in the sport of boxing through two jewels in the holdings of the Auburn Avenue archives. The first African American world heavyweight champ, Jack Johnson became a lightning rod for the racial politics of the Jim Crow era and, as Mark Scott observes, also “contributed to the world of music by opening a nightclub, in Harlem, the Club Deluxe, that was later bought by gangsters and turned into the Cotton Club” (216). According to Scott, Mohammed Ali’s coaches would evoke Jack Johnson for ringside support: “Ghost in the house, the ghost of Jack Johnson is watching” (216). In a 1909 poster declaring Johnson the “Champion of the World” in the archival holdings, the newly-crowned heavyweight champion is portrayed in his fighting stance, flanked by two ovals, the one on the lower-left depicting his humble origins in Galveston, Texas and the other on the lower-right showing him in the driver's seat of the latest automobile. 

Brandt and Scheible Poster Commemorating Jack Johnson's World Heavyweight Title

As the writer Ralph Ellison would later note, Jack Johnson “was rejected by most whites and by many respectable Negroes, but he was nevertheless a hero among veterans of the Spanish-American War who rejoiced in the skill and élan with which Johnson set off the now-outrageous search for a ‘White Hope’” (215). While the 1909 Brandt and Scheible poster chronicles Johnson’s rise to power, a gorgeous oversized, collectible book from Taschen (made available to the public in 2004) documents the life of the “Greatest of All Time.” Of a limited edition run of nine thousand, the archives of AARL boast copy number 5,362 of this one-of-a-kind monograph, GOAT: A Tribute to Mohammed Ali. This heavyweight (literally) homage to the most famous heavyweight ever can only be described as an experience: a textual, photographic, and artistic montage of Ali’s life and times. A fitting testament to Ali’s larger-than-life status, this biography also collects his many quotable dictums, both comic and prophetic: “I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize, but get used to me. Black, confident, cocky—my name not yours. My religion, not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me” (588).

References

Ellison, Ralph. Going to the Territory. New York: Random House, 1986.

Scott, Mark. "Jack Johnson: World Heavyweight Champion." In The First Black Boxing Champions: Essays on Fighters of the 1800s to the 1920s, Colleen Aycock and Mark Scott, 200-217. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2010.

Posted by Joy Bracewell, AARL Intern

World AIDS Day 2011: Collection highlights LGBTQ advocate and activist Duncan Teague



A quick look at personal photos and ephemera from the Duncan Teague Collection, which is available for research.  photo courtesy Kesah Peace



Over twenty years ago, HIV/AIDS awareness got its first global platform via World AIDS Day. Celebrated every year on Dec. 1, the day of global unity was created in honor of those whose lives had been claimed by the pandemic and to spread awareness about the nearly 33 million people infected today.  In commitment to our mission, AARL has made efforts to contribute to the fight against HIV/AIDS by providing materials that highlight the unselfish work of activists like Duncan Teague.

In August 2009, AARL welcomed and celebrated the donation of the Duncan Teague Collection. Teague, a socio-political activist, writer, performance artist, minister, and advocate of the black gay and lesbian community, has been working in HIV/AIDS prevention for the last twenty years. A former two-time grand marshal of the Atlanta Gay Pride, Teague is deeply rooted in advocacy and the Atlanta community, having served in the African American Lesbian Gay Alliance, Georgia Equality, AID Atlanta, Georgia Equality, the National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum, and ARCA (AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta).

At almost 50 cubic feet, the collection contains Teague’s papers, those of artist/activist Tony Daniels, and the records of ADODI Muse: A Gay Negro Ensemble.

For more information on Teague and his legacy of fighting to combat HIV/AIDS in the Atlanta community, visit AARL to browse our African American Gay and Lesbian Print Collection.

Also, to learn more about World Aids Day go to: www.worldaidsday.org.


Yewande Addie, AARL Intern

Mrs. Dorothy Lee Bolden, Founder and President of The National Domestic Worker's of America, Inc.

The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements have brought to the forefront many social issues not prevalent in mainstream media. These movements garnered national and international support via social media. However, there have been strong voices that have been working and organizing on behalf of the underrepresented citizens for many years.

