| Center Receives Addition to James H. Hargett Papers |
 The Amistad Research Center is pleased to have received a large addition to the papers of Reverend Dr. James H. Hargett, Pastor Emeritus, Christian Fellowship United Church of Christ (UCC) in San Diego, California. This addition spans Hargett's forty seven years of ministry in religious and community affairs as a pastor to churches in Honolulu, New Jersey, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The records include sermons, original hymns, and theological reflections on the American Missionary Association, slavery, black theology, civil rights, health care, and American immigration.
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1934, Hargett received a bachelor's degree from Johnson C. Smith University, a master's degree from Yale Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry (1975) from Colgate-Rochester Seminary, which involved studies in Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, Haiti, and the sea islands of South Carolina. He was ordained in Greensboro in 1955, and served as an associate minister of the predominately Japanese-American Church of the Crossroads UCC in Honolulu from 1955 to 1958.
As the pastor of the Church of Christian Fellowship UCC in Los Angeles from 1958 to 1969, Hargett was active on a number of boards and committees that promoted interracial understanding. As the convener of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s representative in California. He also organized the first mental health clinic for the poor in Los Angeles and worked with local clergy in the aftermath of the Watts Riots and following the death of Dr. King.
In 1969, Dr. Hargett moved to New York to become Secretary for Black Ministries in the two-million member United Church of Christ. From 1974 to 1977 he was Associate Minister of the predominately German American Livingston Avenue UCC in New Brunswick, New Jersey, until he was called to the Congregational Church of Park Manor in Chicago. He served the Christian Fellowship UCC in San Diego until his retirement in 1997. Dr. Hargett taught at California State College-Northridge, Douglas College, and Rutgers University. He organized and led two study trips to AMA colleges in the southern states which included visits to the Amistad Research Center. In 1970, he led the first interracial UCC African mission tour to Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya, as well as the 1993 "Mission One" tour, the first African American delegation to tour UCC mission partners in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
The addition to Dr. Hargett's papers totals 13.5 linear feet with material dating from 1918 to 2007. It was organized in chronological order by his wife and partner in ministry, Louilyn F. Hargett. The papers present details of UCC civil rights involvements, chronicle the work of the SCLC in California, and highlight the history and rich diversity of the United Church of Christ. Dr. Hargett has also deposited the papers of his father, Reverend Frederick A. Hargett, a pastor in Greensboro, North Carolina, which date from the 1920s to the 1960s. The F.A. Hargett materials include sermons and rare documents from the Afro Christian church (1918-1966), a predecessor body of the UCC, including annual reports, programs, proceedings, and minutes of the 46th Annual Session of the Lincoln Colored Christian Conference (1928).
Photo Credits: Top - James H. Hargett, October 1956; Bottom - April 1968 telegram from Jesse M. Unruh, California campaign chairman for Robert Kennedy, to James H. Hargett regarding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. From the James H. Hargett Papers, Addendum. |
| Amistad Welcomes New Staff |
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The staff of the Amistad Research Center continues to grow with the addition of two new staff members to assist with reference services and processing of the Center's archival collections. The Center is pleased to welcome Mr. Andrew Salinas and Ms. Laura Thomson, both of whom have already made great contributions to the Center's growth and services.
Andrew Salinas has accepted the position of Library and Reference Assistant at Amistad. Andrew is a native of Alabama who is new to the Crescent City. He has a master's degree in folklore and literature from Ohio State University and is currently working on an MLIS at the University of Alabama. Academically, his areas of scholarly interest are diasporic literature and vernacular art. Andrew is committed to folklore's basic mantra - that there is art in everyday life worth preserving for subsequent generations. "It is truly a privilege to begin my career in the archival field at an institution whose collection relates so closely to my personal interests. Being a non-profit environment, my position involves multiple roles within the Center, which, too, lured me to the Amistad Research Center. With primary responsibilities including reference services, it's a thrill getting to learn about local history, culture, and politics as part of the job."
