Abstract: Otis N. Pruitt and Calvin Shanks photographed life in Columbus, Miss., between the 1920s and 1980s. Pruitt, born in Mississippi in 1891, became interested in photography while photographing his children. He moved to Columbus to work in Henry Hoffmeister’s photography studio, also attending the Illinois School of Photography early in his career. In or around 1920, Pruitt bought out Hoffmeister, becoming the sole photographer in Columbus. Pruitt ran the studio until around 1960, when he sold the business to his assistant, Calvin Shanks. Pruitt died in 1967, and Shanks continued to run the studio until his death in 1981, but the studio remained in operation until about 1986. The collection includes images taken by Otis N. Pruitt and Calvin Shanks between the 1920s and 1980s chiefly in Lowndes County, Miss. Most of the images were created by Pruitt circa 1920s-1950s. They document his work as a commercial (for-hire) and studio photographer in Columbus. Images primarily depict the town and people, including local businesses, churches, residential areas, schools, events, and people. Of particular interest are images of visits by Mississippi state politicians, historic homes, the African American community, and civic groups. The collection also includes images from outside Columbus, including other locations within Mississippi, as well as in Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Quite a number of the photographs document African American individuals and groups in Mississippi, from churches to fraternal organizations to social clubs. A few examples included an African American family working in agriculture (Sheet Film 05463/00031), Cedar Grove M.B. Church (Folder 05463/01254), and the Colored Young Mens Christian Association (Sheet Film 05463/01531).

A number of images from this collection have been digitized and are available online. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digitized material.

Abstract: George C. Stoney (1916- ), a documentary filmmaker who specialized in socially relevant films, was a mentor and teacher to generations of filmmakers and media activists worldwide and a pioneer in the movement for the creation and use of public access television to enact social change. The collection consists of papers chiefly relating to George C. Stoney’s professional work as a documentary filmmaker, teacher, and early advocate of public access television. Correspondence, 1944-1993 (bulk 1960-1990), is chiefly work-related in content, though many of Stoney’s correspondents were long-time friends and colleagues and wrote personally as well. Letters, 1944-1945, from Stoney to his future wife, Mary Bruce (1926-2004), are chiefly personal in nature and include love letters, but also, to a lesser extent, describe Stoney’s experiences as a photo intelligence officer with the 8th United States Army Air Forces in England, France, Belgium, and Germany. Correspondence between Stoney and his long-time companion Betty Puleston (d. 2009), 1967-1968, also blend description of personal and working life. Subject files comprise the bulk of the collection and include materials relating to films Stoney wrote, directed, and/or produced for the Southern Educational Film Production Service and George C. Stoney Associates. Topics include sexually transmitted disease; outreach programs of the Methodist Church; cardiovascular healthcare; education; community mental health; race relations in the South; police training; old age and retirement; midwifery; urban redevelopment in New York, N.Y., Philadelphia, Pa., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Washington, D.C.; and other social issues. Some of Stoney’s early work as a journalist and social researcher is also documented in essays, a report on race relations in Mississippi, and materials relating to his work for the Farm Security Administration. Subject files also document classes and workshops Stoney taught, especially at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and his involvement with the growth of public access and local cable television, the Challenge for Change project of the National Film Board of Canada, the Alternate Media Center, and the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers. Additionally, there are film treatments and research materials for prospective projects and printed and other material relating to the documentary film and cable television industries. Loose papers, 1980-1990s, consist of memobooks that likely relate to Stoney’s filmmaking, and clippings, reports, readings, conference advertisements, miscellaneous printed materials, handwritten notes, and writings by others that are not clearly connected to his film projects or cable and public access advocacy work. Photographs depict the documentary filmmaking process for several of Stoney’s films, public access projects and the Alternate Media Center, the work of Farm Security Administration photographers in the South in the early 1940s, and Stoney’s family life. The audio-visual materials consist of films, tapes, and sound reels from various Stoney productions, 1950s-1990s.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Folder 675 contains some of Stoney’s work as a Southern field assistant for Gunner Myrdal’s study on race relations in the U.S., An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.

