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Black man in America : an interview

Artist:
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987  Search this
Collection Creator:
Asch, Moses  Search this
Distler, Marian, 1919-1964  Search this
Folkways Records  Search this
Extent:
1 Phonograph record (analog, 33 1/3 rpm, 12 in.)
Culture:
Americans  Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Phonograph records
Local Numbers:
FW-ASCH-LP-3184

Credo.1
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
Credo
General:
Program notes by Robert Lewis Shayon on container. Production notes: Recorded at WFMT, Chicago.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Topic:
United States -- History  Search this
African Americans  Search this
Collection Citation:
Moses and Frances Asch Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
CFCH.ASCH, Item FW-ASCH-LP-3184
See more items in:
Moses and Frances Asch Collection
Moses and Frances Asch Collection / Series 9: Audio Recordings / LP
Archival Repository:
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/bk5c425364f-bc3c-48f8-b8a3-ab6b65730cf8
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-cfch-asch-ref17682

Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin through the unusual door edited by Stephen C. Wicks

Author:
Wicks, Stephen C  Search this
Issuing body:
Knoxville Museum of Art  Search this
Subject:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Delaney, Beauford 1901-1979  Search this
Physical description:
1 online resource
Type:
Exhibitions
Biography
Electronic books
Biographies
Exhibition catalogs
Place:
United States
Date:
2020
20th century
Topic:
Modernism (Art)  Search this
Abstract expressionism  Search this
African Americans in art  Search this
African American art  Search this
African American authors  Search this
African American artists  Search this
Intellectual life  Search this
Call number:
ND237.D335 A4 2020 (Internet)
Restrictions & Rights:
1-user
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_1146181

Jimmy's blues and other poems James Baldwin and Nikky Finney

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987,  Search this
Author:
Finney, Nikky  Search this
Physical description:
1 online resource
Type:
Electronic resources
Date:
2014
Topic:
Poetry  Search this
Poetry as Topic  Search this
Poésie  Search this
poetry  Search this
POETRY--American--African American  Search this
American  Search this
African American  Search this
Call number:
PS3552.A45 A6 2014 (Internet)
Restrictions & Rights:
1-user
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_1161891

Moses Moon Civil Rights Movement Audio Collection

Creator:
McNamara, Norris  Search this
Moon, Moses  Search this
Names:
Freedom Singers (SNCC)  Search this
Abernathy, Ralph, 1926-1990  Search this
Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993  Search this
Baez, Joan  Search this
Baker, Ella, 1903-1986  Search this
Baker, Josephine, 1906-1975  Search this
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987  Search this
Barry, Marion, 1936-  Search this
Bikel, Theodore  Search this
Carawan, Guy  Search this
Conyers, John, 1929-  Search this
Donaldson, Ivanhoe  Search this
Dylan, Bob, 1941-  Search this
Ferebee, Dorothy Boulding , 1898?-1980  Search this
Forman, James, 1928-2005  Search this
Gregory, Dick  Search this
Guyot, Lawrence, 1939-  Search this
Hamer, Fannie Lou  Search this
Height , Dorothy I. (Dorothy Irene), 1912-2010  Search this
Horne, Lena  Search this
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968  Search this
Lewis, John  Search this
Moses, Robert  Search this
Moses, Robert Parris  Search this
Odetta, 1930-2008  Search this
Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005  Search this
Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942-  Search this
Reagon, Cordell  Search this
Robinson , Amelia Boynton, 1911-2015  Search this
Robinson, Jackie  Search this
Rustin, Bayard, 1912-1987  Search this
Seeger, Pete, 1919-2014  Search this
Sherrod, Charles, 1937-  Search this
Shuttlesworth, Fred L., 1922-2011  Search this
Extent:
4 Cubic feet (18 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Sound recordings
Date:
1963-1964
Summary:
Recorded by Moses Moon (known at the time as Alan Ribback) and assisted by Norris McNamara during 1963 and 1964, the collection includes audio recordings of interviews with civil rights leaders and participants as well as free-style recordings of mass meetings, voter registration events, and other gatherings organized by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This collection provides a mostly unfiltered documentation of significant moments in the civil rights movement.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 115 reel to reel audio recordings containing interviews, mass meetings, demonstrations, and conversations concerning the civil rights movement, and in particular the voter registration drives organized by SNCC in Alabama and Mississippi in 1963 and 1964. Mass meetings were recorded in Greenwood, Mississippi; Americus, Georgia; Selma, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; Danville, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Indianola, Mississippi. Major demonstrations recorded include the March on Washington in August of 1963, Freedom Day in Selma, Alabama in October of 1963, and Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in January of 1964. Interviews with SNCC workers include Julian Bond, John Lewis, James Forman, Bruce Gordon, Prathia Hall, Ivanhoe Donaldson, Bob Moses, Avery Williams, Willie Peacock, Bruce Boynton and his mother, as well as dozens of others involved in the movement, who are named in the collection inventory. Many of those interviewed were actively involved in strategizing and carrying out SNCC demonstrations and political actions, and many were victims of death threats, beatings, unlawful arrest, police brutality, and torture and abuse in prison. These interviews contain detailed eyewitness accounts and personal testimony regarding these experiences, as well as personal history and thoughts about the movement, the South, and the future.

