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Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

W.E.B. Du Bois Papers

1803-1984
328 boxes 168.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 312
Depiction of W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois

Scholar, writer, editor of The Crisis and other journals, co-founder of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congresses, international spokesperson for peace and for the rights of oppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son of Massachusetts who articulated the strivings of African Americans and developed a trenchant analysis of the problem of the color line in the twentieth century.

The Du Bois Papers contain almost 165 linear feet of the personal and professional papers of a remarkable social activist and intellectual. Touching on all aspects of his long life from his childhood during Reconstruction through the end of his life in 1963, the collection reflects the extraordinary breadth of his social and academic commitments from research in sociology to poetry and plays, from organizing for social change to organizing for Black consciousness.

Acquired from Shirley Graham Du Bois, 1973

Subjects

African Americans--Civil rightsAfrican Americans--History--1877-1964Crisis (New York, N.Y.)Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963--Views on democracyNational Association for the Advancement of Colored PeoplePan-AfricanismUnited States--Race relations

Contributors

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

Types of material

Photographs
Yolande Du Bois Scrapbook Collection

Yolande Du Bois Scrapbook Collection

1915-1929 Bulk: 1915-1929
1 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1183

Nina Yolande Du Bois (1900-1961), better known as Yolande Du Bois, was an American teacher best regarded for her contributions to the Harlem Renaissance. Her father was sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and her mother was Nina (née Gomer) Du Bois. She was born on October 21, 1900, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She faced many health-related issues in her early childhood and also quarreled often with her parents. In her early adulthood, she enrolled at Fisk University in 1920 and graduated in 1924. While attending Fisk, she was in a relationship with Jimmie Lunceford, a prominent jazz musician. At her father’s insistence, she ended her relationship with Lunceford and would later go on to marry acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen on April 9, 1928. Their highly-publicized wedding was the talk of many African-American socialites at the time, with every minor detail recorded by the press. However, Yolande and Countee soon grew distant in their marriage, resorting to counseling at first and then divorce following Countee’s coming out as gay to Yolande. With the divorce finalized in the spring of 1930, Yolande chose to pursue higher education and rewrite the course of her life.

After a period of illness, she began to teach English and history at Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Maryland. There, she met Arnette Franklin Williams, whom she married in September 1931 and then later divorced in 1936. She had one daughter with Williams, Yolande Du Bois Irvin Williams, whom she took care of following the divorce. However, during this period, Yolande also moved to New York City with her mother, where she began to take courses at Columbia University’s Teachers College, eventually earning her master’s. She then continued to work as a teacher and to raise her daughter in Baltimore until her death in March 1961. She was survived by her father and her daughter.

Yolande’s scrapbooks, photo albums, and other personal artifacts from her youth (approximately 1915-1929) reflect her travels, undergraduate experiences at Fisk University, outings with her family and friends, artistic pursuits, and more. These scrapbooks showcase trips to England, France, Switzerland, and elsewhere in Europe, across Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and New York, as well as other sites of importance in her life. These scrapbooks capture snapshots of her time at Fisk University, from breakups to athletic events, and from classical music concerts to Zeta Beta Phi rush week materials. Each scrapbook showcases a different aspect of Yolande’s late teenage life as well as her early adulthood, coupled with notes, sketches, and illustrations from friends, postcards and fliers from all over the United States and Europe, and her personal takes on the world around her.

Acquired from Brody Drake, 2023.

Subjects

African Americans--History--1877-1964Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963Du Bois, Yolande Nina, 1900-1961

Contributors

Du Bois, Yolande Nina, 1900-1961

Types of material

Black-and-white photographsClippings (information artifacts)Notes (documents)Photograph albumsScrapbooks
Restrictions: none none
Du Bois Family Papers

Du Bois Family Papers

1888-2019 Bulk: 1970-1977
9 boxes 7.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1143

Du Bois Williams (center) surrounded by family during her graduation, ca. 1959

Yolande Du Bois Williams Irvin, the only grandchild of American sociologist and historian W. E. B. Du Bois, was introduced to social thought at an early age, devoting her career to being an educator and avid supporter of civil rights. Her specific area of interest was youth mental health, especially that of teenage girls. She studied psychology in university and worked with various organizations to promote mental health causes. Following in her grandfather’s footsteps, she delivered lectures across the United States regarding African American history, civil rights, feminism, and W. E. B. Du Bois’s work, retaining a consistent connection to her family and the similarities in academic values that they held.

The collection reveals the daily life of the family, including education, careers, and personal everyday life, both in context of and as separate as relatives of Du Bois. Other members of the Du Bois family in the collection include Yolande Du Bois Williams Irvin’s mother (Nina Yolande Du Bois), husband (Arthur McFarlane I), son (Arthur McFarlane II), economic confidant (Gloria Peress), and close contacts Janette Trout and Melissa Williams. Materials largely stem from her graduate education, as well as professional and educational experience.