There are a number of Subject Files that relate to Stoney’s research for Myrdal’s study as well as many of Stoney’s own films. There are several that deal with race relations and various topics:Folder 162 (Auburn, Ala./Race Relations and the Methodist Church, 1963); Folder 214 (Brewster Methodist Hospital (Jacksonville, Fla.)/Race Relations and the Methodist Church, 1963); Folder 216 (Bunche, Ralph: Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR (1973)); Folders 625-626 (Kytle, Calvin, 1947, 1960, 1973 – materials related to anti-discrimination protests and land use); Folder 666-667 (Methodist Church 1962– Chiefly concerning “The Church and the Inner City”); Folders 752-760 (Newspaper Clippings, 1960s-1980s – dealing with issues such as segregation, race relations, and Christianity)

Several of Stoney’s films also discuss the African American community and various topics. Notable documentaries include All My Babies and The Shepard of the Night Flock

All My Babies (1953) was an award winning film that focuses on An African American midwife. Folder 101-113, 671-672, 887,  contains articles, correspondence, and other materials related to the film. Folder PF-4970/1-3 contain photographs related to the film. There is a copy of the film as well (Film F-4970/203).

The Shepard of the Night Flock (1975) is a documentary discussing the life of Father Joseph Gensel and his role ministering to the Jazz community in New York. Influential musicians such as Duke Ellington appear in this film. There is a Reference folder (between Folders 972 and 973) for this film. Subseries 5.2 contains numerous clips and edits from the feature film, as well as audio tapes of the performances featured in the film.

Abstract: William Jesse Kennedy, Jr. (1889-1985), businessman, author, and community leader, was born in Andersonville, Ga. He began his affiliation with North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1916 in Savannah, Ga. He later relocated to Durham, N.C., and, in 1952, was elected the fifth president of the company. Correspondence, speeches, photographs, organizational records, and other items that document the business, civic, social, humanitarian, and professional activities of William Jesse Kennedy, Jr. Included are records relating to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, N.C.There are also materials relating to Kennedy’s activities with the Boy Scouts of America, the Boys’ Clubs of America, the Durham Committee of 100 (a group focused on developing the Research Triangle Park), 4-H clubs, Durham’s Lincoln Hospital, the NAACP, and the North Carolina Board of Higher Education, among other groups.Also included are deeds and correspondence belonging to Kennedy’s mentor, John Moses Avery, and a series of audiotaped interviews with Kennedy’s relatives, friends, and associates conducted by Carter Cue in 1994. Materials show Kennedy’s contributions to social and economic progress in North Carolina and demonstrate his interest in civil rights, integration, recreation, and industrial development, particularly in the Research Triangle Park.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Included are records relating to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. Materials show Kennedy’s contributions to social and economic progress in North Carolina and demonstrate his interest in civil rights, integration, recreation, and industrial development, particularly in the Research Triangle Park. This includes photographs and oral histories with friend and contemporaries of Kennedy’s.

Series 1 (Correspondence) contains a number of letters from youths in Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries in 1963, following publication of his article, “If I Were Young Today,” in Ebony Magazine.

Of particular interest are the publications, correspondence, and materials in Series 4 (Business and Civic Associations). Kennedy was very involved in a number of diverse community organizations. This series contains records from various groups, such as the Boy Scouts, Delta Sigma Theta, Stanford Warren Library, and Lincoln Hospital.

