Abstract: This collection comprises field notes, transcripts, memos, ephemera, and other items associated with sound and video recordings assembled at the Southern Folklife Collection. The identifying number for the associated recording as well as provenance information (where available) is noted in the finding aid. Materials in this collection are associated with recordings from a wide variety of collections, including those of Andy Cahan, Guy Carawan and Candie Carawan, Bob Carlin, Cecelia Conway, the John Edwards Memorial Foundation, Joan Fenton, Alice Gerrard, Peter Hartman, Glenn Hinson, the Goldband Recording Corporation, John Huddle, A. P. Hudson, Beverly Patterson, Daniel Patterson, Mike Seeger, Brett Sutton, and many others. The recordings in those collections include materials produced for commercial distribution as well as (predominantly) materials gathered in a field context by folklorists. The notes include information on African American music, banjo music, Primitive Baptist church music, country music, fiddle tunes, folk music, folklorists, old-time music, popular music, storytelling, and other topics, chiefly but not exclusively relating to North Carolina or the American South.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: The field notes contain information on African American music and musicians. Several collections, such as the Goldband Recording Corporation, the Guy and Candie Carawan, and Glenn Hinson Collections, contain recordings and documentation on African American music and musicians.

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: 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: In 1974, the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., combined with the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia (PDS) to form the Episcopal Divinity School, located in Cambridge, Mass. The collection contains letters, circa 1820-1960, of Episcopal bishops from North Carolina. Many were written to Edith Fuller, librarian of the Episcopal Theological School, in response to her request for autographed letters. Others were addressed to Bishop William Lawrence of Cambridge, Mass. There are also two 1924 letters and one 1925 letter by Henry Beard Delany of Raleigh, N.C., the first African American Episcopal bishop and father of Sadie and Bessie Delany, authors of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. The letters were written to his son, Hubert Delany, in New York; the 1925 letter describes a train trip taken by Henry Beard Delany through the North Carolina mountains.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Folder 3 contains two 1924 letters and one 1925 letter by Henry Beard Delany of Raleigh, N.C., the first African American Episcopal bishop and father of Sadie and Bessie Delany, authors of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. The letters were written to his son, Hubert Delany, in New York; the 1925 letter describes a train trip taken by Henry Beard Delany through the North Carolina mountains.

Abstract: Church records, including minutes, financial records, bulletins, photographs, and other materials relating to the University Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Volume 1 (1854-1889) of the University Baptist Church Meeting Minutes contain several mentions of enslaved and free African Americans. Pages 14 – 17 of the volume list the names of the male and female African American members of the church. There are several mentions of “colored conferences” or religious services specifically for enslaved African Americans. Page 38 contains reference to a baptism for African Americans; page 120 (25 Oct 1862) also records a baptism for enslaved members, including their names.

Particularly significant is an entry made in the Annual Report of 1865, after the end of the Civil War (on page 154). In September, the report notes, the African American members of the church were “allowed” to leave to create their own church. Initially called the Colored Baptist Church, it is now called the First Baptist Church of Chapel Hill.

Abstract: Norvell Winsboro Wilson (1834-1878) was a Baptist minister in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Hillsborough, N.C., 1861-1867; Farmville, Va., and Richmond, Va., 1867-1875; and New Orleans, La., 1877-1878. The collection includes the intermittent diary, 1862-1878, recording pastoral visits, Baptist conventions, social news, and cash accounts of Norvell W. Wilson; a scrapbook of clippings relating to Wilson’s career and writings; miscellaneous family letters, 1842-1869, from members of the Scott and Pearman families of Virginia with no apparent relationship to the rest of this collection. Letters are from family members, possibly mulatto or part Indian, who had gone to Ohio and then Canada, describing their life and feelings to their relatives or friends in New Kent County, Va.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Wilson’s diary contains many references to attending “colored conferences” and preaching to enslaved and possibly free African Americans. Folder 2 also contains letters from the Scott and Pearman families, who are possibly mulatto or part Indian.

