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

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

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

AARL home to Amelia Boynton-Robinson papers

Left to right, Dick Gregory and Amelia Boynton-Robinson, Auburn Avenue Research Library, August 2011

The Auburn Avenue Research Library is now home to the Amelia Boynton-Robinson papers. At 100 years old, Mrs. Boynton-Robinson, pictured above right, is an activist/organizer, speaker, playwright and author. Born in Savannah, Georgia, she is the oldest living graduate of Tuskegee University. Mrs. Boynton-Robinson worked closely with civil rights leaders to plan and strategize rural and regional efforts. Her home in Selma, Alabama, was a meeting place for leaders during the 1960s, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Joan Baez, John Lewis, and Andrew Young. Mrs. Boynton-Robinson along with her husband, Samuel, organized Alabama residents in voting rights campaigns and civil rights activities. Mrs. Boynton-Robinson’s collection reflects her wide range of activities and includes, newspaper clippings, awards, letters, ephemera and photographs. The collection is approximately 8 cubic feet and will be open for research once processed. 

Posted by Kerrie Cotten Williams, Archivist

“Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum!”



Disney’s latest film release in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise continues a long standing fascination with pirates and images commonly associated with them – ships, parrots, scenes of debauchery, and the token bottle of rum. While piracy has a rich history, its ever present companion, rum, has a history that connects to colonization, slavery, and the appropriation of African and African American imagery in advertising, evidenced by rum bottle labels from the early twentieth century, part of AARL’s Ephemera collection.

While the Portuguese were the first to corner the market on the European slave trade in the 15th century, it was their Spanish neighbors who introduced African slaves to the Caribbean, or West Indies, at the beginning of the 16th century. During this period, Spanish and Portuguese colonists realized that the climate of the Caribbean proved ideal for sugarcane cultivation, leading to the development of sugar mills throughout the islands. As other European powers began to establish their presence in the Caribbean and North and South America, they too began to exploit imported Africans for slave labor.

According to the Trans-Atlanta Slave Trade Database, the exportation of sugar from the Eastern Caribbean began in 1641. The industry spread quickly to mainland Central and South America. After 1650, sugar had become “king” of the Caribbean, especially in the English, Dutch, and French colonies. The process of converting sugarcane into sugar produces multiple by-products, including cane juice and molasses. Islanders discovered that these products could be used to create crude, cheap liquor – rum. As the alcoholic beverage was refined, its popularity soared in both the New and Old Worlds. At the height of rum’s popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was consumed by seafaring adventurers and common families in Colonial North America alike, and utilized as currency in the transatlantic slave trade. As slavery was abolished throughout the world in the 19th century, rum began its decline along with sugar production. However, the industry remained embedded in the Caribbean economy and consumer imagination.

The labels pictured here are from rum producers located in the Caribbean, with the majority originating from islands under French sovereignty. The featured labels come from rum production in the 1930s and 40s. Earlier product labels depicted sea or island images, including ships or beach scenes. A fascinating topic for further research and examination would be the period when advertisements in the industry shifted to images and stereotypes of people of African descent, a commercial practice that occurred in the United States during the same time period that the pictured rum labels were produced.

In American product advertising, the Aunt Jemima logo (before the 1989 make-over), which is based on the mammy archetype that developed in minstrel shows during the mid-1800s, is perhaps one of the most relatable examples. The archetypal mammy was usually dark skinned, overweight, large breasted and adorned with a head covering – the happy slave of romanticized plantation life born of the white imagination. Despite differences, these labels visually reference the mammy figure. The female characters wear headscarves or wraps, large loop earrings, are mostly darker in complexion, and are smiling. These depictions represent an exoticism and idealism of blackness, specifically female blackness, for white consumers. Like the Aunt Jemima image, those depicted in rum labels represent a historical moment shaped by racism, consumerism, and colonialism – a complex and troubled past documented in this post through ephemera.

(The rum labels that appear are currently unprocessed. For access, please contact the Archives Division. The books mentioned below, used for this post, are available for research at AARL.)

