Collection Full View
August Meier Papers [Part 1] (1930 - 1998)
RepositoryNew York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture - Manuscripts Division
Collection IDSc MG 340
Size73.6 linear feet (149 boxes) -- total collection
Collection Description
From the early 1960s August Meier was a major force in the study of African-American history. He was actively involved in the civil rights movement and studied its origins and development. He taught at three historic black colleges, followed by twenty years at Kent State University. As editor of two major series on African Americans in the U.S., he influenced scholars and students alike.
Born in Newark in 1923, he was a graduate of Barringer High School. He was reared in an upwardly mobile, middle-class family. His Polish-born mother, Clara Cohen Meier, was a graduate of Newark Normal School and NYU and teacher and vice principal in several Newark public schools; his father, Frank A. Meier was a chemist, who worked at the American Platinum Works, Newark in the 1930s. His parents had met in the Socialist Party, and by the mid-1930s they had made August keenly aware of the plight of the poor and the oppressed. The family home was first at 109 Beaumont Pl. (1930s) and later 617 Highland Ave., Newark.
Another formative experience was Meier's time as a camper and counselor at Pioneer Youth Camp in Rifton, near Kingston, NY, where he spent his summers from 1934 to 1939. Pioneer Youth of America had been founded in 1924 by a group of reformers, including leaders of the garment workers unions, other trade unionists, liberals, and socialists. A racially integrated camp, Pioneer Youth served as a catalyst for Meier's interest in social issues, his growing commitment to racial equality, and his persistent anti-Stalinism, and contributed to shaping his activity in the black student protest movement of the 1960s.
Meier entered Oberlin College in 1940 and graduated in 1945. One year during this period was spent working at a U.S. War Department agency in Newark where one-third of the employees were black. This work experience gave impetus to Meier's decision to teach at a black college and to begin studying race relations and black history. Moreover, during his last two years at Oberlin he became engaged in anti-discrimination campaigns and other political activity.
He was an assistant professor of history at Tougaloo College in Mississippi from 1945 to 1949, and during his last year there pursued his Master's degree at Columbia University. His MA thesis was a study of black American nationalism prior to Marcus Garvey. Between 1953 and 1956 he taught at Fisk University in Nashville, TN. He was awarded a PhD from Columbia University in 1957, with a dissertation entitled, "Negro Racial Thought in the Age of Booker T. Washington, ca. 1880-1915." This study was revised and published in 1963 as "Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915," placing Meier on the cutting edge of intellectual historians who made use of sociological and anthropological techniques.
From 1957 to 1964 Meier taught at Morgan State College in Baltimore, MD. Unlike Fisk and Tougaloo, where there were approximately equal numbers of black and white faculty, at Morgan State ninety percent were black. Morgan State students had been active in civil rights work, and Meier became a faculty advisor. In 1960 he was involved in an effort to integrate a restaurant at Northwood shopping center, and he was later arrested for participating in another restaurant sit-in. The students ultimately succeeded in integrating these public services through the passage of laws.
As a liberal activist, Meier developed a long-standing interest in the origins of non-violent direct action. He became acquainted with officers of CORE, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the NAACP, and got to know such civil rights leaders as Bayard Rustin, Norman Hill, Stokely Carmichael, Floyd McKissick, and Herbert Hill.
Meier taught history at Chicago's Roosevelt University from 1964 to 1967, a period when the first stirrings of the Black Power movement were occurring. The growing interest in the black experience, by both black and white researchers, broadened the audience for his publications. From 1967 until his retirement in 1993, he taught history at Kent State University in Ohio. In 1969 he was appointed University Professor, the highest faculty rank at Kent State. A long collaboration with his colleague, Elliott Rudwick, a professor of sociology at Kent State, resulted in seven books and numerous articles. Their joint effort lasted until Rudwick's death in 1985.
Meier's civil rights activism dated back to his student days in the early 1940's, when he joined in a campaign against discrimination in barbershops and witnessed a protest against the Jim Crow practices at Red Cross blood banks. He joined the Newark branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1948, and served as its secretary between 1950 and 1952, and again in 1957. After the Newark riots of 1967, Meier was a consultant for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission, in 1968.
