2

March 7, 1963

Dear Miss Adams:

Thank you very much for your kind letter in which you suggest an anthology of Negro humor. Curiously enough, that idea must be in the air, because a few weeks ago a publisher sent a representative to see me about such a book, and he himself has made an appointment for next week to discuss it further. I already have in my files a somewhat dated outline of a possible table of contents which Mr. Arna Bontemps (Librarian at Fisk) and I drew up several years ago, but in which at that time we could not interest a publisher. So we collaborated on the THE BOOK OF NEGRO FOLKLORE instead for Dodd, Mead. In this book we have a section of Humor, and scattered other humorous items throughout the volume. You probably know that the NEGRO DIGEST published in 1945 a paperback THE BEST OF NEGRO HUMOR for which I did an Introduction. But now, with so much more material available, a bigger and better book could easily be done. So I am sort of hoping something comes of the current publisher interest. If so, I'll let you know.

With cordial regards,

Sincerely yours,

Langston Hughes

Harriet Adams
1122 Ridge Avenue Aw
(15)

Mr. Lamberton Hughes
20 Each 12¢ Acre
New York 35, N.Y.

Hi...

Folk down here ain't never heerd tell of Langston Hughes, Gwenolyn Brooks...
HAPPINESS IS A WARM PUPPY IS UNAVAILABLE in certain bookstores, but I have not
yet seen on display JOHN OLIVER KILLEN'S AND THEN WE HEARD THE THUNDER...

The American Negro has no identifying character that symbolizes him-as Charlie
Brown, Boor Dennis the Menance, etc...

So there is Langston Hughes whom the high-schoolers down here query... "Who he ?"...
SEE Langston Hughes his friend Simple are not known at all...

Now there is Ollie Harrington and his friend Bootise ... not famous beyond the
Pittsburgh Courier... two splendid talents that could give America a warm,
gentle, intelligent Negro figure who could appear in dailies all over the U. S. -

JAMESON HUGHES PMS OLLIE HARRINGTON -
And then those fellas at 125th street who stand there all day holding up the
buildings and lamp-posts...and these fellas down here - astute philosophers who
lean against buildings on Sweet Auburn Avenue...their conversation will be...

"Man...did you dig that crazy Simple in today's paper..."

Students...who is Langston Hughes... (they won't identify you with Soul Gone Home...
Tambourines to Glory...etc...but THEY'LL KNOW THAT THERE ARE IN AMERICA authors...
cartoonists who can represent to them an American Negro who can become just as
much a part of the American scene as Charlie Brown and Pogo and Dick Tracy -
Dennis, Yogi Bear...)

Thank you for answering.

I'm still going to do a book of cartoon satire...only I can't draw...maybe
that will result in an even more unusual book...

Excellent luck with your humorous advent...

Fred O'Neal will be here next month to appear in Ester Jackson's presentation -
Death of a Salesman - Clark University...come on down...I'll get you a seat
smack dab down front!

Hannett Adams
1122 Ridge Avenue, SW
(15)

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 29th Street
New York 35, New York

and it needs to be
$5

MURRAY HILL
STATION

GRAND CENTRAL
STATION

March 13th -

Hi...me again!

See...we gotta Daily down here...that is - it is Daily except on Monday when the beauticians and barbers take off also...and our daily has your picture in it.

Now our Daily very seldom has any good political cartoons or any spicy Simple Says... erudite philosophy for those fellas who hold up the buildings on Sweet Auburn Avenue to comment on...but this is solved...because, there is going to be a Simple Says in every Negro and white daily all across "This Hand of Ours..."

Now you and Ollie Harrington are famous and Negroes all over the U.S. (those who can't do anything but follow the seasonal crops and have babies) will know who this Langston Hughes is...

Next...your friend Arna Bontemps...now these high school kids who graduate with a 5th year reading level...they can't even spell Arna...so, we gotta make Mr. Bontemps famous...

You see, Mr. Bontemps and Mr. Hughes are excellent writers...they have the characters... they have the stage settings...Harlem...Nashville, etc...now all they have to do is get a movie camera...take a few weeks leave from their jobs...get a tiny tape-recorder that can be hidden...

Go into Mississippie, Alabama, Georgia, Florida as casual individuals and with their tiny camera and tape recorders get magnificent on the scene dialogue and pictures...

And then go back to New York...into the bowels of Harlem, Greenwich Village, take more pictures of Negro American...young - old...and WHAT HAVE YOU GOT...

AN EXCELLENT DOCUMENTARY THAT CAN COMPETE WITH THE EXQUISITE FILM DAVID AND LISA...

You see...we are concentrating so on lifting the Negro that we take him out of the context of being a warm, human being with the same sexual, spiritual, economical desires and appetites as any other person...

And maybe, perhpas...in presenting this ordinary image of the Negro...will be more effective and understandabley accepted than well...

There's this beautiful old Negro woman up at Austell, Georgia...thick, thick white hair...she's sitting on her porch...rocking and exclaiming gently...

"Gonna study some more this winter...gonna learn to read that paragraph so I can register to vote..." tremendous impact...aw, whatta story this can tell on film...

OK...so I've made you, Simple, Ollie Harrington famous...

Now...next...everybody must recognize the names of Bontemps and Hughes...on film!

Gotta photographer friend down here with many years collection of excellent film of Negroes...she's kinda thinking of doing a photographic-poetic essay...only she ain't got no poet...interested...?

March 18, 1963

Dear Miss Adams:

I quite agree with you that it would be wonderful to have a comic strip made from SIMPLE. A long time ago I broached the subject to Ol Harrington, E. Simms Campbell, Mel Tapley and other cartoonists of color but none of them latched on to the idea. This is understandable since they all had characters of their own creation. But I would be most happy to find a talented young artist who might want to "picturize" SIMPLE. If you ever hear of one, please let me know.

A most interesting, intellectual, as well as amusing South African who sings click songs like Miriam Makeba arrived at Morris Brown today, I believe. He will be lecturing there and I think you would enjoy hearing and meeting him. He was an actor in the London production of THE BLACKS and has come to the United States to lecture under the auspices of the United Negro College Fund. His name is BLOKE MODISANE and he is a SIMPLE fan too.

With cordial regards, I am

Mrs Harriet Adama
1122 Ridge Avenue, Su
(15)

THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS

Mr. Langdon Huskes
20 East 129th Street
New York 35, New York

Hi....

The language in the play is exquisite...as soon as Ester finishes
with "Death of a Salesman", I shall have her read and give an
opinion in regard to the producing of the play in the autumn...
also J. P....who will be presenting Atigone in May...

Frederick O'Neal in his speech at Clark mentions that Portier,
Ossie Davis, and Bellafonte are interested in producing...are
you aware of this?

One learns from another displaced Yankee down here that Ossie
Davis worked with one of the persons involved in the production of
this fragile, wondrous documentary DAVID and LISA...do see this...
if you don't view nary another film in Nu Yawk...

Bill Shields many years ago visited Nu Yawk from Tuskegee at the
sumptuous apartment of a Mrs. Thompson (I believe this is the name
he gives me) and he met there...Langston Hughes, Henry Moon and
a beautiful woman whose last name was Bailey and who is now Mrs.
Howard Thurman...do you recall Bill...he resides within snuff-
spittin' distance of my apartment on this highly devout Methodist
campus...

There has been sent third class literature from the office..merely
for informative purposes to you in your writings...

Ann had the rum and tea...contact was made after receipt of your
second letter ...but too late...Bloke was leaving 1½ hours by
plane for Memphis last Wednesday morning...and you were right...
HE WAS BORED...he went walking alone Tuesday night uptown in
Atlanta... he shant be back this way...we'll save the rum for
you...

Foundations taken from the office book...some may be of value to
student friends...acquaintances.

Methinks a documentary written for production by you with Mr.
Dwokin may perchance be granted financial aid...

