May 2012

Elizabeth Catlett at work in her studio, circa 1983.

The staff and directors of the Amistad Research Center join the art world in mourning the loss of one of the world's true art treasures, Elizabeth Catlett, who passed away on Monday, April 2, 2012. Ms. Catlett was for many years a strong supporter of the Center. On the collection of her works and papers at Amistad, she commented "I am pleased that my personal papers and some of my art works are permanently preserved in one of the great repositories in the United States."

Born April 15, 1919, at Freedmen's Hospital in Washington D.C., she was the third child of Mary Carson Catlett and John Catlett. In 1931, she enrolled at Howard University and began her studies as a design major, but later changed to painting. At Howard, she studied under Lois M. Jones, James Herring, James Wells, and James Porter.

Catlett later studied at Iowa University to pursue a master's degree in art and majored in sculpture. In 1940, she would become the first African American to receive an MFA in sculpture from the university. While at Iowa, she studied under painter Grant Wood. It was Wood who encouraged her to work with wood and depict subjects with which she could directly indentify. She took his advice and worked on images of African American women, mothers, daughters, and children. Her thesis piece, Mother and Child, became a characteristic theme of her art.

After completing her studies at Iowa, Catlett studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago before joining the Art Department at Dillard University in New Orleans. She taught drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and art history. One incident profoundly affected the focus of her art during her time at Dillard. Intending to take her art class to see a retrospective exhibition of Pablo Picasso's paintings at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the class had to enter the museum directly from the bus due to the fact that the museum's entrance was through City Park, which was closed to African Americans due to Jim Crow laws. Ms. Catlett discussed the visit in this 2009 interview.

The Julius Rosenwald Foundation awarded Catlett a grant in 1945 to create a series of prints and sculptures on the theme of African American women. The series would be entitled The Negro Woman and conveyed the determination of African American women in the face of overwhelming odds. In 1945, Catlett traveled to Mexico and returned in 1947, marrying painter and printmaker Francisco Mora. The couple had three sons, Francisco Jr., Juan, and David. Catlett joined the Taller de Grafica Popular (People's Graphic Arts Workshop) of printmakers who were committed to maintaining the social and political ideals of the Mexican Revolution. She became a Mexican citizen in 1960.

The political activism of the 1960s and early 1970s was seen in a variety of Catlett's works of that era, such as Black Unity, Homage to My Young Black Sisters, Target, and The Torture of Mothers. She was the recipient of numerous awards and commissions, and continued to work and reside in Mexico until her passing. 

Felicia has been the Amistad Research Center's Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Archives Fellow since September 2011 in partnership with the HistoryMakers in Chicago. She has done excellent work for the Center in processing the papers of actor, playwright, and civil rights activist John O'Neal, assisting with reference and research requests, and preparing metadata for a project to digitize 18th and 19th century Louisiana documents collected by civil rights attorney A.P. Tureaud.

John O'Neal as Junebug Jabbo Jones.

As one of the creative forces and co-founders of the Free Southern Theater (FST), John M. O'Neal, Jr.'s philosophy is that politics and art are complementary, not opposing terms, and his work has taken him to perform for audiences throughout North America and internationally.

Born in Mound City, Illinois, O'Neal graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1962. With deep sentiment and strong convictions about the nonviolent civil rights movements in the South, O'Neal moved to Jackson, Mississippi, shortly after graduation and became a Field Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). O'Neal also contributed extensively to voter rights registration efforts with his participation in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As a result of his stint in the movement, O'Neal integrated his political and aesthetic objectives to co-found FST in 1963 with Doris Derby and Gilbert Moses at Tougaloo College in Mississippi as the cultural and educational arm of the Civil Rights Movement. The Theater created and toured plays that were relevant to the struggle for equality among southern Blacks and developed a positive image for African American culture. FST founders moved its headquarters to New Orleans in 1965 and eventually produced its last play in 1980. That same year marked the creation of FST's successor, Junebug Productions, which was led by O'Neal for many years.

The John O'Neal papers consist of 37 linear feet and document O'Neal's artistic style and vision as an African American actor, director, playwright, and community and civil rights activist. The papers are of interest for anyone interested in studying the southern Black Arts Movement and more specifically the Black Theater Movement. O'Neal's papers contain the working notes for the development of the Free Southern Theater, which includes the general plan for the theater group, project planning, and other writings related to theater productions. The papers also include an array of correspondence, brochures, flyers, newsletters, news clippings, press releases, position papers, pamphlets, field reports, and committee meeting minutes, notebooks, writings, and collected publications. The bulk of the theater files highlight Black arts theater groups in the South, as well as other ethnic theater groups O'Neal contributed to as a playwright, director, and performer. In addition, the Writings series is comprised of drafts of his plays, including "Don't Start Me To Talkin Or I'll Tell Everything I Know: Sayings From the Life and Writings of Junebug Jabbo Jones" and "Hurricane Season."

