The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers

                                    
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Transcript for file: focus140213a.mp3

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the Negro in Illinois

Illinois was a book project that came out of FDR’s Works Progress Administration in the night

the 1930 Chicago based African Americans Richard Wright

Frankie your beef and dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham tour hire to research

research in right about Illinois black history for the beginnings of slavery to the rain

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migration of the 20th century World War 2 cause the books publications

sidelined until now how to Meadows in today on focus

whats up with Brian Domino’s editor of the first ever edition Negro in Illinois

what about the history of the counts as a history major

focus continues after the news

welcome to focus mg Meadows today

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program is about the rediscovery maybe I could see the reconstructing of a lost book

book on black history the book is the Negro in Illinois it was conceived is part of

part of President Franklin Roosevelt federal Writers Project book brought together soon

simple notable Chicago based African American writers and artists for an ambition

ambitious project recording down the long dick like to history of African Americans

Perkins in the state of Illinois what World War 2 brought the federal Writers Project

rocky to an end before the Negron Illinois could be published materials

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Terrell has been used for other works but the Negro in Illinois self remains

unpublished until now the Negro in Illinois the WPA papers

was published last year by the University of Illinois press and books editor is my

where is my guest today on focus Dr Brian Dolan are the scholar of African American history

currently teaching history at the University of Illinois he’s also the author of the book

the black cultural front black writers and artist of the depression generation published by

University Press um University president zippy Brian Walker

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the focus eyes im happy to be here thanks Mike about addiction tracking

I can down the papers and going through the related to this project in editing the book into its fine

whats final form what is the Negro are in Illinois never completed

was there never a completed manuscript factor in the development of the federal Writers Project

project or was it manuscript lost according to the letters I was able to find

find between the two chief supervisors that are the project on a Bontemps inject Conroe

Conray letters between them say that the book was finished when they were sending it out

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how to edit theres a set of 2 is there a literary agent

who was giving it to publishers and I know it in BC de lis 11

one rejection letter I is there was despite the interest mm black

black novels like Richard Wright’s novels in the 40’s and other works

they couldn’t get this book published in the early 40’s so it’s an archive

Kaiser some 70 years and it was a great value to scholars butter

the it was never published and I’m just wondering was there a finish book

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everything with an index in the back of the same way to go forward

were you were just what you want to find the papers that were used

assembling the original manuscripts original research notes any note about this truck

the structure of the book yeah we have a outline for the book that includes 29 chapter

chapters we have copies of the chapters of the titles and

everything that was a bibliography prepared there’s no introduction

note conclusion that we were able to find but there is a according to let

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the letters that they said that the manuscripts finished um and we have some indications

location of a were sending out this is the summer of 1942 they were sending it out to publishers

is the papers and have a kind of afterlife

55 win the project was shut down the papers

set in the basement a of a library for a couple of decades in the authors

where’s the cells that was sending the chapters back and forth and rewriting some of the materials

real for another book that later came out a book called a secret city published in 1945

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5 by Bon Ton pink on right and I in the process of writing that

1945 book they were sharing these chapters back and forth and in the price

the process one third of the papers were lost lost just lost

lost today well the most of the papers were left in Chicago

go with Vivian G hard she was a librarian at the club

what is in the Hall branch library a Michigan 48009

side and she had her own collection which became the harsh research

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research collection has it snowed today and the papers were headed over to Vivian G harsh

hard she hold on to them but the inside is it today about 50 boxes

is a materials left behind and that’s what I found when I stumbled across the papers

but the when I came across the one third of the chapters are missing so I had to go on a kind of treasure hunt

want to try to track down these missing chapters in after visiting

Newbury up in Chicago where Jack on rice papers are after going to Springfield

real estate office for the Illinois Writers Project after going to DC the federal

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Writers Project papers are held air to go to Syracuse wear on a bun times

Anton’s papers are in New York in fine I found the last three chapters that I’ve been looking for

foreign finally we had all the 29th chapters back together again for the first really a lot of love

lot of Lake work to get this book put back together again Madden

well if you have if you have questions about the Negro Illinois and also the

the history that is both workouts you can give us a call and talk to Brian R phone

phone number is 1 800 222 94551 802

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222 wyll you can also send an email to will die

dash talk at illinois.edu

thinking that brass is a good time to go back and take a look at what the federal Writers Project

project was because there’s nothing like that coming out of the federal government today

is Cecily um that is as pets part of the a spot

what is what part of the New Deal programs in FDR had the 1930s unemployed

Lloyd riders were hired to write books right yeah in this is the time of

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time of the Roosevelts new deal in the 1930s the economic situation was Sodom