References:
Alderman, Clifford L. Rum, Slaves, and Molasses: The Story of New England’s Triangular Trade. Crowell-Collier Press, 1972.

Kern-Foxworth, Marilyn. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Greenwood Press, 1994.

Manring, M.M. Slave In a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima. University of Virginia Press, 1998.

McElya, Micki. Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth Century America. Harvard University Press, 2007.

Thompson, Barbara. Black Womanhood: Images, Icons and Ideologies of the African Body. University of Washington Press, 2008.

Wallace-Sanders, Kimberly. Mammy: A Century of Race, Gender, and Southern-Memory. University of Michigan Press, 2008.


Posted by Nicole Carmolingo, AARL Archives Intern

Archives and Publics: Freedom Riders Redux

As a quick refresher, the archives and publics series draws attention to relationships between repositories and users. Part advocacy, part outreach, posts highlight research developments, institutional partnerships, community projects that use primary sources, and much more. Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I received recently from UGA's Dr. Barbara McCaskill. In it, she shares good news, which I happily pass along.

Hi Wesley! JoyEllen Freeman, who has been helping Christina and me on the J. Richardson Jones project and visited AARL with us last time, was selected as one of the 40 college students re-enacting the Freedom Rides between May 6 and May 16. If you think it's appropriate, we'd love for you to announce this on the AARL blog, and also to include the link below to the PBS website. JoyEllen has begun to post blogs and pictures from the trip and your readers can follow them on this link and respond.

I'll be sending pictures from the Jacksonville trip, along with information about two terrific students for the graduate internships, in a few days--I am knee deep in grading and exams right now. I also have received new information about Mr. Jones's radio shows from a collector who has contacted us, and who is sending us copies of the shows. I'll send more information about that for a new blog entry when I contact you again soon. Thanks!

Below is an introductory video to JoyEllen, one of the inspirational 2011 Student Freedom Riders.

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

We congratulate JoyEllen, and look forward to sharing more updates on the J. Richardson Jones project and to announcing a creative, new internship partnership developed by Dr. Barbara McCaskill.

Posted by Wesley Chenault, Library Research Associate

From Tuskegee to Tokyo

Selena Sloan Butler family papers, Archives Division, AARL

During a review of scans of the Selena Sloan Butler family papers, one of the eleven collections being digitized for the NHPRC funded collaborative with the Digital Library of Georgia, I was struck by images from an album of postcards. From 1902 to 1908, Butler kept postcards from friends and colleagues travelling for business as well as leisure. They cover a broad geographic swath, from Tuskegee to Toronto to Tokyo, and shed light on the lives of an elite class of African Americans who navigated the constraints of the Jim Crow South. 

Selena Sloan Butler family papers, Archives Division, AARL

The postcards also represent events, places, and moments related to African American history in the United States. For example, in 1907 Butler received a postcard mailed from the Colored State Fair in Macon, Georgia, which documents segregation and the Georgia State Fair during the early twentieth century. Another from the same year contains an image of (Dr. J. T.) Wilson's Infirmary, a now-vanished hospital for African Americans in Nashville, Tennessee.  On September 05, 1906, Dr. Henry R. Butler, Selena's husband, received a postcard of Richmond, Virginia, from a colleague. At the end of month, a bloody race riot erupted near the Butler family's home in Atlanta, Georgia.

Posted by Wesley Chenault, Library Reseach Associate

One Woman's Dream: The Unfolding Legacy of Evelyn J. Frazier

Just in time for Women's History Month, here is a peek at One Woman's Dream: The Unfolding Legacy of Evelyn J. Frazier, an exhibition about the business, civic, educational, and political life of an incredibly dynamic individual. From now until Sunday, May 29, 2011, the exhibit is open in the small gallery on the first floor at AARL. Curators Pennye Hicks (Frazier's niece) and Kenneth Green of Spelman College did a wonderful job of converting 200 square feet into an eye-catching, interactive user experience.