It is clear from what we know of the dates and locations of these recordings, as well as from documentation of these events in other sources, that many of these recordings are unique documents of important events in American history, which may also contain the commentary of important political and cultural figures who were involved in the movement. For example, an article by Howard Zinn recounts how an unidentified man recorded James Baldwin on October 7, 1963, Freedom Day in Selma, on the steps of the courthouse. Baldwin was furious at the lack of support from nearby federal agents as state troopers advanced on peaceful demonstrators. One of the tapes dated October 7, 1963, originally labeled "courthouse interviews," appears to be this recoding, although Baldwin is not named. The same article (available in The Howard Zinn Reader) recounts the mass meetings which led up to that demonstration, at which actor Dick Gregory gave a rousing sermon as his wife sat in jail for demonstrating in Selma. The Moses Moon Collection may be the only existing audio recording of that sermon as well as many other sermons and speeches.

Moses Moon changed his name after these recordings were made. He is referred to in the finding aid as Alan Ribback because that name is used on the recordings.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in two series.Series 1 is in chronological order to the degree recording dates can be determined, and is based on the locations and dates provided by Moon in his description or gleaned from the recordings themselves and other secondary sources. Series 1 contains 17 groups of recordings.

Moon's original numbers are recorded in the column next to the descriptions. Following the first four Greenwood tapes, which are numbered sequentially, Moon's numbering system took the first two letters of the town in which the recordings were made, a one (1), a decimal, and then a tape number. Numbers preceding the town code refer to the recording day. "N" numbers were later assigned by Moon to the 7" reels only, after the original recordings were made, possibly during editing or when the tapes were made available to the Program in African American Culture.

Series 1, Original Tapes

1. Greenwood, Mississippi; Spring 1963; 4 7" reels

2. Chicago, Illinois; August 9, 12, 1963; 2 5" reels

3. Americus, Georgia; August 17, 1963; 5 5" reels, 1 7" reel

4. Atlanta, Georgia; August 21, 1963; 1 5" reel

5. Washington, D.C.; August 26-28, 1963; 6 5", 8 7" reels

6. Atlanta, Georgia; September 8, 1963; 4 5" reels

7. Selma, Alabama; September 29-October 7, 1963; 11 5" reels, 16 7" reels

8. Gadsden, Alabama; October 23, 1963; 2 5" reels

9. Jackson, Mississippi; Fall/Winter 1963; 11 7" reels

10. Greenwood, Mississippi; c. November 3, 1963; 3 5" reels, 4 7" reels

11. Danville, Virginia; 1963; 6 7" reels

12. Washington, D.C.; soon after November 22, 1963; 6 7" reels

13. Washington, D.C.; late 1963, or possibly during MOW; 10 7" reels

14. Hattiesburg, Mississippi; January 1964; 9 7" reels

15. Indianola, Mississippi; Summer 1964; 2 7" reels

16. Monroe County, Mississippi; August 1, 1964; 4 5" reels

17. Milton, Mississippi; August 16, 1964; 3 5" reels

Series 2, Preservation Masters consists of data DVDs for a portion of the collection.
Biographical / Historical:
Moses Moon was born Alan Ribback in 1928. During the 1950s until 1962, Ribback was the proprietor of the Gate of Horn, Chicago's premier folk music club, which featured performers including Bob Gibson, Odetta, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Jo Mapes, Peter, Paul and Mary, Lenny Bruce, and Shelley Berman. On December 5, 1962, Lenny Bruce was arrested during a performance at the Gate of Horn along with Ribback, George Carlin, and others. As a result of the arrest and Bruce's subsequent conviction for obscenity, the club was closed by the City of Chicago, and Ribback left Chicago with Norris McNamara, an audio technician, to record folk concerts taking place in the South as part of the growing civil rights movement. From the spring of 1963 until the summer of 1964, Ribback and McNamara recorded demonstrations and mass meetings and interviewed civil rights activists, primarily those involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Later, Ribback moved to New York and edited his recordings into an album called Movement Soul. Ribback married Delia Moon in 1971, took her last name and changed his first name to Moses. In 1979, Bernice Reagon Johnson, working with the Program on African American Culture at the Smithsonian, contacted Moon and borrowed the recordings of mass meetings for a 1980 program on the voices of the civil rights movement. In the late 1980s, Moon was stricken with a severe case of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which left him paralyzed. Moon donated the entire collection of original recordings shortly before his death in 1993.
Related Materials:
Materials at Other Organizations