I'm waiting to hear from the cartoonist, Mr. Feaman, - and to see
his work. There is a Mr. Adiar (Negro) who has recently opened
an Art Gallery on West Peachtree...one learns that he does pictorial
cartoons...if neither Mr. Feaman or the address of the cartoonist
in Bablyon, LI, New York that I sent you are available, shall I
ask Mr. Adair to correspond with you?

I, unfortunately, missed viewing the Black Nativity...it was not
given enough Press coverage here...I read of its presentation too
late for viewing...

Your play will be well taken care...thank you for the article
concerning the Black Nativity...

My love to Simple....

harriett

Hi...

I read in one of the old Phylon issues an article defending Semple...
and also the author herein cites the need of humor...social as is exemplified
by Semple...

Incidentally...what does your Simple look like...have you ever had him drawn...

Here is someone to create Simple for you...and someone whom I've never met, but
too is interested in compiling a humorous satirical portrayal ...

Sure would like to see Simple copyrighted in dailies south, north, east, west...

Oliver Wendall Holmes (uncle to Hamilton Holmes) is rich with story plots...that
are true...

John Oliver Killens may have gleaned material from Oliver's experiences in the
South Pacific for his latest novel...AND THEN WE HEARD THE THUNDER...

You need to come down here and see what these Negro children ---young adults do
in theater. You must come down to meet J. P. Cochran, Ester Jackson...

Simply Heavenly would be a artful production directed by J. P....

After Death of a Salesman, the next production will be ANTIGONE...hope the
spelling is correct...

There/lottsa good play, story, art material down here...come on down and you
can have my apartment with five birds and a stray dawg all summer long...
to work and create...and anyway, I want someone to go into South Georgia with
me to photograph...

Harriett

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This pledge applies to all employees and applicants for employment in connection with:

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Students seeking employment are advised to confer with their counselors or placement officers.

Persons needing vocational training may enroll either at G. W. Carver or Smith-Hughes Vocational School.

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Pageant Press

Inc., Book Publishers

101 Fifth Avenue, New York 3, New York • CHelsea 3-9179

Canadian Distributors
Sellers & Distributors
Cable Address: Pagpres

April 19 1963

Mrs. Harriett Adams
1122 Ridge Avenue SW
Atlanta 15, Georgia

Dear Mrs. Adams:

I'm sorry I was unable to answer your letter of March 19 before this but it caught me at the peak of our seasonal rush in getting out our Fall List, during which I can't always be as prompt in answering my correspondence as I would like.

The more you tell me about your untitled humorous book, the better it sounds. You have succeeded in arousing my anticipation to such a point that I can hardly wait to see it.

What you write about getting contributions from name writers and cartoonists seems most encouraging. As to the editing, royalties etc. about which you enquire, that will have to be arranged between you and your contributors because our dealings are restricted to a single author or compiler. The sensible thing to do would be for you to enter into an agreement with each contributor, either by letter or contract, specifically stating who is to do what, what percentage of the returns he is to get, permission to use the material, etc. This will avoid headaches later.

As to the number of contributors, that of course depends on the nature of the book. If it is to be an anthology, then the more the better. If it is primarily your book with a few "guest" contributors, then you probably have enough as it is. Offhand, I would say that the more contributors you have, the more complications there are likely to be, and it would be safer to play with just a few than with many.

As you can readily appreciate, it is extremely difficult to offer advice or suggestions without seeing the manuscript. However, I have tried to do the best I can. I hope I shall be able to see the finished manuscript in the very near future so that we shall be able to give you a full report.

SR/cb

26

April 24, 1963

Dear Harriett:

I love your YIELD RIGHT OF WAY card!

Sure, you may use any of my SIMPLE material from THE BEST OF SIMPLE, Hill and Wang, Inc., 141 Fifth Avenue, New York 10, New York, (Address Mr. Arthur Wang, editor), for proper credit line and clearance of copyright, etc. Or if you material from columns unpublished as yet in book form, my personal permission is hereby granted, and when used in your book, copyright should be reassigned to me on publication.

PAGEANT PRESS will no doubt charge you to print your book, which is O.K. if one can afford it. Only problem is such publishers usually do no distribution or advertising or publicity---which the author then has to him/or/herself---so one should be prepared for this.

Anyhow, your idea sounds most amusing. Good luck!

And thanks for all the material you have been sending me. I'm filing it away for the next time I do a book about cullud. At the moment I am trying to clear up 50-11 things so as to maybe go to Europe next month. Modisane is still here. Just had his auto-biog, BLAME ME ON HISTORY, Accepted by a NY publisher; and my secretary has just got a Whitney---so I was greeted with good news on awaking this morning.

Sincerely,

Hi....I wrote to Harry Golden requesting that he be kind enough
to preface or view our forthcoming book. Mr. Golden will give the Commencement
Day address at Morris Brown on June 5th. In my letter, briefly, I sketched the
horrors of Methodist Bishops as described by Bloke and invited Mr. Golden to
permit me rescue him by taking him across town for imported West Indian rum and
American pinochle...

For you and Bloke here is his answer:

Dear Harriett:

I do not know how much time I'll have when I am in Atlanta. The pressures are
still very heavy.

I'll be at the Hotel Biltmore on June 5th. If you get a chance give me a ring and
we will see it goes. You need not fear about me being surrounded by Methodist Bishops.
I learned long ago how to make a speech and run. I would not have survived if I
hadn't known this trick all along.

When Alma saw the picture of Nece and Chiang on page 324 of A Pictorial History of the Negro in America...she screamed happily...she, Georgia Allen, Nece and Ves were of an excellent friendship while here...in the event you are in contact with Nece and Ves, you might tell them that Esther Jackson is leaving here May 10th to begin work with Joseph Papp in Nu Yawk city...

By some error, two copies of this magnificence embodied in A Pictorial History of the Negro in Modern History has been gifted to me...your signed copy and this week, another copy from the Crown Publishers. If it is alright with you, I should like to present one copy to the West Hunter Street Library as a special gift from you. You might also relate to Nece and Ves the sadness of the death of Clark's loved, respected Dean McPheeters...last week. His wife is the Librarian at the West Hunter Street Library - and this library is not nearly as stocked as it should be to meet the reading needs of Atlanta's children. Later, I can reimburse you for this extra copy of the book.

It feels to me that the critics who wrote reviews for your Ask Your Mama and the Pictorial History of the Negro in America are the same persons of whom James Baldwin slants his The Fire Next Time...

cite: The story of one-tenth of the American people is told in an intelligently conceived and ably text-and-picture album. There is a *nice* combination...oh, that paternalistic word nice...
Be a nice Negro...sit in nicely...act nicely...
A 14 year old girl was rapd three times last week in a south Georgia town...her mother has appealed to the NAACP in Atlanta...white folks in the town ...aware of the demeaning of this child told her to go home...be nice...don't tell... don't make a fuss...pardon me while I write OH, DAMN!

One doesn't sense that Ask Your Mama is understood...this is tremendous W. E. DuBois

satire...one realizes that Langston Hughes as a writer can become vitrolic...
I'm not sure this is the proper adjective...outspoken for the Negro with
his poetry and Simple in humor...it reminds one of the Negroes singing
thier ---opps---their spirituals of bondage and giving messages to other
enslaved Negroes...

It isn't necessary at all for Langston Hughes to write in his pictorial
history the brutality of miscegnation...with the artful ad of the many
mulattos for sale...a Negro child need only ask what is a Mulatto to
understand and know...

Of course, if a Negro writer would express his bitterness and rancor, he
would be relegated to England with Robeson or Africa with DuBois...

I quite feel that our book is going to be smashing...P. D. East has a section...
Simple has his section...

In between will be all types of rag-muffin culled children speaking in erudite
terms about SNCC, SCLC, Langston Hughes...racial problems...

e.g....here is a *maxt* quaint picture of a tiny culled baby sliding of
Santa's lap and she is saying...

See...we reside in this lovely little Southern town that is suddenly
integrating everything and everybody...they are even going to declare
Lincoln's birthday an official holiday next year. So my folks insisted
that I sit on Santa's lap for this picture. Well, I went along with 'em
to placate...but then...something happened...Santa knew, I knew, but my
parents and the adults all standing around did not realize...why I
wanted to get down...It is simple biology...when(I hope I'm not
offending you) you gotta go, you gotta go...and I had gone...Santa
and I knew...