Meier was active in several national scholarly organizations including the Southern Historical Association, the American Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians. From about 1959-1961 he participated in a campaign to prevail upon the SHA to end its practice of holding conventions at hotels that barred blacks. In 1998 the AHA honored Meier with its Award for Scholarly Distinction, noting that "since the pioneering work of Carter G. Woodson and the establishment of the Journal of Negro History in 1915, no historian has influenced the study of African American history more broadly than August Meier." He wrote or edited fourteen books between 1963 and 1986, and published more than a hundred articles and reviews.
Perhaps Meier's most far-reaching impact on the intellectual community was in his role as an editor of books and other publications for four series in black studies: "Negro in American Life Series" (1966-1974), the University of Illinois Press's "Blacks in the New World Series" (1972 to 1998), the Bobbs-Merrill "Reprint Series in Black Studies" (1966-1974) co-edited with Elliott Rudwick, and University Publications of America's "Black Studies Research Sources: Microfilms of Materials in Major Archival Manuscript Collections" (1983-1998). Meier was the recipient of a number of honorary degrees and awards. After his retirement he moved back to New Jersey, and died there in 2003.
Born in Newark in 1923, he was a graduate of Barringer High School. He was reared in an upwardly mobile, middle-class family. His Polish-born mother, Clara Cohen Meier, was a graduate of Newark Normal School and NYU and teacher and vice principal in several Newark public schools; his father, Frank A. Meier was a chemist, who worked at the American Platinum Works, Newark in the 1930s. His parents had met in the Socialist Party, and by the mid-1930s they had made August keenly aware of the plight of the poor and the oppressed. The family home was first at 109 Beaumont Pl. (1930s) and later 617 Highland Ave., Newark.
Another formative experience was Meier's time as a camper and counselor at Pioneer Youth Camp in Rifton, near Kingston, NY, where he spent his summers from 1934 to 1939. Pioneer Youth of America had been founded in 1924 by a group of reformers, including leaders of the garment workers unions, other trade unionists, liberals, and socialists. A racially integrated camp, Pioneer Youth served as a catalyst for Meier's interest in social issues, his growing commitment to racial equality, and his persistent anti-Stalinism, and contributed to shaping his activity in the black student protest movement of the 1960s.
Meier entered Oberlin College in 1940 and graduated in 1945. One year during this period was spent working at a U.S. War Department agency in Newark where one-third of the employees were black. This work experience gave impetus to Meier's decision to teach at a black college and to begin studying race relations and black history. Moreover, during his last two years at Oberlin he became engaged in anti-discrimination campaigns and other political activity.
He was an assistant professor of history at Tougaloo College in Mississippi from 1945 to 1949, and during his last year there pursued his Master's degree at Columbia University. His MA thesis was a study of black American nationalism prior to Marcus Garvey. Between 1953 and 1956 he taught at Fisk University in Nashville, TN. He was awarded a PhD from Columbia University in 1957, with a dissertation entitled, "Negro Racial Thought in the Age of Booker T. Washington, ca. 1880-1915." This study was revised and published in 1963 as "Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915," placing Meier on the cutting edge of intellectual historians who made use of sociological and anthropological techniques.
From 1957 to 1964 Meier taught at Morgan State College in Baltimore, MD. Unlike Fisk and Tougaloo, where there were approximately equal numbers of black and white faculty, at Morgan State ninety percent were black. Morgan State students had been active in civil rights work, and Meier became a faculty advisor. In 1960 he was involved in an effort to integrate a restaurant at Northwood shopping center, and he was later arrested for participating in another restaurant sit-in. The students ultimately succeeded in integrating these public services through the passage of laws.
As a liberal activist, Meier developed a long-standing interest in the origins of non-violent direct action. He became acquainted with officers of CORE, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the NAACP, and got to know such civil rights leaders as Bayard Rustin, Norman Hill, Stokely Carmichael, Floyd McKissick, and Herbert Hill.
Meier taught history at Chicago's Roosevelt University from 1964 to 1967, a period when the first stirrings of the Black Power movement were occurring. The growing interest in the black experience, by both black and white researchers, broadened the audience for his publications. From 1967 until his retirement in 1993, he taught history at Kent State University in Ohio. In 1969 he was appointed University Professor, the highest faculty rank at Kent State. A long collaboration with his colleague, Elliott Rudwick, a professor of sociology at Kent State, resulted in seven books and numerous articles. Their joint effort lasted until Rudwick's death in 1985.
Meier's civil rights activism dated back to his student days in the early 1940's, when he joined in a campaign against discrimination in barbershops and witnessed a protest against the Jim Crow practices at Red Cross blood banks. He joined the Newark branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1948, and served as its secretary between 1950 and 1952, and again in 1957. After the Newark riots of 1967, Meier was a consultant for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission, in 1968.