Abstract: G.C. Shaw was pastor of Timothy Darling Presbyterian Church, Oxford, N.C., and founder and president of Mary Potter School, a secondary school for African Americans in Oxford. Two manuscripts, one photograph, and five pamphlets, all on microfilm. One manuscript (14 pp.) is “1888-1932: A Glance Backward–A Present Meditation–A Forward Look” by G.C. Shaw about his work in Granville County, N.C., beginning in 1888. In it, there is much discussion of the Mary Potter School. The other manuscript (13 pp.), written by Mary E. L. Shaw around 1938, is an account of the beginnings of the Mary Potter School. The undated photograph is of G.C. Shaw. Also included are an undated pamphlet, ca. 1921, written by G.C. Shaw about the Mary Potter School; an undated leaflet, ca. 1926, listing the courses, fees, and other information about the Mary Potter School; a 1923 article about the Mary Potter School from the “Africo-American Presbyterian” of Charlotte, N.C.; a 1936 article by Mrs. E.N. Dent about the missionary work of the Presbyterian Church in Louisburg, N.C., including mention of the conversion of G.C. Shaw by Reverend Moses Hopkins, also from the “Africo-American Presbyterian”; and a scrapbook of photocopied notices of G.C. Shaw’s death on 1 January 1936.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The collection also records of G.C. Shaw’s  ministry at the Timothy Darling Presbyterian Church; as a member of the Board of Trustees of Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina; as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Oxford Colored Orphanage; as treasurer of the Teachers’ Colored Association; and as a member of the Colored Masonic lodge and other fraternal organizations. Microfilm only.

Abstract: Howard Anderson Kester was a theologian, educator, and administrator active in Christian movements relating to race relations, pacifism, and economic reform in the South from the 1920s until his retirement in 1970. Correspondence of Howard A. Kester and his wife, Alice Harris Kester, together with reports, leaflets, pamphlets, newsletters, organization reports, writings, and other items. Included are materials about Kester’s association, beginning in the 1930s, with such organizations as the YMCA, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Committee on Economic and Racial Justice, the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, the Socialist Party, and others active in the movement for social change. Also included are materials relating to Kester’s work, beginning in the 1940s, with such institutions as the Penn School, the John C. Campbell Folk School, and Montreat-Anderson College. There is also material relating to Kester’s later work as an educational innovator and about Kester himself and his development as a Christian radical, social reformer, administrator, and teacher. Some of Kester’s correspondents are listed below.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights:  The collection documents his activities in various organizations including the YMCA; the Student Christian Movement; the Southern Tenant Farmers Union; the NAACP, for whom he investigated lynchings; the Committee on Economic and Racial Justice; and the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, for whom he investigated opinions on and problems with desegregation (1955-1959). The collection also contains material reflecting Kester’s duties as Principal of the Penn Normal Industrial and Agricultural School, St. Helena Island from 1943-1948 (See Series 2, part I and II).

Additional materials include his writings, such as his reports on lynching and farm tenancy; his financial records while he was employed by the Committee on Economic and Racial Justice; and conference programs for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, Conference on Education and Race Relations, and the Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching (see particularly folders 216-217 for reports on lynching).

This collection contains materials that have been digitized. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digital material.

Abstract: William H. Wills was a general merchant, Methodist Protestant minister, and cotton planter of Halifax County, N.C. His wife was Anna Wills (1817-1893), and his children included Reverend Richard H. (1836-1891); George Whitaker (1842-1864); Mary (1848-1941); Lucy (b. 1844); and Edward (b. 1846). Other prominent Wills family members were Dr. Cary Whitaker (1782-1858) of Enfield, N.C., and Jackson County, Fla.; Capt. Cary Whitaker (d. 1865); Joseph S. Norman (d. 1864) of Plymouth, N.C.; and Robert Snell (fl. 1816-1841) of Washington County, N.C. The collection includes family, religious, plantation, and business papers, chiefly 1803-1882, of Wills family members in Halifax County and relatives in Washington and Edgecombe counties, N.C. Correspondence documents the life of itinerant ministers and Methodist Protestant and Methodist Episcopal Church affairs, 1840s-1890s, with information on circuit travel, camp meetings, finances, arbitrations, and race relations within the church. Other topics include family life; boarding school life; plantation affairs; slavery; conflicts with Seminole Indians in Florida; camp and home life during the Civil War; and women teachers in the postbellum period. There are letters from students at Chowan Female Institute, Warrenton Female College, and Baltimore Female College, and from teachers in several locations, including the Oxford Orphan Asylum. Civil War letters are from soldiers in the 2nd, 17th, and 43rd North Carolina regiments, and from a slave who travelled with them. Religious papers include reports, trial documents, sermons, essays (most written by a woman), circuit class books, and marriage licenses. Plantation papers include correspondence and legal and financial materials relating to cotton planters in eastern North Carolina and Florida. There are also a few travel diaries documenting journeys in the antebellum South, and a diary commenting on life in Key West, Miami, and Tampa, Fla. The Addition of April 2011 includes three bound travel journals and several hundred pages of undated sermon notes. The journals, covering 1851-1856 and 1866-1882, document Wills’s activities as a Methodist Protestant circuit rider in North Carolina, including date and location of services, a selected biblical passage, and a general topic for the sermon. Locations appearing repeatedly include Bethesda, Harmony, Union, Corinth, Eden, and Marsh Chapel, among others. However, it is unclear whether these are the names of towns or congregations where he visited. Sermon notes, several of which are written on envelopes, include a biblical passage followed by detailed exegesis of the passage with references to related texts and Wills’s own thoughts and interpretation.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: There is also a 26 December 1839 letter discussing an attempt to purchase a young enslaved girl in order to keep her with her family (See Folder 4).