dire mass unemployment joblessness

does a people are standing in food lines what is it

is it a sign of how desperate things were back in the 30’s that they created

ambitious program the WPA put riders back to work but it was also

also people probably more familiar with the the roads built the buildings that were constructed

what did most notably here in town we have the Student Union a WPA project

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built at the University of Illinois here by WPA workers Lakeshore Drive

in Chicago with most beautiful drive in the country built by WPA workers edition

also put in writers and artist back to work Associates in Euros impose

post office before those Road lot of them done by WPA artist

this is whether putting writers to work for the first time really trying to tell you

tell a comprehensive national story and a state by state they set up

these writers projects and they were they had as the purpose writing

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State guy books with you can I find used book stores matter of fact I am I have a copy of the

Illinois WPA guidebook when it was all I get someone put a new edition of the 90’s

19 seventies ratings right yeah they have been kind of rediscover does a few years back

back end movie released there was one state by state no one here for Illinois

is is it is a case in point that when is first came out they were all white

all white riders on the project telling on largely white history so if you look at the

right at the stake guidebook for Illinois to 600 pages

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long manuscript 606 pages dedicated to African Americans what

what what what does the WPA Illinois God say about African Americans what it says

what does it says very little it is highlights meatpacking workers

few small black towns that existed the original black towns

Brooklyn Illinois a few things are mentioned but the very little city

so that was a part of it nationwide effort to get African Americans written into the state guide

guy books in to get black office on the WPA and this is a project headed up by

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buy professors at Howard University in Washington DC who portrayed pressure the Roosevelt administration

ministration like in early days of was known as the unofficial black cabinet airbrushing Road

Roosevelt administration for more blacks on the WPA and end in general they were recording

porting numbers that was showing that of the New Deal benefits

in whatever form of whatever kind of relief with being offered in the early

early thirties African Americans with despair failing to receive a kind of rain

really fat white workers were so there was an effort to try to get more black release

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leave and out one of the ways was tried it get somebody appointed in as a

as a head of Negro affairs in the selected sterling brown who is a literature professor at

where at Howard had published top of a well known book of poetry called southern road

Road and sterling brown stuff wonderful poetry for his bday

and also a critic and he had it up to a national project

as head of Negro fares to establish 17 different black

projects focused on collecting black history of State bison web it wasn’t the cell

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state by state that was the F 150 of a mirror mirror Ellie 17

teen and son f**** mother part of the collection of exclave narratives in the 1930s

the best art in the late 20’s what was picked up and formalized by WPA workers who help

who helped the really a bolster this massive project collecting

narratives of exclave swear by the 1930s passing on this is about a 50 years

the years after I want more Pass Lavery so it was the urgency 19

1930s to collect the sex late slave narratives in there poster book called drums and shout

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shadows another some 2000 the Library of Congress

brothers a project that was one that was the only one who was published in the 19 forties

40’s was the Negro in Virginia that was released in this inspired

fired Fox in Chicago to read about their efforts and produce the Negro in Illinois

Raeford spaghett was it was never published Hampton Inn Denver

really get started got started in the in the late 1930s got started

1935 Richard Wright the the novelist author

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author of native son black boy Richard Wright was hired on the project is probably the first black

black writers to be hired on the project in Illinois in late 1930s

1035 Richard Wright was working on the WPA the names of truck and then and then it came out

email to Richard Wright Frankie you’re being who wrote a lot of historical

vals analysis trucks at 10 Hum Negron Illinois was still percula

percolating of Richard Wright native son was published in really really great

Grady claim yourself was actually a very commercially successful novelist

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thank you for being the first black ops to make a million bucks that says thats thats thats that something

that’s something a note I was up was struck to see Katherine Dunham because I’m a hearing

Katherine Dunham in the news the other for life during a fridge to say for school in East St Louis

Lewis and I have not known about her as a writer but she was that is well yeah she was the answer

anthropologist she came out of both Northwestern University of Chicago

in a 30 should student Melville herskovits well known anthropologists she went to Haiti

Haiti and field work in Haiti where she got into voodoo nad

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adapter to a lot of these with the dance that she saw in in Haiti for her

later bye dancing style denim denim technique that she developed

lip and eye Katherine Dunham when to work on the WPA in about 19

1938 it wasnt project in this is where she actually cross paths with Frank Yerby

it was a project in 1938 to conduct a study of what

about with an call black Kohls in store front churches for black people coming up the new black

black migration coming to Chicago in founding their own small congregations in store fronts