The papers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee are held by the King Library and Archives in Atlanta, Georgia; archives@thekingcenter.org.
Provenance:
Donated by Moses and Delia Moon in 1995.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Reference copies must be used. Tapes noted in the container list have digital reference copies in the Smithsonian Institution Digital Asset Management System (DAMS).
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but copyright status unknown. Contact Archives Center staff for additional information. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
African American civil rights workers.  Search this
African American preaching.  Search this
Mississippi Freedom Project  Search this
Civil rights movements  Search this
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)  Search this
Civil rights  Search this
Voter registration  Search this
African Americans -- Civil rights  Search this
African American student movements.  Search this
Folk music  Search this
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963  Search this
Gospel music  Search this
Genre/Form:
Audiotapes -- Open reel
Sound recordings
Audiotapes
Citation:
Moses Moon Civil Rights Movement Audio Collection, 1963-1964, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0556
See more items in:
Moses Moon Civil Rights Movement Audio Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8f8d8405e-ab8d-486c-96c7-58c33804c206
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0556

The fire next time James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
120 pages 21 cm
Type:
Electronic resources
Essay
Olin Library Black authors
Essays
Dust jackets
Essais
Place:
United States
États-Unis
20th century
Date:
1963
Topic:
African Americans  Search this
Black Muslims  Search this
African Americans--Religion  Search this
African American men--Race identity  Search this
Racism  Search this
Racism against Black people  Search this
Racial justice  Search this
Civil rights movements  Search this
Noirs américains  Search this
Noirs américains--Religion  Search this
Hommes noirs américains--Identité ethnique  Search this
Racisme  Search this
Justice raciale  Search this
Mouvements des droits de l'homme  Search this
African American  Search this
Race relations  Search this
United States--Race relations  Search this
Relations raciales  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_427792

Giovanni's room a novel by James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987,  Search this
Physical description:
248 pages 21 cm
Type:
Fiction
Romans, nouvelles, etc
Psychological fiction
Bisexual fiction
Place:
France
Paris (France)
Paris
Date:
1956
20th century
Topic:
Americans  Search this
Sexual orientation  Search this
Man-woman relationships  Search this
Bisexuals  Search this
American fiction  Search this
Orientation sexuelle  Search this
Bisexuels  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_526293

Another country James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
436 pages 22 cm
Type:
Fiction
Romans, nouvelles, etc
American fiction
Fictional Work
Psychological fiction
Gay fiction
Romance fiction
Novels
Love stories
Romans
Romans homosexuels
Place:
New York (State)
New York
New York (État)
New York (N.Y.)
New York (New York)
Date:
1962
20th century
Topic:
Suicide victims  Search this
Racism  Search this
Racism against Black people  Search this
African Americans--Social conditions  Search this
Jazz musicians  Search this
Suicidés  Search this
Racisme  Search this
Noirs américains--Conditions sociales  Search this
Musiciens de jazz  Search this
African Americans  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_526330

The amen corner a play by James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
xvii, 91 pages 24 cm
Type:
Drama
Domestic drama
scripts (documents)
Plays (performed works)
Playbills
Advance copies (Publishing)
Place:
Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
New York (State)
New York
Harlem
Date:
1968
20th century
20e siècle
Topic:
American drama--African American authors  Search this
African American churches  Search this
African American families  Search this
American drama  Search this
Théâtre américain--Auteurs noirs américains  Search this
Théâtre américain  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_526332

Blues for Mister Charlie a play James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
xv, 121 pages 25 cm
Type:
Drama
Plays
Theater programs - 1964
Theater programs - New York (State) - New York
Théâtre
Place:
Southern States
Date:
1964
20th century
20e siècle
Topic:
Murder  Search this
Racism  Search this
Racism against Black people  Search this
Drug addicts  Search this
African Americans  Search this
African Americans--Violence against  Search this
American drama  Search this
American drama--African American authors  Search this
Théâtre américain  Search this
Théâtre américain--Auteurs noirs américains  Search this
Race relations  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_526355

Go tell it on the mountain James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
253 pages 22 cm
Type:
Fiction
Romans, nouvelles, etc
Bildungsromans
Place:
United States
États-Unis
Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
New York (State)
New York
Harlem
Date:
1963
20th century
20e siècle
Topic:
African American men  Search this
Fathers and sons  Search this
African American families  Search this
African Americans--Religion  Search this
Racism  Search this
African Americans--Social conditions  Search this
American fiction  Search this
African Americans  Search this
Hommes noirs américains  Search this
Pères et fils  Search this
Familles noires américaines  Search this
Noirs américains--Religion  Search this
Racisme  Search this
Noirs américains--Conditions sociales  Search this
Roman américain  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_526954

