African American History and Culture (Rose Library): African Americans and Africa

The collection contains the papers of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister and educator Josephus Coan from 1896-2002. The papers include correspondence, writings by Coan and others, diaries and appointment books, records relating to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church (Atlanta, Georgia), teaching files, subject files, photographs, personal papers, printed material, and audiovisual material. The collection documents Coan's work as a missionary in South Africa, as a pastor at St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church, and as an educator at Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

Papers, 1918-1981; .5 linear ft. (1 box)
Related Subject Heading: Religion

This collection includes books, hymnals, the first dictionary of the Bakuba language (which Edmiston wrote), Presbyterian conference materials, biblical texts, missionary newspapers, and Sunday school materials printed in Africa. The papers also include her husband Alonzo Edmiston's sermon notes and books by and about him.

Papers; 1933-1950; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Related Subject Headings: Religion

Arwilda G. Robinson was a member of the First Colored Wesley Methodist A.M.E. Zion Church, Philadelphia. She went to Liberia on February 12, 1934, and served as a missionary at the Mt. Coffee Mission Station at least through 1937. Her papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, printed material, and a half-dozen Church buttons and ribbons.

Collection, 1969-1970; 1 linear ft. (3 boxes, 14 oversized papers)

The collection consists of the papers of author and scholar of West African and Caribbean literature Matt Schaffer from 1969-1970. The papers include original audiotape interviews conducted by Matt Schaffer in 1969-1970 with a number of poets, dramatists, and novelists associated with the cultural life of Dakar, Senegal. Among those represented are the following Senegalese, Martinique, French Guyanese, and Haitian writers: Ibrahima Ba, Moctar Bow, Aime Cesaire, Gerard Chenet, Leon-Gontran Damas, Amadou Cisse Dia, Lamine Diakhate, Bertine Juminer, Doura Mane, Felix Morisseau-Leroy, Eunice N'Daye, Ousmane Sembene, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Maurice Senghor, Ousman Soce, Paulin Vieyra, and Joseph Zobel. Also present is a single audiotape interview with the French novelist Jean-Paul Sartre. A translation by Schaffer of an interview with Annette Mbaye d'Erneville is included, although the actual interview is not included in the collection. These interviews were conducted in French and, with the exception of the N'Daye and Sartre tapes, were roughly transcribed by Matt Schaffer. In 2005, a Robert W. Woodruff Library Fellow transcribed and translated all the interviews. In addition, the collection also includes transcripts of a number of talks delivered at the All-African Cultural Festival held in Algiers in 1969, as well as a small amount of related printed material.
The collection also includes printed material published by the Georgia printer William Haynes at the Ashantilly Press; as well as the program when Léopold Sédar Senghor received an honorary degree at Oxford University, October 26, 1973 and a related newspaper clipping.

Papers, circa 1969-2000; 47.25 linear ft. (93 boxes, 12 oversized papers, 2 oversized bound volumes)
Subject Headings:Civil Rights and Post-Civil Rights Movements, Religion

The collection consists of the papers of Leon Howard Sullivan and includes correspondence, organization and subject files, writings, printed material, and audiovisual material. The organization files consist of selected records of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC), Sullivan Summits, and the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH). Subject files contain material related to South Africa and Sullivan's efforts to change corporate business practices and end apartheid. Writings include drafts of his published works, speeches, and the Sullivan principles. The collection also includes material related to his tenure as minister of the Zion Baptist church, such as drafts of his sermons and general administrative files. Printed material includes clippings and other material pertaining to Sullivan, OIC and Africa.

Papers, ca. 1924-1972; 11.5 linear ft. (24 boxes, 8 oversized papers)
Subject Headings:Black Print Culture, Civil Rights and Post-Civil Rights Movements, Communism and the Left, and Religion

Thomas Watson Harvey (1893-1978) was a leader in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He served in the United States Army before becoming involved with the UNIA in 1919. He was associated with Marcus Garvey as a part of the Pan-African movement. Harvey was elected President-General of the UNIA from 1950-1978. He died on June 27, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The collection contains papers of Thomas W. Harvey from circa 1924-1972 related to his involvement with the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The papers include pamphlets and other printed material, photographs, rare periodicals correspondence, including 80 letters signed by Marcus Garvey, and reports of the UNIA.