Abstract: The Lewis family arrived in Raleigh, N.C., in 1923, when John D. Lewis Sr. took a job as a district manager for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company of Durham, N.C. He and his wife, Luella Alice Cox Lewis, and their two children, J.D. Lewis (John D. Lewis Jr.) (1919-2007) and Vera Lewis Embree (1921-2004), lived in southeast Raleigh and were members of First Baptist Church. J.D. Lewis was a Morehouse College graduate, one of the first African American members of the United States Marine Corps, and the first African American radio and television personality, corporate director of personnel, and director of minority affairs for WRAL of the Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC). J.D. Lewis also worked as the special markets representative for the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company; as the project director of GROW, Incorporated, a federally funded program for high school dropouts; and as the coordinator of manpower planning for the state of North Carolina. Lewis was active in many civic and community organizations as well. Vera Lewis Embree (1921-2004) graduated from the Palmer Institute for Young Women and Hampton Institute. She built a successful and celebrated career as a choreographer and professor of dance at the University of Michigan. The collection consists of papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials that chiefly relate to J.D. Lewis’s working life and the civic and community organizations he supported. Lewis’s career is documented by materials from Capitol Broadcasting Company, including editorials he wrote and produced; GROW, Incorporated; Manpower; Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company; National Association of Market Developers; and the National Business League. Lewis’s civic leadership is evident in records of the Raleigh Community Relations Committee, which worked to integrate Raleigh public schools; political campaigns; and the Team of Progress, a group interested in political leadership at the city and county levels of government. Community organizations represented in the collection include the Garner Road YMCA; Alpha Kappa Alpha Debutante Ball; the Eastside Neighborhood Task Force; the Citizens Committee on Schools; Omega Psi Phi; and Meadowbrook Country Club, which was founded in 1959 by a small group of African American community leaders. Other materials document the Method Post Office dedication in 1965; the Montford Point Marine Association; and a youth charrette, possibly on integration of Durham schools. There are also clippings and printed materials on such topics as black power, African American history, Morehouse College, and Shaw University. There are several issues of Perfect Home, a home design and decorating magazine published by John W. Winters, a real estate broker, home builder, city councilman, state senator, and civic leader. Family materials are mainly biographical and include newspaper clippings, funeral programs, school materials, awards and certificates, and photographs. There are a few family letters, including one from 1967 with a first-hand account of rioting on Twelfth Street in Detroit and a copy of a 10 January 1967 letter in which the Lewis family opposed the selection of Mark Twain’s Mississippi Melody for student performance on the grounds that it perpetuated stereotyped images of African Americans. Photographs include portraits and snapshots of four generations of the Lewis and related Cox families, documenting family life from the 1910s through the 2000s. There are non-family group portraits of Omega Psi Phi members of Durham, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company employees on its 21st anniversary, and of unidentified groups at other civic and community events. There is one folder of J.D. Lewis photographs that depict him in various work contexts. Also included is a portrait of a young Clarence Lightner, who owned a funeral home business and later served as the first African American mayor of Raleigh. Audiovisual materials chiefly relate to J.D. Lewis’s work at Capitol Broadcasting Company/WRAL and his interest in African American community and history. Included are audiotapes of his editorials for WRAL; videotape of Harambee, a public affairs program about the concerns of the general public and especially African Americans; audiotape of musical performances, possibly for Teen-Age Frolic, a teenage dance and variety show; audiotape of Adventures in Negro History, an event sponsored by Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Raleigh; and film of unidentified wedding and seashore scenes. Also included are several published educational film strips on African American history with accompanying audio.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Of particular note are the letters J.D. Lewis received from musicians and students desiring to appear on Teen-Age Frolic, the dance/variety show Lewis hosted on WRAL (Folder 140). There are also numerous editorials Lewis did during his years as a broadcaster, on a variety of topics (Folders 21-140). Additionally, there is corresponding audio for many of these transcripts (See Series 3).

Folder 16 also contains a 1967 letter with a first-hand account of the rioting in Detroit and a copy of a 10 January 1967 letter in which the Lewis family opposed the selection of Mark Twain’s Mississippi Melody for a school-wide student performance on the grounds “it will by no means further relationships in an integrated situation, where students as a whole, do not have a sufficient background or appreciation of Negro History to comprehend this as perhaps an exaggerrated situation of a particular and past era, but rather, would perpetuate an image already deeply established as stereotyped.”

There are also numerous photographs of the Lewis and Cox Family, including J.D. and Vera Lewis’s father during his time at Morehouse College. There are also photographs of J.D. Lewis on the set of Teen-Age Frolic, introducing different bands, and at different community events (Image folders 1-10).

Abstract: Digby Gordon Seymour (1855-1927) was a railroad engineer who lived and worked in the southeastern United States. He was the father of Knoxville, Tenn., lawyer and businessman Charles Milne Seymour (1882-1958), who was the father of Tennessee medical doctor and historian Digby Gordon Seymour (1923- ). The collection chiefly includes letters, 1893-1902, written by Digby Gordon Seymour at his work locations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee to his oldest son, Charles Milne Seymour. Also included are telegrams from Digby Seymour and a letter from him to another son, James. These communications contain fatherly advice, especially comments on and encouragement of Charles Seymour’s studies. Digby Seymour wrote of borrowing money to pay for Charles Seymour’s attendance at Sewanee Military Academy in Tennessee and at the University of Tennessee and for his family’s monthly expenses; expenditures for rent, food, clothing, shoes, and travel; and a lawsuit with R. M. Quigley & Co., a Saint Louis contractor for which he had previously worked. In later letters, he discussed his political opinions, especially his support for Republican politicians. Items of note include a 22 March 1900 letter that provides directions for staging an eleven-act minstrel show.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

 Collection Highlights: Folder 4 contains a a 22 March 1900 letter that provides directions for staging an eleven-act minstrel show, which also discusses actors performing in blackface.