Just above my head James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
597 pages 24 cm
Type:
Fiction
Romans, nouvelles, etc
Fictional Work
Novels
Dust jackets (Binding)
Romans
Place:
Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
New York (N.Y.)
New York (State)
New York
Harlem
Date:
1979
20th century
20e siècle
Topic:
African American men  Search this
African American families  Search this
Gay men  Search this
Brothers  Search this
Brothers--Death  Search this
Gospel musicians  Search this
African Americans--Social conditions  Search this
Racism  Search this
Racism against Black people  Search this
Homophobia  Search this
American fiction  Search this
American fiction--African American authors  Search this
Hommes noirs américains  Search this
Familles noires américaines  Search this
Homosexuels masculins  Search this
Frères  Search this
Frères--Mort  Search this
Musiciens gospel  Search this
Noirs américains--Conditions sociales  Search this
Racisme  Search this
Roman américain  Search this
Roman américain--Auteurs noirs américains  Search this
African American men--Fiction  Search this
Brothers--Fiction  Search this
New York (N.Y.)--Fiction  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_526964

Tell me how long the train's been gone a novel by James Baldwin

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Subject:
Elias, Norbert (Soziologe)  Search this
Physical description:
484 pages 22 cm
Type:
Fiction
Romans, nouvelles, etc
Novels
Dust jackets (Binding)
Romans
Place:
New York (State)
New York
Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
Harlem
Date:
1968
20th century
Topic:
African American actors  Search this
Heart--Diseases--Patients  Search this
Successful people  Search this
American fiction  Search this
Acteurs noirs américains  Search this
Cardiaques  Search this
Gagneurs  Search this
Subjekt  Search this
African Americans  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_526974

Blues for Mister Charlie [James Baldwin]

Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987,  Search this
Author:
Actors Studio (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Physical description:
56 pages illustrations, portraits 23 cm
Type:
Books
Date:
1964
Call number:
PS3552.A45 B5X 1964
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_528591

Collected essays James Baldwin

Title:
Baldwin collected essays
Author:
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
x, 869 pages 21 cm
Type:
Books
American essays
Essay
Novela afroamericana
Essays
History
Essais
Place:
United States
États-Unis
Date:
1998
20th century
20e siècle
Siglo XX
Topic:
American essays  Search this
American essays--African American authors  Search this
African American authors  Search this
African Americans--Social conditions  Search this
African Americans--Intellectual life  Search this
Racism--History  Search this
Afro-Americans  Search this
Literature  Search this
Essais américains  Search this
Écrivains noirs américains  Search this
Noirs américains--Conditions sociales  Search this
Noirs américains--Vie intellectuelle  Search this
Racisme--Histoire  Search this
Littérature  Search this
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century  Search this
LITERARY COLLECTIONS / American / African American  Search this
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies  Search this
Race relations  Search this
Racism  Search this
African Americans--Civil rights  Search this
History  Search this
Relations raciales  Search this
Histoire  Search this
Call number:
CT275.B194 A1c 1998
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_533683

A rap on race Margaret Mead, James Baldwin

Author:
Mead, Margaret 1901-1978  Search this
Baldwin, James 1924-1987  Search this
Physical description:
256 pages 22 cm
Type:
Books
Discursive works
Proofs (Printing)
Annotations (Provenance)
Discours et échanges
Place:
United States
États-Unis
United States -- Race relations
Date:
1971
20th century
Topic:
Racism  Search this
Racism against Black people  Search this
African Americans  Search this
Race relations  Search this
Race Relations  Search this
Racisme  Search this
Noirs américains  Search this
African American  Search this
Gespräch  Search this
Rassenfrage  Search this
Rassenverhoudingen  Search this
Relations raciales  Search this
United States--Race relations  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_837511

Ellis B. Haizlip Papers

Producer:
Haizlip, Ellis B., 1929-1991  Search this
Musician:
Asford & Simpson. Asford, Nickolas. Simpson, Valerie, 1946  Search this
Monk, Thelonious  Search this
Author:
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987  Search this
Giovanni, Nikki  Search this
Extent:
63.64 Linear feet (82 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1945-1991
bulk 1965-1990
Summary:
The Ellis B. Haizlip papers, which date from circa 1945 --1991 (bulk dates 1965-1990) and measure 63.64 linear feets, are the personal papers of Ellis B. Haizlip, a television, theatre, and event producer most noted for his work on Soul! and Watch your Mouth! The collection is comprised of correspondence, scripts, financial and business documents, printed material, objects, photographs, slides, and videotapes.
Scope and Contents n ote:
This collection, consisting of materials which date from 1945 --1991 (bulk dates 1965-1990), contains personal and business documents accrued by Ellis B. Haizlip over the course of his adult life. The papers do not include many documents relating to Haizlip's family or childhood. Included are instances of personal and business correspondence, paperwork and notes relating to the productions with which Haizlip was involved, and documentation of his political, community, and artistic activist work. Also included are photographs and slides both personal and event-related, and videotapes of various television and film projects, including Soul! and Watch Your Mouth!
Arrangement note:
The collection is divided into 7 series.

