Abstract: Ernest Boyce McKissick (Mack) was born in Kelton, S.C., in 1895. His family moved to Asheville, N.C., around 1900. McKissick served in France, 1918-1919, with the African American 92nd Infantry Division during World War I. Returning to Asheville after the war, McKissick married Magnolia Thompson of Asheville. They had four children, the eldest of whom was Floyd S. McKissick, prominent North Carolina attorney, businessman, and civil rights leader, who was the first African American to attend the University of North Carolina’s Law School. The collection chiefly contains letters, 1918-1919, from Ernest B. McKissick to his future wife, Magnolia Thompson, written during his World War I service. Letters were sent from Camp Jackson, S.C.; Camp Dix, N.J.; Camp Merritt, N.J.; and France. They include jokes, romantic sentiments, and mention of fellow soldiers from Asheville and nearby Hendersonville, but offer little information about life as a soldier. Also included are a postcard, possibly from McKissick to H.E. Jones, and two letters to McKissick from Floyd S. Bixler, a wholesaler from Pennsylvania whom McKissick met while working at a hotel in Asheville.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: Kenny Jackson Williams (1927-2003), an African American studies scholar, taught at Duke University and was appointed to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Correspondence, writings, clippings, photographic slides, and other miscellaneous papers of Kenny J. Williams. The correspondence is chiefly professional, with publishers, students, members of the English Department at Duke University, and others, regarding publishing, teaching, and faculty matters, and her NEH appointment. Also included are some personal letters from friends and other correspondence regarding membership in a women’s club. Writings include drafts of various articles on African American writers, Sherwood Anderson, and midwestern writers of the nineteenth century, and Williams’s conservative positions, considered controversial in the academy, on multiculturalism, affirmative action in higher education, and the ideological implications of studying African American literature. The photographic slides document travel to Liberia, Romania, Hungary, and China during the 1960s.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: There are several folders that contain materials from William’s work on African American writers such as Phyllis Wheatley (Folder 36) and Sherwood Anderson’s work (folder 20).

Folder 59 also contains clippings related to African Americans in Durham, N.C.

Abstract: Papers relating to McLendon’s public service activities, especially his membership on the State Board of Higher Education, 1955- 1962, including his involvement in plans for desegregation of the University of North Carolina. Also included are materials about McLendon’s military career with U.S. troops in Mexico, 1916, and with the 113th Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1918; his law practice in Durham and Greensboro; his political activities; and the Senate investigation of Bobby Baker, including tape recordings (some transcribed) of oral diary entries that McLendon made during the course of the hearings. There also are about 600 letters from McLendon to his wife, Mary Lily Aycock McLendon. Approximately 750 items relate to the life and career of McLendon’s father-in-law, Charles Brantley Aycock (1859-1912), governor of North Carolina, 1901-1905.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The papers contain information pertaining to black troops in World War I. Of particular note are two letters McLendon wrote to his wife on 11 May 1918 and 26 May 1918, where describes that attitudes of African American soldiers in the military at that time (Folder 89 and 90).

Correspondence from the 1950s and 1960s discusses the desegregation of higher education in North Carolina.

Abstract: Three generations of the Spears and Hicks families of Virginia and North Carolina, including Sallie Gray Spears Lewis (b. 1833), her daughter Sallie Moore Spears Hicks (b. 1860), and her grandson Charles Spears Hicks (b. 1886), a North Carolina banker. Primarily personal letters, 1852-1917, detailing the family, social, and financial affairs of members of the Spears and Hicks and related Gray, Warren, Glasgow, and Lewis families of Fincastle and Botetourt County, Va.; Malden and Charleston, W.Va.; Wilmington and Dunn, N.C.; Paris, Tex.; Saline County, Mo.; and other locations. Subjects include military life and social conditions during the Civil War; farming in various locations; student life at the Augusta Female Seminary (later Mary Baldwin College) in Staunton, Va., 1875-1881; conditions among slaves, including an 1861 slave list; women’s lives and business dealings; banking in North Carolina, 1908-1917, including mention of a Chinese banker in Wilmington; engineering of heating and cooling systems, 1908-1917; experiences of an elderly woman living with her daughter’s family; and social aspects of tuberculosis. There are also many letters from Virginia lawyers William A. Glasgow and his son Frank T. Glasgow.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Topics discussed include slavery in Virginia in the correspondence between 1852-1861 (Folders 1 & 2). An letter dated 14 June 1880 also discuss race relations in England (Folder 13); and white relations with African American servants in West Virginia throughout 1908-1917 (Folders 18-27). The collection also contains a slave list  from 1861 (Folder 10).