Papers of Langston Hughes [manuscript], 1925-1982.

ArchivalResource

Papers of Langston Hughes [manuscript], 1925-1982.

1925-1982

The papers contain manuscripts of the poems "Motto," "Youth," "Snail," "Alabama earth (At Booker Washington's grave)," "Cross" and "Mississippi-1955 ("To the memory of Emmett Till lynched in Mississippi, USA/August 1955")," and reprints of "Low to high" and "High to low." There are forty-four letters, postcards and notes to Youra Qualls and Ina Qualls Steele in which Hughes discusses speaking engagements, travel including Africa in 1962, his writing, and the production of his dramas. He mentions the N.A.A.C.P. briefly several times, and there are single, brief references to Josephine Baker, Billy Holliday, Arna Bontemps, Ralph Ellison, Melvin Tolson, Nina Simone, Carmen Amaya, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Eight letters to journalist and N.A.A.C.P. public relations director Henry Lee Moon discuss his work and mention Tuskegee Institute, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke. Of interest is a detailed account of a speaking engagement in Chapel Hill, N.C., and parties given in his honor. A letter to Walter Goldwater concerns publicity for two books, one to Peggy Hunter apologizes for not speaking at Texas College for Negroes, and one to a 5th grade class thanks them for interest in his books and urges them to help their parents be more tolerant. The collection also contains three photographs and a reproduction of a pastel portrait of Hughes; a playbill "Just around the corner"; a promotional circular for "Fight for freedom: the story of the NAACP"; a catalog with titles of recordings by him; a program for "The prodigal son"; a promotional circular "Langston Hughes: poet of the people"; a memorial service program; a Langston Hughes Society pamphlet; and sheet music "Checkin on the freedom train."

84 items.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7921362

University of Virginia. Library

Related Entities

There are 19 Entities related to this resource.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k17w53 (corporateBody)

Organizational History and List of Officers Organizational History 1909 Issued the “Call,” a statement calling for a conference to protest discrimination and violence against African Americans Convened the National Negro Conference on May 31 and June 1, New York, N.Y. E...

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...

Locke, Alain, 1885-1954

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g3njt (person)

Alain LeRoy Locke was an African-American professor of philosophy at Howard University. From the description of Alain LeRoy Locke photograph, and funeral orations brochure, 1952-1954. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 48822627 African American teacher, philosopher, author, and critic. From the description of Papers, 1841-1983 (bulk 1898-1954). (Moorland-Spingarn Resource Center). WorldCat record id: 70939715 ...

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. ...

Tolson, Melvin Beaunorus

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61c4gp6 (person)

Author, educator, and poet; mayor of Langston, Okla., and poet laureate of Liberia. Born 1898, died 1966. From the description of Melvin Beaunorus Tolson papers, 1932-1975 (bulk 1940-1966). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70979894 ...

Texas College for Women.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65b5xrr (corporateBody)

Baker, Josephine, 1906-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69x14kk (person)

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...

Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917-2000

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pd3rgp (person)

African American poet and novelist, who was an important figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. From the description of Of Robert Frost / Gwendolyn Brooks. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79334638 Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, on June 17, 1917 and moved shortly after her birth to Chicago's South Side, where she lived until her death. She authored more than twenty books of poetry, beginning with A Street in Bronzeville (1945), follow...

Trombly, Richard,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h13j4c (person)

Hunter, Peggy

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k95t8m (person)

Moon, Henry Lee, 1901-1985

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jt092p (person)

Journalist; Mr. Moon d.1984. From the description of Reminiscences of Henry Lee Moon and Robert C. Weaver : oral history, 1980. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309742018 ...

Tuskegee Institute

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r257gd (corporateBody)

Steele, Ina Qualls,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6807ng3 (person)

Amaya, Carmen

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w38g7w (person)

Simone, Nina, 1933-2003

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rs2nbp (person)

Nina Simone (b. Eunice Kathleen Waymon, Feb. 21, 1933, Tryon, NC–d. April 21, 2003, Carry-le-Rouet, France) began playing piano at the age three. In 1950 she studied at the Julliard School as a student of Carl Friedberg and later took piano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff. Before becoming known as a singer, she worked as accompanist at Arlene Smith's vocal studio and taught piano lessons in Philadelphia. She began performing as Nina Simone at the Midtown Bar and Grill in Atlantic City. Her 1958 a...

Ellison, Ralph, 1914-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jm28tt (person)

African American author, born Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994) in Oklahoma to a family who migrated from South Carolina. From the description of Ralph Ellison papers, 1990-1994. (University of South Carolina). WorldCat record id: 32828103 African American author and educator. Born 1914; died 1994. From the description of Ralph Ellison papers, 1890-2005 (bulk 1930-1994). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70983760 Ralph Ellison began writing seriously in 1939....

Qualls, Youra,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jx10f9 (person)

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. ...

Goldwater, Walter.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69k48gk (person)

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Walter Goldwater first opened the University Place Book Shop in 1932. He financed the Shop, situated in a loft at 821 Broadway at 12th Street, with the help of a six hundred dollar loan from "a Communist uncle by marriage." Goldwater specialized in African and African American literature, as well as old and rare books. As proprietor of University Place, Goldwater became part of the vibrant community of booksellers whose shops crowded Fourth Avenue from 9th to 14th ...