Series 1: Biographical, 1941-1990; undated

Series 2: Career, 1950-1990; undated

Series 3: Organizations, 1948-1990; undated

Series 4: Scripts, 1942-1988; undated

Series 5: Printed Materials, 1950-1990; undated

Series 6: Photographs, undated

Series 7: Videotapes, undated
Biographical/Historical note:
Born September 21, 1929 in Washington, D.C., Ellis Benjamin Haizlip was the son of Ellis M. and Sarah Corbett Haizlip. Haizlip began his production career during his days at Howard University, where he produced the Howard Players in addition to majoring in sociology and economics. He moved to New York after graduation and began his involvement in professional production, including both productions at the Harlem YMCA of plays such as Dark of the Moon and international tours of James Baldwin's The Amen Corner and the dance show Black New World. Haizlip is best known for the television series Soul!, a program that aired on public television WNET during the late 1960s and early 1970s, then resurfaced in the early 1980s. Soul! was a variety show focused on African-American experience, featuring music, dance, poetry, and interviews by and with black performers. Haizlip produced and occasionally hosted the program. He also created the educational series Watch Your Mouth!, a sitcom-style program featuring a diverse cast of characters who all struggled with Standard English. In addition to his career, Haizlip was involved with a plethora of organizations of all sorts, from political campaigns to arts organizations to a variety of African American groups such as Black Convention, Inc. and the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Haizlip had a complex relationship with these organizations, serving as a board member on some, a hired event producer on others, and in some cases playing multiple roles within a single organization, such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Haizlip was openly gay, and was active in several LGBT rights groups during his life. His personal life was filled with a social circle of devoted and notable friends, among them Betty Shabazz, Novella Nelson, and Nikki Giovanni. Haizlip died of lung cancer on January 25, 1991. He was 61 years old.
Related Materials:
This collection contains artifacts catalogued in theACM Ojects collection.
Provenance:
The Ellis B. Haizlip papers were donated to the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture on November 12, 1995, by Doris (Haizlip) Sanders.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Medical documents, financial materials and some correspondence in Career series are restricted. Use requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Ellis B. Haizlip papers are the physical property of the Anacostia Community Museum. Literary and copyright belong to the author/creator or their legal heirs and assigns. Rights to work produced during the normal course of Museum business resides with the Anacostia Community Museum. For further information, and to obtain permission to publish or reproduce, contact the Museum Archives.
Topic:
African American celebrities  Search this
African Americans on television  Search this
Television producers and directors  Search this
African American dance  Search this
African American theater  Search this
Citation:
Ellis B. Haizlip papers, Anacostia Communityh Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Doris Sanders.
Identifier:
ACMA.06-005
See more items in:
Ellis B. Haizlip Papers
Archival Repository:
Anacostia Community Museum Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/qa75522bb2c-e821-4966-ae45-21ae9bce2b62
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-acma-06-005
Online Media:

James A. Baldwin Collection

Creator:
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987  Search this
Names:
Baldwin, Daniel  Search this
Baldwin, David  Search this
Dandridge, Frank  Search this
Evers, Charles  Search this
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968  Search this
Whaley, Paula Baldwin  Search this
Extent:
4.29 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Place:
Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
France
Turkey
Venice (Italy)
Date:
1935-1988
Summary:
James Baldwin was a writer and an activist and is one of the most prominent voices from his generation to bring light to issues of racial and sexual discrimination. This collection contains correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, and awards. The collection provides insight into his family, writing process, and travels during his lifetime.
Scope and Contents:
The James Baldwin Collection provides insight into Baldwin's life as a writer and activist. The collection contains correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, and awards. A significant portion of the collection are photographs by photojournalist Frank Dandridge. The collection focuses on Baldwin's grade school educational career, his writing process, as well as his thoughts about social equality and civil rights.
Arrangement:
The materials in this collection have been kept at the folder level and separated into six series. The materials have been ordered and organized based on the content. Series 6 has been broken down into a smaller subseries dedicated to the Frank Dandridge photographic prints. Series 8: Oversize Materials acts as an extension of the first five series, with materials that could not be housed with their corresponding materials due to size constraints. Within each series and subseries, the folders are organized as close to the collection's original order as when it was acquired.
Biographical Sketch:
James Arthur Baldwin (1924–1987) was born in Harlem, New York, on August 2, 1924, to Emma Berdis Jones, originally from Princess Anne, Maryland. He was reared by his mother and stepfather David Baldwin, whom Baldwin referred to as his father and whom he describes as extremely strict. He did not know his biological father. As the oldest of nine children, Baldwin took seriously the responsibility of being a big brother and his mother's right hand. He cared for and protected his three younger brothers and five sisters in a household governed by the rigid rules of their father, a Baptist preacher, originally from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, Baldwin, himself, became a preacher at the Fireside Pentecostal Assembly, where he developed a celebrated preaching style. Baldwin's brief experience in the church would have a sustained impact on his rhetorical style and on the themes, symbols, and biblical allusions in his writings. Baldwin's Pentecostal experience is, in fact, essential to understanding his complex views on Christianity, which he espoused in his speeches and publications. His experience would also serve in part as the underpinnings of his stance on religion. In The Fire Next Time, Baldwin proclaims, "If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, it is time we got rid of Him." During his early teen years, Baldwin attended Frederick Douglass Junior High School, where he met his French teacher and mentor Countee Cullen, who achieved prominence as a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Baldwin went on to DeWitt Clinton High School, where he edited the school newspaper The Magpie and participated in the literary club, just as Cullen had done when he was a student there. By high school graduation, he had met his close friends at DeWitt Clinton—Richard Avedon, Emile Capouya, and Sol Stein.

