College and Research Libraries


By D O R O T H Y G . W I L L I A M S 

National Negro Organisations 
and Their Publications* 

IN C R E A S I N G L Y w i t h i n recent years the factual study of N e g r o life and history 
in the U n i t e d States has engaged the atten-
tion both of research workers and of inter-
ested laymen. T o such persons, source 
materials which afford insight into the group 
life and thinking of N e g r o Americans are 
of obvious concern and importance. 

T h e present article is the result of an 
investigation, made in 1941, which under-
took to identify and describe the types of 
national N e g r o organizations then existing 
in the U n i t e d States, and to evaluate the 
publications issued by these bodies in the 
light of their potential usefulness as source 
materials f o r the study of N e g r o life and 
history. A f u r t h e r aim of the study was 
to find out to w h a t extent libraries w i t h 
large special collections of materials by and 
about the Negro, which w o u l d seem to be 
the logical places of deposit for these publi-
cations, were collecting these publications. 
T h e study included a list of organizations 
and a guide to their publications. 

T h e basic assumptions underlying the 
study were that these organizations came 
into being, not by chance, but as the result 
of certain felt social needs and problems, 
and thus t h a t the publications of these 
bodies might well reflect not only these 
needs and problems, but also the different 
approaches t o w a r d meeting and solving 
them n o w in operation among organized 
groups of Negroes in the U n i t e d States. 

T h e t e r m "national N e g r o organiza-

* Based on a master's thesis prepared at the School 
of L i b r a r y S e r v i c e , Columbia U n i v e r s i t y , 1941. 

tions" was necessarily difficult of precise 
definition, but t w o general criteria for 
inclusion under it were applied. First, only 
organizations w e r e included whose pur-
poses were concerned primarily w i t h N e g r o 
life in the U n i t e d States or some aspect of 
it, w h e t h e r or not their memberships w e r e 
confined to Negroes or included persons 
belonging to other racial groups. Secondly, 
organizations having such purposes w e r e 
included under the meaning of the term 
" n a t i o n a l " whose s t r u c t u r e has been that 
of a central body w i t h geographically scat-
tered auxiliary units w o r k i n g for the same 
m a j o r aims as t h a t of the parent body and 
contributing to the f u n d s of the general 
treasury of the l a t t e r . Since the focus of 
the study was the evaluation of a body of 
potential library materials, a third criterion 
for inclusion was also applied, namely, the 
extent to which the organizations had 
issued publications. Bodies which investiga-
tion showed had no publications, or vir-
tually none, w e r e omitted. Finally, the 
effort was not made to include all national 
N e g r o organizations, but r a t h e r to give con-
sideration to as many of the existing types 
as could be covered in the time available. 

T h e method followed was primarily his-
torical. T h e chief sources of data were 
the publications and records of the indi-
vidual organizations, supplemented by 
biographical material on persons connected 
w i t h the various organizations, newspapers 
and magazines, court reports, and general 
and local histories. T h e procedure used 
was as f o l l o w s : lists of organizations and 

58 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



their publications were begun by consulting 
t h e Negro Year Book, 1937-38, W o r k ' s 
Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and 

America, t h e List of Negro Newspapers 
and Periodicals compiled by the United 
States Bureau of the Census, the Union List 
of Serials, t h e Social Work Year Book, t h e 
Handbook of American Trade-Unions, a n d 
other reference works. These lists were 
compared with the catalogs of the Schom-
burg Collection and the reference division 
of the N e w York Public Library, in order 
that any organizations or publications not 
included could be added and their holdings 
checked and publications examined. Simi-
larly, visits were made to as many as 
possible of the headquarters of the organiza-
tions, and to the Fisk University Library, 
the Moorland Foundation of the Howard 
University Library, the Library of Con-
gress, the Rand School Library, the Union 
Theological Seminary in N e w York, and 
the Teachers College Library of Columbia 
University. Consultation either by cor-
respondence or in person with officials of 
the organizations and with outstanding 
specialists on Negro life and history took 
place as the study proceeded. 