I gotta go now, too...simple biology...love to Bloke...
if you don't go to Europe before June 10th, I can send you the manuscript
for you to see and then send it on to Pageant Press...which incidentally
gives royalites and will print the book if they feel it is a seller...
Pageant has a right good deal for writers...

Thank you for speaking so wondrously for all of us...even Nece and
Chiang...

Harriett

Good Morning....

You Nu Yawk folk are just now getting flowers blooming that we had
in February....

If you like pizza pie, the best place is a Puerto Rican Pizza Pie
Shop in Greenwich Village not far from the 7th Avenue sub....

The five dollar check sent to you (that will not bounce) is to pay
you for a used copy of THE BEST OF SIMPLE...it is not for sale anywhere
here...and I need SIMPLE for our book and you ain't sent it and
if you don't, there ain't no wrath lak dat of an uppity mad NIGRA
woman! The manuscript will be almost ready when you send me SIMPLE
....if possible, I'm going to ask an audience with Ralph McGill to
receive his eruidite blessings ...before Harry Golden arrives!

You sent me two charming SIMPLE (charming is a female adjective like 'cute') stories that appeared in the NY Post...if you OK Jim's using a SIMPLE story, may we have one of these for this new newspaper voice in Atlanta...Jim is printing 15,000 copies - 10,000 to be purchased by a local Negro union that is striking at the DOBSS HOUSE at the Atlanta Airport...5,000 will be given away...so 10,000 people will touch SIMPLE...

I have not written to Mr. Wang yet...awaiting a copy of THE BEST OF SIMPLE...

Incidentally, I could now publish the book myself using Chunk Hill's Vari-type machine and his multilith...the pictures could easily be done by a Mr. Gazzaway...but, would not it be more adviseable to have a reputable publisher who can give one publicity...

Since you'll be going to Europe...will it not be necessary for me to
contact your secretary for advice in reference to royalties...
If Seth Richards likes the book and smells it as a best-seller...
I'm going to request (Pageant Press will publish the book if they feel
it's good...AND CURS IS MOST UNUSUAL)
in the contract that the ~~royalties~~ be divided three ways!!!

This is the same Jim Wood at WACK who will help me get a cool jazz poetry spot ...
if we can sell his boss, Zack Geer on the idea...I got the poetry, the tapes and
a wondrous home studio to do the tape...reading Hughes and Brooks and Millay and
Walt Whitman and J. W. Johnson and Dunbar and many others ---their exquisite poetry..

Say my darling....

Would I be doing something illegal if I use one of your SIMPLE stories
in a new Negro publication that is being pioneered here in Atlanta....

You can't receive any money for it ... at first ... on account of....

Jim Wood Editorial announcer for WACK ....

Oliver W. Holmes ... po man's preacher ...

Chuck Hill of Hill's Stationary and Supplies and - of course -

Simple's admirer, Harriett.... are beginning with a moneyless DREAM....

See...Jim is a magnificent man...he speaks out against much that needs
words of truth for cleansing...and he wants to publish a new type of paper
that gives excellent coverage to the little - unimportant man in Atlanta -
for whom no one but Simpe in the New York Post speaks....

All this week, we'll be working at Chuck's doing the first publication.... I'll
operate the VARI-TYPER and Chuck the Multilith...

So I call Jim at WACK and ask - may we print a Langston Hughes Simple Story...and
he yells delightedly...yes...

If this is a successful venture here in Atlanta, Jim wants to branch out into
south eorgia, Florida, Alabama, etc...so if you and Simple can afford to give
us one FREE STBRY...maybe...who knows...this will be the very paper that can
SIMPLE syndicated here in the Negro press...

The YIELD RIGHT OF WAY will be ready for Mr. Golden June 5th...P. D. East's part has been edited...10 photographic quips are ready and I'm going to process film Tuesday night for the quoted quips...it has been suggested that the front cover be done in black, with a YIELD RIGHT OF WAY sign in the upper left part of the page and two cars one LH and the other PD driving across the cover and a bycycle representing Adams bringing up the rear...tell ELOKE his name is in the book, too!

May 8, 1963

Dear Harriett:

I did so send you the SIMPLE book
the moment I got your order---so it should
have reached you by now.

Use unpublished (in book form) columns
of mine and you won't have to get Hill and
Wang permission, or pay reprint fees.

I returned today the card to Jim Wood.
Any of the POST-DEFENDER-AFRO columns may
be used without charge, but perhaps there
should be a credit line: Used by permission
of Langston Hughes. Reprinted from the
NEW YORK POST......(The POST is the primary
source; syndicated in the others).

YIELD RIGHT OF WAY is a splendid title,
I think, and the cover idea sounds amusingly
great....As does K. M. Brown....Bloke is
packing and preparing to return to London.
May be back next fall when his autobiography
(DUTTON) comes out. Why not get him back to
Atlanta for some talks? He's really a most
entertaining lecturer---acts out his points
in Chaplinesque pantomime. His London
address: c/o Dennis Duerden, Transcription
Center, 4-5 Norfolk Street, London W. C. 2,
England---after end of May.

Better to have a commercial who can get public
publicity and distribution.

I sort of wish I was in Brimingham, too.

RE-gards to you.

Hi...

I wrote to Mr. Golden telling him of a friend of mine who
does not want to hear his Commencement Address because she
stated..."He doesn't say anything"...enclosed reply...

When you show this to Bloke, willist thee return it to me ...
so I can show it to somebody's grandchildren when I get old...
ain't got nary a chillun of mine own...

I keep missing these wonderful people...I hope Mr. Horton
will come to 1122...I have no telephone...1122 is my
mailing address...I reside on a Methodist Campus...
Gammon...but use 1122 for all my heathen correspondence,
because the 1122 inhabitants are Congregationalists,
agnostics, Republicans and Democrats!

So...the telephone number there for future refrence is
JA 3-6143...only no one can ever get the line because Alma
has a 13 year old daughter who is courtin'...and talks more
than Hedda Hopper...

Working phone number at the Council is 525-1648..but I may not
be there much longer if Frances doesn't get any Foundation
money in Nu Yawk City where she is at rat now...ain't got
enough to pay our three salaries much longer than thru
July...pray fo' me...

Charles Schultz is a genius of humor...Walt Kelly and Pogo
are to profound for me...

Alma took a lotta pictures today of culled chillus for the
book...any particular stroy of Simple you'd prefer being printed...
glad to oblige...wrote a letter to Ralph McGill asking for an
audience...if he laffs...we gotta seller...maybe...if Mr. Golden
likes this, he'll contribute...then we'll be world famous...

Have the Russians put anyone on the moon...I keep watching for
people's feet hanging off the moon...

bye...

Harriett...

Hi...got it...

So far...the book cover...your picture...credit rights... the Forward...stories...

1 Feet Live Their Own Life ...page 196
210 3
216 4
228 5
229 6

239 These will be typed for the book...

P. D. East has 20 pages...the photos will occupy about 10...the rest for you...I ain't quite sure how much it will cost me to have the manuscript published if Pageant Prees likes it...so...the first endeavor will be Jesse B. Semple lean...

Gret Gawd A'Mighty...Nigras done gone plumb fool crazy...

Uppity Savannah State young 'uns leaving...registering at University of Gawguh...Armstrong...

Oliver is back from B'ham...James Foreman (SNCC) is there in his overalls... Nigras lined thousands deep...and when DE LAWD, Martin Luther, Jr. comes out...Oliver relates the wimmen scream and fall prostrate...great cheers rent the air...and this Black Savior walks serenly graciously waving ...

White policeman and fireman tired...24 hours a day ...one said ...grass so long in my yard, 'fraid my kids'll git snake bitten...'

Abernathy, Wyatt Walker there with Martin...so far...it's a Baptist confrontation... Martin won't talk with the culled Methodists...also...Martin advises Gret White Father that this will not be another ALBANY...no verbal negotiations... WRITTEN BONA FIDE...