Dorothy Lee Bolden was the founder and president of the National Domestic Worker's Union of America. Mrs. Bolden started as a Domestic Worker at the tender age of nine and continued working in the trade for forty-one years. She was involved in the civil rights movement with her then neighbor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He encouraged her in community organizing against the Atlanta School Board decision to condemn a neighborhood school. She used the experience as a catalyst to organize her colleagues. Mrs. Bolden became a sounding board for many women and their experiences working for families residing in the exclusive areas of Atlanta. Domestic workers endured 13-hour days with low pay from $ 3.50 to $5.00 in 1960. In 1968 Dorothy Bolden started discussions with other unions about a national union for maids.

Organization and education were critical for community organizing. Maids were negotiating with private families and not corporations. With the assistance of the Urban League, Atlanta radio station WAOK and wider community support, these women were able to improve their working conditions. Dorothy Bolden exclaimed, “We aren’t Aunt Jemima women, and I am sure to God don’t want people to think we are. We are politically strong and independent.” Her organizing efforts gained the attention of the Nixon Administration and she was later appointed to an advisory committee on social services and welfare. Mrs. Bolden spent her time advocating for training and education for domestic workers, while tirelessly supporting community efforts for affordable city services and housing.

Dorothy Lee Bolden eventually organized 10 cities and had 13,000 women benefiting from job referrals and organizing. An Atlanta icon, Mrs. Bolden stated “These women are still struggling. These women have built this country with the sweat of their brow. Their parents worked in the fields. You look over your shoulder and wonder if the field is still there.” Dorothy Lee Bolden started a grassroots movement in the South that went national. Her story might offer some insight for social and political movements on the fine skills of organizing and negotiation.

AARL houses and makes available the Dorothy Lee Bolden Papers http://tinyurl.com/6wy8hgg
Posted by Ayannah Zafir, Archives Library Associate

Forthcoming children's book collection to pave new path toward discovery

Award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Ashley Bryan once said:

 “There are so many ways in which we learn about life and self. Each day opens paths to this exploration. For many of us, books play a major role in that adventure.”

Blazing the trail of self-exploration for children, Bryan has published and illustrated a number of children’s books through the years. With generous donations of some of Bryan’s original artwork, the Auburn Avenue Research Library (AARL) established the Ashley Bryan Children’s Picture Book Art collection. This collection contains sensitive images of children of African descent by national and international children’s picture book illustrators.

Illustration from Ashley Bryan's Walk Together Children, March 1981

In recent years, the AARL Ashley Bryan Literary Festival partnered with the National Black Arts Festival. During this three-day festival organizers engage children, parents, and educators in the Africana experience, in addition to honoring the work of other children’s book illustrators with the same mission. Previous recipients of the Ashley Bryan Children’s Picture Book Award are Bryan Collier and Colin Bootman. Their work has also been included in the children’s picture book art collection. Among Bootman, Bryan, and Collier, Jonathan Green, an illustrator and advocate of artistic literacy, is also featured.

The Ashley Bryan Children’s Picture Book Art collection highlights nearly 60 illustrations from about 20 different works and not only includes autographed published versions, but also drafts and sketches that document a good portion of the artistic process. Artist Bryan Collier has lively illustrations detailing the boxing career and Islamic journey of heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Whether in the ring or prayer position, Ali comes to life and pops off the pages of Collier’s work. “Walk Together Children,” is a fascinating Ashley Bryan piece that features illustrated scores and lyrics of black spirituals. It is a wonderful way to expose children to the historical significance of how black slaves in America gained strength and interpreted coded messages from these songs.

Is there anybody here? by Ashley Bryan

In the spirit of staying true to Bryan’s quote and the AARL mission of being a resource for educators and the community at large, we hope the collection inspires and influences educators to build picture book art collections within their own organizations/schools and serve as a guide in detailing how artists address Africana-related issues through images. This collection could also be used in research to gauge the impact and effectiveness of communicating ideas to children through reflective illustration.

The Ashley Bryan Children’s Picture Book Art collection is currently being processed and will be accessible via online descriptive inventory.  Also the AARL’s joint Children’s Literature Conference with the University of Georgia will be a great way to experience an extension of the illustrative work in the picture book collection. It can also be an insightful prelude to the annual Ashley Bryan Literary Festival.