Richard Wills frequently wrote about race relations among the Methodist Protestants and Methodist Episcopalians, and Christian justifications for slavery. George Whitaker Wills also wrote about Washington Wills, or “Wash”, an enslaved man who worked as a cook in his mess hall  (See particularly Subseries 1.1.2, Civil War Letters)

Letters from Richard in 1866-1882 often contain detailed discussions of his ministries in various N.C. cities as well as national church affairs, especially the union question. His letters (see particularly 10 May 1870 and 25 July 1873) display fears of racial amalgamation should the churches unite. (See Folders 16 and 17).

Letters in Subseries 1.2 (“Whitaker Family) contain correspondence from George Wills in Charleston describing church conflicts there and the possible split between the Northern and Southern Methodist Episcopal Church over slavery. He also writes about crops, slaves, and overseers in Florida. (See Folders 23-25).

In Folder 30, there is an undated entry from William Wills journal discussing the potentially damaging effects of the slavery question on the Methodist Protestant denomination.

Folder 31 contains interesting letters Wills wrote to various religious affiliated newspapers including three related to the issues of slavery in the Methodist Protestant and Methodist Episcopal churches (see 1 June 1855, 12 December 1856, and 19 April 1858).

Folder 37 contains the Class Book for Albemarle Circuit, Washington County Methodist Protestant Church (1861-1869). This volume contains a list of enslaved members of the church, as well as their owners.

Subseries 2.6 (Religious Correspondence) contains correspondence from Will’s from 1866 to 1877 relating to the union of the Methodist Protestant and Methodist Episcopal churches and the role of race in the decision. (See Folders 40-46).

Folder 55 contains a memo from 1874 concerning land sold to John W. Heptinstall for Bob Wills, a former slave.

Folder 64 contains a letter (circa 1860) discussing the sale of an enslaved girl.

Abstract: An address by A. W. Putnam, presented to the Tennessee Historical Society in 1850, on the history of the Zion Presbyterian Church and the Frierson Settlement, both in Maury County, Tenn., founded by South Carolinians in 1805.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The history of a Presbyterian church and community founded by South Carolinians in Maury County, Tennessee, in the 1800s. Included is an account of admitting “black people” to the sacrament of the church. Typed transcript.