The 1940s marked several turning points in Baldwin's life. In 1942, he graduated from high school, and a year later he witnessed the New York Race Riots and experienced the death of his father. After this emotional loss, Baldwin felt more than ever it was important to play father figure to his siblings. He worked at menial jobs during the day, and at night he played guitar in Greenwich Village cafes and wrote long hours, trying to fulfill his dream of becoming a writer.

In 1944, Baldwin met Richard Wright, whose written work spoke to his heart and who would also become a mentor. Baldwin appreciated Wright's strong opinions about race in America, and he greatly valued their intellectual exchange. Wright helped Baldwin to obtain a fellowship to write his first novel, which enabled him to leave for Paris in 1948, where the older writer had relocated a few years earlier. However, the two were often at odds about the ways in which they approached race in their work. Baldwin wrote three essays explicating his critique of Wright's "protest art." This conflict eventually led to the demise of their friendship.

In 1948, at age twenty-four, Baldwin left the United States to live in Paris, France, as he could not tolerate the racial and sexual discrimination he experienced on a daily basis. Professor Kendall Thomas of Columbia Law School explains that Baldwin left his country because of racism and Harlem because of homophobia--two aspects of his identity that made him a frequent target of beatings by local youth and the police. Years later, when asked about his departure, Baldwin explained in a Paris Review interview: "My luck was running out. I was going to go to jail, I was going to kill somebody or be killed" (1984). In Paris, Baldwin began to interact with other writers. He reconnected with Richard Wright, and for the first time, he met Maya Angelou, with whom he maintained a close relationship.

Baldwin would spend the next forty years abroad, where he wrote and published most of his works. Between 1960 and 1970, Baldwin lived regularly in Istanbul, Turkey. Still, the violence and assassinations in the United States during the politically turbulent 1960s took an emotional toll on Baldwin. After the assassination of his three friends—Medgar Evers in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968—Baldwin suffered an emotional breakdown and eventually moved to the South of France to recuperate. In 1970, he settled in a house in the village of St. Paul de Vence, where he would live the rest of his life.

During his years abroad, Baldwin returned to the United States frequently and considered himself a "transatlantic commuter." In 1955, he signed a lease for an apartment at 63 West 97th Street in New York, and from the mid 1960s on, he maintained a home at 137 West 71st Street in Manhattan. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, Baldwin was actually living in California. Many of Baldwin's extended visits were to spend time with his large and beloved family and to participate in Civil Rights Movement events. He attended the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. Baldwin also participated in literary events, such as the 1965 conference titled "The Negro Writer's Vision of America" sponsored by the New School of Social Research in New York. During his presentation, Baldwin addressed the conference theme, stating, "I know a story which America denies. And it denies it for the very good reason that my story, once told, confronts it with the truth about itself. In fact, my story, once told, will liberate America. The possibility of liberation—the necessity of becoming responsible for one's own life—is what most people most profoundly fear."

Baldwin passed away on November 30, 1987, in his house in St. Paul de Vence after a short battle with stomach cancer. A week later, he was laid to rest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in New York. Family members and friends participated in a large service during which Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, and Maya Angelou delivered touching remarks about their friend and brother. Angelou stated that Baldwin's love "opened the unusual door for me, and I am blessed that James Baldwin was my brother."

