TOUGALOO COLLEGE

UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION
TOUGALOO, MISS.

WILLIAM H. WATKINS
CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES

OFFICE OF THE DEAN

January 15, 1948

Mr. Langston Hughes
Atlanta University
Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Mr. Hughes:

The newly elected president of Tougaloo College, Rev. Harold C. Warren, will be inaugurated on Sunday, April 4. At that time, we are also dedicating the new auditorium-gymnasium which is named in honor of Mr. Fred. L. Brownlee, Executive Secretary of the American Missionary Association.

In connection with the inauguration of the president and the dedication of this new building, the college is conducting a series of seminars starting on Friday afternoon, April 2 and ending with the inauguration of the president on Sunday, April 4. The general theme of the seminars is "Satisfying and Rewarding Uses of Leisure". One of the seminars will deal with the cultural arts. This seminar will be held on Friday afternoon or Friday night, April 2. The purpose of this letter is to invite you to take part in this seminar and to give several readings from your works. At your earliest convenience will you please write us the terms for such an engagement?

Many members of the faculty and staff recall with a great deal of delight your previous appearance at Tougaloo College. We hope that it will be possible for you to come to Tougaloo on Friday, April 2, or Saturday, April 3.

Best wishes.

LBF:ht

December 12, 1950

Mr. Lionel B. Fraser, Dean
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo, Mississippi

Dear Dean Fraser:

I have recently completed a Book Week tour of the colleges of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, reading my poems at Virginia State College, Coppin State Teachers College, Livingstone College, and Johnson C. Smith, as well as several other campuses and high schools from Baltimore to Charlotte.

During Negro History Week I shall again be in the South and, should you care to have me visit your student body, I would be happy to do so. I remember past visits to your community with pleasure.

According to my schedule at the moment, Wednesday or Thursday, February 14th or 15th would most conveniently fit into my itinerary, but it might be possible to arrange a slightly earlier or slightly later date if neither of these days seem feasible to you. My in transit fee this season for a program is $100.00.

My new book of poems, MONTAGE OF A DREAM DEFERRED, will be appearing in February. I shall include on my program new poems from this volume as well as selections suitable to Negro History Week. Since I can be away from New York for only ten days and my schedule is already rapidly being filled in, I would appreciate hearing from you shortly should you desire an appearance before your student body.

With very best regards and all good wishes, I am

LH/nwv

Enclosure

April 23, 1952

Dear Mr. Fraser,

I have written the Chairman of the Lyceum Committee regarding Langston Hughes' prospective lecture tour of the mid-South in October of this year. I thought perhaps you would be interested to know that Mr. Hughes has lectured at Talladega, Tillotson, Bishop and Morris College in South Carolina during this past season as a featured attraction of Book Week, Omega Achievement Week and Negro History Week. This Spring he has lectured at Barnard College, New York University, and will shortly speak at Cornell University.

In case your institution would be interested in having Langston Hughes give a reading of his poems on your campus, he suggests any date between October 14th through the 17th, or any day during the week of October 26th through thr 31st. Mr. Hughes' fee for next season will be $150.00.

While on a campus Mr. Hughes is always happy to meet with English classes, student literary groups, or aspiring writers, and to give them the benefit of his experience and advice. You may write Langston Hughes at the address indicated above.

With kindest regards.

Copy sent to Pres. Harold C. Warren

July 24, 1952

Mr. E. A. Lomax, Jr.,
College Program Committee,
Tougaloo College,
Tougaloo, Mississippi.

Dear Mr. Lomax,

I am just back from the country to find your letter of July 14th awaiting me. So far as I know, there has been no previous communication from the secretary of your Lyceum Committee.

But, since I shall be coming to Jackson College in October, I would also be happy to visit Tougaloo again. My last trip there in Dr. Holmes' day, I remember with great pleasure. So I shall be delighted to read my poems for your students on Friday, October 31, and to meet with some classes that day, or the next. The fee will be as indicated in your letter, namely $150.00, and our letters may be considered binding, unless you wish to send me a more formal contract.