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once a pounding their own face suckind of amalgam of Christianity and Islam

Islam often times and still out of this. You get things like

things like nobody Rileys more science temple you get things like the Nation of Islam

Kentucky Kentucky what I believe to be the one the first ladies of the Nation of Islam Chicago

now is that in the Negro that all is can that is some material made in a chapter called what is Africa

Africa to me a chapter on black nationalism and the record

Records in her Memoirs a meeting Elijah Muhammad and recalls

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when they first try to send out a WPA workers and these were some of them white work

lightworkers black and white workers were working side by side in the Chicago offices in white workers out

out the Southside to try to collect the story what was going on in these small black churches in

where to get to find magic so they start sending out in hiring

black workers like Frank Yerby to go collect the story so we have actually document

documentation of Frank Yerby and others like to be PA workers going in News

news various small obscure black Kongregate

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navigations in the 1930s and collecting is first hand accounts which we don’t have anywhere else

House of what’s going on behind those that was the one thing that strikes me hear there’s theirs

where’s the writing of this book the research that went into this book and just

just thinking of the nature of off of a black history of the time and where was neglected by

did by bus to mainstream of historians that everything had to be pretty

pretty much done in the field and is SNS far is the part with

part where we going into the past in trying to find papers and documentation in a crate challenge

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yeah but this was a part of a whole Efird in the

1920s and 1930s in particular in Chicago where does the ferry

learning ed in Acton bustling black middle class

that has a already been in Chicago for a couple generations b***

in the 19 twenties and thirties we see emmergence of something we call now the Chicago Renaissance

Renaissance I wanted to ask about that because certainly afraid of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s

the 1920s the black Chicago Renaissance something separate in a little late

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little later I take it in the Harlem Renaissance rise of the Harlem Renaissance

took place during the 1920s the Roaring Twenties the Jazz Age the

the Chicago Renaissance came about during the Depression the following back in the 19 thirties and is

is important distinction between the two movements weather both literary artistic of cultural

movements of the 1920s was the idea of college

getting civil rights to copyright publishing books with allow people to a

advance and in a 30 is there was a different kind of attitude to believe that

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in the 19 twenties people sad around in an inch

and sip tea and had discussions but where disconnected from what people

people out in the streets were experiencing in an 19 thirties the great social movements of the

the time Raiders were in the streets alongside those people marching out

for the rights and so is there was a kind of

a great deal of collaboration and cross fertilization of the social

social political movies the 19 thirties and the Raiders at end

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in the artworks coming out of the movement and black people on the Southside

psoas on this was a movement without finger bowls

naughty party before we go further just want to remind foxy listen to focus and

and my guest today is Brian Dolan are is the editor of the Negro in Illinois about that waited

weighted 72 years to be published by the time now from the University of Illinois press

calling your questions for Brian at 1 800 22 29455

51 800 222 w Wanelo send email to will dash time

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talk and Illinois dot ETW and sounds like a boy

activist nature to the to the to the Chicago

Chicago Renaissance one thing that I had read about the Harlem Renaissance was it was

what was score of a case were some writers head patrons and that’s how they were able to

keep going economically and once the Depression hit then the pain

the patrons 10 flash with money and then that was pretty much

pretty much the the decline in the end of the Harlem Renaissance what kept the Rye

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the writers of the Chicago Renaissance going in the depression indeed it was the WPA

BPA Isola Black Riders were not being published in

in mainstream journals white newspapers the books for not being picked

picked up by white publishers so black residence time otherwise had to

go to the public in a black dress the small black hot if you like to smoke small black

black sandals but more so they were getting hired on by the WPA and so this is a great

is a great Boone to Black Riders struggling to survive in the 19 thirties otherwise they would

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sweeping floors a note to clean up after white folks

and so this is a great Bunta writers and produced all this wonderful material Naot

again they were very much in touch with what was going on on the ground

so there was up other energies in the late 20’s in early thirties to bring more

bring more attention to black history and I highlight in the book a group called the

the National Memorial system called National Memorial national deuce

DuSable memorial society is what they found by woman in Antioch liver in

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1928 this is a group at high to grip a bout 300 women largely women to bring attention

attention to the black founder of Chicago the first non native settlers Chicago

John Baptiste point DuSable and I’m wondering if there’s any connection with an organisation back then

Museum of today exactly very much so in and the reason we have things like to do some music