Meier was active in several national scholarly organizations including the Southern Historical Association, the American Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians. From about 1959-1961 he participated in a campaign to prevail upon the SHA to end its practice of holding conventions at hotels that barred blacks. In 1998 the AHA honored Meier with its Award for Scholarly Distinction, noting that "since the pioneering work of Carter G. Woodson and the establishment of the Journal of Negro History in 1915, no historian has influenced the study of African American history more broadly than August Meier." He wrote or edited fourteen books between 1963 and 1986, and published more than a hundred articles and reviews.
Perhaps Meier's most far-reaching impact on the intellectual community was in his role as an editor of books and other publications for four series in black studies: "Negro in American Life Series" (1966-1974), the University of Illinois Press's "Blacks in the New World Series" (1972 to 1998), the Bobbs-Merrill "Reprint Series in Black Studies" (1966-1974) co-edited with Elliott Rudwick, and University Publications of America's "Black Studies Research Sources: Microfilms of Materials in Major Archival Manuscript Collections" (1983-1998). Meier was the recipient of a number of honorary degrees and awards. After his retirement he moved back to New Jersey, and died there in 2003.
Collection Contents
The August Meier Papers document both his formative years and his academic career. Included are personal papers, notes and drafts for his PhD dissertation, records from his teaching career, correspondence with colleagues and publishers, and manuscripts submitted for possible inclusion in two of his edited series. Additionally, the collection contains his published articles, conference papers, speeches, and lectures, as well as material relating to his work in professional organizations, his grants and fellowships, and his consultancies. The papers are strong in civil rights research materials, and include substantial files on the Newark branch of the NAACP, which Meier served as secretary in the 1950s, and other Newark organizations and individuals. The collection is arranged in ten series, as follows: 1.) Personal Papers; 2.) Organizational Memberships (mostly Newark NAACP and other Newark civil rights material); 3.) Teaching Career; 4.) Correspondence; 5.) Editor/Scholarly Publications; 6.) Professional Activities; 7.) Civil Rights Movement Research Files, including an Interviews subseries consisting of notes on hundreds of interviews Meier and Elliott Rudwick conducted with activists in the civil rights movement, mostly for their book, "CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942-1968"; 8.) Research Files for Publications; 9.) Research Files - Unpublished Material; and 10.) Elliott Rudwick
Because there is so much significant material relating to Newark in the collection, our detailed description has been divided into two entries; Newark-related files in Part 1 (Boxes 1-55) include the following:
Box 1: contains biographical materials and personal papers. Folder 8, contains material from a scrapbook on a family vacation to New York state and New England (1931), including snapshots, memorabilia, and detailed travel diaries by August; Folder 10, contains pages of a journal with brief notes on a trip to Mississippi (1944); Folder 13, contains a letter from AM (Sep 8, 1943) and 2 membership cards in the Booker T. Washington Community Hospital Association, 132-134 West Kinney St., Newark. (Meier's 1943 card is signed by Lucy K. Millburn, "solicitor.")
Box 1, Folders 15 and 16: contain material on Clara L. Meier, AM's mother. Contents include: a newsletter of the Essex County Chapter of Americans for a Democratic Society (Vol. 1, no. 1, Feb 1951) - on the back is a lengthy handwritten account of the experience of a Special Education teacher [Clara Meier?]; documents re: Clara's teaching career in Newark, at Coe's Place School, with a lengthy list of her political and community activities (Joint Refugee Committee, League of Women Voters, Newark Interracial Council, etc.); memorial tributes (1958), including a guest book from her funeral, a Newark News obituary (Nov 21,1958), Newark Teachers Association News (issue for Dec 1958), and a service program. Her funeral was conducted by Unitarian minister Dr. Norman D. Fletcher, on November 22, 1958. Folder17 contains some family snapshots (not of AM, mostly 1950s).
Box 2: contains mostly Pioneer Youth Camp materials, including Camp newspapers (1934-1944). Folder 4 includes a petition, signed by AM, his brother Paul, and his father, asking the U.S. Postmaster General to include Daniel Shays on a commemorative stamp (1937, the 150th anniversary of Shays Rebellion), with related correspondence, clippings, and memorabilia. The Daniel Shays Club of New York was a project of Pioneer Youth of America.