Laura J. Thomson worked at the Amistad Research Center for three years as Manager of Processing and Acquisitions from 2002 to 2005, and has returned to Amistad as the Director of Processing. She began her studies in history at the State University of New York at Brockport, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1991. From there she enrolled in the University of South Carolina's Masters of Library and Information Science program, completing her studies in 1994 with a specialization in archival management. Laura has been an archivist for over eight years both in the United States and Australia. During her time in Australia she had the opportunity to study bookbinding and book restoration at the Central Metropolitan College of TAFE in Perth. She was awarded an NEH Scholarship to Rutgers University's Preservation Management Institute 2004-2005, where she completed a certificate in preservation management. In 2005, Laura decided to continue her studies in bookbinding full-time in the Masters of Fine Arts in the Book Arts program at the University of Alabama under the instruction of master printer Steve Miller and bookbinder/conservator Anna Embree. She completed her degree in May 2008 and is pleased to return to the Amistad Research Center. |
| Civil Rights Tour Visits Amistad |
The Reading Room at Amistad is always a hub of activity with researchers visiting daily to consult the Center's collections, but on the morning of May 29th it was standing room only. The Center was fortunate to host students from the University of Richmond (Virginia) as part of a three week course on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s taught by Dr. Melissa Ooten (University of Richmond) and Dr. Brian Daugherity (Virginia Commonwealth University). The class includes a tour of nine Southern states during which the students visit libraries and archives to conduct research with primary documents on various topics, as well as meet with scholars and activists of the era.
While in New Orleans, the group visited areas affected by Hurricane Katrina in order to connect contemporary and historical issues related to discrimination and poverty. The students also spent a morning at Amistad investigating a number of archival collections, including the personal papers of civil rights activist and CORE Field Secretary Ronnie Moore, material related to the roles of women and music in the movement, as well as collections related to groups opposed to the civil rights movement, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Louisiana White Citizens' Council.
Dr. Melissa Ooten, co-coordinator of the tour, kept a blog of the students' activities during the course, which details their travels and impressions. The Amistad Research Center looks forward to hosting future visits by young scholars taking part in this unique course.
Photo Credit: Photo by Holly Blake, provided courtesy of Melissa Ooten.
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| Chicago Community Keeps History Alive |
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Scheduled for September release, Tight Little Island: Chicago's West Woodlawn Neighborhood, 1900-1950, in the Words of Its Inhabitants is an intimate portrait of a tightly knit south side Chicago community that thrived from the turn of the 20th century until around 1950 against the odds of restrictive covenants, racial strife, and white flight.
Executive Editor Robert L. Polk, Designer & Editor Cheryll Y. Greene, and Publisher Gilbert Fletcher relate the community's story through the unique collective memories of its former inhabitants. The writers and storytellers of West Woodlawn bear witness to a Black community that pulsated with life and the determination to carve out new possibilities. Having remarkable recall of the 1920s to 1940s when most of them grew up, the recollections recreate the sound of West Woodlawn, the taste and touch and smell of it, and in so doing preserve the community's history.
Among distinguished residents who called West Woodlawn home were: Thomas A. Dorsey - The father of gospel music who innovatively married secular blues and sacred text; Emmet Till - Chicago teen whose brutal Mississippi murder helped spark the Civil Rights Movement in America; Micki Grant - Award winning Broadway actress, singer, composer and lyricist; and J. Ernest Wilkins - World renowned mathematician who entered the University of Chicago at age 13. The book, however, is a testament to the necessity felt by all former inhabitants to tell their own stories. It will be officially released September 14, 2008, and can be ordered through CNG Editions, 4631 Richardson Ave., Bronx, NY 10470, for $35.00 + $2.75 (postage). Checks should be payable to Robert L. Polk.
Rev. Dr. Robert L. Polk, born and reared in West Woodlawn, has held a variety of positions in his fifty-year career, including 14 years at the Riverside Church in New York City, and as dean of the chapel at Dillard University in New Orleans. The Robert L. Polk Papers, 1981-1988; Addendum, 1946-1986, contain documents related to the City University Construction Fund in New York, as well as correspondence, photographs, clippings, and printed items related to Polk's undergraduate attendance at Doane College in Nebraska. |
| Amistad Gets Close Look at Special Collection |
Jan Faulkner started gathering artifacts and paper ephemera featuring Black stereotypes in 1954, while an undergraduate at Lincoln University in Missouri. The collection, Ethnic Notions, has become an internationally recognized collection of racial stereotypes of African Americans dating as far back as 1849 to the early 1960s. It includes over 500 pieces of sheet music that span the same period and has been exhibited widely in the university and private sectors, featured in scholarly writings and textbooks, and was the subject of a film documentary. The documentary, by award winning producer/director Marlon Riggs, traces the history of deep-rooted stereotypes that have fueled anti-African American prejudice.