Museum for disable High School on the southside is because of these women

women trying to bring attention and recognition to this black founder of Chicago

I’m so Mark Burroughs who founded the disciple museum was very much a part of these these movement

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movements in the 1930s and this book of the Negro in Illinois starts with a chance

chapter about the Sun Rise starts with it with a chapter come first the French

send the French word in these a northern parts ear that come through

through Canada through the lakes and come down to settle in Illinois

annoyin DuSable was a traitor between the French

French and the Native Americans few British in increasing number of Americans urine

he had a cabin that was there at the vet at where the lake

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the lake river meets the lake at as a native set an as the Pottawatomie

what’s a lisp parts the first white man in these parts was color

does colored and this was the John Baptiste point DuSable he had a

cabin a fairly large property a state that way

that was a very well services on the wealthiest individuals around here and I am

Ann and left is Mark we do have some records of his his presence your end as the first

the first non native settler these parts and I know that he was active in other parts of Illinois

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Illinois there’s a will there’s a statue of disciple in Peoria I know because

because of the understanding that he had done business there added onto land in Peoria

at one point so I know there’s on the southside of Peoria President Jackson

Jackson who said don’t work here in Champaign Urbana has a statue of him there

where is that right yeah yeah what AGA Desai was eventually moved west

west of the Mississippi buried over in St Charles on the westside of St Louis

does it suggest a because of the growing number of Americans in these party was for

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Woodforest West because he had sided with the French he was on like by the Americans

Anthony’s parts of the disciple was the a crucial figure in

the Hope movement a dick up his name here in the late twenties and

is and 30’s that the founders of Chicago that the the city leaders

leaders didn’t want to recognize DuSable is being the original founder soap

women of part of this side the National Memorial society had

heard about the 1933 World’s Fair that was going to be in Chicago and so they wanted to get a cabin

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dedicated to disable Soleil pressured city leaders and eventually were able to get a smog

small cabin construction we be print a photo in the book of Job about 50

50 women standing out in front of this cabinet head Bennett the 1933

33 World’s Fair in so when the WPA was started in and folks at certain Western Star

started hear about this this Legend of disciple this is informal

putting to print bodies WPA writers who are interviewing women

women with the National Memorial society to do two interviews with Andy Oliver

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and you summer pamphlet since are able to to to put in writing for the

for the first time the record of this black founder of Chicago

imagine miss this must be important to have somebody who was a man in a man

amount of means to topple was definitely a um you know indin in charger

is life doing business on the land and knowing that um a good deal of

call of the history of the Negro in Illinois for the first time

free centuries is going to be the history of of slaves um

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import to have someone like to settle in their right right and Andy’s I was never slaves

this never record ending slavery was a he was a friend of visual and establishes a kind

kind of a history of black entrepreneurialism in Chicago that leads up to figure

big is like Jon Jones 2 before and after the Civil War is ad

advocating for African Americans in abolition of the black laws that existed at the time prohibiting

hitting black set from voting from testifying in court and the other

other more contemporary entrepreneurs who are founding Banks

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insurance companies in Chicago in the 1930s in the South became an important

print a predecessor for them so is things like the bingo bank that is a stye

is established in the 19 thirties this is a black owned bank at thats it thats Vera Ellen

alive and well in the 1930s and pink eye loses his

is bank to the depression in the late 30’s and a bingo

fingers swell shows up in the book what I want to take a short break right now but when we come back

back will continue talking with Brian dominar about the Negro in Illinois

00:24:25

the book on African American history in the States written by African Americans

aplus 01 white author we can get into Mr Conroy in a moment for the federal Writers Project

project finally published last year this is focus on wyll

welcome back to focus engine Meadows Brian dominar Circus today ESPN

the editor of the Negro in Illinois the WPA papers published by the

University of Illinois presage available in hardback and as an eBook

00:25:00

Brian Dolan I will be talking about the Negro in Illinois this Saturday afternoon at 2

true that Centier behna Free Library copies of the book will be available for sale

sail also be a display on local African American history presented by the champagne

