Alexander Gumby collection of Negroiana, [ca. 1800]-1981.

Mencken, H.L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66f6jc0 (person)

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956), was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of American English. Mencken, known as the "Sage of Baltimore", is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. Mencken worked as a reporter and drama critic for the Baltimore Morning Herald from 1899 to 1906. From 190...

Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65r5mbs (person)

Anti-slavery advocate. From the description of Circular and letter, 1848 Jan. 21, Boston, to Rev. Mr. Russell, South Hingham. (Boston Athenaeum). WorldCat record id: 231311718 Abolitionist and reformer William Lloyd Garrison was founder of the Boston abolitionist paper, The Liberator, and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. From the description of Papers, 1835-1873 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007257 Abolitionist and lectur...

Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fc5sfw (person)

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 9, 1898, Paul Robeson was a multitalented man whose artistic and political career spanned over four decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Known worldwide during the 1930s and 1940s, he fell from prominence in the 1960s because of the political controversy that surrounded him during the McCarthy era. Robeson was a talented dramatic actor whose performance of Othello in this country in 1943-44 once held the record for the ...

Louis, Joe, "Brown Bomber", 1914-1981

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Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981), known professionally as Joe Louis, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949, and is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis' championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months, during which he participated in 26 championship fights. The 27th fight, against Ezzard Charles in 1950, was a challenge ...

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

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Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1818. He barely knew his mother, who lived on a different plantation and died when he was a young child and never discovered the identity of his father. When he turned eight years old, his slaveowner hired him out to work as a body servant in Baltimore. At an early age, Frederick realized there was a connection between literacy and freedom. Not allowed to attend school, he taught himself to read and wr...

Baker, Josephine, 1906-1975

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Josephine Baker(1906-1975) was a dancer, singer, and civil rights activist. She performed in Paris, New York, Africa, and the Middle East, and was a crusader for racial equality. She was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Eddie Carson, a musician, and Carrie Macdonald. Her parents parted when Josephine was still an infant, and her mother married Arthur Martin, which has led to some confusion about her maiden name. Very llittle is known about her childhood, exce...

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

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Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809, Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky-died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) was the sixteenth President of the United States from 1861 until his death by assassination. He was the son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Thomas Lincoln, and Nancy Hanks. In 1816, Lincoln moved to Pigeon Creek, Indiana, where he worked on his family's farm. Following his mother's death two years later, he continued working on farms until moving with his father to New Sa...

Smith, Albert A. (Albert Alexander), 1896-1940

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Joplin, Scott, 1868-1917

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Scott Joplin was born in either  1867 or 1868 or November 24, 1868 in Texarkana, Texas to a former slave and laborer and a house cleaner. Joplin received most of his music education from Julius Weiss in Texas. As a late teen he began working as a traveling musician and eventually moved to Missouri in 1894. There he became a success. While in Sedalia, Mo. local businessman John Stark purchased the rights to “Maple Leaf Rag.” When it was published in 1899, it became a sensation, and all 10,000 co...

Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915

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Booker T. Washington was an African American educator and public figure. Born a slave on a small farm in Hale's Ford, Virginia, he worked his way through the Hampton Institute and became an instructor there. He was the first principal of the Tuskegee Institute, and under his management it became a successful center for practical education. A forceful and charismatic personality, he became a national figure through his books and lectures. Although his conservative views concerned many critics, he...

Pickens, William, 1881-1954

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Author, educator. William Pickens was Dean of Morgan College in Baltimore, Md., 1918-1919; Field Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 1920-1942; and employee of the United States Treasury Department, 1941-1951. From the description of William Pickens papers, 1906-1954. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122608256 From the guide to the William Pickens papers, 1906-1954, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center ...

Dumas, Alexandre, 1824-1895

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The writer Alexandre Dumas (1824-1895), the author of La Dame aux camlias, was the son of the novelist Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870). From the guide to the Miscellaneous correspondence from Alexandre Dumas junior to various recipients, 1850-1883, (GB 206 Leeds University Library) French author and dramatist. From the description of Autograph letter signed : [Marly-le-Roi], to an unidentified "monsieur," [1892 Apr. 12]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 757338135 ...

Cullen, Countee, 1903-1946

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s1833x (person)

African-American poet, anthologist, translator, playwright and an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Cullen was graduated from De Witt Clinton High School in New York City and from New York University in 1925. While attending NYU he held a part-time job as a doorman at the Grolier Club, a New York City bibliophile society. He took post-graduate work at Harvard University and received an M.A. From the description of TLS : Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Frederick B. Coykendall, ...

Gumby, L. S. Alexander, 1885-1961

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6546tdb (person)

Born Feb. 1, 1885, in Maryland, Gumby was the son of Evangelist Levi Thomas and Louisa Morris Gumby. In 1901, he and his sister were sent to live with their grandparents and there the young man who loved reading made his first scrapbook at the age of 16 with some old wallpaper and a paste of flour and water. Gumby's first clippings were of President McKinley's assassination in Sept. 1901. He spent the next year at Dover State College in Delaware studying law to fulfill h...

McKay, Claude, 1890-1948

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61837fr (person)

Author, poet. Born in Jamaica. From the description of Claude McKay letters and manuscripts 1915-1952. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122682552 From the guide to the Claude McKay letters and manuscripts, 1915-1952, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.) Claude McKay (1890-1948), novelist and poet. From the description of Claude McKay collection, 1853-1990 (bulk 1922-19...