 Posted by Yewande Addie, AARL Intern

Women Writing History and Biography: Looking Back and Thinking Forward

Two pamphlets published within five years of each other on the cusp of the Harlem Renaissance display very different perspectives towards the nation’s past, implicitly imagining divergent paths for the country’s future.  The women who penned these records chose subject matter in accordance with their stances on what was valuable in American history. Listing herself as editor and publisher, Mildred Lewis Rutherford wrote several volumes of a pamphlet-like monthly periodical (1923-1926), entitled, Miss Rutherford’s Scrap Book: Valuable Information about the South, which was printed in her hometown of Athens, Georgia, while Laura E. Wilkes, described as a “teacher in the primary schools, Washington, D. C.” by the title page of her first publication, produced two histories, the title of the second acknowledging the gap in history that she was seeking to fill: Missing Pages in American History, Revealing the Services of Negroes in the Early Wars of America.

Rutherford’s views on the Civil War are immediately hinted by her designation for it in the first volume of her “scrapbook”: The Causes That Led to the War Between the States (1923), one of the holdings of the AARL archival collections. Covering topics that highlight the contentious events splitting the northern and southern states leading up to the bloody conflict, Rutherford recasts history in the light of an explanation that espouses the “Lost Cause," a term that describes a set of beliefs conflating religion with ideology. Proponents of the Lost Cause espoused a heroic interpretation of the South’s involvement in the Civil War. For instance, under her heading about “The Cotton Gin,” Rutherford notes that its “invention undoubtedly led to jealousy,” implying that the warmer climate of the South and its dependence on “free labor” (her euphemism for the work extracted from enslaved peoples) led to more political power for the South (6-7). In her pamphlet, Rutherford not only focuses on her version of the political and economic events leading up to “War Between the States,” but also spars with the ghosts of literary and social history, questioning the accuracy of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s depiction of slavery, while not denying the book's efficacy in garnering support for the abolitionist cause: “In 1852 ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ appeared. This was such a misrepresentation of the institution of slavery in the South that it brought just indignation to Southern people” (9). 

On the other hand, historian Pero Gaglo Dagbovie (2004) situates Laura Eliza Wilkes within “the ranks of early black women ‘historians without portfolio,’” a term used by Earl E. Thorpe to describe a “group of nonprofessional persons […] who have a fondness for the discipline of history, feeling that their life experiences peculiarly fit them for chronicling some historical events” (243). In his article, “Black Women Historians from the Late 19^th Century to the Dawning of the Civil Rights Movement,” Dagbovie shows that Wilkes sought to highlight the sacrifices of African American soldiers in fighting for the United States in World War I and prior wars, thereby demonstrating “to white Americans that the denial of fundamental citizenship rights to African Americans was unjust” (249). Along with three early editions of each of Frederick Douglass’s biographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1882), the AARL Archives division also owns the first of Wilkes’s pamphlets, The Story of Frederick Douglass: With Quotations and Extracts (1918), initially copyrighted and published by Howard University in 1899 (Dagbovie 2004, 248). In the Preface, Wilkes outlines her audience as “the young folks of the race, because I believe the life of Frederick Douglass will serve as an inspiration to every schoolboy and girl.” In this condensed version of Douglass’s story, Wilkes emphasizes his attempts to further his own education as a boy and young man (9, 11). She ends her sketch of his life with a written portrait, a fitting tribute to Douglass’s attempts at both visual and verbal self-fashioning in his autobiographies, which also foreshadows the beautiful woodcut illustrations of Michael McCurdy’s later version of Douglass’s life as juvenile literature: “Personally he had a magnetic force which drew all to him—of noble bearing, a physique of handsome proportions, crowned by a glorious head of silvery-white hair” (14).   

Rutherford and Wilkes’s projects were strikingly different, one retrogressive and backward-looking, the other progressive and forward-thinking. While Rutherford was an outspoken “anti," Wilkes championed Douglass for his support of woman’s suffrage. In supporting the “Rightful Place” of the South in history (words used in the title of one of her books), Rutherford emphasized the divisions between the states according to their placement relative to the Mason Dixon line, whereas Wilkes, writing in the nation’s capital, presented a wider scope of place and time, following the international movements of Douglass’s life. Wilkes’s work was recommended in the Crisis, the journal of the NAACP edited by W. E. B. Du Bois, while Rutherford compiled her own list of “Books for Southern Libraries,” including Thomas Nelson Page’s Two Little Confederates (20-21). Thus, Robert S. Levine’s description of identity as unstable within autobiography in his discussion of Frederick Douglass’s work could also apply to the re-writing of history: “it is tied to the contingencies of the historical moment and to the problematics (and challenges) of the autobiographer’s art” (31).