Champaign County Archives that’s on this Saturday at 2 ser Banda free live

Free Library remember your questions are welcome our phone number is 1 800 2229

29455 1 800 222 wyll

are the mail address will dash talk that’s wyll dash

00:25:35

Last of Illinois the.edu when I think of Illinois

Illinois Illinois Land of Lincoln certainly technically a free state to buy the time of the Sun

the Civil War but for how long was

slavery um a reality in Illinois it seems to have a

existed does the summit cent in Illinois even after States

what was granted ride a sleepy was practice in southern Illinois

empathetically in the coal fields we down and southern Illinoisan

00:26:10

writers often times trying to WPA riders were trying to mess up

shop this contraction that on the books at least this was to be a free state in yet

slavery still practiced in the south segregation was quite prominent in the schools

throughout the southern Illinoisan is downstate segregation was quite prominent

prominent in the end as a touch app to where segregation in schools in NC

in champagne is noted by WPA authors of segregation is early is 1870

in the schools in champagne and what is this the

00:26:45

black laws that are on the books is well prohibiting blacks in the world

when was slavery is is mentioned in the book is the office at this point is a c***

what kind of critical turn on the 19 thirties when Avenue Macon

American writers and historians are focusing less on the slave past and

constructing this history of freedom that Genesis written in the book

in the book that the sense that African Americans in the depression in the writing back

backwards into history that African Americans they say never

00:27:20

never the docile slave struck out bully for freedom so this is Sensa

scents that there’s a new day in the 1930s a new kind of energy a new activism

that writers in writing this book are trying to write themselves

item sells into the history books in a whole new light OK Magazine

I know that my husband not about slavery what about this constant

challenging off of slavery a constant challenging the black

black hoes like Jon Jones does constantly challenging the absence of African Americans

00:27:55

Americans in history ouran World’s Fairs 18931 Ida B wells

Lowes in Frederick Douglass and others all meat in Chicago for the World’s Fair

challenging where are the presence of African Americans at the World’s Fair in a produce a pamphlet

hot challenging the absence there and again the WPA project was black

Black Riders challenging their absence in the state guidebooks Haute is a is a history of

Avril struggle in defiance of the odds and so the book

books of the Negro Illinois instead of not just talking about the sex of the West

00:28:30

when was slavery what is a resistance to slavery and it cometh

management Venice is record a lot of that and I don’t know how far back can cause what

Underground Railroad was the most visible sign of all the invisible in a day

off off of resistance and Chicago

before the Civil War was known as a sinkhole of abolition that

Foxworth this is what the main routes in the Appalachian is swift terminal

other people my red single right nipple Jordan the yacht and a soda

00:29:05

rosemary vibrant people coming into southern Illinois via the

the rivers that converge there coming up the Mississippi there any towns like arrow

Illinois and coming up the Mississippi catching a train a two headed and knowing that a bad sign

southern Illinois wasn’t a safe haven for them indeed indeed it was hostile territory

territory just a few steps from the south yeah so there was a holiday hotel in Caro

odd that had a basement that they were these kind of rooms

that were a designated to hold runaway slaves

00:29:40

and the the holiday hotel exit for for a

100 years and I was taking in runaway slaves and events

transporting up north so there was a vivarium fibrin active the

Underground Railroad among white abolitionists well blackout ballistics like Jon Jones in

Johnson and others who are absolutely fighting slavery end

and I’m wondering in terms of documenting this where did a what is the writers researchers of the knee

the Negro Illinois go to uh to find out the find out this pizza

00:30:15

piece of History yeah they were on the head WPA office

offices set up all throughout the state they would send requests Inlet

send letters Downstate what is a McDonalds Clay County weather

where they are sending letters down an inch digging up these books that ass people

people to send books are articles from from these offices downstate cinema

Chicago and they were using these in writing the history of the word some cases

getting stains out of a liked it up the Illinois Historical Society

00:30:50

city maintains a journal in an old articles out of these journals they had a whole fleet

fleet of these unemployed writers workers at their putting to work

to work going out to collect is old newspaper articles Collective Soul journal articles

Nichols and they were amassing all this information so I should end up in the book is the smallest

small sliver of what’s in the sum 50 boxes at set up in Chicago at the heart

horse collection so the horse the papers and the heart collection for historians of

install for even more primary material then then then comes through the phone

00:31:25

yeah absolutely in and hopefully the buckle point people to to to go visit the heart

hearts collection which is really a stellar collection and its been going by leaps and bounds

bound so that they have no papers for the Chicago Defender for example boxes

foxes and boxes material what is so the hearts collection

since it was founded in the 1930s Again part of all these upsurge of an

energies the hearts collection was founded in 1838 the special

collectons to hold on to all these materials in the start collecting is formally

00:32:00

is as we know it was the right the sisters we gotta have the archives first there was a moi

what aspect um thinking process today was Abraham Lincoln’s birthday comes to mind

and I think you mention it earlier the program Lincoln’s barber Abraham

family barber in Springfield what’s a black man from Haiti right

this is the story of Billy the barber William to Floresville who was Lincolns barber

