African American Studies at Beinecke Library

Collections, events, and news from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters.

Carrie Langston: An Important Suffragist Everyone Should Know (Washington Informer)
September 30, 2020
Lola Hayes and "Tone Pictures of the Negro in Music" (WNYC)
August 31, 2020
The November 29th program considered "the musical setting of poems by Langston Hughes and included the bard himself. "Langston Hughes was guest of honor and punctuated his interview with a reading from his opera Troubled Island."[2] The original Hughes-annotated WNYC script is below.
Archives : Nina Simone se dévoile dans une lettre à Langston Hughes (ActuaLitté)
August 24, 2020
Parmi les archives numériques de la Beinecke Library on trouve la correspondance que le poète et romancier Langston Hughes a entretenue avec Nina Simone. Les feuillets froissés nous plongent dans le quotidien de la chanteuse et dévoilent une artiste à la fois enjouée et en colère, fatiguée par son travail.
Introduction to Creative Writing: Co-Sponsored Class
August 12, 2020

Well known on campus and around the world as a site of important historical documents of all kinds, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript is also a regional...
Treasure Trove Of Frederick Douglass Artifacts, Including Family Letters, Comes To Yale (WBUR)
July 28, 2020
One of the most extraordinary Americans in history is getting a new spotlight.
1917 NAACP Silent Protest Parade, Fifth Avenue, New York City
July 26, 2020

Note: This article is adapted from a post originally published in July 2017 in conjunction with the Beinecke Library’s exhibition of photographs of the...
Work in Progress: Notes, Drafts, Revision, Publication
July 15, 2020
Literary archives allow us to see how the creative process unfolds as writers make new work; we can also see many steps along the path from rough notes to published book.
The Older Frederick Douglass Revealed In Yale's Newly Acquired Collection Of Family Scrapbooks (WNPR)
July 13, 2020
Yale historian David Blight says when he first saw a collection of family scrapbooks of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, he was astonished. Blight had been fascinated by Frederick Douglass all of his life. He’d written a book and edited autobiographies about the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day. But the scrapbooks offered new insights into Douglass’ life and eventually inspired Blight’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. The materials belonged to a collector, Dr. Walter Evans, and have recently been acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Library. Connecticut Public Radio’s Morning Edition host, Diane Orson, spoke with David Blight.
Yale Library To Release Large Collection Of Materials From Frederick Douglass (NPR Morning Edition)
July 9, 2020
The Beinecke Library of Yale University will make public the largest known collection of material related to Frederick Douglass, including scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and letters.
Walter Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers comes to the Beinecke Library
July 4, 2020

The Beinecke Library has announced the acquisition of the Walter Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers, described as “the most...