References

Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo. "Black Women Historians from the Late 19^th Century to the Dawning of the Civil Rights Movement." Journal of African American History 89, no. 1 (2004): 241-261. 

Levine, Robert S. "Identity in the Autobiographies." In Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass, Maurice Lee, 31-45. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

"The Looking Glass." Crisis 16, no. 6 (1918): 276-279.

 Marshall, Anne E. "Mildred Lewis Rutherford." New Georgia Encyclopedia. Accessed October 29, 2011. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3178.

McCurdy, Michael, ed. Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Williams, David S. "Lost Cause Religion." New Georgia Encyclopedia. Accessed October 29, 2011. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2723.

Posted by Joy Bracewell, AARL Intern

AARL Salutes Civil Rights Veteran



Joseph Lowery poses in front of the Motor Voter Bus. Since integration, Lowery has continued his civil rights work in such areas as black voter registration, affirmative action, and AIDS education.



Ninety years ago today, Civil Rights activist Joseph Echols Lowery was born in Huntsville, Alabama. Lowery is a founding member and former president of the civil rights organization SCLC, or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. A graduate of Paine College and Paine’s Theological Seminary in Augusta, Ga., Lowery also received his doctorate in divinity at the Chicago Ecumenical Institute. Though he has pastored churches in both Alabama and Georgia, Rev. Lowery is well- known for his role in leading the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and the March on Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For over 40 years Lowery has dedicated his life to preaching and advocating for those in need.

Joseph Lowery stands before the SCLC headquarters in Atlanta. In 1977 Lowery succeeded Ralph Abernathy as president of the SCLC, which has been based in Atlanta since its inception in 1957.

 An undying supporter of nonviolent resistance, Lowery used this peaceful method to combat segregation, and encourage the improvement of black voting rights, labor rights, affirmative action, and education. A seasoned expert in mobilizing, Lowery forged ahead into the 21^st century, remaining just as relevant in challenging contemporary ails of the day, including police brutality and other global pertinent issues.

He was even instrumental in fighting against the unjust system of apartheid that put former South African president Nelson Mandela in jail. One of his more recent accomplishments took place in 2009, when Lowery performed the benediction for President Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony. In celebration of the resilient mover and shaker he is, the Auburn Avenue Research Library would like to wish Rev. Lowery a happy 90th birthday.

Though Lowery is still hanging on to his personal papers and memoirs, many of his countless honors and work in the community has been documented within AARL’s collections. More specifically in our collections on Andrew Young and Hosea Williams. Come thumb through our archives division to see some of our exclusive materials. 

The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery will be celebrating his birthday Sunday evening, in a star-studded soiree at the Atlanta Symphony Hall. For information on tickets, visit www.loweryinstitute.org.

References:

Kirkland, W M. "Joseph Lowery." The New Georgia Encyclopedia.

The HistoryMakers. "Rev. Joseph Lowery Biography ."

Posted by Yewande Addie, AARL Intern

MLK and Monuments

September 21st has been designated by the United Nations as International Day of Peace, an event that highlights the legacy of one of the most famous peacemakers in American history: Martin Luther King, Jr. In August, the monument commemorating his life and legacy was opened in a place of prominence in between the Lincoln and the Jefferson Memorials, comprising what the National Memorial Project Foundation’s website terms “a line of leadership." Despite setbacks surrounding the fund-raising efforts for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and differing opinions about its final design, its opening is a landmark achievement. Dr. King’s standing likeness almost mythically emerges from the “Stone of Peace,” which is encompassed by an ample tree-lined space, prompting reflection. While this statue features a stance of power that symbolizes the agency of African Americans in the fight for Civil Rights in the 1960s, Thomas Ball’s Freedman’s Memorial, or Emancipation Monument, in Lincoln Park (Washington, D. C.), remains a testament to the movement towards national conciliation at the expense of equal rights, a circumstance underscored by its dedication on the centennial of the nation’s founding. 

An 1863 Currier and Ives lithograph from the Print Collection of the AARL demonstrates “the standard representation of emancipation” from which Ball’s grouping is derived (Savage 1997, 56). As Kirk Savage explains in his monograph, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves, “The Freedman’s Memorial became the nation’s monument to emancipation even though the design might have better commemorated slavery” (129). Like Ball’s statue, this image also features a standing Abraham Lincoln and a kneeling enslaved African American man, but, unlike the Ball grouping, a mother figure with her children, presumably the formerly enslaved man’s family, are featured in the middle-ground of the composition. In the lithograph, Lincoln’s authority is reinforced through his positioning as the tallest figure, a stance that is exaggerated through the exaggerated through the extension of his right arm into the air and his upward-pointing index finger.

