Karamu House records, 1914-1979.

Handy, W. C., 1873-1958

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wj3h4j (person)

W. C. Handy, also known as William Christopher Handy (born Florence, Alabama, November 16, 1873-died March 25, 1958, New York, New York), known as the "Father of the Blues," is credited with helping popularize blues music. In 1896, he joined W. A. Mahara's Minstrels, as its trumpeter-bandleader and began a theatrical production that featured African American music. In the early 1900s, he started writing his own music with the first published commercial blues song "Memphis Blues," which became a ...

Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64k16hh (person)

Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 (although throughout much of her life she gave her birth date as February 17, 1902) in south Philadelphia. Her father, John Berkley Anderson, sold ice and coal and her mother Annie Delilah Rucker Anderson was a former schoolmistress. She was the oldest of three sisters. She began singing when she was six, in the church choir, and by eight had become a regular substitute, filling in for absent sopranos, tenors and even bass. She was presented in one c...

Randolph, A. Philip, 1889-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jj4bwm (person)

Asa Philip Randolph (born April 15, 1889, Cresent City, Florida-died May 16, 1979, New York City), African-American labor leader and early civil rights spokesman. Influenced by the socialism of Eugene Debs, Randolph began publishing his magazine The Messenger in 1917. He opposed U.S. entry into the first World War. In 1925 he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. His associations with Bayard Rustin and James Farmer influenced his dedication to nonviolence. Randolph was a founder of ...

Hurston, Zora Neale, 1891-1960

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63599q1 (person)

Zora Neale Hurston was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. It is n...

Woodson, Carter Godwin, 1875-1950

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h23s6h (person)

Carter Godwin Woodson, educator and historian, was considered the Father of Black History. He was born December 19, 1875, New Canton, Virginia. He was an African-American historian, author, and journalist who, in 1915, founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. In 1926 he pioneered the concept of a "Negro History Week," which was later expanded into Black History Month. Woodson died at his home in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on April 3, 1950....

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c649b1 (person)

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady throughout her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office (1933-1945). She was an American politician, diplomat, and activist who later served as a United Nations spokeswoman. A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved–...

Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66j56vs (person)

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Minnesota from 1949 to 1964 and 1971 to 1978. He was the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1968 presidential election, losing to Republican nominee Richard Nixon. Born in Wallace, South Dakota, Humphrey attended the University of Minnesota. At one point he helped run his ...

Waters, Ethel, 1896-1977

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hn5zmk (person)

Ethel Waters (born October 31, 1896, Chester, Pennsylvania–d. September 1, 1977, Chatsworth, California) was a musician and actress. She got her start in the 1920s in Baltimore, Maryland and also toured on the black vaudeville circuit. She began her singing career in Atlanta and then Harlem in the 1920s. She starred in many films and was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award. She was the first African-American to star on her own television show and the first African-Am...

Davis, Harry E., 1882-1955.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6417vk1 (person)

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, ...

Hunter, Jane Edna, 1882-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z327bp (person)

Jane Edna Hunter was an African American social worker who founded the Working Girls Home Association in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1911, as a self-help organization designed to help young black women adjust to city life. The Working Girls Home Association was later renamed The Phyllis Wheatley Association. From the description of Jane Edna Hunter letter to Mrs. Carter, 1926 December 26. (Rhinelander District Library). WorldCat record id: 780300651 Founder and director of the Phill...

Dumas Dramatic Club.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kq3bd0 (corporateBody)

Bontemps, Arna, 1902-1973

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z329rw (person)

African-American poet, critic, playwright, novelist, author of children’s books, librarian. From the guide to the Arna Bontemps Papers, 1927-1968, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries) Teacher in New York, N.Y., and Huntsville, Ala.; head librarian, Fisk University; professor, University of Chicago; curator of James Weldon Johnson Collection and visiting professor of English, Yale University; writer in residence, Fisk University; and author. ...

Jelliffe, Rowena Woodham, 1892-1992.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z33hpv (person)

Gilpin Players

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tn22sq (corporateBody)

Karamu Theater.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hb4f9v (corporateBody)

Playhouse Settlement.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tj3wwb (corporateBody)

King, Coretta Scott, 1927-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sk28kh (person)

Coretta Scott King (b. April 27, 1927, Marion, AL–d. Jan. 30, 2006, Rosarito Beach, Mexico) was the wife of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and earned a degree from the New England Conservatory of Music studying under Marie Sundelius. She met King in Boston and they were married in 1953. They had four children: Yolanda (1955), Martin III (1957), Dexter (1961), and Bernice (1963).The King family lived in Montgomery, Alabama. Mrs. ...

Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rn37qn (person)

Poet, author, playwright, songwriter. From the guide to the Langston Hughes collection, [microform], 1926-1967, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.) From the description of Langston Hughes collection, 1926-1967. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 144652168 Langson Hughes: African-American poet and writer, author of Weary Blue (1926), The Big Sea (1940), and other works. ...

Jelliffe, Russell W., 1891-1980.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68w4xqc (person)

Russell W. and Rowena Woodham Jelliffe were social workers who in conjunction with the Second Presbyterian Church Men's Club of Cleveland, Ohio, founded the Neighborhood Association, popularly known as the Playhouse Settlement, in 1915. Founded primarily to aid African Americans who had migrated to Cleveland from the rural South, Playhouse Settlement offered the usual social services, but gained note for its dramatic and artistic programs. In 1927 the Jelliffes acquired property which was remode...

Ness, Eliot

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6378t5c (person)

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gk06z2 (person)

W. E. B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Educated at Fisk University, he did graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate. Du Bois became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Due to his contributions in the African-American community he was seen as a member of a Black elite that supported some aspects ...

Karamu House

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xq0xk7 (corporateBody)

Karamu House was founded in 1915 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Russell W. and Rowena Woodham Jelliffe as a settlement house promoting interracial activities and cooperation through the performing arts. The Jelliffes saw a need to provide activities and social services for the city's growing African American population, in order to assist in their transition from rural Southern life to an urban setting. Originally known as the Playhouse Settlement, it was renamed Karamu Theater in 1927. By 1941, the ent...

Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h814sk (person)

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...