Findings 

Six major types of organizations were 
distinguished: churches, fraternal organiza-
tions, "general" organizations, labor unions, 
educational associations, and organizations 
devoted to research and publication. Each 
type was found to be so distinct both as to 
purposes and publications that it was 
deemed best to discuss each separately. 
T h i s procedure is likewise here followed. 

( 1 ) Churches. T h e church is not only 
the oldest but also the largest and wealthiest 
of the Negro's organizations. T h e Negro 
adult church membership (persons 13 years 
of age and over) reported by the United 
States census of religious bodies in 1936 
totaled 5,660,618, representing 46 per cent 

of the entire Negro population, while the 
value of 38,303 Negro church edifices re-
ported in the same year was $164,531,531.1 

T h e r e are today thirty-three denominations 
that are entirely Negro, of which four (the 
Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, 
African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and 
Colored Methodist Episcopal) are of pre-
ponderant importance, since to them belong 
83 per cent of all the adult Negro church 
members in the United States.2 T h e func-
tional importance .of the church is so 
generally understood as to preclude the ne-
cessity for protracted exposition. Charles 
Spurgeon Johnson summarizes the m a t t e r : 

T h e c h u r c h h a s b e e n a n d c o n t i n u e s t o b e 

t h e o u t s t a n d i n g s o c i a l i n s t i t u t i o n in t h e N e -

g r o c o m m u n i t y . I t h a s a f a r w i d e r f u n c t i o n 

t h a n t o b r i n g s p i r i t u a l i n s p i r a t i o n t o its c o m -

m u n i c a n t s . T h e c h u r c h is s t i l l t h e o n l y 

i n s t i t u t i o n w h i c h p r o v i d e s a n e f f e c t i v e o r g a n i -

z a t i o n f o r t h e g r o u p , a n a p p r o v e d a n d t o l -

e r a t e d p l a c e f o r s o c i a l a c t i v i t i e s , a f o r u m f o r 

e x p r e s s i o n o n m a n y i s s u e s , a n o u t l e t f o r e m o -

t i o n a l r e p r e s s i o n s , a n d a p l a n f o r s o c i a l 

l i v i n g . 3 

Church publications are considerable 
both in bulk and importance. T h e oldest 
Negro periodical in the United States is 
the weekly Christian Recorder, issued by 
the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 
which began publication in 1856 and has 
continued to the present day. In 1884 this 
denomination began the publication of a 
q u a r t e r l y , t h e A.M.E. Church Review, 
which in 1927 was discontinued. T h i s 
journal is of particular significance as 
source material on Negro life and history 
during the period covered, for its pages con-
stituted a forum for expression on politics, 
prevailing moral and social values, economic 
problems, race relations, and education, as 

1 U . S . B u r e a u of the Census. Religious Bodies: 1936. 
W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , G o v e r n m e n t P r i n t i n g Office, 1941. 
I , P- 73-75-

2 Ibid., p. 74. 
3 Johnson, C h a r l e s S p u r g e o n . Growing Up in the 

Black Belt. W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , A m e r i c a n Council on 
Education, 1941, p. 135. 

JANUARY, 1946 59 



well as on religious and denominational 
matters. It is interesting to find, for exam-
ple, that certain of the speeches of the 
Negro abolitionist and reformer, Frederick 
Douglass, which are not elsewhere recorded, 
were here printed. T h e official histories 
of the various denominations, as well as 
the journals, are of importance not only as 
accounts of the establishment and growth 
of the Negro church, but also as source 
materials for the history of Negro 
education. 

( 2 ) Fraternal Organizations. T h e r e 
are two types of these organizations, namely 
the secret and benevolent societies, popu-
larly called "lodges," and the college fra-
ternities and sororities. Like the Negro 
churches, the "lodges" enlist a large mem-
bership and represent a considerable finan-
cial investment. Although precise statistics 
are nowhere available, one student has esti-
mated that the total membership in sixty-
odd Negro secret societies is approximately 
2,500,000 and the property they own prob-
ably in the neighborhood of $20,000,000.4 

Like the churches also, certain of these so-
cieties, notably the O d d Fellows, Masons, 
Knights of Pythias, and the Elks, are imita-
tions of similar white organizations, while 
other orders are Negro inventions purely. 
T h e main, though not the sole, functions of 
these organizations are social intercourse 
and the provision of insurance against sick-
ness and death. 