"Freedom to the Slaves," Lithograph, Currier and Ives (1863)

Proclaimed January 1^st 1863, by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States

“Proclaim liberty throughout All the land unto All the inhabitants thereof.” Lev XXV.10

Though similar to and resonant of the juxtaposition of Lincoln’s erectness against the subservience of the newly emancipated man in Ball’s Freedman’s Memorial, as a production of print culture, this image had the potential for a wider circulation and would be produced perhaps to ornament the home; by the mid-nineteenth century, the names of Currier and Ives were synonymous with pictorial reproductions that were meant to be available and affordable to all Americans. In the caption, a quotation from Leviticus frames the announcement of “Freedom to the Slaves,” as “Proclaimed” by Lincoln, conflating national events with biblical narratives, a rhetorical device that would have been welcomed by and comforting to many nineteenth-century viewers. The presence of the family grouping would thus possibly mirror the sacred place of home and family, negotiating a nuanced layering of God, nation, and home.

Engraving of The Freed Slave, Illustration for  Frank Leslie's Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition (1877)

At the Centennial Exposition in 1876, the same year that Thomas Ball’s statue was unveiled, however, Francesco Pezzicar’s The Freed Slave presented a very different picture of how the “freedman” could be represented. In his sculpture, a black man with outstretched arms looks upward, clutching a copy of the Emancipation Act in his left hand. Along with the Currier and Ives print, the collections of the AARL contain the reproduction of this statue in the pages of Frank Leslie's Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition. This picture also features a family combination of mother and children, but the most prominent member of this grouping is an African American boy, gazing up at the active and assertive man represented in the statue before him. The contrast between the Currier and Ives lithograph and the illustration in Frank Leslie’s Historical Register displays the prevailing sentiment promoting racial inequality during the Civil War and Reconstruction that would prompt the need for drastic social change one hundred years after emancipation; as King stated in his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” These two images are among the many such examples of the richness of print and periodical culture located in the Print Collection at the AARL.

References:

Brown, Josh. "Another View of the Statue of Emancipation." Picturing U.S. History. Accessed September 23, 2011. http://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/?p=1045.

National Memorial Project Foundation. "Build the Dream." Accessed September 23, 2011. http://www.mlkmemorial.org.

Savage, Kirk. Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Posted by Joy Bracewell, AARL Intern

Questionable verdict reminds some of Ga.'s flawed judicial past

Atlanta Civil Rights Attorney, Donald L. Hollowell 1917-2004

Troy Davis is a name that many will never forget. Convicted in 1989 for killing a Chatham county police officer, Davis was sentenced to death by lethal injection. After 20 years of proceedings, appeals, and denials, Davis was scheduled to be executed on September 21, 2011. The state, nation, and world waited on pins and needles as the U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution for one more appeal; although eventually, it was denied.


But this is not the first time Georgia has made headlines for questionable judicial rulings. Davis’s story is quite similar to Preston Cobb. Preston, a native of Monticello, GA, was accused and convicted in 1961 of killing Frank Coleman Dumas, a 70-year-old white farmer, who owned the land on which he and his family worked. At the time Cobb was just 15 years old. At the mercy of an all-white jury, he too was sentenced to death.

Cobb’s case went through the Georgia courts and was appealed to the US Supreme court by the NAACP’s General Counsel Robert L. Carter and an NAACP Atlanta lawyer, Donald L. Hollowell.

The same outrage and concern Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and many other human rights organizations expressed over Davis’s case, was also reflected in the support Cobb received.
Women’s societies protested the sentencing and the judicial decision to transfer Cobb to a facility for “hardened criminals.” Also many international student groups created petitions and campaigns requesting his clemency. A Dutch delegation even came to the states to plead on Cobb’s behalf to the governor.

At the time of Cobb’s case, Georgia law permitted the execution of convicted children as young as 14 years old. But global attention surrounding the case persuaded Georgia Gov. S. Ernest Vandiver to recommend the law’s revision, setting precedence for those under the age of 18 convicted of crimes and sentenced to death. With the unrelenting help of the NAACP and global support, Cobb’s fate as being the youngest to die by execution in Georgia was never realized. Although he still served a substantial sentence of 18 years in jail.

