Project Tag: African American

Langston Hughes

Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964, photographer. 1936 Feb. 29. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-92598 (b&w film copy neg.), LOT 12735, no. 540 [P&P] African American, Federal Writers’ Project, Literature Langston Hughes (1901-1967) Preeminent Harlem Renaissance writer James Mercer Langston Hughes made a lasting impression on American cultural …

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Willis Laurence James

Photo from The Peachite Vol. II, No. 2, Folk Festival Number, March 1944. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. African American, Music, Folklore, Education Willis Laurence James (1900-1966) Willis Laurence James was a musician, composer and music director, educator, concert violinist, lecturer, folklorist, and ethnomusicologist of African American religious and secular music traditions of the …

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Marcus Bruce Christian

Image from Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans African American, Federal Writers’ Project, Literature Marcus Bruce Christian (1900-1976) Marcus Bruce Christian directed the Negro Unit of the Louisiana Writer’s Project during the Federal Writer’s Project. Under his leadership, he and his team documented African American ex-slave expressive culture in Louisiana.  Born in Terrebonne …

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Arthur Huff Fauset

Image from Temple University, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, PA. African American, Folklore, Literature Arthur Huff Fauset (1899-1983) Arthur Huff Fauset was born in New Jersey in 1899. His father, Redmon Fauset, was an African American minister. His mother, Bella Huff, was Jewish. Fauset grew up in Philadelphia and earned his AB (1921), an MA (1923) and …

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John Brother Cade

Image from Southern University and A&M College, https://www.subr.edu/page/2510 African American, Ethnography, History John Brother Cade (1894-1970) John Brother Cade led one of the earliest oral history collections of ex-slave narratives in the United States. Born near Elberton, Georgia, in 1894, he graduated from Knox Institute and Industrial School in Athens, Georgia in 1915. After he …

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Andrew Polk Watson

Image from unknown 1937 university yearbook. Caption reads “Andrew P. Watson | A.B., M.A., Fisk University | Professor of History” African American, Ethnography Andrew Polk Watson (1894-1969) Andrew Polk Watson collected and analyzed one of the earliest and most significant collections of African American religious conversion narratives in the 20th century.  Born in Franklin, Tennessee, …

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Charles S. Johnson

Portrait of Dr. Charles Johnson, sociologist at Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee [between 1935 and 1945]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Call Number: LC-USW3- 019352-C [P&P], Reproduction Number: LC-USW3-019352-C (b&w film neg.) African American, Sociology, Education, Ethnography, Activism Charles S. Johnson (1893-1956) Charles S. Johnson, born in Bristol, Virginia in 1893, was the son …

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Lorenzo Dow Turner

Lorenzo Dow Turner papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Lois Turner Williams. African American, Linguistics, Ethnography Lorenzo Dow Turner (1890-1972) Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner was a groundbreaking scholar who transformed paradigms for studying African American cultures by linking Gullah language and cultures to African languages and cultures. He co-founded the first African …

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Samuel Shinkle Taylor

Photo courtesy of Phyllis C Beatty-Yasutake African American, Ethnography, Activism Samuel Shinkle Taylor (1886-1956) Samuel S. Taylor has been widely acclaimed as one of the most effective interviewers of ex-slaves in the Federal Writers Project of the 1930s. Born in 1886 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Reverend Marshall W. Taylor and Catherine Hester Taylor, Samuel Taylor …

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