Charlayne is wearing her integration PROUDLY...ole smug Atlanta is going to see their favored daughter marry up with...gret GAWD A'Mighty...a dang rebel white boy...oh, wait till these white mothers hear of this... See whut happens...race mixing'...only this is real legal...ain't no down in the tater patch mogrelizatin' heah...

Uppity, arrogant Nigra students here, got guards at the downtown restaurants... youngs 'uns sittin' in all which a kinda ways...white folks can't eat their noon meal peacebly...

Oliver and I made an attempt to desegregate DAVIS CAFETERIA last November... white food server asked us..."Y'all culled..." what could we say...if we had had Bloke with us..."There's a place for culled on Mitchell Street"...

Tell Bloke Oliver is to drive a South African radical white lady to Greenville, Gawguh Friday...whatcha bet... Oliver gets stopped... for a traffic violation... Also...an African from Kenya was here...only Southern cities he got to visit were Dallas and Atlanta...he wanted to go to Albany...and he has been cloistered in all the northern and two southern city visits...seeing only the best white folks and the best Nigras...but, Oliver, - points out...the man is infinitely wise to the ways of the white folk...he knows...he sees... he senses...he wears his BLACKNESS BEAUTIFULLY...

Thank you again...again...again...
It's is a delight retyping Simple...

Hey...you sumpin'...

Black Nativity Xmas
New York City Opera ...1963

Did not William DuPree have the famed GI singing group after World War II...?

Is the Black Nativity group touring in Europe...?

Whatcha gonna do for the Fall Season...

Say...I saw a blue jean version of the Crucifixion done on Camera 3 oncet in
Nu Yawk...dreamed a thought....

Somebody oughta take this theme and sorta work it over using Negro migrant farm
workers and the symbolism of the crucifixation and ya know what I mean...
or the <u>nyakka</u> symbolism of the <u>birth</u> ...in modern context... with the
cdemeaning of the migrant farm workers... <u>CHELT CHILE</u>

Ain't nobody speaking out much for these folk...we gotta do something about them
to defeat the lobbying farmer's union...right out there at Riverhead, New York
on Lonk Islant...there's one helluve filthy migrant farm workers camp that
results in the NEWBURGS...

We down here raising hell...

Gotta git me a <u>hand</u> so I can go to a Black Muslim Suvice...gotta hear all these
voices... <u>HAT</u>

P. D. East satirically has an ad in his paper..."Do-It-Yourself KKK kit"...

bye...bye

Enclosed brochure is from Oliver...it ain't true...none of it...
Lincoln ain't got toilet facilities...

Yam Grande is way back in the woods adjacent to a cemetary...Oliver ain't found
the swimming pool yet...Veteran's Memorial is (I think Oliver said) one acre!

Hi....

Jim Wood...

explains his idea completely last week...TIME and NEWSWEEK are interested...Carl
Fleming of Newsweeks here wants the opportunity to do copy work --er rather -
news stories for Jim...

Jim's idea is not a newspaper...but a weekly magazine similar to NEWSWEEK magazine...
Negro news capsuled and well reported...photographs, etc...

His format is well planned for the first issue...

Eventually, in two years, he dreams of this newsmagainze being sold throughout the
South...

Oliver tells me that the Atlanta riot of 1907 as reported in your Pictorial History...
starred so say the Negroes...because of a sharp-shooting' Negro named Snake Eye being
shot by the white policemen...

Jim thanks you for the right to use your Simple stories.... I like the guy ...he dares to
dream for the little, illiterate culled man and Jim dares to spit on the elite
white power structure and the elite black bourgeoisie....

I have not heard much of the intimate negotiations in regard to Birmingham...

Oliver, Jim Wood, Vince Harding (Mennonite minister of Atlanta - City Nu Yawk college graduate - raised in Brooklyn - brilliant, beautiful man) will be at Bill Shields (the Bill Shields who met you at the home of Louise Alone Thompson yars and yars back) home this Friday...we have

Friday nights of coffee, cigarettes, conversation ... at Bills....

and there I'll learn much that one does not read of in the news coverages and I'll relay
these to you...

If Bloke can do a tape before he leaves...then I can sell him for a lecture here...Jim

will advertise Bloke on WACK...

I went to the Hunter Street Libray to find Negro poetry...one L. H. book...Dream Keeper...
a Braithwaite book so old and crumbly...¹ do reckon that if two persons began at
9:00 AM - they could have counted by 1 PM the same day all the books in this library...
If you have friends who don't know what to do with their book-club books...this
library sho nuff needs so readin' material for these culled chilluns...gosh...but
what of these other cities where culled chillun have no library facilities...in
home, Georgia - kids cain't go to any movie picture house...

And yet...the black man can sing and laugh...yeah...this makes one proud to be a black
American...

Hey...here's a story for Simple...

Over at SRC - Jim Moss brilliant Negro research man...

started going with this beautiful white blonde...

was seen in the Negro neighborhood with the lovely woman...

liberal white folks at SRC could not stand this...

so...they Carl Roawaned Jim into a better paying Northern job...

Jim gone...blonde there...SRC holds meetings to sayle bi-racial animity...

ASK YOUR MAMA...she'll tell you about white liberalism...

bye...thank you

Hi...

Ves is here...luxuriant beard and all...with his exquisite designs, lighting, etc. for the Ailey Dancers...Ves states that you have a Broadway play opening...off or on...

Peers as how Langston Hughes and Ester Jackson oughta be able to - plus Ves an' Nes Harper create some drama - Broadway production - that can cause *the* comment about this continental play decrying the actions of the Pope during the Nazi regime...

Somehow - someone has gotta produce a play that magnificently shocks...Genet's Blacks has done this...ain't nothing like a goot shock..heck, might as well... durn fool leaders are going to blow us all to smithereens anyway...so, the Negro might as well shock folk into the harsh ugly of what racial discrimination has done...

I wrote immediately to Mr. Richards and explained that you had told me what to do concerning your publisher's permission...and have requested that he return the book and was going to send it to you, Ves and Nese for your criticisms and opinions and help. Nancy Collinson - (gentle lovely Quaker reviewed the book and expresses the thought that Mr. Richards is wrong in his appraisal...and "anci feels that it is a saleable book) -

Bloke Modisana and Langston Hughes were in TIME magazine...a whole page... African poetry and all that...

I wish I could learn more of your play this evening...there is going to be a meeting with Ves (Tuesday) after the dancers...but there'll be so many of his ole locquacious friends such as Georgia Allen (whom'11 you meet next year - she is the first and only Negro working with the white Academy Theater here in Atlanta-was to be Mr. Macbeth's wife in their first production of Macbeth...but the Board of Directors could not quite accept a beautiful, talented Negress a marryin' up with Mac on the Atlanta stage - so Georgia ended as Miss Witch Number 1) and Alma Simmons (whom'11 you meet next year...she is applying for a Whitney) that I shat be able to talk with him concerning your production or what he is planning or what Nes and Chia are doing...

Even if I were a famous person...never would I ever be heard or recognized in the presence of Alma and Georgia...even at Quaker tables where the hostess rings the bell so that the shy may talk...Georgia and Alma just blab-blab-blab...Nese can confirm this...

I got fired from the Gawguh Council...am now employed one floor above the PHYLON office at Atlanta University...

In the event Mr. Richards has not mailed the manuscript back...I've enclosed this card for him to release this PRIZE OF PUBLISHING ENDEAVOR to you...

Thank you and warmest regards to you...

Liaison

Hello...

Enclosed letter is a carbon copy of one sent to Pageant Press. Enclosed are a few examples of the
pictures (uncaptioned) used in the book. These are the poor prints - extra ones - that I did not
discard - they are to convey what sort of pictures we chose to caption -

There is no mention being made in the news magazines concerning the opening of your play...unless -
it is OFF-BROADWAY...even these plays are criticized in news media...

There are no Langston Hughes paper backs in any book store in Atlanta...James Baldwin, John Griffin, Ralph Ellison, etc...but no LANGSTON HUGHES!