Abstract: Members of the McLean-Stinson-Grigsby family, an African-American family of Wake County, N.C., included Harriet Ragland McLean of Holly Springs, N.C.; her daughter Alberta McLean Stinson of Holly Springs and New York City, who was active in the Baptist Church; and Alberta’s daughter Gladys Natal Stinson Grigsby of Lawrenceville, Va., and Holly Springs, who was graduated from the Durham State Normal School in 1924 and Shaw University in 1928, after which she taught in North Carolina and Virginia public schools and worked for the Baptist Church.In 1938, she married George Talmadge Grigsby, professor and administrator at Saint Paul’s School, Lawrenceville, Va. Correspondence, 1870-1952, relates chiefly to Harriet Ragland McLean, Alberta McLean Stinson, and Gladys Natal Stinson Grigsby. Included are many courtship letters to each of these women. There are several letters from George Talmadge Grigsby to Gladys and her family before and after their marriage. While most of the letters document activities of family and friends, there are a few relating to Alberta’s Baptist Church work.Other materials include Gladys’s bridal book; her Durham State Normal School commencement book, 1924, with handwritten narrative of school activities, autographs of classmates, and photographs; and Shaw University materials, ca. 1928, including class notebooks, an autograph book, commencement programs, and other materials. There are also materials, including many handwritten obituaries, relating to Alberta and Gladys’s Baptist Church work, especially at the Holly Springs First Baptists Church and the Wake County Baptist Sunday School Convention.Also included are 37 photographs, 1905-1939 and undated, of various family members and friends.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Includes correspondence documenting activities of the families, school records, and involvement with the Wake County Baptist Sunday School Convention. There are a number of photographs of family and friends, including two young men in their World War I uniforms (Images P-4703/22 and 25). There is also a bridal book documenting the marriage of Gladys Stinson and George T. Grigsby at Holly Spring, N.C. in 1938 (Folder 5).

Abstract: John W. Hatch began teaching at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health in 1971 and retired from UNC-CH as Kenan Professor of Health Education in 1995. Papers of John W. Hatch, documenting his involvement in health education issues in the United States and throughout the world. The collection reflects Hatch’s interest in improving health care for underserved populations, including African-Americans. Domestically, the papers document, among other projects, Hatch’s work with the Delta Health Center, a nonprofit health organization located in Mound Bayou, Miss., and the Community Health Education and Resources Utilization Project (Black Churches Project), an effort to train lay people to be health resources in their local communities.There is also material relating to sickle cell anemia research. International health projects covered include the UNC-CH School of Public Health’s Practical Training in Health Education project in Cameroon, Hatch’s work on the World Council of Churches’ Christian Medical Commission, and Hatch’s travels to South Africa under the aegis of the Progressive Primary Health Care Network.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The collection reflects Hatch’s interest in improving health care for underserved populations, including African-Americans. Main focuses include Hatch’s work with the Delta Health Center, a nonprofit health organization located in Mound Bayou, Miss., and the Community Health Education and Resources Utilization Project (Black Churches Project), an effort to train lay people to be health resources in their local communities (See particularly Subseries 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3). There is also material relating to sickle cell anemia research (See Subseries 2.7)

Series 1 contains several articles relating to the African American church and their role in promoting health care in the community.

Abstract: The White Rock Baptist Church was founded in Durham, N.C., in 1866. This collection is comprised of materials, 1880s-1980s, documenting the history of the White Rock Baptist Church and the religious life of its members, who are mostly African Americans. Included are business and financial records; bulletins; obituaries; publications; photographs; newspaper clippings; community service announcements; and items pertaining to the officers, operation, and maintenance of the Church.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The correspondence in Series 1 contains numerous letters from pastors, members, and individuals in the community discussing events happening in the church and the surrounding community (Folders 1-50). A number of community organizations are reflected in these records including the Boy Scouts (Folder 42) and Church Women in Action (Folder 43).  Series 4 also contains weekly bulletins for the church as well as other programs and events. Folder 503 highlights materials related to the Wilmington 10 trial.

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.

Abstract: Diaries of Overton Bernard and his son, Jesse. Overton Bernard kept his diary while serving as a Methodist minister in Edenton, N.C., 1824, and as a bank employee in Portsmouth, Va., 1858-1863. Entries include description of church work and the progress of the Civil War around Norfolk, Va. Jesse Bernard, lawyer of Alachua County, Fla., kept his diary sporadically from 1856 to 1891. It contains entries relating to local religious affairs, lawyering, visits to Virginia, and the Civil War. There are few entries after 1861.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Entries  from December 1862 and January 1863 in Volume II from the elder Rev. Overton Bernard’s diary includes discussions of free African Americans and their “demoralization” in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation. See particularly entries from Dec 25, Dec 31, and Jan 1 (Folder 2)

The entry from January 1 describes a meeting held at the Methodist African American church in Portsmouth the previous night, and a Jubilee parade in Norfolk.