um and you know I saw the new Spielberg movie about Lincoln and

what is mentioned in the movie does opening scene where some black character

00:32:35

characters mentioned Lincoln’s hair being kinky or later in the movie when

when Lincoln Tulsa black characters that he really doesn’t know their people and

this is quite contrary to the fact that Lincoln of Franklin in the bar

the barbershop William to Floresville he picked up clients there a deep fried Leto Beyond

yarns Eagles of the stories that he would tell there and I keep up on the pond

upon the local politics in Springfield Missouri hanging out at the Florida barber shop

shop and in fact win the Florida old dies

00:33:10

the newspapers local newspaper say the in this is called in the book that only 2

men really new Lincoln best one was his law partner the other one was William

was William to Floresville his barber Florida also from Haiti

I must have told stories in an in and some of the history of Haiti

Haiti to Lincoln and give him a kind of different picture of Hades

this is Haiti of the Haitian Revolution of literature

who rebelled against the French Legislature rising and so Haiti was the struggle

00:33:45

troubled Island I here for about you know some of the over 50 years

is time and stove the US ever

open up any kind of diplomatic relationships with with Haiti until Lincoln Lincoln was the

when was the first to recognize Haiti and grant diplomacy mm is suggested

Justin that is because of his relationship to William the floor of a lender Pflugerville stories of Haiti Lincoln

when was able technology I’ve seen a lot of back and forth about exact

exactly how Abraham Lincoln regarded black people and odds

00:34:20

and and the right say hat in society are how that may have evolved over the course

the course of his life what do the people riding the Negro in Illinois

sing about me are there a hotel this is dedicated to

kid to nationalism in it and the whole back to Africa movement a few people know that

Lincoln as a Wright in the book at supported colonization in there was something

call the American Colonization Society at at the time and these were largely white folk

folks advocating to send black people back to Africa in Lincoln didn’t believe that black and white racist

00:34:55

racist kid co exist if he saw the best thing for both was the sand

Blackhawks back to Africa and he supported colonization button out

Lincoln evolved over time is the Raiders know he had to be all things to all men

the old man is so he did becomes more complex as the evolved

now that I think it’s the what is Africa to me chapter that you mentioned earlier the talk

the talks to the discusses some extent the back to Africa movement

moving what you just said im on white people may be for their convenience also exist among us

00:35:30

are some black people as well Shuron and Marcus Garvey is the most notable exponent of the

the back to Africa movement Garvey who had been in Chicago

several times but I came for the last time in 19

1920 the author’s note that the Garvey

RV Haden gardens wellnotyet during the Harlem Renaissance bent did Adnan

new number speeches and in Harlem but came to Chicago in 1924

funny for the last time and had to run in with the Robert s Abbott

00:36:05

Abbott the founder of the Chicago Defender the notable black newspaper founded in 1905

5 & a Garvey and his own

newspaper the Negro world was excoriating Robert Abbott and other black

black leaders is it called amphetamine miss leaders and then

denounce them Abbott operating his own newspapers encounter

countered and said the garbage was a fake and he was selling Offices of

love falls papers off for this is Billy Black Star Line to exist end

00:36:40

spend so uh Darby c*** for the first the

44 last time in 1920 ear pierced at the 8th Regiment Armory desire

does the army that’s still around on the Southside Johnny comes to give a speech

Pizza the army give Circle rousing speech and afterwards is quickly grab

grabbed by the police end with Dr jail for selling stock in this black

Black Star Line he makes Bailon leave the state diving

never returns again to Chicago  we are talking about

00:37:15

about the Negro in Illinois WTA papers it center is Brian dollar

Dolan are teaches history of the University of Illinois and he’ll be talking about the book

this Saturday at 2 at the a better free library the time for your questions call us at 18

1 800 222 94551 800 222 WY

UIL email acid will dust off at illinois.edu

now I’m the people at the top of the chain I guess the editors app

at the time in the people who did a lot of the actual final writing off of

00:37:50

off the Negron Illinois can you tell me about them about um um um

Bontemps and jack on vine Bontemps and Jack on right now bail bonds

Bontemps was best friends with Langston Hughes and the whole book

book of letters between them fascinating collection letters and bunch of bad starter

the poet during the Harlem Renaissance began 170 does famous swords from opposite

opportunity in crisis newspapers and I he was making out

making a name for himself he had a still have a hard time finding a job though so

