Connecting the Dots: Processing the Howard F. Taylor Black Leadership Network Study Papers, 1984-1992

During the first month of my fellowship in the Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University, I have had the pleasure of arranging and describing the Howard F. Taylor Black Leadership Network Study Papers. Located in Mudd’s Public Policy collection, The Black Leadership Network Study Papers is a research initiative spearheaded by Sociologist Howard Taylor, Emeritus professor in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University. This study, spanning between 1984 and 1992, sought to examine the policy attitudes and opinions of influential black leaders. Through funding provided by the Cornerhouse Fund of New York City,—a foundation that allocates resources for social research in race and ethnic relations—Taylor was able to conduct interviews with nearly 170 African American leaders, including mayors, congresspersons, federal judges, military officials, media representatives, academicians, executives of predominately black and predominately white corporations, presidents of national associations, foundation executives, civil servants, political appointees and party officials. In doing so, this broad sample provides unique insight into the U.S. political landscape of the 1980s and early 1990s, intra-racial social and economic issues, structural and demographic data related to black leadership, and the interconnections within this elite group. Ultimately, Professor Taylor wanted to use the findings for scholarly articles and a manuscript project provisionally entitled “The Black Elite Network in America.

In my view, this collection will allow students, scholars, and researchers alike to examine  the African American leadership establishment in the 1980’s and 1990’s and the issues of importance to the communities they served. However, it has also led me to think more critically about the cadre of black leaders in the 21^st century and how they have OR have not informed public policy. Perhaps, another study of this kind is due in the forthcoming years, especially as we enter the 2012 presidential election season.

Brenda Tindal,
IMLS Fellow
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
Princeton University

Week Four at MSA

The current phase of the Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland program, which is funded by a Department of Education grant, is focused on five counties of the Eastern Shore (Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot). To support our research of this region, I'm beginning to strip US census records for data about African Americans living in Dorchester County. This information forms part of a database that helps us cross-reference enslaved and free blacks in various state, local, and federal records.

Next week, I'll start my project with the Maryland State Colonization Society papers. For some of my thoughts on this subject, please visit my blog.

Publish Post

Week Four From Alabama Department of Archives!

Hello All! Greetings from Montgomery! This week I had the pleasure of processing a collection tucked within a collection, and of love letters from World War II no less! This collection, which is titled the Jessie O. White Papers, was very insightful into the love life of one particular soldier stationed at Tuskegee during World War II. I also presented at the Society for Alabama Archivists on oral history! Everyone at the conference was so nice, encouraging and interested in oral history and how archives can utilize them, it was a wonderful experience! In addition to the wonderful things I am doing at work, I am also enjoying the breakfast lectures hosted by the One Montgomery community organization.

That is all I have for now, If you would like to read more about my experiences in Montgomery, check out my blog, cheylonkwoods@wordpress.com

Until next week!

Cheylon Woods

Week Four at Fisk

HEY, HAPPY ARCHIVES MONTH!!! I completed the accessioning process ending with thirty-four boxes! That was exciting!!! The last of the boxes consisted mainly of organizational papers including, Anti-Tuberculosis Association and the Carnegie Corporation. Now for the next step...processing the Samuel Leonard Smith collection, which I started Monday, October 3rd. I'm organizing the Rosenwald Fund related materials...consisting of five boxes.

In addition, I turned in my registration for the Tennessee State Archivist conference October 26-27th. We will be hosting out own events with exhibitis here on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. Also, I plan to attend the National Rosenwald School conference in Tuskegee, Alabama June 2012. I am very excited for these conferences.

Aisha Johnson

Week Four at Avery!

Quick Updates:  

The photos from Back-to-School have been posted to Avery’s Facebook page and there is a post about it on the Keep Your Eyes on the Prize blog. 

New Business: 

I have been continuing to work on the Order of the Eastern Star collection. Interesting things in the collection includes the doctors’ notes that the women had to turn in with their petitions for memberships. The notes basically say that the individual is free of disease and contagion. In addition, the collection includes the sashes worn by the women during the burial ceremony. Now the challenge is figuring out where this goes in the collection, if it should be its own separate series or if it should be grouped with administrative activities. However, I will figure it out and let you know.  

More about my week can be found here.

Week Three at Fisk

Hello all,

As you all know, I am very much into library history, archives, and library science programs in HBCUs. So, I became crazy excited when I discovered papers on the closing of Hampton Institute's Library Science program, which closed in 1940. In that same box was papers discussing the opening of the Atlanta University's Library Science School in 1941, which was organized to replace the program at Hampton. I have become more and more interested in the history of library science programs set up to bring more African Americans in the field because I strongly believe it is one of the top ways to recruit more into the field.

Aisha Johnson

Week Three at MSA

Last Friday was Back to the School with the HistoryMakers at Dunbar High School in Baltimore. Chief Judge Robert Mack Bell, Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, and James Earl Reid were warmly welcomed by the students and had lunch with them before two school assemblies, which were unfortunately cut short due to a fire alarm.

I have about a week left of training before I start working on my main projects with the recently digitized records of the Maryland State Colonization Society. I’ll be creating case studies and writing biographies in order to inform researchers and other members of the public about the rich information within the records. I’ve posted more about the society’s purpose and history on my blog. In between training sessions, I'm also reading up on the history of the colony in Richard L. Hall's On Afric's Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857.