Box 4: contains correspondence from AM to his family and from the family to him (1939-1958). Many are long letters from AM to his parents from camp, college, or his early years of teaching. Family letters include some news of friends, school doings, etc. in Newark. Family letters in 1940 contain mentions of a refugee boy (aged 11), Karl Djerassi, who was living with the Meier family. (See Folder 29, letter of Oct 7, 1929 from Frank Meier). Karl is a Bulgarian Jew whose parents are doctors. His mother is working as a nurse in an upstate NY town and his father is awaiting a visa in Vienna. Karl is attending Newark Junior College on a scholarship. Folder 32 includes a program for a band concert at the Newark Y in which Paul Meier played (Mar 1, 1941). Frank Meier's letters of April 3 and 7, 1941, also in Folder 32, give some idea of his political views, mention his time in Young People's Socialist League, and comment on Karl Marx, the Soviet Union, etc.
Box 5: contains AM's correspondence with friends (1938 to 1957), and includes a few letters from his parents. Most are camp and college friends - not from Newark. There are some mentions of Newark (where he is living in the summer of 1944), e.g., in Folder 12, a letter of November 14, 1944 to "Jimmy" includes a vivid account of AM's 11 weeks working in a defense plant in East Newark, where "the people were so ignorant, so dumb, so narrow, so prejudiced...."
Box 11: NAACP, Newark Branch material (ca. 1948-1952). When Meier joined the Branch in 1948, the local office was at 8 West Market St. in the NJ Urban League Building, but regular meetings were held at St. Philip's Church Parish House at Market and High Sts. At this time Meier was living at 617 Highland Ave. Meier resigned as Branch Secretary in 1952.
Box 11, Folder 2: Executive Board, minutes of monthly meetings (1951-1952); membership for 1951 included 425 senior members and a Youth Council of nearly 100 members (In 1952 Meier was secretary, and attorney Harry Hazelwood, Jr. was president, Miss Ethel Terry 1st VP, John Porter 2nd VP, and Treasurer Mrs. Francis Tompkins. 1951 Board members were: Mrs. Mabel Anthony, Joseph Baker, Dr. Thomas Bell; attorney Bertram C. Bland, Mrs. Anna Burrell, attorney J. Mercer Burrell, Mrs. J. C. Carr, Hon. James A. Curtis, Miss Ruth Franklin, Withas Gayle, Milton Grey, Philip Hoggard, Mrs. Lois Hunter, attorney Jerome Kessler, Mrs. Effa Manley, the Rev. William Mayberry, August Meier, the Rev. J. C. Nelson, Deacon Fred O' Bryant, Mrs. Imo Potter, Porter Rock, Mrs. Bernice Russell, Dr. Dorothy O. Smith, attorney Herbert Tate, Mrs. Charles L. Whigham, and Mrs. Mary Worthy.) A case of particular concern at this time was the shooting of Willie Johnson of 60 Avon Place by a police officer, Sgt. Henderson, on Oct. 15, 1951.
Box 11, Folder 3: contains a copy of an address given to the Greater Newark CIO Council re: endorsement of the NAACP membership drive; drafts of a statement opposing "universal military training" and "Jim Crow in the armed forces"(1948); membership campaign material (1948); flyer for a "Gingham Dance" at Lloyd's Manor, 42 Beacon St.; a Branch Directory with addresses and committee assignments. In 1950 Meier was chair of the Branch 's Legislation Committee.