00:38:25

Oso he withhold a teaching job for a few years of bounce around here and there

New Orleans St Louis to California and he I

Chicago 1935 you came to do graduate work at the University of Chicago

Chicago first as a English major and then later figured out the heat

how to make a living more likely is a librarian in he later went on

move to become head library at Fisk University in Nashville when you left Chicago

go to work on the WPA and he nut

00:39:00

ran into it was Langston Hughes who introduced into Jack Conroy Jack Conway was a

white proletarian writer as they were known in their day he was out working class

class right of the woodwork in the coal mines in Central Missouri by day in by night

nitrite short stories in poetry Iran a couple little radical little magazines

teens in the 20’s and 30’s and a condom self develop the whole

network of working class riders with black and white so he knew

Nelson Algren in Chicago of a famous writer he was

00:39:35

when the first published Richard Wright in his early poetry soap Conroy had worked on

work on the Raiders project in Missouri in St Louis got ran out of town for

for union activity and ended up with his help help of Nelson Algren in Chicago

Chicago and the Conrad first went to the work on the project

telling industrial tells he would go around factories and he was a coal miners

miners son and his kind working class identity and I

I desire is background who love to collect stories and folklore in the language that workers

00:40:10

workers use your love to collective San write this down and uses as inspiration for this is

is stories in his in a later later is knobles soap

the two men are introduced by Langston Hughes both are working on the WPA

pa scene 1 of the frequently they start to work on a children’s novel

that was based on these industrial tales I think of someone what is a dog who said

who said to be able to run faster than a train and this is children’s story that they

they turn into a a children’s book

00:40:45

black ones why are they are artard are they different people

people order our tour of the cell is a kind of metal

middle class family man dedicated to his wife

wifecrazy raising children working most of his life in Chinese

find a right here and there avoid politics for the most part

like his friend likes you use a jack Conroy very much left to figure

associate with c** is party member the Communist Party and the

00:41:20

nn Conwright was at a radical the United States what they got along

how long ago on very well at a lifelong relationship and 37th children

children’s books together they worked on the WPA Illinois RIRA

rerouting released a secret city was gone 1960’s have a life long relationship

ship this is these two authors one black one white let me take a break in a colony

p**** online for Belton in Urbana good morning you’re on focus good morning

fascinating program I want to call about

00:41:55

a very racist the time in Chicago during this

this. They were working against the against

ti I wonder if you would see a bit more about the

what kind of political persecution which of course with you intensify winch

J Edgar Hoover took a man at the active Africa

African American movement of the Communist Party in other people are on the left

left in Union Station  yeah absolutely I need something to talk about

00:42:30

talk about more my first book of the black cultural frontal amateur black rice

Black Riders is associated with the left in the 19 thirties they were so often

how often excluded felt the brunt of oppression

economic deprivation in the 19 thirties that they were swept up in these social political movements

months us know this gently and above and beyond their own words

eponies movements in so they cut then continue to rise

the right continue to publish a 10 by the late 1940s and 50s McCarthy’s movement

00:43:05

movement catches up with them so I think it’s part of the reason why the Negro in Illinois

Illinois was never published it was shut off to the archives but you know

things change the 19 forties and fifties and maybe more difficult difficult for a book like this to be

published Jack Conway himself was blacklisted HEA

hero encyclopedia is for the rest of his life encyclopedia entries now for

you know a guy who is the best novels of the 30’s the disinherited

Appaloosa second book published the three journals nm to go on the right

00:43:40

encyclopedia entries this is a sign of the times Banton himself Went Down to Nashville

Nashville I worked as a librarian in largely racist family through those years

the McCarthy period but both speakers in later return the 1960’s

tease and working side by side with the new generation of writers artists Activison

miss a 1960’s a day to survive but it’s it important to know that

that there’s a reason why these papers were shut it away partly

political you know this along the collector of black literature black history

00:44:15

but this was a particular political period and loudest memory of the depression

depression is my grandpa called the dirty thirties husband has been shut it away in an igloo

the collected in the hopefully this publication starting to bring some like to this period

Belden thank you very much for the call wondering as the years went by

fine for a Bontemps and Conroy did they continue to hold out hope that the Negro in

Rowan Illinois would see the light of day why did they just sort of leave behind the myths time passed

best recycling some of the material in and use an in and always

00:44:50

thought there was something special about the project in the much in the papers

papers as much as the other individuals they met a mother went on to

to receive a claim Frank Yerby made a million dollars Nelson Algren who worked on the door