It is still my affirmation that Simple needs to be cartooned, syndicated for Negro and white news-
papers...White America does not know black America at all...the artist who did the Simple sketches
for your THE BEST OF SIMPLE - he is excellent...

Your secretary has left you for John Whitney--see--what education does for us NIGRAS...we want to
get better than HARLEM...

Mr. Seth Richards
Pageant Press
101 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

IN DEFENSE OF A BOOK

There is no possible way that white America can comprehend the
stigma of blackness...

This little book is such an attempt...

In view of Friday, November 22, 1963 - there is an ever greater
need for the racial hatreds that sicken American concepts to be
tempered in the gentle annealing of satire and humor.

The silent and spoken hatreds one encounters in this supposedly
progressive southern city embitter one...there is the choice of
creating a scabrous utterance ...

This little book representing Atlanta's widely known Negro
news commentator, Jim Wood...

An art teacher widely known in the Negro community, Alma Simmons...
Local Negro and white children portrayed photogenically...this
has never, never in publishing history been presented...

The magnificent satire of Mr. Hughes and Mr. East - who need to
be read and sold in the south and are not --- the publicity of
Jim Wood's name alone could have sold 250,000 copies!

Nancy Collinson (Quaker - white) who advised me prior to mailing
the rough first draft to you stated simply...

"It's a good book, Harriett - it's a fun book!"

You gave me no advice - no criticism - nothing, but be that as it
may, this little book is needed - whether or not it could be pro-
jected into a best seller rather becomes insignificant - if
it could approach only 250,000 persons - this minute number might
laugh at the racial disorders and understand better...

And certainly - America needs an infusion of laughter to
subordinate its hatreds.

is strong -

hot, strong, heady as Creole coffee -
For a while, one entertained the hope that Jim Wood and Georgia Allen (Nese and Ves's friend) were going to radio dramatize theater on WAOK - and your JERICHO-JIM CROW (which your secretary sent me) was to be given to Jim and Georgia -

You have sent me two plays - both with this kind of strength - which should be presented in the South - but conversely - won't be -

CORE Has not ever come into Atlanta -
There is much divisiveness among the Negro leadership here - Martin L. King, Jr. is not nearly as appreciated in Atlanta as he is in northern, western and other southern cities...

VANGUARD PRESS wants $2875 and 60% for publishing YIELD RIGHT OF WAY to Langston Hughes and P. D. East -

If I had $2875 I'd back one of your or Nese's productions...

This Rosalie King - it seems as though her name is familiar because of her performance with the Gospel personnel who were in your Black Nativity presentation.

For Christmas gifts I gave 6 Charles White litographs - one - the Dove of Peace that you are using on your ad here.

When are you going to Africa - one learns much from Afircan students here - much of their racial pride in themselves, their heritage, their culture, their country, their women -

Maybe you have these Atlanta U publications - everywhere I go to work here, I ask that your name be put on the mailing lists - for informative purposes to you in regard to your writing.

Still - your plays and books are not on sale in this city -

The Negro migrant farm worker needs to be produced in a documentary, play, dance group to help Herbert Hill direct the apathetic attention of America to this raging injustice -

And a HAPPY YOM KIPUR TO YOU ....

thank you...

Harriett

January 28, 1964

Dear Harriett Adams:

Many thanks for letting me see the
photographs....good luck with the
book, but as you know, photographic
books are expensive to publish which
necessitates a high selling price and
therefore reduces the market.

JERICO is playing to standing-room
only these days...(week-ends). However,
the production will be playing various
churches and lodges in the New York
area on week days...several have been
booked already. It is an exciting show-
things really rock. So if you come to
New York any time soon, be sure and see
it. I made my debut as a composer in
this show. Two of my songs (words and
music by Langston Hughes), HE'S SUCH A
LITTLE KING and FREEDOM LAND, are used
and FREEDOM LAND has become the hit of
the show. According to the TRIBUNE, it
is destined to join the canons of great
Negro Music....and I can't even read
music.

Cordial regards to you--and hello to
Ves when you see him (he did the lighting,
costumes and decor for JERICO).

April 7th

[1944? ]

Hello....

I dinna no get to meet him ... your secretary!

Why you don't come down here - but first compose and ODE to NEGRO
PRESIDENTS WHO NEED TO RETIRE AND GO ON WORLD TOURS SO THAT NEWNESS
CAN ENVELOPE NEGRO INSTITUTIONS - and then read the ode from the
stage of the new Fine Arts Building at Spelman...

The main criticism of the book is that there were really three books
in one - Langston Hughes, P. D. East, the photographs. I sent the
section of P. D. East to P. D. East and enclosed is the section of
Langston Hughes (sorry that I tore up the book THE BEST OF SIMPLE,
but in retyping your stories, the space was of so much paper - and I
was too darn lazy to retype 60 stories + the articles of Mr. East) -
and one photograph to give you an idea of the photographic section.

Thank you very much for your kindness, your criticism, - but most of
all thank you that even if the book ain't goona git published - your
friendship.

The erudite President of that GRET NIGRA College - CLARK - is ulcerating
Ves. Alma suggested that they all (college presidents) be retired as
Bishops...Ves suggests lining them all up and shooting them!

bye...

Harriett

April 15, 1964

Dear Harriett Adams,

It was kind of you to send me photos and excerpts from your book YIELD TO THE RIGHT AWAY. I am returning them to you in case you have need of them. Thanks for letting me see them--I found them quite interesting. Of course, I was delighted to see the use of SIMPLE. He is a good friend of mine.

George was in Atlanta to see Hamlet, he asked your friend, Alma, about you but never got the promised meeting with you. I suppose the weekend was a hurried one.

I just returned from the West Indies--a lecture tour--and a few days in San Juan. It was a pleasure to enjoy good warm sun shine, but I suppose you have it too by now. We yet await Spring in New York at present it is mostly rain, rain, rain which reminds me I have thunderous deman for letters and books and articles and I hasten to their biddings.

April 13, 1964

Miss Harriett Adams
1122 Ridge Avenue, S.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30314

Dear Harriett Adams:

I don't believe that I acknowledged to
you in my last note the wonderful letter which
you wrote me back in February regarding the
Civil rights movement in Atlanta and the
demonstration which you witnessed and which you
described so vividly. Your letters are most
interesting to me and I am always grateful to
receive them even though I may not answer very
promptly.

One reason that I do not answer letters
quickly is that I get so many that it is very
difficult for me to keep up with mail and keep
up with my other work especially when I am out
of town a great deal as I have been the latter
part of this winter, having just recently
returned from a lecture trip which included the
West Indies. So, you will forgive my
negligence but please know that I appreciate
very much all of the information and anecdotes
which you send me from the South.

With cordial regards.

LH:r

May 4, 1964

Hello there ...

And many congratulations - also you are appearing on the NAACP closed circuit spectacular - read an ODE to the Hegro Presidents - RETIRE, RETIRE, RETIRE!

This paper is sent for the purpose of pointing out the divisiveness in the Negro Leadership here in Atlanta.

The Summit Conference is now directed by Clarence Coleman of the National Urban League and Revered Samuel Williams, Faculty member of Morehouse.

The Voter's League is directed by a Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Warren Cochran (who used to be THE SUMMIT CONFERENCE) and a noted real estate dealer, Mr. Q. V. Williamson.

The Citizens for Progress lists the names of:

Senator Leroy Johnson

Robert A. Thompson

Mrs. P. Q. Yancey - beautiful wife of a prominent physician

Mr. C. R. Yates - prominent businessman.

The Negroes are incensed because the Voters League came out for an affirmative vote on the liquor bill - it is explained in the front page article.

The Voters League has been criticized very much for representing the voice of Atlanta when in truth - it represents only a few leaders.

For years, Atlanta's famous Colonel A. T. Walden was the leader of the Summit Conference. He was given a judgeship at the age of 75 this spring and has retired behind the scenes. Not before he was vehemently branded by the younger generation as an "Uncle Tom"...