Though many are saddened or conflicted over Troy Davis’s execution, we remain hopeful that the Davis case will be just as influential as Cobb’s in reforming the justice system and our penal legislation.

If you are interested in seeking more information on this historic case and the tireless work of Donald L. Hollowell , please visit the Auburn Avenue Research Library to access primary and secondary sources in the Reference & Research and Archives Divisions. The Donald L. Hollowell Papers are currently being processed and will soon be available for research.


References:

"Ga. Legislature to Decide Boy's Future." Atlanta Daily World, October 10, 1961, p. 1.

"Hearing in Cobb Case October 26." Atlanta Daily World, October 24, 1961, p. 4.

"The Curtains Fall on The Preston Cobb Case." Atlanta Daily World, February 25, 1968, p. 4.


Posted by Yewande Addie, AARL Intern

From Natchez to Buckingham Palace

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield became the first and one of the most celebrated African American singers to gain recognition in both Europe and the United States. Her determination, talents, and gifts took her to places beyond what anyone could imagine for a slave from Mississippi during the 1850's. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, also known as The Black Swan, possessed an incredible and powerful clear 27-31 note voice range. She sang soprano, tenor, and bass. James Trotter, one of her vocal contemporaries, described her as having “remarkably sweet tones and wide vocal compass.” She worked hard and persevered to overcome the challenges surrounding her.

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was born a slave in Natchez, Mississippi as Elizabeth Taylor in 1824. At the tender age of one, she was taken to Philadelphia by her namesake and owner Mrs. Elizabeth Greenfield, who she was named for. Once settled in Philadelphia, Mrs. Elizabeth Greenfield joined the Society of Friends and freed the slaves she owned. However, Miss Elizabeth continued to serve as a maid and companion. A self-taught vocalist and musician Miss Elizabeth learned to play the piano, guitar, and harp, often providing entertainment for Mrs. Greenfield’s guests. After Mrs. Greenfield’s death, she supported herself by giving public and private performances, gaining significant recognition throughout the Northeast.  

On March 31, 1853, in a landmark engagement, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield made her New York City debut at Metropolitan Hall, drawing an all-white audience that exceeded nearly 4,000 people. Though she had quite a following among white audiences, some of her contemporaries were not as favorable of her success. In a very critical review, well-known abolitionist and orator Fredrick Douglass, stated: “We marvel that Miss Greenfield can allow herself to be treated with such palpable disrespect; for the insult is to her, not less than to her race. She must have felt deep humiliation and depression while attempting to sing in the presence of an audience and under arrangements which had thus degraded and dishonored the people to which she belongs...She is quite mistaken if she supposes that her success, as an artist depends upon her entire abandonment of self-respect…We warn her also, that this yielding, on her part, to the cowardly and contemptible exactions of the negro haters of this country may meet her in a distant land in a manner which she little imagines.“

Nevertheless, a few days following her recital, she traveled to Europe for engagements in England, Scotland, and Ireland, in hopes of finding a good teacher to further develop her vocal technique. Shortly after her arrival in England, she was abandoned and left penniless by her manager in London. Luckily Greenfield crossed paths with Harriet Beecher Stowe, a zealous American abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, while in London. With Stowe’s assistance, she was able to sing for the Duchess of Norfolk, the Duchess of Argyle, and the Duchess of Sutherland.  She even received a royal invitation to sing for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.

Illustrated News, 2 April 1853

The Prints Collection at AARL

Upon returning to America, Greenfield received anything but the royal treatment. She was refused entrance to a university music class because of her race. Determined, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield opened a music studio in Philadelphia, where she created and directed an opera troupe in the 1860s. Greenfield used music and her opera troupe to fight the oppressive systems of American slavery and racism. Her troupe traveled the world singing for integrated audiences and donating proceeds to colored nursing homes and orphanages. Ironically, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield’s efforts brought her side-by-side with one of her harshest detractors, Frederick Douglass. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield continued to perform until she died suddenly in Philadelphia on March 31, 1876 of paralysis.

 Check out the Auburn Avenue Research Library’s archives to learn more about the artistic and socially conscious contributions of people like Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield. 

References

Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.

Trotter, James. Music and Some Highly Musical People. New York: General Books, 1997.

Posted by Debra Coulter & Yewande Addie, AARL Interns