Tall panels flank the left and center walls of the space, providing viewers with biographical information, historical context, and a timeline of important dates and events related to Frazier's life, and with a subtle cue about the exhibit's left-to-right flow. "Evelyn's Journey," the tallest panel, contains a video component installed midway through the timeline. Using the headphones provided, viewers encounter a visual and audio narration of Frazier's personal and professional development.

Anchoring the center wall is a panel titled, "The Two Steeples," which includes information about Frazier's activities in the historic Big Bethel A.M.E. Church and Morris Brown College. Mounted to the wall to the right of "The Two Steeples" are a series of black hinged boxes. The face of each is covered with a reproduction photograph or document. Upon opening a box, viewers read details and descriptions about the exterior image. It’s a clever way to add depth to two-dimensional objects and to engage viewers physically.

Anchoring the right is the show-stopper, a small reproduction of the interior of Frazier's Cafe Society, a popular African American eatery, complete with booth, counter, and framed original ephemera -- a menu, matches, napkins, full page ad -- and much more. It's a visual treat.

Through this exhibit, the book The Silent Warrior: An Autobiography of Evelyn J Frazier, and the donation of Frazier's papers to AARL, Pennye Hicks is ensuring the contributions and accomplishments of her aunt are remembered. To see the collection finding aid, go here.  And plan a visit soon!

Posted by Wesley Chenault, Library Research Associate

Research 2.0: Black History Month + Southern Cultures

Researchers take note. Southern Cultures, a quarterly publication of the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of the American South, celebrates Black History Month this year with a special and permanent feature you will want to see.

Dave Shaw, the publication's Executive Editor, wrote in an announcement circulated on the H-Net List on Memory Studies :

In celebration of Black History Month, Southern Cultures permanently has dedicated a new section of our website to all of our essays and features from the last decade on AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE. This material includes interviews with many famous figures (and lesser known ones, too), as well as material which explores many aspects of the experiences of African Americans inside and outside the South. In addition, we've also been presenting featured content on our homepage to commemorate African American history: an essay from Timothy B. Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name, who reveals why Martin Luther King's memory endures and what he means to the South and the nation.

To go to Southern Culture’s website, follow this link.

Also in celebration of Black History Month, Rebecca Burns gave an author’s talk last night at AARL about her new book Burial for a King: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Funeral and the Week That Transformed Atlanta and Rocked the Nation. If you get a chance to hear her, do so. You will find more on the Library's other amazing programs here.

Posted by Wesley Chenault, Library Research Associate

“These Legs Were Not Made to Kick a Football”

In preparation for Super Bowl XLV, earlier this week we featured a post about the Brown Bombers, a professional all-black football team based in Harlem in the 1930s. Fritz Pollard, the team’s founder, used creative methods to promote the team, including publishing The Brown Bomber Journal. Several issues of the journal are in our rare periodicals collection.

The Brown Bomber Journal was a news magazine with a bit of something for everyone. Pollard recognized that the black elite frequently came from the fields of sports and entertainment, and thus had much in common. Both top athletes and entertainers received wide acclaim for their accomplishments, were highly paid, and often had to develop signature styles to stand out and achieve success in the white-dominated establishment. Therefore, it made sense to cover topics of interest to the elite (and to the aspiring elite) in one publication.

Unsurprisingly, the Brown Bombers are highlighted throughout the magazine. The sports section introduces the players, noting their stats, honors, and playing history. The accompanying photographs, pictured above to the left, capture the Brown Bombers in poses that highlight their athleticism.

The magazine’s society pages include photographs and announcements about travel plans and social events. A photograph of a Bombers fan is also featured prominently. The fashion section, above to the right, illustrates popular designs of the Fall 1936 season, whose rich colors were influenced by the impending coronation of Edward VIII of England.

Advertisements fill the journal’s back pages, providing a glimpse into the types of services and products that were used by and marketed to African Americans. Even among the ads, there is an announcement to promote the Brown Bombers through a popularity contest for young ladies, pictured above. Women who sold the most tickets were eligible for prizes, including a raccoon fur coat, diamond ring, and clothing.