Publications of the "lodges" typically in-
clude a journal, usually issued monthly; 
histories of the order; constitutions and by-
laws ; manuals of ritual and procedure 
(which are secret and thus not available to 
libraries) ; proceedings of the annual con-
ventions; and a large amount of ephemeral 
material issued in connection with specific, 
and usually local, activities of the order, 
such as public programs, mass meetings, 

4 F e r g u s o n , C h a r l e s W . Fifty Million Brothers; a 
Panorama of American Lodges and Clubs. N e w 
Y o r k , F a r r a r and R i n e h a r t , 1937, p. 560. 

parades, and, interestingly enough, cam-
paign literature related to national, state, 
and local political elections. These publi-
cations are revealing because they disclose 
the same socio-psychological needs in opera-
tion among Negroes as among the white 
"joiners," and, in addition, because they 
carry direct expression of the attitudes and 
opinions of their members on a wide variety 
of subjects, including politics, labor prob-
lems, segregation, housing conditions, and 
the like. 

T h e r e are fourteen Greek-letter organi-
zations among Negroes, including under-
graduate groups of men and women and 
honorary and professional fraternities and 
sororities. T h e most noteworthy features 
of these bodies, aside from their social and 
recreational activities, which follow the 
general pattern of their white counterparts, 
has been their voluntary assumption of 
serious responsibilities to the Negro race. 
Each offers scholarships to college students, 
including a few sizable awards for graduate 
study, and each conducts group projects of 
various kinds. For example, since 1935 
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority has conducted 
a mobile health clinic in Mississippi, which 
has treated thousands of adults for malaria 
and venereal diseases and immunized more 
than 14,500 children against diphtheria and 
smallpox. Thomas Parran, Surgeon Gen-
eral of the United States Public Health 
Service, calls the clinic's achievement one 
of the greatest jobs of volunteer public 
health work he has ever seen.5 T h e quar-
terly journals issued by each of the Greek-
letter groups are of interest because they 
afford direct revelation both .of certain 
aspects of the little-known social life of the 
college-bred Negro and of his activities in 
behalf of the Negro group as a whole. 

( 3 ) " G e n e r a l " Organizations. T h e 
two most important organizations so termed 

5 R a t l i f f , J. D . " C o t t o n F i e l d V o l u n t e e r C l i n i c . " Sur-
vey Graphic 29: 464-67, 1940. 

60 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



represent large-scale efforts to ameliorate, 
if not to solve, the "Negro problem" in the 
United States. T h e objectives of the Na-
tional Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People are the removal of all forms 
of segregation and racial discrimination 
against the Negro, and the protection of his 
civil liberties, through legislative and 
judicial action. Since the association was 
founded in 1910 it has won fifteen out of 
sixteen cases brought before the United 
States Supreme C o u r t ; it renders legal aid 
(gratis) to Negroes in cases involving civil 
rights in the lower courts; and is active in 
lobbying for legislation favorable to Ne-
groes, before both Congress and the state 
legislatures. 

T h e official organ of the association is 
The Crisis, a monthly journal which began 
publication in November 1910. In addition 
to recording the work of the association, 
The Crisis also carries discussion of racial 
problems, general news, short stories, and 
poetry. T h e fact that it is not included in 
any of the periodical indexes hampers its' 
reference use considerably. Of particular 
interest to research are the published legal 
briefs and arguments of counsel and the 
factual data assembled for the use of lobby-
ists and legislators in connection with 
pending legislation. T h e detailed annual 
reports of the association, issued since 1910, 
are of considerable general interest and 
reference value. 