But in truth, there are no leaders in Atlanta - tragically, the prominent Negroes who are outstanding politically and in civic matters represent only a segment of the populace - the middle class Negroes and seem to shun the little people about whom Simple writes. This is the American tragedy for us. There is so much division - Martin Luther, Jr. epitomizes the Prophet Without Honor in His Country - the SNCC group is not being supported locally. There is division in the NAACP - aw - and then one reads of Jim Farmer's CORE split - we just don't produce strong, dynamic leaders other than A. Phillips Randolph and the wondrous W. E. DuBois or E. Franklin Frazier.

I attended a Black Muslim meeting last week. Dr. Lonnie Cross - M.I.T. and Cornell who was asked to resign from AU last summer spoke - brilliant man. But he is really a devout, embittered Black Muslim - one of the white persons attending asked if whites can be accepted - NO - even the Black Muslim Allah has no compassion for the white devils, according to Lonnie.

I can't really give a true picture of the South - Atlanta is a "safe" city - and the home of so many civil rights and inerracial organizations. But outside the city limits -

I received a letter from an acquaintance with her husband now stationed in Germany - she writes of the disrespect the Germans feel toward America because of the race problems - and - many writers here feel that this summer the turmoil will intensify.

Ves tells us that the white people - aware of the location of Harlem - are making furtive attempts to relocate Negroes out of Harlem and create this very desireable part of the city for whites again -

J. P. is producing Lady Windemere's Fan this week - President Manley will not permit the new Fine Arts Building to be used until September so the play will be given in the usual Howe Hall Auditorium. All the white faculty at Spelman have resigned - relative to the Howard Zinn affair of last June - Clark has no Drama Faculty left - Esther Jackson resigned - Gaffney has a grant and the white instructor was dismissed.

This is the City That Was -

If you need a secretary ere George returns from his Whitney - I'm available in October. I'll insist on two bagel-coffee breaks per day.

Thank you for all the information concerning your travels and productions.

Harriett

Edwin Hope - grandson of the late John Hope - has a book store in the Atlanta University area...I went there today and found two LANGSTON HUGHES BOOKS...the only bookstore in Atlanta that has your publications.

If you have any overprints of pictures of yourself - and could send them as advertising material for Edwin to put in his window...

The kid is really trying to make his store successful and its the only store in Atlanta that is carrying Negro literature in paper-back.

I had - in the original Newsletter - used two of your publications - but there was not enough space in the final draft - I was going to give you some ad space...sorry.

Nes and Ves will be leaving shortly....we'll be impoverished with their exodus!

bye...harriett

August 10, 1964

Hi....

We are going to have us a REVOLT, too!

I need your permission to use the poem - A Dream Deferred -
as the theme and the title of a documentary film -

We are going to do a documentary - take a little black boy and follow
him from his slum-area dwelling - all through the streets of Atlanta -
a day's passage in his life depicting all the effects and ugliness of
day's living in the black ghetto...

Alma - Nese and Ves's friend - will be doing the photography -

There is going to be a picket and boycott of this school -
It is located downtown in the Atlanta garment district area - congested
traffic - we learned from good sources that the Board had planned this
this move three years ago - and we sleeping Negroes are now going to
fight it with everything - Constance Motley cited this Smith-Hughes in
the brief she presented two weeks ago -

If you, Nese, Ves have any suggestions, comments concerning the documentary -
I shall be so pleased...

We are going to take a week to film this little boy - and after we have
filmed it, we'll build the spoken story around it - using a tape recorder -

If you have anyone who can tape the sounds of Harlem -
The idea is that the film will show this little boy - and the background will
be the voices of the city, its sounds, comments by people - all kinds of
people relative to civil rights -

It is our hope to make this a poignant beautiful portrayal and then induce
foundation funds to have it make nationally shown -

We find the last words of a Dream Deferred so applicable and necessary to
show America why Harlem, Rochester EXPLODE...

Thank you for you - I'm sending you another packet of information.

Harriett

WE, NEGRO PARENTS IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, APPEAL TO ALL PARENTS AND CITIZENS OF ATLANTA to protest the decision of the Atlanta Board of Education to establish a downtown junior high school for Negro children. Central Junior High School, formerly the Smith-Hughes Vocational School, will be used for the education of 1,200 eighth-grade NEGRO children. Only Negro faculty and administrative personnel will be employed.

IN VIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION OF 1954, Negro parents cannot and will not condone the perpetuation of segregated education as involved in this proposal of the Atlanta Board of Education, for

WE BELIEVE THAT:

a) enforced segregation is not in keeping with the principles of democracy,

b) the use of taxpayers' money to continue segregated education in the schools of Atlanta is illegal,

c) the social, economic, political and religious progress of our city, state and country is impeded by the continued practice of segregation and racial discrimination, and

d) America is being criticized severely for these practices throughout the world.

WE ASK THE SUPPORT OF EVERY CITIZEN who adheres to the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America and, therefore, will not align himself with the policy of continued segregated education in American schools.

WE ASK ALL PEOPLE -- city, County and State officials, and all leaders in professional and civic organizations -- teachers, ministers, and professional men and women, to uphold the Constitution and defend, without qualification, the tenets of the Supreme Court Decision of 1964.

WE FURTHER STATE that we, the Negro Parents in Atlanta, will use every legal and non-violent means at our disposal to secure only that education which is based on democratic principles for our children.

August 12, 1964

Dear Harriett:

Just a hasty note to say that I
grant permission to use my poem A DREAM
DEFERRED as the title and theme of your
proposed non-commercial film. If the
film is released through commercial
channels and shown in theatres for profit
then, of course, payment should in such
a case be made for the use of my poem.

I'm sorry I don't know anyone who
could tape city sounds, etc., for you
here. But you might write Ves about that.
I have only seen him briefly once since
his return, and None not at all.

Those studies of various cities I
have been receiving from the Southern
Region Council are most interesting.
Thanks a lot.

I'm head-over-heels BUSY trying to
get some urgent things writing-wise com-
pleted before I take off in September for
the Berlin Festival. So—

Best ever,
S e
i c r
n e
l y

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Your SIMPLE card is delightful...

We have done 400 feet of film on the documentary - about 100 can be
spliced so far...

We have a dream to have an Arts Festival here in a centrally located
park. We want to incorporate ballet, drama, music, art, photography,
and related media to stimulate a cultural appreciation. It is a
beautiful dream - whether it becomes fruition depends in great part
on the attitude and cooperation of these who are to be involved.

When we establish the date, I shall notify you immediately with the
program in the hope that you can come here to read poetry one of the
evenings. It is to be an eight-day ambition. I'll save my Air Force
Reserve check to pay your expenses.

I listened raptly to Georgia Allen's description of Genet's *The Blacks* and then wrote a play ballet - I have presented it to J. P. Cochran for his appraisal. It is my feeling that the theme - much needed in this area - may be too strong for a Spelman presentation - since Spelman has to remain conservative if its coffers are not to become depleted...

If you are interested - I'll send you a carbon copy - I'm quite proud of
my first effort - interestingly - there are no speaking parts...it
requires the disciplined use of bodies and hands to convey expressions,
passions, feelings to the audience. The similarity is the use of masks...
as Genet. This was done in light of our students laughing at the dramatic
places in tragedies - we feel they identify their student friends in the
roles and maybe in embarrassment - laugh. J did Lora's *The House of
Bernarda Alba* and the student audience laughed so at the wrong places that
one felt an intense concern for the actresses - for J. and for the student's
unawareness of this magnificently done play.

There still is no recognition of Langston Hughes. May I project the idea to
you that you utilize the very clever Jules P. Eiffier method of cartoon dialogue
and have Simple speaking in this manner? Simple must reach more of an
audience and because we are not prone to reading - perhaps a cartoon-dialogue
approach will be more effective.

Unfortunately - neither the black nor white element in Atlanta has recognized Dr. King's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize. We must kill him first and then we'll emulate him as we did Jesus, Kennedy, Medgar Evers!

Thank you for you...HAPPY HANNUKAH!