Gift of Arthur McFarlane, 2021

Subjects

Civil rightsMental healthMental health servicesPsychologistsPsychologyTeaching

Contributors

Williams, Y. Du Bois

Types of material

CorrespondenceManuscriptsPhotographs
Buckley, Kerry W.

Kerry Buckley Collection on the W. E. B. Du Bois Exhibit and Documentary Film

1961-2021 Bulk: 1979-1983
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1155

Kerry W. Buckley is an American History writer and artist. He graduated from Samford University in 1969 but continued his studies at the University of Georgia to get his Masters in 1971 and then completed his Ph.D. in American Social and Intellectual History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Buckley wrote and edited several books and articles, including “Mechanical Man”, a biography of the psychologist, John Broadus Watson. He’s a veteran from the Vietnam era and has taught and lectured at many different colleges and universities. Buckley became fascinated by Du Bois after writing a research paper, and eventually his thesis, on him. Throughout his life, he worked on a few projects centered around Du Bois, including a biographical travelling exhibit that contained some of Du Bois’s pictures and selected writings. Buckley also worked in the University of Massachusetts Archives to help process and create a guide for the W.E.B.Du Bois Papers.

The collection contains drafts, letters, publications and documents that focus on the creation of the Du Bois traveling exhibit , the production of the published guide to the papers, and the effort to create a Du Bois documentary by Black Flame Productions.

Gift of Kerry Buckley, 2021.

Subjects

Documentary filmsDu Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

Contributors

Buckley, Kerry W.

Types of material

CorrespondenceGrant proposals
Howard, James E.

James E. Howard Collection

1947-1953
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1085

An advertising man from Brooklyn, and a neighbor and friend of W.E.B. Du Bois, James E. Howard was an active supporter of the Committee for the Negro in the Arts during its brief period of activity. Organized in 1947 with Communist Party support, the Committee was an arts-focused civil rights organization, opposing degregation and promoting the employment of African Americans in the performing and visual arts. Criticized by the House Un-American Activities Committee as a Communist front, the Committee was also criticized by the intellectual Harold Cruse, a former member, as a “sad flop,” a patronizing and opportunistic endeavor of white radical that was so constrained by the desire to appeal to white audiences that it was incapable of exploring work of deeper significance to African American audiences.

This small collection contains printed materials from the Committee for the Negro in the Arts (CNA), a politically progressive interracial cultural organization. The collection includes CNA newsletters, event programs, invitations, and an assortment of mailings and other items used in publicity and public relations.

Gift of Jonathan Howard, Sept. 2017.

Subjects

African American theater

Contributors

Committee for the Negro in the Arts
Du Bois, David Graham

David Graham Du Bois Papers

1972-1996
7 boxes 6.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 034

David Graham Du Bois was a visiting lecturer in the Journalism and African-American Studies Departments from 1983 until his retirement in 2001. Du Bois was the son of activist and artist Shirley Graham Du Bois, who married W.E.B Du Bois in 1961. Du Bois earned his B.A. at Hunter College in 1950 and a Masters in American Civilization from New York University in 1956. After studying at Beijing University, he traveled to Cairo, Egypt, fell in love with the city, and settled there in 1961, working as a foreign correspondent for the Pacific News Service, Variety, and as an assistant editor for several Egyptian news publications. An activist, like his step-father and mother, Du Bois became the spokesperson for the Black Panther Party, and agitated for racial liberation throughout his life. After his mother’s death in 1977, he became the custodian of W.E.B Du Bois’ legacy and founded the W.E.B. Du Bois Foundation to continue working toward his step-father’s goals. While at the University, Du Bois played an essential role in naming the University Library after his step-father. Du Bois died on January 28, 2005.

The David Graham Du Bois Papers document his later life and his managing of W.E.B. Du Bois’ estate. The papers include a selection of David Du Bois’ correspondence, speech manuscripts, clippings describing his step-father, as well as seleced personal financial records from his time in Amherst, Massachusetts. Additional Du Bois materials remain with the family.

Transferred by the Department of Journalism, 2007

Subjects

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963University of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Afro-American StudiesUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of JournalismW.E.B. Du Bois Foundation
Allen, Theodore W., 1919-2005

Theodore W. Allen Papers

1946-2005
47 boxes 64 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1021
Part of: Jeffrey B. Perry Collection
Depiction of Theodore W. Allen
Theodore W. Allen