Box 11, Folder 4: includes routine membership material including meeting notices; committee and Board minutes; flyer for an address by Thurgood Marshall, at St. John's M.E. Church, High St. and 13th Ave. Sunday, Oct. 29th; notes on a discussion of "stereotypes and derogatory statements in juvenile literature" at Newark Public Library and of Hughes Allison's meetings with Library Director Kaiser regarding the matter; and a draft of a letter to Anheuser-Busch "concerning discrimination in their hiring policies" (1950-1951)
Box 11, Folder 5: includes copies of Meier's correspondence as Branch Secretary; a small amount of financial material; Board minutes; a proposal for joint action with the Newark Teachers Union regarding segregation in the schools; material from national conference and national campaign against the Amos and Andy Show; incidents of police brutality; and Negro History Week (1951)
Box 11, Folder 6: Fair Employment," includes a letter from the Joint Council for Civil Rights, 30 Clinton Ave., Herbert H. Tate, Chair, and Jerome C. Eisenberg , Counsel, regarding delegates for the National Emergency Civil Rights March in Washington, DC
Box 12: contains routine membership material similar to that in Box 11, including reports of national, state, and regional meetings; clippings; a small amount of material related to the Essex County Intergroup Council; and financial statements
Box 12, Folder 1, several copies of a 2-page printed "REPORT of the Newark Branch" (Vol 1, no. 1, Sep 1951) highlighting a case of police brutality, housing issues, school segregation, and success in the campaign against racially derogatory juvenile literature in the Library (see also, Box 11, Folder 4)
Box 12, Folder 3: contains a list of questions that Meier used to interview Branch President Harry Hazelwood on the WNJR radio program, "News and Views by Oliver 'Butts' Brown" (Jun 6, 1952); 1952 Branch Directory; and the secretary's report for 1951
Box 12, Folder 5: contains a report of a Clinton Hill Community Council bus trip to Philadelphia to "view first hand rehabilitation and redevelopment of the city" (1957); report of the Housing Committee of the Newark NAACP (1957); and committee files, with notes, lists of members, clippings, and a few minutes or reports
Box 12, Folder 12: national campaign membership material, noting that the Newark Branch, the largest of the Northern NJ branches, has 500 newly committed members (1957); and notes and minutes of a Northern NJ campaign conference . Newark membership was 1,374 in 1956, surpassed in the state only by Camden with 1,924.
Box 12, Folder 13: more membership-related material: the chair of the 1957 membership campaign was Francis Hoggard, 100 Peabody Pl.
Box 12, Folder 14: a Roster of Life Memberships with names and addresses of both individuals and organizations such as churches
Box 12, Folder 16: includes reports of the Church Committee meeting held at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, Montgomery St. and at the Church of God and Saints of Christ, 27 Hartford St.
Box 12, Folder 17: financial material including receipts, bills, etc.
Box 12, Folder 19: "Tentative Policy Statement," transcriptions of discriminatory ads for apartments to rent and for real estate, with suggestions for more inclusive language (1951)
Box 12, Folder 20: contains a booklet, "Newark Points the Way to National F.E.P," published by the Mayor Leo P. Carlin's Commission on Group Relations, David M. Litwin, Chair; J. Bernard Johnson and Ann Nugent, Vice-Chairs, and William B. Davis Secretary. The text of the publication is Litwin's statement at hearings before the Subcommittee on Civil Rights of the Congressional Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, March 3, 1954. Also present are 8 issues of the Human Relations News, a 4-page newsletter published by the Mayor's Commission on Group Relations (1957-1959)
Box 16, Folder 10: Robert Curvin correspondence (1973-1977), including a 22-page draft entitled "chapter II" by Curvin, with edits and annotations, and a lengthy comment by Meier on that draft and on other chapters, not included in the folder (1973). Also present are Meier's comments on specific individuals and cases (1977); letters from Curvin; and copies of Meier's letters to Curvin (1964-1984). Meier's conclusion about Curvin's planned book on the Newark riots, based on his Princeton dissertation, is that the material is "very interesting and important," but not yet presented in a manner that would be suitable for a university press. "Curvin is a very perceptive and articulate person.... He is a man of real ideas."
NOTE: Student files in this collection are closed until 50 years after the most recent date in each individual file. One file relating to Tyrone Tillery is closed until 2041.
Because there is so much significant material relating to Newark in the collection, our detailed description has been divided into two entries; Newark-related files in Part 1 (Boxes 1-55) include the following:
Box 1: contains biographical materials and personal papers. Folder 8, contains material from a scrapbook on a family vacation to New York state and New England (1931), including snapshots, memorabilia, and detailed travel diaries by August; Folder 10, contains pages of a journal with brief notes on a trip to Mississippi (1944); Folder 13, contains a letter from AM (Sep 8, 1943) and 2 membership cards in the Booker T. Washington Community Hospital Association, 132-134 West Kinney St., Newark. (Meier's 1943 card is signed by Lucy K. Millburn, "solicitor.")
Box 1, Folders 15 and 16: contain material on Clara L. Meier, AM's mother. Contents include: a newsletter of the Essex County Chapter of Americans for a Democratic Society (Vol. 1, no. 1, Feb 1951) - on the back is a lengthy handwritten account of the experience of a Special Education teacher [Clara Meier?]; documents re: Clara's teaching career in Newark, at Coe's Place School, with a lengthy list of her political and community activities (Joint Refugee Committee, League of Women Voters, Newark Interracial Council, etc.); memorial tributes (1958), including a guest book from her funeral, a Newark News obituary (Nov 21,1958), Newark Teachers Association News (issue for Dec 1958), and a service program. Her funeral was conducted by Unitarian minister Dr. Norman D. Fletcher, on November 22, 1958. Folder17 contains some family snapshots (not of AM, mostly 1950s).
