More than 250 boxes of personal correspondence, manuscripts and other papers from a prominent civil rights activist and historian of Chicago’s black community are now searchable – in person and online – through the Chicago Public Library.
Library officials on Wednesday unveiled the Timuel D. Black, Jr. Papers, the massive collection from the 93-year-old professor emeritus at City Colleges of Chicago who also wears the titles of author, civil rights, labor and political activist and oral historian. The papers can be viewed at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at Woodson Regional Library, 9525 S. Halsted St.
“The City of Chicago is giving me credit for keeping and making available the history of Chicago from an African-American point of view,” Black said. “I’m not trying to be a scholar or an academic. I just lived through that period.”
Black, who was born in 1918, said his parents taught him to never throw anything away. The children of former slaves, his parents kept meticulous family records in their Bible, tucking away everything from birth certificates to Black’s school essays.
“Of course I learned to treasure some of the things that I thought were interesting,” he said. “Over time it just piled up and piled up.”
Michael Flug, the retired senior archivist of the Harsh collection, brought in Black’s papers to the library between 2003 and 2010.
“I think it’s arguably the single best collection of material on Chicago African-American history that anybody has ever opened,” Flug said. “It’s not only large, it’s incredibly varied. Tim was involved in hundreds of different organizations in labor rights, civil rights, women’s rights, education initiatives, and he’s a jazz enthusiast so there is a fabulous jazz collection.”
While the library has the bulk of Black’s papers, he says there is more to come.
“I have as much here (at home) as I have there,” he said. “My wife would like me to get rid of it all.”