As a source of popular culture, The Brown Bomber Journal is fun to look at. At the same time, the magazine also provides a wealth of historical information about the educational levels, professions, family connections, and social activities of black New Yorkers in the 1930s.

References:

John Carroll, Fritz Pollard: A Pioneer in Racial Advancement (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992)

Posted by Krystal Appiah, Brown University, former AARL Archives Intern

Treasures from the Vertical Files: Fritz Pollard’s Brown Bombers

Just in time for Super Bowl XLV, today’s treasure is a collection of football programs for the Brown Bombers, an all-black professional football team based in Harlem in the 1930s. Although many people are familiar with the Negro Baseball League, less well-known is the brief period of segregation in professional football (1933-1946), which led to the creation of all-black teams such as the Brown Bombers and Chicago Comets.

Professional football began in the 1890s in local athletic clubs. While these local teams had a small base of fans, football remained relatively obscure compared to nationally prominent pro sports, such as baseball or boxing. In an effort to popularize football, teams encouraged all talented athletes, regardless of color, to join them. Star African American players, such as Charles Follis, Paul Robeson, and Fritz Pollard, pictured below, were sought after to win games and draw spectators. Nevertheless, black players faced verbal and physical abuse from white fans and opponents. Hotels and restaurants that excluded black players caused indignities and logistical problems when teams travelled.

By the late 1920s, as football became more accepted nationally and white players vied to join teams, team owners began releasing black players. The high unemployment rates of the Great Depression put additional pressure on teams to hire white players. In addition, owners wanted to avoid the controversy of integrated teams in order to retain their new-found audiences. As a result, in 1933, white team owners in the National Football League (NFL) formed an unwritten, “gentleman’s agreement” to bar black players from the league. Although a few regional leagues continued to hire a handful of black players, the NFL dominated the sport.

In response, Fritz Pollard, a former pro football player and coach, assembled and coached the all-black Brown Bombers in 1935. Based at Dyckman Oval in Harlem, the Bombers provided a showcase where talented black players could compete professionally. Pollard hoped to counter the obviously false claims by white team owners that they could not find capable black players. Pollard also attempted to schedule exhibition games against local white teams to show that black and white football players could compete without incident. Pollard recruited former top African American players from white and black colleges, as well as some non-college players. At one point, Howard “Dixie” Matthews, pictured below, a former end for the Providence Steam Roller, anchored the Bombers.

Despite the talented roster, the Brown Bombers struggled to overcome low attendance. In order to draw audiences, Pollard instituted stunts and unusual plays. The Bombers’ truckin’ and singing as they proceeded to the scrimmage line became a trademark of the team. The Bombers also developed unorthodox formations, such as the “aeroplane shift” to mystify their opponents and entertain crowds. Although the Bombers’ showmanship was popular with Harlem fans and increased game attendance, the team still did not make enough money to generate a profit.

In 1938, a competing team gained exclusive use of Dyckman Oval, leaving the Bombers without a suitable stadium in which to play their home games. Discouraged by the loss of their home and white team owners’ continued failure to sign his players, Pollard resigned as coach of the team. The Bombers continued as a road team until the early 1940s.

Efforts by civil rights organizations eventually led to the desegregation of professional sports, including the reintegration of the NFL in 1946. Unfortunately, by that time, most of the great black players of the 1930s were too old or too injured to play in NFL. However, by creating opportunities for African Americans to play pro football and by battling segregation, Fritz Pollard and the Brown Bombers formed an underappreciated front in the Civil Rights Movement.


References:

John Carrol, Fritz Pollard: A Pioneer in Racial Advancement (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992)

Charles K. Ross, Outside the Lines: African Americans and the Integration of the National Football League (New York: New York University Press, 1999)

Posted by Krystal Appiah, Brown University, former AARL Archives Intern

Archives and Publics: Rebecca Burns + "Burial for a King" + Research

On Thursday, February 24, 2011, author and journalist Rebecca Burns will discuss her new book, Burial for a King: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Funeral and the Week that Transformed Atlanta and Rocked the Nation. Read about it here. The event takes place at 7:00 p.m. in the Authors’ and Writers’ Lounge on the 3rd floor and is free and open to the public. If you are in the area, it will be an amazing opportunity to see Burns, as AARL is one of the many research libraries she used to write the book. Copies will be available for purchase.