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

An anti-white supremacist, working class intellectual and activist, Theodore W. “Ted” Allen was one of the most important thinkers on race and class in the twentieth century. He developed his pioneering class struggle-based analysis of “white skin privilege” beginning in the mid-1960s; authored the seminal two-volume The Invention of the White Race in the 1990s; and consistently maintained that the struggle against white supremacy was central to efforts at radical social change in the United States. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Allen was raised in Kentucky and West Virginia, where he was “proletarianized” by the Great Depression. A member of the American Federation of Musicians and the United Mine Workers, and a member of the Communist Party, Allen moved to Brooklyn after injuring his back in the mines, and spent the last fifty years of his life at various jobs including factory work, teaching, the post office, and the Brooklyn Public Library. In the 1960s, having broken from the Communist Party, Allen set out on his own independent research course. Inspired by the work of W. E. B. Du Bois he wrote on the “white blindspot” and “white skin privilege” and began what became forty years of work focused on white supremacy as the principal retardant of class consciousness among European-American workers. Over his last thirty years, Allen wrote hundreds of published and unpublished articles and letters challenging white supremacy, capitalist rule, sexism, and U.S. Imperialism, as well as numerous poems.

The Theodore W. Allen Papers are a comprehensive assemblage of correspondence, published and unpublished writings, audio and video materials, and research by one of the major theorists on race and class of the twentieth century. The Papers offer important insights on the Old and New Left and their relation to the labor and Civil Rights/Black Liberation Movements and have much to offer students, scholars, researchers, and activists.

Gift of Jeffrey B. Perry, May 2018

Subjects

Communists--New York (State)Historians--New York (State)Labor movementRaceRacism

Contributors

Ignatiev, NoelSojourner Truth Organization

Types of material

Photographs
Holmes, Francis W.

Francis W. Holmes Southern Student Project Collection

1964-1972
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1008
Depiction of Deborah Craig as majorette, ca.1966
Deborah Craig as majorette, ca.1966

Between 1957 and 1968, the Southern Student Project of the American Friends Service Committee brought academically gifted African American high school students from the south to live and study in the north. Working initially through its New York office, the AFSC announced its desire to bring “to promising young people, thwarted by the doctrine of the separation of the races, the fullest development of their gifts” while providing northern whites with “an experience which will increase our understanding and deepen our involvement with the human community.”

A dense and nearly comprehensive record of participation in the Southern Student Project of the American Friends Service Committee, the Holmes collection documents a Quaker response to the civil rights crisis of the late 1950s and 1960s. Holmes carefully filed nearly every relevant piece of paper associated with his participation, from the fliers that introduced him to the project to listings of eligible students, his lengthy letter of inquiry and application, and his numerous exchanges with his support committee, the local high school, and the American Friends Service Committee. Perhaps more important, he kept both sides of an extensive and often lengthy correspondence with the Craig family, describing Deborah’s adjustment and progress in Amherst and the response of the local community. The collection also includes Holmes’ report of the Friends Conference on Race Relations and some correspondence between Holmes and Craig during her time in college, when Holmes attempted to provide counsel and financial support to help Craig continue her education.

Gift of Becky Holmes, May 2018

Subjects

African Americans--EducationCivil rights movementsRace relations

Contributors

American Friends Service Committee. Southern Student ProjectCraig, DeborahMount Toby Monthly Meeting of Friends
Foucher, Lynnette E.

Lynnette E. Foucher Cookbook Collection

1902-2000
429 items 8 linear feet
Call no.: MS 684
Depiction of 1929 cookbook
1929 cookbook

Assembled by Lynnette E. Foucher, this collection consists chiefly of cookbooks produced by food companies between the 1920s-1970s. These cookbooks reflect the changing role of women in the home as well as new food trends and innovative technology. Taken together, the collection offers a glimpse into the way meal preparation changed in the U.S. during the second half of the twentieth century and how this change transformed the way we eat today.

Subjects

Convenience foods--United States--History--20th centuryCooking, American--History--20th centuryCooking--Social aspectsDiet--United States--HistoryFood--Social aspectsWomen consumers--United States--HistoryWomen in advertising--United States--History

Contributors

Foucher, Lynnette E

Types of material

Cookbooks
Hunt, W. W.

W. W. Hunt Account Book

1886-1888.
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 621 bd

The proprietor of a general store and postmaster in Wendell Depot, Mass., W. W. Hunt carried on a thriving business for a small Franklin County town during the 1880s and 1890s. Selling a range of dry goods, foodstuffs, and other goods, Hunt catered to residents in Wendell and neighboring communities up and down the Miller River.

An extensive ledger, marked No. 5, the W.W. Hunt account book contains records of sales of a surprising range of dry goods and foodstuffs, snaths and scythes, stamps and envelopes, and other goods useful to a rural community. Although most of Hunt’s customers were individuals seemingly purchasing for personal consumption, he also sold goods to the Farley and Goddard Wood Paper Companies, the Ladies Aid Society, and the town of Wendell, with some accounts marked “Town Farm.”

Subjects

Merchants--Massachusetts--Wendell DepotWendell Depot (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

Hunt, W. W.

Types of material

Account books