The papers are scheduled to open to the public in June 2012.

The Amistad Research Center recently reached a milestone in providing increased access to its archival collections when it completed the online descriptions for all collections donated to the Center from its founding in 1966 up to 2005, which accounts for over 1200 donations. Better yet, Center staff have pledged to have the remaining donation descriptions from 2006-2011 online by the end of 2012. In addition, over 900 creator records are listed in the Center's online database, as well as 145 full finding aids.

A number of finding aids have been made accessible online within the past few months and demonstrate the scope and breadth of Amistad's holdings. A few highlights include:

Fredi Washington (second from right) during a 1943 YMCA-sponsored radio broadcast on African American support for the war effort.

The papers of sisters Fredi Washington and Isabel Washington Powell highlight both women's entertainment careers, as well as their activism on the part of African Americans. Born in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1900s, sisters Fredi and Isabel Washington went on to famed stage, film, and musical careers in New York City during the 1920s through the 1940s. Fredi eventually moved to Harlem to live with her grandmother and was followed by Isabel, where both began show business careers that would bring them to the forefront of New York City nightlife and to audiences beyond. Both would eventually retire from the entertainment industry and devote themselves to bettering the lives of African Americans.

The topics of human rights and equal employment opportunities are documented in the papers of John G. Feild and Marshall Bragdon, who both served with the National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials (NAIRO), which later became the National Association of Human Rights Workers (NAHRW).

Edgar G. Brown

The Joseph E. Roy scrapbook reflects Roy's work as chairman of the World's Congress on Africa at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and as Western District Secretary for the American Missionary Association. The papers of attorney, ambassador, elected official, and Supreme Court Justice of the state of New York Edward R. Dudley chronicle his career as an ambassador to Liberia and his service as legal counsel to Charles Harwood, Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, while the papers of the Jamaican-born educator Kenneth Bronstorph M. Crooks reflect Crooks' upbringing in Jamaica, his work as headmaster of Happy Grove School, his efforts to gain financial assistance for Jamaicans to study in the United States, and his other work as an educator in the U.S., as well as his scientific research. The papers of politician, lobbyist, and member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet" Edgar G. Brown provide a glimpse into the struggle for African American rights around the time of World War II.

Photograph of William Lloyd Garrison from the Joseph Rubinfine collection.

Amistad's slavery-related holdings include the Robert H. Stewart Family papers, which contain financial records and account books regarding the operation of businesses owned by Natchez, Mississippi, morticians and furniture dealers Robert H. and Robert Stewart. The Stewarts also owned Elder Grove Plantation at Bunch's Bend, Carroll Parish, Louisiana. A recent donation is a notarized copy of a bill of sale documenting the sale of a male slave in New Orleans, Louisiana, appraised at $900.00. The sale was conducted between Anne Marie Francoise Aspasie Fazende, the widow of Louis de Montault and representative of his estate, and Sosthene Roman of St. James Parish. The sale concerns a slave named Henry (or Henri), thirty three years of age and suffering from "the King's evil" (Scrofula, a form of tuberculosis).

Two small collections include the Paul and Gracia Hardacre collection, which contains correspondence, ephemera, and a photograph concerning Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, and the Joseph Rubinfine collection, which includes autographs, correspondence, and images of prominent abolitionists.

Finally, thanks to the assistance of Xavier University intern Jayla Jones, the records of the Auxiliary to the National Medical Association are now online.

Look for more updates regarding new finding aids in future issues of e-Amistad Reports, as well as on the Center's blog and Facebook page. 

The American Association of Museums (AAM) annual meeting convened in Minneapolis-Saint Paul from April 29-May 2. AAM is the largest cultural meeting of its kind, attracting over 5,000 total attendees from all states and 50 foreign countries. A broad cross section of professionals from institutions as diverse as art museums, children museums, historic houses, and archival repositories assembled to learn from content specialists and each other.

The 2012 AAM featured an Africa Global Track program, which was underwritten by the US-Africa Cultural Heritage Strategic Partnership. The partnership includes the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Michigan State University, and the Smithsonian Institutions. Amistad Executive Director Lee Hampton joined co-panelist Rudo Sithole, Executive Director of AFRICOM, in presenting a case study of cultural/natural heritage risk management challenges. The session was simultaneously interpreted in Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, and French. Hampton is encouraged by possibilities for Amistad to engage in future international collaboration and networking projects.