Abstract: Proceedings of the annual meetings of the North Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church for the years 1935, 1937, 1940, 1943-1946, and 1950. The meetings were held in Wilmington, Fayetteville, Kinston, and Rich Square, N.C. Presiding bishop for most of them was Monroe H. Davis of Baltimore, Md., who was suspended by the National Conference in 1946. Minutes for annual conferences begin with a roll of elders, deacons, lay members, prominent visitors, and other groups present.The Journal of Proceedings documents the activities of the Conference in three sessions per day over the five days of the Conference. Reports of the various committees are transcribed in the minutes, including most notably reports on the A.M.E. Church’s missionary program and reports of the committees on the state of the country and the church, on education, and on temperance. Many of these reports are long essays that include,for example, statements on the meaning and value of education in general, for the African-American community specifically, and the importance of supporting the A.M.E. Church’s own Kittrell College. Reports on the state of the country describe economic hardships and work shortages in the Great Depression and World War II.The report on the state of the country for 1935 discusses the continuing problem of lynching, including the apparent tolerance of the white population for the practice, and notes recent Supreme Court decisions affecting the rights of African-Americans. Conference minutes for each meeting close with detailed A.M.E. Church financial accounts, including the Dollar Money Report and reports of the treasurer, the Finance Committee, and others.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Proceedings of the annual meetings of the North Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church for the years 1935, 1937, 1940, 1943-1946, and 1950. The meetings were held in Wilmington, Fayetteville, Kinston, and Rich Square, N.C. The residing bishop for most of them was Monroe H. Davis of Baltimore, Md., who was suspended by the National Conference in 1946.

Abstract: Opelika Pictures is a film company founded by New York-based filmmaker Macky Alston (Wallace McPherson Alston III). Alston directed the documentary film, “Family Name,” which examines the links between himself and the descendants of former slaves in North Carolina who share the Alston name. Records of Opelika Pictures are comprised of research and genealogy notes, audio and video tapes, film, record albums, publications, photographs, business and personal correspondence, and clippings associated with the making of “Family Name.” Included are photographs of the work of artist Charles Henry Alston and interviews with his sisters and others who knew him. There are also photographs and taped interviews with Macky Alston and members of his family.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights:  Included are photographs of the work of  African American artist Charles Henry Alston and interviews with his sisters and other contemporaries (Box 15 & 16). There are also research files in Series 1 (Papers) on Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr., and other individuals. Also included is an 1843 publication “Psalms & Hymns” (Box 1).

The Southern Historical Collection has a collection of materials, drawings, and documents related to Charles Alston. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection.

Abstract: The Old Hickory Council of the Boy Scouts of America grew from a single troop organized at Fairview Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1911. The council operated Camp Raven Knob beginning in the 1950s. Records, beginning in 1917, of the Old Hickory Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Included are letters, meeting minutes, reports, financial materials, clippings, training materials, membership lists, photographs, newsletters, pamphlets, and other items. Documentation is uneven; for some years, there are many informative letters, reports, and other materials, while other years are represented by only a few relatively minor items.Some items relate to scouting activities during World War I and World War II; many items document the planning and operation of camping sites, especially, beginning in the 1950s, Camp Raven Knob. Also included are photocopies of two 1964 documents relating to integration of the Council’s troops; a videotape version of a 1955 film about Camp Raven Knob; and two audiotaped interviews, 1976 and 1982, with scout leaders;two photographs of African-American scouts associated with Mount Zion Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., 1944-1950s; and a CD of photographs entitled “Wahissa and CRK Images Vol. 1, 1500+ Photos,” 1970s-1990s.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Included are papers relating to integration of the troop (1964). Includes two photographs of African American boy scouts associated with Mount Zion Baptist Church, Winston Salem, 1944-1950s.

In Series 1 (General Files), there are photocopies of two documents in 1964 relating to the Committee on Integration, showing the current racial makeup of Old Hickory Council divisions and Various Degrees of Integration for Consideration, as well as documents pertaining to white flight in eastern Winston-Salem (See Folders 57-58).

In 1965, there is a memo dated  September 15th by district executive Walter Wilson concerning the need to organize new groups of scouts in an area into which blacks had started to move (See Folder 59).

In 1969, the executive board meeting minutes of June discuss restating in detail its racial nondiscrimination policy (See Folders 65-66).

There is a  taped interview from around 1976 with Stanley A. Harris, who was the first Director of Inter-Racial Scouting and worked to develop African-American scout troops in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. (See Series 3, Tape  T-4688/1),

Also included are two photographs of African American boy scouts associated with Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston Salem, N.C., circa 1944-1950s. (See Images Folders P-4688/18 and 19.)