Box 2: contains mostly Pioneer Youth Camp materials, including Camp newspapers (1934-1944). Folder 4 includes a petition, signed by AM, his brother Paul, and his father, asking the U.S. Postmaster General to include Daniel Shays on a commemorative stamp (1937, the 150th anniversary of Shays Rebellion), with related correspondence, clippings, and memorabilia. The Daniel Shays Club of New York was a project of Pioneer Youth of America.
Box 4: contains correspondence from AM to his family and from the family to him (1939-1958). Many are long letters from AM to his parents from camp, college, or his early years of teaching. Family letters include some news of friends, school doings, etc. in Newark. Family letters in 1940 contain mentions of a refugee boy (aged 11), Karl Djerassi, who was living with the Meier family. (See Folder 29, letter of Oct 7, 1929 from Frank Meier). Karl is a Bulgarian Jew whose parents are doctors. His mother is working as a nurse in an upstate NY town and his father is awaiting a visa in Vienna. Karl is attending Newark Junior College on a scholarship. Folder 32 includes a program for a band concert at the Newark Y in which Paul Meier played (Mar 1, 1941). Frank Meier's letters of April 3 and 7, 1941, also in Folder 32, give some idea of his political views, mention his time in Young People's Socialist League, and comment on Karl Marx, the Soviet Union, etc.
Box 5: contains AM's correspondence with friends (1938 to 1957), and includes a few letters from his parents. Most are camp and college friends - not from Newark. There are some mentions of Newark (where he is living in the summer of 1944), e.g., in Folder 12, a letter of November 14, 1944 to "Jimmy" includes a vivid account of AM's 11 weeks working in a defense plant in East Newark, where "the people were so ignorant, so dumb, so narrow, so prejudiced...."
Box 11: NAACP, Newark Branch material (ca. 1948-1952). When Meier joined the Branch in 1948, the local office was at 8 West Market St. in the NJ Urban League Building, but regular meetings were held at St. Philip's Church Parish House at Market and High Sts. At this time Meier was living at 617 Highland Ave. Meier resigned as Branch Secretary in 1952.
Box 11, Folder 2: Executive Board, minutes of monthly meetings (1951-1952); membership for 1951 included 425 senior members and a Youth Council of nearly 100 members (In 1952 Meier was secretary, and attorney Harry Hazelwood, Jr. was president, Miss Ethel Terry 1st VP, John Porter 2nd VP, and Treasurer Mrs. Francis Tompkins. 1951 Board members were: Mrs. Mabel Anthony, Joseph Baker, Dr. Thomas Bell; attorney Bertram C. Bland, Mrs. Anna Burrell, attorney J. Mercer Burrell, Mrs. J. C. Carr, Hon. James A. Curtis, Miss Ruth Franklin, Withas Gayle, Milton Grey, Philip Hoggard, Mrs. Lois Hunter, attorney Jerome Kessler, Mrs. Effa Manley, the Rev. William Mayberry, August Meier, the Rev. J. C. Nelson, Deacon Fred O' Bryant, Mrs. Imo Potter, Porter Rock, Mrs. Bernice Russell, Dr. Dorothy O. Smith, attorney Herbert Tate, Mrs. Charles L. Whigham, and Mrs. Mary Worthy.) A case of particular concern at this time was the shooting of Willie Johnson of 60 Avon Place by a police officer, Sgt. Henderson, on Oct. 15, 1951.
Box 11, Folder 3: contains a copy of an address given to the Greater Newark CIO Council re: endorsement of the NAACP membership drive; drafts of a statement opposing "universal military training" and "Jim Crow in the armed forces"(1948); membership campaign material (1948); flyer for a "Gingham Dance" at Lloyd's Manor, 42 Beacon St.; a Branch Directory with addresses and committee assignments. In 1950 Meier was chair of the Branch 's Legislation Committee.