Folder of Robert Kennedy letters from the American Committee on Africa records.

As previously mentioned, the processing team has started work on a three-year project to process the records of the American Committee on Africa and The Africa Fund.

Throughout the 1960s there was little Congressional involvement with the issue of South Africa's policy of apartheid and very minimal support from members of Congress to address this issue. The administration acknowledged that South Africa was very important economically and strategically to the U.S., and this influenced the views that South African apartheid was a low priority and that peaceful change rather than revolution was to be emphasized.

ACOA's goals throughout the 1960s were to raise the awareness of the American public about human rights issues across the African continent and specifically about the plight of the non-white population under South Africa's apartheid policy. ACOA advocated U.S. economic sanctions against South Africa, which placed it in extreme opposition to the U.S. policy of a hands-off approach on investment and trade within the country. 

In a letter from July 27, 1966, to Donald S. Harrington, Kennedy responded with his views on ACOA's stance of economic disengagement in South Africa. Although Kennedy agreed that he opposed the policy of apartheid, he believed that only indirect influences on this policy would be possible. Kennedy disagreed with ACOA about implementing U.S. sanctions on trade and restrictions to investments in South Africa. He cited that for the U.S., the only exception to the policy of economic non-interference was when there was a threat to national security, such as the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was also personally opposed to sanctions because he believed that such an action would be inherently harmful for the poor and disenfranchised population in South Africa.

Kennedy accepted an invitation by the National Union of South African Students to visit the country in June of 1966. In late 1965, George M. Houser tried to arrange a meeting with the Senator for a delegation of ACOA Board of Directors to discuss the possible impact of the trip and to address the issue of legal defense of political prisoners in South Africa. In Houser's letters from fall 1965 to spring 1966, he cited ACOA's great concern for funding to find its way to South Africa for the legal defense of both Blacks and Whites who were facing trial for opposing the South African government.

The ACOA Africa Defense and Aid Fund was banned in South Africa in March of 1966, making it impossible to get money into South Africa for defense of political prisoners. Houser hoped Kennedy would become an advocate for the Fund with private citizens and lawyer organizations in South Africa. He felt the Kennedy was in an exclusive position as a U.S. Senator and former U.S. Attorney General to assist ACOA and the Fund. Unfortunately, Kennedy was unable to meet with the ACOA members prior to his trip. This visit to South Africa, during the worst years of apartheid, resulted in five speeches memorable for their impact on Black South Africans and anti-apartheid Whites by challenging the notion of isolation and the idea that the fight against apartheid was futile.

Sources of interest regarding Kennedy's trip to Africa and U.S. relations to South Africa include the PBS film documentary, RFK In the Land of Apartheid: A Ripple of Hope (2011) and George M. Houser's book, No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa's Liberation Struggle (New York, NY: The Pilgrim Press, 1989).

Among the treasures of the Amistad Research Center's collections are the papers of the important Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen. They were acquired by Amistad from Cullen's widow, Ida Cullen Cooper, in 1970 (with additions in 1976 and 1986). Seizing the opportunity presented by this collection, Dr. Clifton Johnson, founding director of the Amistad Research Center, initiated an effort to publish Countee Cullen's collected extant correspondence--the incoming portion of which was then at Amistad. Johnson obtained copies of Cullen's letters to others from the numerous archives where they had been deposited by the recipients. He pursued his research privately, often using his own resources, but he deposited his research materials and a computer file of his annotated transcriptions in the Amistad Research Center shortly before his death in 2008. He had transcribed approximately one-third of the total corpus of 3600 letters.

When Dr. Johnson's health failed in 2007, Dr. Thomas Wirth took over the project as Johnson had previously arranged. Dr. Wirth is an independent Harlem Renaissance scholar and author with interests in Richard Bruce Nugent and Langston Hughes. He is also a bibliophile who owns a major collection of rare books, pamphlets, manuscripts and ephemera relating to African American history and literature, with particular emphasis on the Harlem Renaissance.

It became evident that online publication under the auspices of the Amistad Research Center would be the best way to proceed and that external funding would be necessary for completion of the project. Amistad then initiated the Countee Cullen Correspondence Online Project, the goal of which is to publish an online scholarly edition of Cullen's complete extant correspondence.

During the past couple of years, the Center has received recognition and attention for its involvement in this innovative project, and we are especially grateful for Dr. Wirth's commitment that has enabled considerable progress. Amistad's directors and staff, along with friends and family of Dr. Clifton Johnson, are appreciative of the time that Dr. Wirth is investing in the project in addition to his generous contribution of $60,000.