Literary and Civil Rights Timeline

1924 -- Born August 2nd

1938 -- Graduates from Frederick Douglass Junior High School, where his early ambitions in writing were encouraged by his teacher Countee Cullen, the Harlem Renaissance poet

1942 -- Graduates from DeWitt Clinton High School, where he was a member of the literary club and edited the school newspaper The Magpie

1944 -- Meets writer Richard Wright, who refers Baldwin's first draft of Go Tell It On The Mountain to Harper and Brothers publishing house

1945 -- Receives a $500.00 Saxton Fellowship from Harper and Brothers; the first draft of Go Tell It On The Mountain is rejected by Harper and Doubleday; Baldwin begins writing reviews for The Nation and The New Leader

1947 -- Publishes essay "History as Nightmare" in The New Leader

1948 -- Publishes essay "The Harlem Ghetto" and short story "Previous Condition" in Commentary; Baldwin moves to Paris

1949 -- Publishes "Everybody's Protest Novel," in which he critics Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Richard Wright's Native Son; jailed in Paris for eight days for theft (falsely accused of stealing hotel bed sheets)

1951 -- Publishes "Many Thousands Gone" in the Partisan Review; attack on Richard Wright leads to breakup; Baldwin completes Go Tell It On the Mountain in Switzerland, where he stayed three months with Swiss friend and lover Lucien Happersberger

1953 -- Publishes "Stranger in the Village" in Harper's Magazine; the essay is based on his stay in Switzerland

1954 -- Wins Guggenheim Fellowship; attends MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire

1955 -- Attends Yadao, an artists' community in Sarasota Springs, New York; revises Amen Corner during Howard University rehearsals and publishes it the same year; also publishes the collection of essays Notes of a Native Son and an autobiographical narrative "Equal in Paris," about being jailed in Paris in 1949, originally published in Commentary magazine

1956 -- Publishes Giovanni's Room with Dial Press; accepts National Institute of Arts and Letters Award and a Partisan Review fellowship; covers First Conference of Negro and African Writers and Artists at the Sorbonne, sponsored by Presence Africanize

1957 -- Publishes "Sonny's Blues" in the Partisan Review; Travels to the South on assignment for the Partisan Review, where he interviews student protests and meets with Martin Luther King, Jr.

1959 -- Awarded a two-year Ford Foundation grand to complete Another Country; Interviews film director Ingmar Bergman in Sweden; publishes essay "A Letter From the South: Nobody Knows My Name" in the Partisan Review ; apprentice on Elia Kazan's productions of Sweet Bird of Youth and J.B.

1960 -- Covers sit-ins in Tallahassee, Florida; interviews student at Florida A & M; published "They Can't Turn Back" in Mademoiselle Magazine; Richard Wright dies suddenly

1961 -- Publishes second collection of essays Nobody Knows My Name, Dial Press; publishes the essay "Alas, Poor Richard," another scathing critic of Richard Wright's work; appears on radio and television to promote Nobody Knows My Name and to speak about civil rights; meets Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X; completes Another Country; Swiss television produces "Stranger in the Village"; publishes the "Black Boy Looks at the White Boy"; makes first visit to Turkey at the invitation of Turkish actor Engin Cezzar

1962 -- Publishes Another Country, Dial Press, and it becomes a national best seller; Baldwin travels to West Africa; "Letter from a Region in My Mind" published in The New Yorker, later printed in The Fire Next Time as "Down at the Cross"

1963 -- Publishes The Fire Next Time to national acclaim; appears on the cover of May 17th issue of Time magazine; NAACP Field Secretary and friend Medgar Evers is assassinated on June 12 outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi; starts lecture tour for CORE in the South and the North; registers voters in Alabama for SNCC; wins Polk Memorial Award for outstanding magazine journalism; participates in March on Washington; travels to Nairobi, Kenya, with Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier to celebrate Kenya's independence

1964 -- Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters; publishes the play Blues for Mr. Charlie, Dial Press, and theater production of Blues for Mr. Charlie appears at the historic American National Theater and Academy (ANTA) in New York; publishes Nothing Personal with photographer and high school friend Richard Avedon, Atheneum Books

1965 -- Debates William F. Buckley at Cambridge and receives standing ovation for his response to "Is the American Dream at the Expense of the American Negro?"; Malcolm X is assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity; Baldwin attends Selma to Montgomery March; publishes Going to Meet the Man, Dial Press; The play The Amen Corner is performed in New York, Israel, and Europe

1968 -- Publishes the novel Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, Dial Press; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; Baldwin speaks at the World Council of Churches in Sweden against apartheid in South Africa; testifies at a Congressional hearing in support of a commission to establish a national museum of African American history and culture; receives personal attacks from Soul on Ice author Eldridge Cleaver

1969 -- Publishes New York Times article "The Price May Be Too High" about black writers in a white publishing industry; directs John Herbert's "Fortune and Men's Eyes" in Istanbul, Turkey

1970 -- Becomes the subject of photographs and a short film From Another Place , both by Sedat Pakay in Istanbul; holds conversations with anthropologist Margaret Mead titled "A Rap On Race"

1971 -- Baldwin and anthropologist Margaret Mead publish the transcript of conversations held in New York in 1970 in a co-authored book titled A Rap On Race; publishes "An Open Letter to My Sister Angela Davis" in New York Times Review of Books; moves to a house in St. Paul de Vence in the South of France

1972 -- Publishes No Name In The Street, Dial Press; publishes the screenplay One Day When I Was Lost, based on Alex Haley's bestselling classic The Autobiography of Malcolm X .