Materials 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 content.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Folders 421-424 in Series 3 (Subject Files) are entitled “African American Music and Culture”.

Folders 4444-4515 are entitled “Labor Landmarks: African American Landmarks”.

In Suberies 10.1 (Audio materials), Audiocassette FS-11486is entitled “Tape 373: African American Congregational Singing: Nineteenth-Century Roots, 1994 (Smithsonian Folkways release)”

Subseries 10.2 (Video Materials) contains a DVD entitled Plenty of good women dancers: African-American women hoofers from Philadelphia (Digital Video Disc DVD-20002/2)

The additions of 2006, 2009, and 2010 also contain many interrelated subject files with the original materials, including materials on Hudie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter (Folder 2258; 4947-53)

 

 

Abstract: The Red Clay Ramblers began in 1972 as a trio of musicians who had been playing in and around Chapel Hill, N.C. Personnel has included Tommy Thompson, banjo, guitar, vocals (1972-1994); Jim Watson, mandolin, guitar, vocals (1972-1986); Bill Hicks, fiddle, vocals (1972-1981); Clay Buckner, fiddle, vocals (1980- ); Mike Craver, piano, vocals (1973-1986); Bland Simpson, piano, vocals (1986- ); Jack Herrick, bass, horns, vocals (1976- ); and Chris Frank, piano, guitar, accordion, horns, vocals (1987- ). Over the years, they have released numerous albums, gone on U.S. State Department-sponsored tours, collaborated with Sam Shepard on plays and films, and had several successful off-Broadway runs. Chiefly materials, 1974-1996, relating to the Red Clay Ramblers’ musical performances and theatrical presentations. Included are programs, newspaper reviews, and publicity posters from “Hot Grog: A Tuneful Pirate Saga”; “Life on the Mississippi”; “The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas”; “A Lie of the Mind”; “Far North”; Sam Shepard’s “Silent Tongue”; “Fool Moon”; and “Kudzu: A Southern Musical.” Also included are drafts of the musical “Diamond Studs: The Life of Jesse James” by Jim Wann and Bland Simpson, along with materials relating to its performances; a manuscript and call sheet for “Silent Tongue”; a scrapbook with materials relating to Bland Simpson’s Southern States Fidelity Choir, “Diamond Studs,” and other works; a radio script for “The Last Song of John Proffit,” an historical play by Tommy Thompson based upon the life Dan Emmett and his interactions with the Snowdens, an African-American family from Ohio, which touches on the development of the banjo, the culture surrounding minstrel shows, and the interaction between Anglo-American and African-American musicians; photographs documenting Ramblers’ musical and theatrical activities; biographies and venue lists created for promotional purposes; and correspondence, primarily between Bland Simpson and theater companies about performances.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: There is a radio script for The Last Song of John Proffit, an historical play by Tommy Thompson based upon the life Dan Emmett and his interactions with the Snowdens, an African-American family from Ohio, which touches on the development of the banjo, the culture surrounding minstrel shows, and the interaction between Anglo-American musicians and African-American musicians (Folder 9).

Abstract: Founded in 1966 by Anne Romaine and Bernice Johnson Reagon, the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project (SFCRP), based in Nashville, Tenn., worked to present traditional musicians from black and white cultures in performance together at a time when this was considered controversial. The SFCRP continued presenting musical performances throughout the South until the late 1980s, keeping close ties with the civil rights movement. Records of the SFCRP document performing folk musicians from or associated with the southeastern United States. Included are letters, artist files, contracts, photographs, and recordings of a large number of musicians who worked for the organization, among them Dewey Balfa, Dock Boggs, Reverend Pearly Brown, Alice Gerrard, Hazel Dickens, Mable Hillary, Jane Sapp, Lily May Ledford, Furry Lewis, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Ola Belle Reed, Frazier Moss, Sparky Rucker, Mike Seeger, Johnny Shines, Hedy West, and Nimrod Workman.Also included are files from SFCRP tours and festivals, music in the schools series, prison performances, benefit concerts, and Romaine’s work with the Alex Haley House Museum. There are also general office and grant files; photographs of musicians; audio recordings and videotapes from meetings, workshops, and musical performances at festivals, schools, and prisons; posters from various events; and blueprints from the Alex Haley House.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Series 1 contain several artists files on noted African American musicians, or materials related to African American influenced music.  Subseries 5.2 also contains general correspondence and other materials from organizations such as Fisk University and the NAACP.

Series 7 also contains photographs of artists at various events; and Series 8 &9 contains audio recordings and video recordings of various performances.

Series 10 also contains various posters from different festivals, such as the Georgia Sea Island Festival (Oversive OP-20004/3 & 4).