Faulkner's collection is of increasing interest to researchers, scholars, and cultural historians because of expanded publicity and media attraction. Ira Steingroot, writer for a Berkley, California, newspaper, commented that "each object speaks with an eloquence that transcends the need for explanation or commentary".
Researchers and observant shoppers in most supermarkets will occasionally catch a glimpse of brand survivors from as far back as the 1890s. These include images of Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, and Rastus, the chef on the Cream of Wheat box, still being used to sell products today. Few are aware that these taken-for-granted icons have been used for centuries to sell products, and the selling of products spills over into images of Blacks in music, radio, film, and television.
The Amistad Research Center received a glimpse into the contents of Ethnic Notions and an introduction to Jan Faulkner, which was arranged by an Amistad supporter. The collector shared important background information on her collection, and Amistad staff persons were able to share information about the Center's mission and interest in the preservation of primary source materials for use by scholars and researchers who chronicle the history of African Americans and America's other ethnic minorities.
Jan Faulkner did not recover from the effects of a stroke in early June 2008 and died later in the month. The Amistad Research Center gained tremendous benefit from making her acquaintance. |
| Author Donates Books to Center |
 Dr. Sybil Kein, native of New Orleans, is a Creole poet, scholar, playwright and musician. In 1981, she published Gombo People, a volume of poetry which, according to historian George Reineque, formerly of the University of New Orleans, represented the first contribution to American letters of original literature in the Louisiana Creole language. The book was reprinted in an expanded edition as Gumbo People in 1999. As stated on Dr. Kein's website, Gumbo People is the only book written in the Louisiana Creole language as still spoken today. It contains poems and lyrics in Creole, plus sheet music. Some of the poems are translated into Haitian Creole, Spanish, French and English.
Kein shared additional thoughts about her book and her relationship to the Amistad Research Center:
I originally wrote Gumbo People with the help of my cousin Ulysses Ricard, a Creole speaker, linguist and pioneer in Creole studies. I wanted to preserve the beauty and importance of the Louisiana French/Creole which I grew up speaking. I had read the horrible declarations of linguists of the 19th and 20th centuries who pronounced that Creole was a "baby talk", a "patois" of slaves whose "bulbous lips" and "thick tongues" were too big and too heavy to speak French.
I was personally offended by these and other racist remarks about my language and that of my people. I composed poetry in Louisiana French Creole to answer [those remarks]...
With the exception of the Native American languages, Louisiana French Creole is the only indigenous language of the United States. Tragically, the language is presently dying. There have not been concerted efforts to preserve this significant part of the linguistic legacy of the United States. By giving copies of my books to Amistad, I trust that the language will have a chance for another generation to give it life again.
Dr. Kein added that "I have nothing but praise for Archivist Brenda Square...This is the other reason why I donated the books to Amistad." Copies of Gumbo People will be available through the Center's gift shop.
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| Requiem |
Louisiana's 1st Black Supreme Court Justice Dies
Revius Oliver Ortique, Jr. (June 14, 1924 - June 22, 2008), civil rights activist, American jurist, and the first African American justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from complications of a stroke. Ortique and his wife moved to Baton Rouge after their New Orleans home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Ortique was born in New Orleans and served as an Army officer during World War II. He earned a bachelor's degree from Dillard University (1947), a master's from Indiana University (1959), and a law degree from Southern University (1956). Ortique led efforts in Louisiana during the 1950s and 60s to integrate labor unions while representing Black workers who filed lawsuits to gain equality in wages. In 1958, he was first elected to a five-term presidency of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans and led the National Bar Association, an association of African-American lawyers and judges, as its president in the mid 60s. He successfully used his position to lobby President Johnson to appoint Black judges to the federal bench.
Ortique was first appointed to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1978 and was elected chief judge eight years later. He stepped down from the court in 1994 when he became 70, the state's mandatory judicial retirement age. He was also appointed by five U.S. presidents to various commissions and boards, including a term as an alternate U. S. delegate to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton.
The Revius O. Ortique Papers, ca. 1961-1972, at the Amistad Research Center include correspondence, legal documents, clippings, reports, photographs, and other documents that chronicle local and national events mostly related to school desegregation and city development. The Papers span his professional career as a practicing attorney and member of many professional and community organizations, including the National Bar Association, the Coordinating Council of Greater New Orleans, the Community Improvement Agency, the Louisiana Weekly Educational Fund, the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, and the Community Relations Council of Greater New Orleans. | |