T h e second of the "general" organiza-
tions is the National U r b a n League for 
Social Service among Negroes, which was 
founded in 1911 specifically to meet the 
problems growing out of the migration of 
increasing numbers of rural Southern Ne-
groes to the large industrial centers, both 
N o r t h and South. It places its primary 
emphasis on the development of economic 
opportunities for Negroes in cities. 
T h r o u g h the industrial relations depart-
ments of its local branches the league func-

tions as a large-scale employment agency. 
It maintains close relations with employer 
groups and with labor unions, with social 
work agencies, and with national, state, and 
local officials concerned with labor and 
industry. Vocational education, civic edu-
cation, and workers education are also 
important league activities. 

T h e official journal of the league, Op-
portunity, is issued monthly and is indexed 
in t h e Public Affairs Information Service. 
Its contents include articles by officials of 
the league and by outside specialists, par-
ticularly in such fields as industrial trends, 
labor problems, housing, and race relations; 
general news, in a section called "Survey 
of the M o n t h ; " and literary contributions. 
It is interesting to find that its literary 
material is frequently included in various 
anthologies. D u r i n g 1940 the New York 
Herald Tribune reproduced eight of its 
poems in issues of its "Week of Verse," and 
t h e Best Short Stories of 1940 compiled by 
E. J . H . O'Brien listed four of its short 
stories among the "distinctive short stories 
of the year." T h e league publishes its 
Annual Reports and issues as separates cer-
tain of the studies of its research depart-
ment. These last consist chiefly of surveys 
of Negro populations in cities; studies deal-
ing with industry, migration, race relations, 
and housing, with particular reference to 
the N e g r o ; and bibliographies, such as 
Source Materials on the Urban Negro in 

the United States, 1910-1938 ( 1 9 3 9 ) . 
T h e research department prepares in addi-
tion the quarterly house organ of the league, 
The Secretariat, which stresses urban 
league techniques for handling specific situ-
ations. T h e league from time to time re-
leases pamphlets, some of which are factual, 
others primarily propagandist in nature. 
T h e publications of the National Urban 
League are, without question, important 
source materials for the study of Negro 
life and history in the United States. Its 

JANUARY, 1946 61 



fact-finding investigations are scientifically 
reliable and supply data not elsewhere 
available on many phases of Negro life. 
T h e techniques employed by the league to 
attain specific objectives are quite frankly 
recorded in its publications, particularly 
The Secretariat, and constitute an interest-
ing source for the discovery of the methods 
used by minority groups to reach desired 
goals. 

( 4 ) Labor Unions. W i t h the excep-
tion of two occupational groupings in 
which Negro workers maintain a virtual 
monopoly (the railroad porters and dining 
car waiters), the formation of independent 
Negro unions has been "a protest against 
the attitude of white organized labor in the 
United States toward Negro workers."6 

T h e publication program of each of the 
unions typically includes a monthly journal 
and irregularly issued bulletins on matters 
of immediate importance, sent out by the 
national headquarters, and processed 
ephemeral material issued by the union's 
locals. While these publications are not 
of general interest, they constitute primary 
sources of information on the Negro and 
the labor movement in the United States. 

( 5 ) Educational Associations. T h e s e 
bodies have been formed chiefly because of 
the need felt by Negro teachers and ad-
ministrators for some media for discussion 
of the many special problems connected 
with Negro education. T h e publications 
of these organizations are confined for the 
most part to proceedings of their confer-
ences and to journals usually issued quar-
terly. These publications, while not in 
general of a scholarly type, are of interest 
chiefly because of the insight they give into 
the special problems of Negro education, 
the attitudes of Negro educators toward 
these problems, and the efforts being made 
toward their solution. 

6 N a t i o n a l U r b a n L e a g u e . Negro Membership in 
American Labor Unions. N e w Y o r k , T h e L e a g u e , 
1930, p. 1 1 8 . 