Box 11, Folder 4: includes routine membership material including meeting notices; committee and Board minutes; flyer for an address by Thurgood Marshall, at St. John's M.E. Church, High St. and 13th Ave. Sunday, Oct. 29th; notes on a discussion of "stereotypes and derogatory statements in juvenile literature" at Newark Public Library and of Hughes Allison's meetings with Library Director Kaiser regarding the matter; and a draft of a letter to Anheuser-Busch "concerning discrimination in their hiring policies" (1950-1951)
Box 11, Folder 5: includes copies of Meier's correspondence as Branch Secretary; a small amount of financial material; Board minutes; a proposal for joint action with the Newark Teachers Union regarding segregation in the schools; material from national conference and national campaign against the Amos and Andy Show; incidents of police brutality; and Negro History Week (1951)
Box 11, Folder 6: Fair Employment," includes a letter from the Joint Council for Civil Rights, 30 Clinton Ave., Herbert H. Tate, Chair, and Jerome C. Eisenberg , Counsel, regarding delegates for the National Emergency Civil Rights March in Washington, DC
Box 12: contains routine membership material similar to that in Box 11, including reports of national, state, and regional meetings; clippings; a small amount of material related to the Essex County Intergroup Council; and financial statements
Box 12, Folder 1, several copies of a 2-page printed "REPORT of the Newark Branch" (Vol 1, no. 1, Sep 1951) highlighting a case of police brutality, housing issues, school segregation, and success in the campaign against racially derogatory juvenile literature in the Library (see also, Box 11, Folder 4)
Box 12, Folder 3: contains a list of questions that Meier used to interview Branch President Harry Hazelwood on the WNJR radio program, "News and Views by Oliver 'Butts' Brown" (Jun 6, 1952); 1952 Branch Directory; and the secretary's report for 1951
Box 12, Folder 5: contains a report of a Clinton Hill Community Council bus trip to Philadelphia to "view first hand rehabilitation and redevelopment of the city" (1957); report of the Housing Committee of the Newark NAACP (1957); and committee files, with notes, lists of members, clippings, and a few minutes or reports
Box 12, Folder 12: national campaign membership material, noting that the Newark Branch, the largest of the Northern NJ branches, has 500 newly committed members (1957); and notes and minutes of a Northern NJ campaign conference . Newark membership was 1,374 in 1956, surpassed in the state only by Camden with 1,924.
Box 12, Folder 13: more membership-related material: the chair of the 1957 membership campaign was Francis Hoggard, 100 Peabody Pl.
Box 12, Folder 14: a Roster of Life Memberships with names and addresses of both individuals and organizations such as churches
Box 12, Folder 16: includes reports of the Church Committee meeting held at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, Montgomery St. and at the Church of God and Saints of Christ, 27 Hartford St.
Box 12, Folder 17: financial material including receipts, bills, etc.
Box 12, Folder 19: "Tentative Policy Statement," transcriptions of discriminatory ads for apartments to rent and for real estate, with suggestions for more inclusive language (1951)
Box 12, Folder 20: contains a booklet, "Newark Points the Way to National F.E.P," published by the Mayor Leo P. Carlin's Commission on Group Relations, David M. Litwin, Chair; J. Bernard Johnson and Ann Nugent, Vice-Chairs, and William B. Davis Secretary. The text of the publication is Litwin's statement at hearings before the Subcommittee on Civil Rights of the Congressional Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, March 3, 1954. Also present are 8 issues of the Human Relations News, a 4-page newsletter published by the Mayor's Commission on Group Relations (1957-1959)
Box 16, Folder 10: Robert Curvin correspondence (1973-1977), including a 22-page draft entitled "chapter II" by Curvin, with edits and annotations, and a lengthy comment by Meier on that draft and on other chapters, not included in the folder (1973). Also present are Meier's comments on specific individuals and cases (1977); letters from Curvin; and copies of Meier's letters to Curvin (1964-1984). Meier's conclusion about Curvin's planned book on the Newark riots, based on his Princeton dissertation, is that the material is "very interesting and important," but not yet presented in a manner that would be suitable for a university press. "Curvin is a very perceptive and articulate person.... He is a man of real ideas."
NOTE: Student files in this collection are closed until 50 years after the most recent date in each individual file. One file relating to Tyrone Tillery is closed until 2041.
FormatsPhotographic materials; Textual materials
SubjectsAfrican-American History / Civil Rights; Jewish-American History; Police / Crime / Law Enforcement
Time Period20th Century
LanguageEnglish
Access policyOpen for research
ProcessedYes
Finding AidYes
Finding Aid URLhttp://archives.nypl.org/scm/20836