Harriett

MEMBER
UNITED NERVOUS
COLLEGE FUND

Placement Bureau, Box 198

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30314

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York 35, New York

December 29, 1964

A very strange and ugly incident occurred today. I let my funny, joyous dog outdoors to go to the bathroom. I hear her barking and go to the window to see at whom she is fussing...then she squats to relieve herself and I hear a strange cracking noise and my dog begins to cry plaintively. I'm thinking it is a man downstairs hitting her with a stick because he does not like her - I hear the dog crying in pain and I think coming upstairs to me... angrily I rush to the door to explode - "What the devil are you doing hitting her...?" and she is lying on the stoop caught in the throes of death... someone had shot her. And then one watches her die - unable to do anything... in helpless anger...and one recalls November 22, 1963 - and realizes the sounds of the shot in the stillness of the air -

So you see what we civilized people do - we entrust to our young first the innocent cap guns - then the bee-bee guns, then the air rifles - we encourage them to hunt and destroy animals and then - we - civilized man create the powerful weapons of destruction - thrust them into the hands of our young and extol them to destroy the enemy. And for the many that our young destroy - we give them medals and glory - and each December 25th we sing of...

## PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN...

One wonders - are we better in 1964 for the birth of this splendid representative of democracy and brotherhood who spoke so tenderly...Let Us Now Praise Little People...how can we speak of peace and continue to stockpile our countries with nuclear forces - pollute our waters, kill the animals-

As Tennessee Williams points out in his play - Night of the Iguana - and then we destroy the noblest of all God's creations - MAN...how can we sing praises to the birth of this man and continue to be destructive... Is there an answer?

1964 has been for me mostly a year of seeking answers that are never found.

I do so want to believe that 1965 will be better for mankind but the realities projected negate this. It seems that instead of growing in grace, beauty, courage, kindliness - man is retrogressing.

One is in great sympathy with today's children - the paradoxical complexities that we have bequeathed them give them no outlet except to - as is so vividly expressed in Langston Hughe's poem - to explode. We adults have not the courage to stimulate their courageous stands taken to dignify freedom - whether it is in civil rights, the Hungarian revolt, their rejection of nuclear stockpiling - we give them nothing but admonishments that are void and dull...we give them richly of material values and mouth pious platitudes which don't envelope our daily living - and we criticize and judge them harshly when they fail to measure our standards...

"What is man that Thou art mindful of him..."

We here in Atlanta have failed miserably to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. - both Negro and white. We must kill him first to emulate him - as we did Socrates and Jesus and innumerable other brave, splendid, superb persons...

One reads that the pollution of America's waters will cause a serious shortage of fresh water in 1970 - one reads of the fish who are dying by the thousands in our rivers - the animals and birds who are dying because of the sprayed pesecticides - the increase of luekemia in our children - the doctor in Great Britian who gives his children candy made from kelp to build a resistance against the radioactive particles in the atmosphere...one recalls a snowfall in Atlanta and the necessity to admonish the children not to make snow ice cream -

PEACE ON EARTH - GOOD WILL TO ALL MEN...
HAPPIE NEW YEAR...

So you see how so very important it is our obligation now - as never before in the painful histroy of man's evolving from the slime to attempt to touch the stars - how so very much we must walk in beauty and love and care and brotherhood and compassion...

It is stated so eloquently in the 13th chapter of Corinthians...

This is not a joyous New Year greeting to you - I don't feel joyous -
I feel most disturbed about mankind -

But I do thank you for your Christmas expression to me - and I would wish
that you would write to me - we live only a few fragile moments and it is
rather sad that we reach out to one another for communication only on
December 25th...

Great and deep love -

Harriett

January, 1965

Hello...

"More than a year since John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, it is still just as easy for a Lee Harvey Oswald to buy firearms - and just as difficult to get legislation through Congress limiting their sale to responsible citizens who have a legitimate use for deadly weapons.

But the pressure for some kind of effective control is building up. Senator T. J. Dodd, who has unsuccessfully sought such legislation before, said last week that he intends to re-introduce his own firearms control bill as soon as Congress meets on January 4. Dodd also had a word of warning for the pressure groups which, he feels, are responsible for thwarting similar legislation. He told NEWSWEEK: "I intend to identify and expose the activities of the powerful lobbyists who have successfully stopped gun legislation from being passed in every Congress."

In no major nation of the world is the sale, possession, and use of firearms so free, untrammelled, and diligently promoted as in the U.S. In 29 states, there are no restrictions whatever on the sale of firearms. In most states, firearms may be bought freely on the open market by anyone old enough to carry his purchase out of the store. There is no registration, and no questions are asked as to criminal record, dope addiction, or the purpose for which the weapon is bought. Lee Oswald used an assumed name when he bought the 6.5 mm. Italian Mannlicher-Carcano he used to murder President Kennedy. But he needn't have bothered. He could have bought it just as easily in his own name; indeed, since the assassination several hundred rifles of the same type have been sold, mostly to the curious; some 40 in Atlanta and 60 in Phoenix, and 100 to 150 in the Dallas area.

Senator Dodd and others have introduced a total of eighteen different bill in Congress, all aimed at bringing the traffic in private arms under some kind of government supervision. So far, none of these bills has passed - a failure due almost entirely to the lobbying activities of a 93 year old organization called the National Rifle Association of America.

The National Rifle Association is encrusted with respectability. Its membership, including affiliates, is nearly 1 million. From the NRA's $3.5 million glass and granite headquarters on Washington D.C.'s Rhode Island Avenue, flows an unending stream of hortatory advice to members. The gist of it: oppose all virtually all legislation that would in any way restrict the sale of firearms in the U.S. The NRA, however, says it does favor legislation against the "misuse" of firearms.

The organization's officials boast privately that they can flood Congress with more than 500,000 pieces of mail on 72 hours' notice, if unfavorable proposed legislation warrants it. Of its annual income of approximately $4 million, the NRA gets $1 million from the sale of advertisements for weapons in its monthly publication, The American Rifleman. The NRA is also recipient of governmental bounty that other organizations might well envy; since 1959 it has received government subsidies to the tune of more than $12 million, $7.3 in the form of free ammunition for its clubs, plus out-rate prices on surplus or obsolete U.S. military weapons like the M-1, M-1 carbine, and the .22 caliber pistol." NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE

"In spite of the outcome of the elections, the extreme rightist elements in our country present a serious and continuing threat to our democratic institutions and even to peaceful survival in the atomic age."

74

Members of one ultra-right group, "Soldiers of the Cross," turn for their inspiration to "the Assyrian armies of old (who) would gouge out eyeballs." The manual of this group, entitled "Get Ye up into the High Mountains," contains such things as "A gun is the most important part of your preparation, "Play war each and every minute, so that when the actual moment comes, you are conditioned to it," and then proposes decapitation and display of dead bodies as a good means of terrorizing the enemy! This cannot be dismissed as merely the extremism of a "fringe" group, for this manual has been circulated by the Liberty Lobby of Washington, D.C., the self-styled "Conservative Coalition" which has the support of a number of prominent Senators and Congressmen. In fact the Lobby advertised this "guerilla warfare" manual for "Christmas giving"!

In the Congressional Record for September 25, 1964, Senator Metcalf (Mont.) tells of a "far from complete survey" of more than 200 private power companies which "give financial and leadership support to a host of reactionary, right-wing propaganda groups . . . 84% are for less than $500 each . . . are more easily concealed from regulatory agencies. Unitemized "charity" donations totaled over $15 million. Other gifts to the right-wing are labeled "miscellaneous expenses." Mount a counter attack against a new rightist letter campaign which aims to prevent the Xerox Corporation from sponsoring a new educational series about the United Nations. Write a supporting letter to Xerox Corporation, 6 Haloid Street, Rochester 3, N.Y."
**RELIGIOUS FREEDOM NEWS**

John Francis Kennedy - Lyndon Baines Johnson
Medgar Evers - Charles Evers

Across the street from the warehouse in which Anne Frank hid for two years with her family from the Nazis is a Youth Hostel named the ANNE FRANK HOUSE... And a project of many persons from Oberlin College went to the small town in Mississippi to begin rebuilding a burned church - the local white people did not participate, but it is written that the wood for the church was sold at wholesale price - quietly by the local lumberman...(they went this Christmas season...)

