Archival Collections

Wayman A. Carver (b. 1905 d. 1967), jazz musician and music educator, achieved acclaim for his virtuosity and artistry as a flutist during his tenure from 1934-39 with Chick Webb and his Orchestra. In the series "Giants of Jazz" (International Musician April 1963), Leonard Feather credits Wayman Carver as being internationally recognized as the first and only jazz musician to play the flute during the decade of the 1930s. Wayman Carver, a graduate of the class of 1929, is among the most notable alumni of Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University). Carver was an outstanding student and assisted with instruction and band direction. In 1942, Carver accepted a faculty position in the music department at his alma mater. Carver served on the Clark faculty for twenty-five years and was held in high esteem by his colleagues and students. The Clark College students dedicated the 1952 yearbook to Carver, and the college presented him a trophy and plaque in appreciation of his contributions.

The Voter Education Project (VEP) began in 1962 as part of the Southern Regional Council. Initially VEP granted funds to civil rights organizations to support voter education, voter registration drives, and voting-related research. In 1964, Vernon Jordan, the second executive director of the VEP, expanded the programs goals to include citizenship training, voter education, and leadership training in the southern United States, while continuing to provide funds to independent voter and civil rights groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the League of Women Voters. The VEP’s work with the League of Women Voters is highlighted in the materials below. In 1971, VEP under the leadership of John Lewis, became an independent organization and functioned as a research center and became known as an authoritative source for statistics on southern elections and voter registration in general. Lewis also forged the VEP into an activist organization, launching Voter Mobilization Tours with Georgia state legislator and civil rights advocate Julian Bond.

Virginia Lacy Jones (b. 1912 - d. 1984) was a librarian, educator, author, and among library educators known as "the Dean of Deans." She dedicated almost fifty years of her life to the library profession, thirty-six of which she spent as Dean of the School of Library Service at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University). Her career began at Atlanta University in 1939 as Catalog Librarian in Trevor Arnett Library.

On September 28-29, 2012, the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation presented the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: "Hip Hop, Education and Expanding the Archival Imagination." The Tupac Amaru Shakur Conference was designed to combine AUC Woodruff Library's mission to facilitate scholarly research and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation's mission to encourage hip hop curriculum. Works posted to the Library's website from the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference may be downloaded, archived, and/or printed for noncommercial, educational, and research use. Any further use or dissemination of these works requires the express written permission of the copyright holders.

Thomas Clarkson (b. 1760 d. 1846) was a renowned English abolitionist who spent his adult life fighting to end slavery. As a leader in the British anti-slavery society, Clarkson was instrumental in getting the English Parliament to ban the slave trade in 1807 and to abolish the institution of slaver in 1833. The majority of this small collection is comprised of correspondence from Thomas Clarkson and his wife, Catherine, to her father, William Buck. Notable writings by Clarkson include the original essay An Liceat Nolentes In Servitutom Dare? [Is It Lawful to Make Slaves of Others Against Their Will?]. This essay, written in Latin, won the Chancellor's Prize at Cambridge College, England in 1785 and served as the basis for the expanded work, Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly The African published in 1786.

At the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library we are always striving to improve our digital collections. We welcome additional information about people, places, or events depicted in any of the works in this collection. To submit information, please contact us at DSD@auctr.edu.

This collection contains over 1100 images dating from 1887 to the present and document Spelmans presidents, commencement ceremonies, and campus building and grounds. Also featured are images from Spelmans Department of Drama and Dance from the 1930s to the present.

The Southern Education Foundation records include the administrative files of the John F. Slater Fund (1882-1937), the Negro Rural School Fund (Anna T. Jeanes Fund)(1907-1937), and the Southern Education Foundation (SEF). The records of these organizations document the activities of philanthropists and educators in helping to provide African Americans in the South with greater educational opportunities. The records of both the John F. Slater Fund and the Anna T. Jeanes Fund include minutes of meetings, annual reports, financial records, and application forms from various states requesting educational aid. The materials in this digital collection represent photographs and scrapbooks ranging from the 1930s to the 1960s. and audio recordings from a meeting in 1997.

The Scrapbook Collection consist of various scrapbooks documenting AUC institutions, with the majority of the institutional scrapbooks compiled by the school's public relations offices, and chronicle key events, memorials, and newspaper clippings collected by the creators. Other scrapbooks held within this collection, consist of individual scrapbooks documenting student life and experiences of the individual creators.