WPL to not on the Negro in Illinois went on to publish a little book called the

call the man with the Golden Arm which was turned into a movie tonight tonight tonight

and so Nelson Algren to cast an at that moment in the 19 fifties and

I see letters between Bontemps in Conroe en el seno his Nelson Algren

00:45:25

the big time the golden apples a day coming our way

how to believe that there was something unique about this project they met so many

how many special people and they thought they were all Italian

talented individuals in Aug Dustin to go on to some higher Fame some of the

some of them did Katherine Dunham became a famous dancer on b***

but a lot of them struggle for the rest of their life just trying to a guy living as a writer you mentioned

mention some of the name some does is among some of the participants people like Mike

00:46:00

like Mike Walker Fenton Johnson Richard Durham struck my mind because I know that he were

what he worked in radio right to die and are quickly but I’ve heard a matter of fact

can find on youtube now sub of the shows and I believe the particular show

show he did the weather nation freedom Atlanta 11948 to 1950

Richard and got his start on the WPA and the addition of the righteous

project there was a wing radio project the radio division and a producer

27 radio shows on the WPA in the 1930s weather in God is first

00:46:35

first start in Hemet 7 wonder of people on the WPA they went on to work together

how to produce destination freedom this was sponsored by the Chicago Defender Renton WA make

can make you there WMAQ that’s station Ramos in Indy star that’s right

that’s right that’s exactly right that’s exactly right and so they would have a lower of some

comedic show dedicated to buy African Americans but the

happy hour dedicated to gospel music is there of Thomas Dorsey in hell yah Jackson

Jackson what are the kid to tell his story

00:47:10

stories from black history is quite unique for the time and a sign of

of these growing interests and b*** Richard Arrington other case in point

Hugo’s on his show is taking over they so to whitewash

watch the show turning the show about white history and white hero

heroes he goes on and apps suing the radio company

and I get blacklisted he is the works for the meat

meat packers Union in Chicago that goes on to work for Muhammad speaks the newspaper

00:47:45

paper for the Nation of Islam and he meets Muhammad Ali any publishes won the first

the first Pokemon what you’re doing does this and is to come out of a friend

at Howard Sonny Williams Suisun to publish a book on Richard Armitage

is really going to be a break through the Negro Illinois is out now

and um what is your hope for the long term impact of this book

being out there what is one of the primary documents from the period known as the black Chicago

Chicago Renaissance and there’s more more scholarly words coming out from the sphere

00:48:20

this. I was the entire collection by Darlene Clark high Northwestern Professor that

that died recently came out in is bringing more attention to this period and we would hope that it would

it would produce the same Scali interest and familiarity

in the general public what does. What’s the really rich fascinating Pier

. When black and white workers were working side by side collecting producing

who sings about knowledge of Black History black arts black culture

and I for popular audience keep in mind is this is a book not for a scholar

00:48:55

this is written for a public audience is written by Eminem produce with public money

monies there’s no footnotes in Odessa is very little of this Kylie

what kind of things around this book so it is something that was written for public audience

is still very reasonable and Angel for general public now you know

pretty subject this is a book with enabled Black Riders 2012

to have a voice in black history you’re white you’re the other person of Brothers

this book of Brothers book essentially back publication what started your

00:49:30

your own personal interest in African American history why always had a history

history in the spirit of the depression is my grandfather’s era

he was the son of a coal miner in southeast Kansas I’m so I was fascinated this period

but then I was the child of the civil rights movement while my parents didn’t Martin

Martin many marshes by any means no I was raised in that. When I grow up in

integrated schools with my kids around and so it was all I was always

always interested in a mm black people in black culture and

00:50:05

this was this project was a way for me to settle on my interests black history

white people is fascinating stories well I’m glad to see the Negro Illinois in

print and there’s a lot more we could talk with talk about concerning the spoke wheel

we are out of time but you may want to get out to be a better free library this Saturday at 2 o’clock

when Brian and I will be speaking about to the Negro in Illinois the WPA

UPA papers rind on RT to dawn artistas history at the University of Illinois

Illinois his own website is Brian Dolan r.com we will have a link to that put up

00:50:40

on on to arm a website that will Dundee Illinois Dadi do you

you Brian thank you very much for being on focus today thanks to my sim and thanks

thanks everyone to call the male questions are apologies to anyone who didn’t make it to the air focus was

what was produced by Lindsey moon Jason profits are technical director Ryan Weber is Arin

are internal be talking about lawn and garden care yes even in this weather will be talking

talking about it tomorrow because we know asap ventrally eventually the spring bolt

will come this is focused on WILL