( 6 ) Organizations Devoted to Research 
and Publication. T h e most important such 
body is the Association for the Study of 
Negro Life and History, organized in 1915 
for the following purposes: 

to collect sociological and historical data on 
the Negro, to publish books on Negro life 
and history, to promote the study of the 
Negro through clubs and organizations, and 
to foster harmony between the races by in-
terpreting the one to the other.7 

T h e association is supported by memberships 
of individuals and of organizations and by 
endowments of $25,000 each from the 
Carnegie Corporation of N e w York and 
the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial 
Foundation. T h e association publishes a 
very considerable body of research on many 
phases of Negro life and history, not only 
in the United States but also in other parts 
of the world. M a n y of its publications are 
doctoral dissertations prepared at Ameri-
can universities, such as The Negro in 
Tennessee from 1865-1880 by A . A . T a y -
lor, written at H a r v a r d University. In 
addition to the research studies, which 
form by far the largest part of its list, the 
association also publishes books for young 
people dealing with Negro life and history. 
These books are historically reliable but 
are written with the child's reading level in 
mind. T h e association issues two periodi-
cals, t h e Journal of Negro History, a schol-
arly quarterly, and the Negro History 
Bulletin, which appears eight times a year 
and is especially designed for the use of ele-
mentary and high schools. T h e Journal of 
Negro History is i n c l u d e d in t h e Inter-
national Index; t h e Negro History Bulletin 
is not covered by any of the commercially 
published indexes. Each year the associa-
tion sponsors "Negro History W e e k , " the 
purpose of which is to stimulate general 
interest in the study of Negro life and his-

7 Association f o r the S t u d y of N e g r o L i f e and His-
tory. First Annual Report. W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , T h e 
Association, 1 9 1 6 , p. 1. 

62 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



tory, and, in connection with it, issues much of 
pamphlet material, pictures of distinguished 
Negroes, and posters. T h e association is a 
reputable research organization, and the 
various publications issued by it are of 
apparent interest and value. 

Summary and Recommendations 

T h e answer to the question as to which, 
if any, of the publications of the national 
Negro organizations are important as 
source materials is dependent on what 
aspect of Negro life or history is to be 
studied. In all probability no one library 
would wish to assemble all the publications 
of all the Negro organizations, but it ap-
pears quite evident that certain libraries 
would want to preserve some of them. In-
vestigation indicated that libraries, even 
those with extensive Negro collections, have 
tended in general to neglect to assemble 
these publications. In many cases, broken 
files or total lack of holdings were due pri-
marily to the fact that the material was not 
secured at the time of issuance and was not 
available when the library subsequently 
wished to secure it. An incidental finding 

interest was that often the headquarters 
of the organization itself lacked complete 
files of its own publications. 

I t is recommended that librarians, 
especially those having particular interest 
in Negro materials, give careful thought to 
the matter of the publications of the na-
tional Negro organizations. These should 
be surveyed carefully, and definite policies 
should be formulated, so that the lack of a 
file of a publication will indicate a decision 
on the part of the library rather than an 
oversight. Because the bulk of the ma-
terial is so vast, it is also recommended that 
librarians of institutions having important 
Negro collections form a planning com-
mittee and divide the task of assembling 
such of the publications as it seems worth 
while to keep, on the basis of the individual 
library's focus of interest. T h i s has not 
been done in the past and it appears reason-
able to think it would be a useful pro-
cedure—one which, in fact, might well be 
extended to include not only the publica-
tions of the national Negro organizations 
but also materials of all kinds by and about 
the Negro. 

Fellowships and Scholarships at the University of Chicago 

T HE Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago has announced three fellowships of $1200 each for graduate study in librarianship during the 1946-47 
academic year and several tuition scholarships for study leading to graduate degrees and 
to the bachelor of library science degree. These are outright awards, not payment for 
services to be rendered. 

T h e fellowship grants are available to students in the A . M . and P h . D . programs. T h e 
requirements for advanced study include college graduation, library school education, and 
l i b r a r y experience. Application for graduate fellowships and scholarships must be made 
by Mar. 10, 1946. 

T h e scholarship grants are available ( a ) to students in the graduate programs, ( b) 
students in the one-year program leading to the B.L.S. degree, who must have four years 
of college credit, and (c) students in the three-year subject and professional program 
leading to the B.L.S. degree, who must have two years of college credit. Applications for 
scholarships in the bachelor of library science courses should be filed by June 15, I94&-

Forms for applying for awards may be obtained by writing to the Dean, Graduate 
Library School, University of Chicago, Chicago 37. 

JANUARY, 1946 63