If you aren’t familiar with Rebecca Burns, spend a few moments here. While well-known as former editor in chief and, now, interactive director at Atlanta magazine, she also is a prolific writer who has published three books in a relatively short amount of time. In addition to Burial for a King, Burns is author of Rage in the Gate City: the Story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, now in its second edition, and Atlanta: Yesterday & Today.

While an accomplished journalist and author, Burns is featured in this post for another reason. She’s an advocate and user of archives. Pick up any of her books, and you will find evidence of exhaustive research through lists of primary and secondary sources, which sometimes include informative notations. I witnessed firsthand the countless hours Burns spent researching AARL collections for Atlanta: Yesterday & Today and Burial for a King; some weeks she worked concurrently on both projects. Throughout months and months of research, Burns exhibited great rigor, thoroughness, and passion.  

The relationship between archivist and researcher is often a collaborative process filled with leads, dead ends, and discoveries. But there’s more to research than this one-to-one relationship. As the editors of Beyond the Archives: Research as Lived Process note, “the process [sic] of research itself creates new knowledge, not just published results” (p. 6). It is generative, transmissive. In other words, those involved in the process are changed as a result of new information and, in turn, change others through intellectual exchange. Examples at hand are an author’s talk or an archivist’s blog post. Both become settings through which findings and information are delivered and meaningful conversations can occur, whether it’s through a question and answer session or comments section.

Please join us Tuesday, February 24th, for what promises to be a wonderful evening of learning and dialogue.


References:

Rebecca Burns, Rage in the Gate City: The Story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 2nd ed., (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2009)

_______, Atlanta: Yesterday & Today (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 2010)

_______, Burial for a King: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Funeral and the Week that Transformed Atlanta and Rocked the Nation (New York: Scribner, 2011)

Gesa E. Kirsch and Liz Rohan, eds., Beyond Archives: Research as Lived Process (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2008)

Posted by Wesley Chenault, Library Research Associate

Digitizing Historic African American Education Collections: An Introduction

In a collaborative project, AARL and the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) were awarded funds in 2010 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to digitize and make web-accessible late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century manuscript collections that document the historical development of education for African Americans, primarily in the South. Ranging in date from the early 1860s to the early 1950s, these materials, owned and housed at AARL, are of great national significance as they were created during the near-century long struggle to improve educational opportunities for African Americans in the United States.

The project, named “Digitizing Historic African American Education Collections,” runs from April 01, 2010, to March 31, 2012. Recently, Wesley Chenault, project director for the grant, submitted the first interim narrative report, which highlighted activities, accomplishments, objectives and more for April 01, 2010, to September 30, 2010. Future posts will feature different components of the grant, discuss the project’s methodology, and share updates. For now, here is a glimpse at some of the activities and accomplishments to date.

AARL purchased equipment and hired two part-time library assistants, Colleen Carrington and Grace Lynis Dubinson. Their essential contribution – scanning tens of thousands of historical records – comprises the bulk of the work. DLG’s Sheila McAlister, Andy Carter and Mary Willoughby provided training on scanning techniques and file labeling conventions for AARL project staff. Among grant-related publicity and outreach efforts, AARL's Kerrie Cotten Williams and DLG's Toby Graham discussed the project as part of a panel, “Southern Civil Rights Collections: Bridging the Digital Divide” at the National Conference of African American Librarians in August 2010.

When completed, 74,000 pages of digital content will be made available through AARL and DLG. A couple of these files – a photograph and ledger page from the Atlanta University Collection – are included above. Stay tuned, for there is more to report about this exciting and important digitization project.


Posted by Wesley Chenault, Library Research Associate.