The boys came back for three days to the campus with their 22 rifles - shooting the pigeons - the squirrels...one does not call the police - there is a paradox here. Negroes in the south, the slum ghettos of the North feel great hatred towards the white police - there is much here in Atlanta that one asks of and receives not from our local law officers. During the SNCC sit-ins last January - only then did one see Negro policemen utilized in the downtown areas...so - I could only admonish the shooting youths to leave the campus - and point out the illegality of their having guns within the city limits... My dog is being replaced by herniece who is approximately one week old...

"Blessed are the serene in spirit - blessed are they who are not held by possessions for they shall be free - blessed are they who remember their pain and in their pain await their joy - blessed are they who hunger after truth and beauty, for their hunger shall bring bread, and their thirst cool water - blessed are the kindly, for they shall be consoled by their own kindliness - blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall be one with God - blessed are the merciful, for mercy shall be in their portion - blessed are the peacemakers, for their spirit shall dwell above the battle and they shall turn the potter's field into a garden - blessed are they who are hunted, for they shall be swift of foot and they shall be winged... He is gone now...and something that was in me is gone also... Perhaps it was my youth that would not tarry here...since the God of youth was slain..." Kahlil Gibran

Great and deep love -

Harriett

U.S. POSTAGE 5¢

Stop
traffic
accidents

enforcement, education, engineering

HARYOU-ACT, Inc.

2092 - 7TH AVENUE
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027

865-3300

September 30, 1965

Mrs. Harriett Adams
American Friends Service Committee
5 West Commerce Street
Bridgeton, New Jersey

Dear Mrs. Adams:

This is to acknowledge receipt of your resume and the
Middle Atlantic Region News flyer, which was received
in our office September 30, 1965.

We have forwarded this information to Mrs. Elizabeth
Anderson, Personnel Director, to await the arrival of
the application, which we enclosed in our letter of
September 22nd.

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this
matter.

LLW:ib

cc: Mrs. Elizabeth Anderson, Personnel Director

So you see, I go to Jamaica, to do some politikking for a job with
HARYOU-ACT...you know, name-droppin' and all that...so this friend
who has a swimming pass at Mrs. Basies's pool sez...

"Girl, I gotta friend workin' at HARYOU...she can tell you who is
in the "know" for a job there...and so she proceeds to call her
"in-the-know-friend"...

Reply...

"Lawd, no, I ain't workin' at HARYOU anymo'...I got tired of them
miggers and got me a job workin' with white folks.!!"

America, America, enjoy, enjoy...

FOR INFORMATION ONLY -

Executive Committee of the Fulton County Democratic Club.

SENATOR LEROY JOHNSON President
DR. C. MILES SMITH Vice President
MRS. WILLIE LOUIS Secretary
MRS. P. Q. YANCY Treasurer
REV. R. B. SHORTS Chaplain
SENATOR HORACE WARD

Chairman of Executive Committee

Members:

Mr. V. W. Hodges
Mrs. Octavia Milton
Rev. W. W. Weatherspool
Mrs. Eddie Billingsley
Mrs. Eunice Cooper
Representative William H. Alexander
Mrs. Bessie Wynn
Dr. Tillman Cothran
Mr. E. J. Shepherd
Mr. Bennie T. Smith
Mr. B. F. Hurt
Mr. W. Z. Miller
Mr. Emory McClinton
Mr. L. D. Simon
Rev. M. L. King
Johnny Carr
Representative J. C. Daugherty
Representative J. D. Grier
Mrs. Ella M. Brayboy

Dr. Rufus Clement
Dr. Horace Tate
Mr. E. A. Starling
Rev. Samuel Williams
Representative Ben Brown
Dr. Wellington Parker
Dr. Benjamin Mays
Mrs. Geneva Haugabrooks
Mrs. Anvella Booker
Mr. I. Beckells
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Representative Grace Hamilton
Mr. Charles Hart
Mr. Robert Dobbs
Representative John Hood
Mrs. Christine Hurt
Mrs. W. H. Aikens
Mr. and Mrs. E. Smith
Rev. C. A. Samples

September 19, 1966

Dear Harriett:

It's PRICELESS, invaluable, and the greatest tribute to the Race I have heard, seen, or read in years! I shall preserve it for posterity---and for myself, so when you come back to Manhattan again, I can show it to you.

Thanks, thanks, thanks!

Thank you very much... Edwin has two and I kept two for mahself.

Western Reserve - excellent - you are making splendid, eloquent music all over America...

SNCC receives no local Atlanta support -
SCLC receives no local Atlanta support -
Atlanta is E. Franklin Frazier's so well - Black Bourgeoise...

We have the civil rights Attorney Don Hollowell competing against Judge Durwood Pye...we have the Negro power structure again Hollowell ... we have Negroes here in Atlanta who don't know what SNCC means...

Part of the SNCC office personnel will establish themselves in Greenwood, Mississippi. These were the plans prior to the disappearance of the three persons at Philadelphia.

Enclosed is a copy of Don's letter...

If you know of any good white folks who want to sling money around for the Nigra cause - tell 'em to send about $50,000 to Don - for his campaign funds...

The Cernys who teach at Spelman have lent me their records for the summer so I have Langston Hughes reciting...

I have Known Rivers...and Paul Robeson singing...
This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let It Shine...

Our local NAACP is scotch on the rocks - plumb gone to pot... I've recommended myself as Executive Secretary and used the name of Mr. Langston Hughes for a reference. The NAACP here is E. Franklin Frazier black bourgeoise and represents the masses of Negroes not...I'm offended that this is true - and so if - there is a prostitution of DuBois's ideal - it must be righted -

Thank you again - I'll keep sending you literature -

Harriett

In your book concerning the Negro in American history - there are references to two men - each with the name Langston - are these your relatives...I think Dr. Killingsworth tells me that --- there is some history about your family beginning associated with this book...but I don't recall what Dr. Killingsworth told me. Incidentally, I have a note for Dr. Killingsworth but he has not sent me his Columbia University address.

Dear ____________

It is my pleasure to personally announce to you my candidacy for the office of Judge, Superior Court, to succeed Judge Durwood T. Pye. Your support and your vote will be most appreciated by me.

Enclosed is a brochure which in a few words states my basic qualifications and my pledge.

Atlanta has made great political and economic progress. Moreover, Atlanta has made considerable progress in race relations. To have me elected judge, based on qualifications and experiences, would be thoroughly consistent with all for which we have been struggling and with the progressive program which has made Atlanta a symbol for pioneering achievement throughout the nation.

The full support of our immediate community, plus some support from other communities, can virtually assure my election. Because of demonstrated legal ability and judgment and the wide publicity given to me and my work over the past several years, I stand in a peculiarly strategic position to defeat Judge Pye. These strategic advantages are not matched by any other candidate in the race.

I hope I may count on your support.

Sincerely yours,

Thank you ...

We can replace the dog...
We replace JFK with LBJ
And Medgar Evers with Charles -

But how do you replace the values in our Lee Oswalds when we give them
a society of destruction, hatred, indignities to all mankind?

We build a church of dedication to Godman, and the other two youths
that we killed in Mississippi last summer...

But how do we erect a church within ourselves....?

Was the Karamu House in existence in Cleveland when you were a student
at East High School...

I hear no more news concerning Mrs. Hansberry - TIME magazine related her
being in a coma - and I learned it is terminal cancer...

You know or may have read of Tup Holmes - father of Hamilton of the
University of Georgia fame... Tup has ca of the lung and a superb
attitude - such as Ed Murrow and Lillian Smith - this does not mean
he has to die...but, I listen to conversation -

Tell Simple it goes such as this...

Ya heard about Tup - man, they opened him up ...sewed him right back
up - cancer - ya know what that means - ain't gotta chancet - bring me
another beer...

Hello - and thank you for you...

Harriett