This collection contains the photographs from the life and work of Reverend Robert E. Penn, a Baptist minister and educator. Penn was born in a rural coal mining town in West Virginia, and went on to receive degrees from Clark College, Gammon Theological Seminary, and Central Baptist Theological Seminary. He was a chaplain during World War II, and later after his pastoral work in Kansas City, Kansas, and Gary, Indiana, Penn returned to Atlanta to become Director of Field Education at the Interdenominational Theological Center in 1973. These photographs document Rev. Penns family life and friend in West Virginia, Indiana, and Georgia, as well as his work as Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Gary, Indiana, and Director of Field Education at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary.

Pauline Alice Young, a distinguished educator, librarian, historian, and civil rights activist, was born in 1900. Her impactful career included teaching, lecturing, and extensive community involvement. Young's lifelong commitment to equality and civil rights advocacy left an indelible mark on Delaware, earning her numerous awards and a place in the Hall of Fame of Delaware Women in 1982.

Nora Ethel Floyd (1893-1969) was born in Georgia in 1893 and attended Atlanta University in from around 1911-1913. She married John Rosamond Johnson, the brother of James Weldon Johnson (a founder of the NAACP), in 1913. John Rosamond Johnson was a renowned composer, known for writing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (1900), which became known as the The Negro National Anthem. After marrying, the couple moved to New York City in 1914, where John was the director of the Music Settlement School for Colored People. The photographs in this collection feature groups of students and adults from the Atlanta University and Morris Brown College participating in the football game festivities. Other images include unidentified individuals, female students from Atlanta University, Eugene Dibble, and the marching band.

The National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) is a professional organization founded in January 1969 by seventeen mathematicians from underrepresented groups in response to the racism and exclusion they faced from other mathematical organizations. With a stated commitment to inclusivity, diversity, and equity, NAM provides support to and recognition for the work of minority mathematicians while promoting progress and advancement in mathematics. The newsletters contain organizational news, promotions, event information, and articles. It also highlights mathematicians from underrepresented groups.

Morris Brown College, a private, liberal arts institution located in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1881 by the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church for the " moral, spiritual and intellectual growth of Negro boys and girls. "The original site for the school was located at Boulevard and Houston Street in Northeast Atlanta. On October 5, 1885, Morris Brown College opened with nine teachers and 107 students. By 1908 the school boasted an enrollment of nearly 1,000 students. It continued to offer instruction in industrial trades as well as academic fields and awarded two-year degrees in addition to four-year bachelor's degrees, but over time administrators placed greater emphasis on the development of the school's college-level curriculum. Morris Brown joined the Atlanta University Center in 1941, and along with Atlanta University, Clark College, Spelman College, and Morehouse College formed the largest consortium of HBCUs in the country. They remained members of the AUC until 2002. This collection contains photographs depicting Morris Brown College campus life spanning 1900 to 1990. Images include athletics, building and grounds, students and alumni, departments, events, faculty and staff, groups and organizations and individuals.

The Morehouse College Photograph Collection includes photographs depicting the buildings and grounds, students, campus events and visitors, faculty, and individuals associated with Morehouse College dating from the 1880s through the 1970s. The images showcase aspects of the history of Morehouse College as the only all-male historically Black college in the United States. Morehouse College was founded by Reverend William Jefferson White in 1867, in Augusta, Georgia in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church and was known as The Augusta Theological Institute. After an invitation by the Reverend Frank Quarles in 1879, the College relocated to the basement of Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, and changed its name to Atlanta Baptist Seminary. The College relocated once more to its present home in the West End community of Atlanta, Georgia in 1890, and changed its name one last time to Morehouse College in 1913. Part of this collection is held in the RWWL Archives Research Center, the photograph album is held at the Morehouse College Archives.

Maurice Pennington was a photographer and cartoonist for The Atlanta Inquirer during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. A talented multimedia artist, Pennington documented the boycotts, sit-ins, and the arrests of students, commenting critically on the political and social climate in Atlanta through cartoons - skewering local politicians, admonishing Black leaders for their accommodationist views, and reminding his audience of the incompatibility of segregation and democracy.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April of 1968, the Black theological students at Colgate Rochester Divinity School requested a program and professorship in Black Church Studies as a memorial to what King represented as a pastor and leader of the Black Church. After a forced close-down of the school by the Black students and a series of fundraising efforts, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Professorship in Black Church Studies was established. This position was filled by Henry H. Mitchell (clergyman, educator, author and at that time pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Santa Monica, CA) on July 1, 1969 and the program of Black Church Studies at CRDS/BH/CTS was launched in September 1969. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellows project began as the result of an idea given to Dr. Mitchell for a research and writing project for the purpose of developing literature, curriculum, and bibliographical materials in the area of Black Church practice.