1973 -- Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates secures rare interview with James Baldwin and Josephine Baker together in James Baldwin's house in St. Paul de Vence, France; Baldwin appears with television host and poet Nikki Giovanni on "Soul," and the transcript is published as a dialogue

1974 -- Publishes If Beale Street Could Talk, Dial Press; becomes the third recipient (after writer Tennessee Williams and dancer Martha Graham) of the prestigious Centennial Medal awarded to "The Artist As Prophet" by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York

1976 -- Publishes what would be his only children's book Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood, with illustrations by Yoran Cazac, Dial Press; publishes the book-length essay The Devil Finds Work

1978 -- Teaches a spring course in contemporary literature at Bowling Green State University in Ohio (returns in the fall of 1979 and 1981); awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Medal

1979 -- Publishes Just Above My Head, his sixth and last novel, Dial Press; goes into seclusion after friend and mentor Beauford Delaney dies in March; teaches at UC Berkeley in the spring and speaks in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara; begins writing and lecturing on black English; publishes "Open Letter to the Born Again" in The Nation; meets Chinua Achebe at the University of Florida, African Literature Association; travels throughout the South

1982 -- Film makers Dick Fontaine and Pat Harley release television documentary of Baldwin' trip through the South "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"

1983 -- Publishes selected poems in Jimmy's Blues, St. Martin's Press; teaches Afro American Studies at University of Amherst in the fall

1984 -- Hospitalized for exhaustion; works on the play The Welcome Table

1985 -- Publishes "Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood" in Playboy; American Playhouse dramatizes Go Tell It On The Mountain; publishes The Evidence of Things Not Seen, Holt, Rinehart & Winston Publishing; publishes The Price of the Ticket: Collected Non-Fiction, 1948–1985, St. Martin's Press

1986 -- Receives France's highest civilian recognition, the Legion of Honor; travels to the Soviet Union for an international conference and to London for a production of Amen Corner ; suffers fatigue and becomes ill

1987 -- Returns to St. Paul de Vence and is diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, which spreads to the stomach; grants his last interview to poet and journalist Quincy Troop in mid-November in bed at his home; dies November 30 and his friend and assistant publicly announces his death December 1; memorials are held in St. Paul de Vence and Harlem; is eulogized by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Amiri Baraka at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York; body buried at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York
Provenance:
Acquired as a purchase from Baldwin's sister, Paula Baldwin Whaley in 2017.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
Topic:
Literature  Search this
Architecture  Search this
Civil rights  Search this
Theater  Search this
LGBTQ+  Search this
Activism  Search this
Awards  Search this
Education  Search this
Communication  Search this
Families  Search this
finance  Search this
Funeral rites and ceremonies  Search this
Journalism  Search this
Justice  Search this
Mass media  Search this
Photography  Search this
Politics  Search this
Poverty  Search this
Race discrimination  Search this
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Genre/Form:
Correspondence
Citation:
James Baldwin Collection, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Identifier:
NMAAHC.A2017.47
See more items in:
James A. Baldwin Collection
Archival Repository:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/io3721df784-2906-46b1-9424-8cf154ce1eb8
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmaahc-a2017-47
Online Media:

Miscellaneous

Collection Creator:
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987  Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents:
This series includes  various types of media including receipts, a press release as well as writings related to Baldwin's funeral in 1987.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
Collection Citation:
James Baldwin Collection, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Identifier:
NMAAHC.A2017.47, Series 7
See more items in:
James A. Baldwin Collection
Archival Repository:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/io35a71aa52-142f-443b-b81b-084d4ec2302d
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-nmaahc-a2017-47-ref100

"El Faro" Restaurant" bill

Collection Creator:
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987  Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 23
Type:
Archival materials
Text
Date:
1962
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
Collection Citation:
James Baldwin Collection, National Museum of African American History and Culture
See more items in:
James A. Baldwin Collection
James A. Baldwin Collection / Series 7: Miscellaneous
Archival Repository:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/io32c7ca336-1e7b-486b-a8f7-ae78598c80de
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-nmaahc-a2017-47-ref101

"S. McMillan, Inc: Funeral Directors and Embalmers" receipt

Collection Creator:
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987  Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 24
Type:
Archival materials
Text
Date:
1943
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
Collection Citation:
James Baldwin Collection, National Museum of African American History and Culture
See more items in:
James A. Baldwin Collection
James A. Baldwin Collection / Series 7: Miscellaneous
Archival Repository:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/io3d0948fbe-d046-42c1-9b8c-22442c7b6b45
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-nmaahc-a2017-47-ref102

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