Treasures from the Vertical Files: Atlanta Black Crackers Ad

Today’s treasure from the vertical files is an advertisement for the Atlanta Black Crackers from the June 14, 1939 edition of the Atlanta Daily World. It is a fitting theme for this week as it coincides with the end of the 2010 World Series. The ad was placed by Coca-Cola to market their product at games and to wish the team luck. The ad also includes three signatures, which are assumed to be those of team players, whose identities are unknown at this time. In addition to the ad, page five includes various articles detailing the season opening of the Black Crackers, or “Black Crax,” as the Atlanta Daily World called the team.

The League of Colored Baseball Clubs was formed in 1887 as a response to the National Association of Baseball Players banning of black players from its white league in 1867. During this period, black baseball teams in Atlanta found their beginnings at historically African American universities, including what was then Atlanta University and Clark University. The first black professional team in Atlanta, the Deppens, also formed before the start of the twentieth century. The Atlanta Cubs, a semiprofessional team of black college students, succeeded the Deppens and changed their name to the Atlanta Black Crackers in 1919. The team joined the Negro Southern League in 1919 and continued to represent Atlanta in that league until 1937.

Teams in African American leagues, including the Black Crackers, were often plagued by financial difficulty and continually found themselves under new ownership. One reason behind financial problems was the inability to sell out games because of segregation, which did not allow mixed crowds. After Reverend John Harden and his wife purchased the Black Crackers in 1938, the team later became part of the Negro American League. A year later, when the team was sold to Indianapolis, it played under the nickname ABC’s. Soon after, in 1940, a new Atlanta Black Crackers team formed. The demise of the Negro baseball leagues and their teams, including the Black Crackers, began in the mid twentieth century once the all-white major league was integrated.

References:

Darnell, Tim. “Atlanta Black Crackers.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2006. http://dev.ngerr.gsu.edu/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1966&hl=y

Heaphy, Leslie A. The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2003.

Lanctot, Neil. Negro Baseball League: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Posted by Nicole Carmolingo, AARL Archives Intern

Treasures from the Vertical Files: Harlem Uproar House Souvenir Booklet and Menu

The latest treasures from the vertical files include a souvenir booklet and menu from the Harlem Uproar House, which was once located on 51st Street at Broadway in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. The menu details the food and beverage offerings of the establishment, which was open every night from 6pm to 4am. The souvenir booklet introduces the various performers employed, who took part in the four shows given each evening.

Harlem nightclubs were a well known fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, however the existence of black nightclubs in New York City dates back to the 1860s. As the popularity of nightclubs rapidly increased during the 1910s steps were taken to make them appear more respectable. This included the adoption of the French term “cabaret,” which sounded far more sophisticated than a mere club.

With the passage of Prohibition, Harlem cabarets also took on the identity of speakeasies, illicitly serving alcohol to their patrons. As white New Yorkers began showing interest in the “exoticism” of Harlem, some nightclubs became segregated, serving only whites and sometimes light skinned African Americans. However, these establishments remained exclusively staffed by black singers, musicians, performers, cooks, and wait staff. The white practice of venturing to Harlem in order to relax their class values and morals was known as “slumming.”

Despite furthering discrimination through the practice of segregation, Harlem cabarets are also renowned for the opportunities they gave African American musicians. The nightclubs allowed black singers and musicians a variety of venues to perform in, where jazz and blues prevailed. The smaller clubs typically featured a modest sized band and solo singer, while larger ones might also include entire musical numbers as well as an assortment of performers.

Harlem cabarets and nightclubs are recognized for the role they played in fostering the development of jazz and blues music, as well as the careers of African American musicians, such as Duke Ellington. However, these establishments also were targeted by politicians and police for allegedly violating vice laws and challenging prevailing social and sexual mores. Today, clubs like the Harlem Uproar hold the fascination of researchers for this blurring of racial, class, sexual, and cultural boundaries.

References:

Mumford, Kevin. Interzones: Black/White Sex Districts in Chicago and New York in the Early Twentieth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

Vogel, Shane. The Scene of Harlem Cabaret: Race, Sexuality, Performance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Wintz, Cary D. and Paul Finkelman. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Volume 1 and 2. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Posted by Nicole Carmolingo, AARL Archives Intern