This collection of personal papers provides insight about Lemoine A. DeLeaver Pierce, Professor of Legal Studies and cultural historian. Pierce is a teacher whose commitment to life long learning stems from a continuing need to supplement her formal education, and a long standing family commitment to education. Professor Pierce has taught at: Kennesaw State University, the Keller Graduate School of Management, Morris Brown College, Clark Atlanta University, and the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. The collection is rich in family history and documents Pierce's professional career and multidisciplinary interests in law, world cultures and art history.

Josephine Dibble Murphy (1888-1974), was a community leader, educator and international traveler. Images in the collections span from 1900 to 1974 with the bulk of the materials from 1950-1974. Images consist of organizations that she was affiliated with, such as the Atlanta University Alumni Association, NAACP and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Founded in 1942 by African American businessman John H. Johnson, the Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. published Ebony and Jet magazines, as well as other publications. This collection contains newspapers clippings, press releases, and more used as research for the various publications. The collection includes newspaper clippings on various prominent African American women, such Daisy Bates, Mary McLeod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dorothy Height, Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth, Diane Nash, Rosa Parks, and Pauli Murray. It also contains newspaper clippings and press releases on various African American organizations, such as the League of Women Voters, the National Council of Negro Women, and the National Women’s Committee for Civil Rights.

John H. Wheeler [b. 1908, d.1978] began his academic career at Morehouse College in 1925. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929. In 1947, Wheeler graduated from the law school at the North Carolina College at Durham (now North Carolina Central University). Beginning as a teller at the Mechanics and Farmers Bank in 1929, he rose to become president of the bank in 1952. Mechanics and Farmers Bank was a black-owned financial institution in a city that boasted several thriving black enterprises, including the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (N.C. Mutual). Wheeler was heavily involved in politics and education through various positions within the federal government and on various boards of trustees for institutions like Morehouse College, Atlanta University, Lincoln Hospital, and the National Scholarship Service for Negro Students. While serving two presidents, Wheeler devoted his time to the development of low-income housing, focused on race relations, and the elimination of poverty.

John H. Calhoun, Jr. was an Atlanta businessman, community leader, civil rights activist, and political organizer. These materials provide documentation on civil rights and the Atlanta business and political communities.

As president of Morehouse College for twenty-five years and as president of Atlanta University for five years, Dr. Hope conducted a great volume of correspondence with black leaders and with numerous white philanthropists and supporters of Negro civil rights. As an officer and member of various local, regional, and national church groups, fraternal organizations, civil rights groups, and professional associations, Dr. Hope also engaged in voluminous correspondence with blacks and whites of all walks of life. Mrs. Hope, although most closely associated with Atlanta's Neighborhood Union, was also an officer and member of several charitable, feminist, and civil rights organizations. The Hopes numbered among their personal correspondents almost all of the major black educational, political, and civil rights figures of the first half of this century as well as many prominent white persons. Finding aid only.

James Herbert Touchstone (1889-1975), an educator, scholar, and scientist, Touchstone worked as a Professor of Chemistry, Greek, and Latin at Clark University. In addition to his teaching career at Clark University, he was a Professor of Chemistry and football coach at Rust College, Samuel Houston College, and Philander Smith College, where he also served as Academic Dean and Director of Summer School. Beyond his work as an educator, Touchstone was an active member of the Methodist Church. He served as a teacher, Trustee, Steward, Superintendent of Church School, and as Church Lay Leader. The images in this collection range from 1915-1979.

Dr. Isaac Rufus Clark (1925-1990), the son of Reverend James H. and Lillian Clark was born February 15, 1925 in New Castle, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wilberforce University in 1951, and in 1952, he received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Payne Theological Seminary. Dr. Clark went on to receive his Ph.D. in Theology from Boston University in 1958. Clark was a lifelong member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He made public his call to the ministry in 1946, and in 1952 he was ordained as an elder.In 1962, Dr. Clark joined the faculty at the Interdenominational Theological Center as Professor of Homiletics and Director of Field Education. In recognition of his contributions as a professor and scholar, in 1975 he was chosen to be the first Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Homiletics at the Interdenominational Theological Center which he held until his death at the age of 64.