Looking forward to seeing you in the fall, I am

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COPY SENT TO:
Pres. Harold C. Warren
Tougaloo College,
Tougaloo, Mississippi.

20 East 127th Street,
New York 35, New York,
July 24, 1952.

Dear Mr. Lomax,

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
TOUGALOO COLLEGE
TOUGALOO, MISSISSIPPI

August 2, 1952

Dr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York, N. Y.

Dear Dr. Hughes:

Mr. E. A. Lomax has forwarded
to me your letter of July 24th,
since he will not be at Tougaloo
College in the autumn.

I am delighted to know that
we shall have the pleasure of your
presence on Friday, October 31.
Please accept this letter as con-
firmation. I understand that the
fee will be $ 150.00. Please let
me know, when convenient, when and
where to meet you upon your arrival
in Jackson.

Looking forward with pleasure
to the occasion, I am

September 27, 1952

Rev. Harold C. Warren,
Tougaloo College,
Tougaloo, Mississippi.

Dear Mr. Warren,

Thank you for your two notes regarding the date, and its remaining as is,
Friday, October 31. My plan now is to arrive on your campus the night before,
but I will let you know the exact time later.

As you probably know, I shall be spending the week of October 19-24 on the
campus of Jackson College participating in their Literary Festival along with
a number of other writers they have invited, so perhaps I shall see you during
that week. I plan to arrive there in time for the opening Vespers at which
Sterling Brown is speaking.

In case your librarian would like to use them for posters or exhibition purposes, I am asking my various publishers to send you some dust jackets of my books. Also I am sending a few of my songs in case you might care to have one or two of the campus singers use one or more of them on my program. This is quite optional, as you wish, and depending on whether anyone wishes to learn them. In any case, there may be music both before and after my lecture-reading if you like, and usually someone introduces me to the audience. My part of the program is a single continuity, usually about an hour in length, or a bit more if desired.

I'll bring along a dozen or two copies of my recent books, in case persons at the program may wish to secure autographed copies.

And according to my schedule at the moment, I'd like to catch the Northbound City of New Orleans from Jackson on Saturday morning, November 1.

I'm looking forward to my visit to Tougaloo. I remember so well Dr. Holmes, Jonathan Brooks, and others whom I met there before, and what a friendly and attractive campus Tougaloo is.

On tour,
New Orleans, La.,

October 28, 1952.

Pres. Harold C. Warren,
Tougaloo College,
Tougaloo, Mississippi.

Dear Mr. Warren,

I shall arrive Jackson on Thursday evening, October 30th at 7:55 P.M. on the Panama Limited, remaining over until Saturday when I must leave for Lane College.

Some of my Omega fraternity brothers, including Mr. Branch, whom I met last week at Jackson College said that they would meet in Jackson, if desired. Before coming out to Tougaloo I must stop at the College and pick up some laundry and other things I left there, please, if possible. I shall have had dinner on the train.

I am looking forward to seeing you soon,

FREE SOUTHERN THEATER
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo, Mississippi

May 12, 1964

Langston Hughes
c/o Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
14 East 38th Street
New York 16, New York

Dear Mr. Hughes:

I want to acknowledge your generous gifts to the Free
Southern Theater. The ten dollars ($10.00) is much appreciated
as are the two books, which are already cataloged and comprise
the beginning of what we hope will become the Free Southern
Theater Library.

You may be interested in knowing that in order to fully
develop the ideals and aims of the theater project, we have
revised our summer plans for it. We believe that the next
three months can best be used to search out talent in
Mississippi and the South, and to select on a national level the
actors, technicians and other theater personnel--Negro and white--
for a company.

We hope to have a thirty-member resident company which
will begin an intensive training program in all aspects of the
theater for a period of twenty weeks--from September 6, 1964
through January 23, 1965. Our producing season will be from
January 24, 1965 through May 29, 1965. The Free Southern Theater
will stage three plays during this season in Jackson, and will
also tour throughout Mississippi. Since the company will be
self-contained, those asked to join will be selected according
to talent and willingness to participate in all phases of theater
work.

Here in Jackson, Mississippi, where the malignant social
situation and vacuous cultural level must be faced, as well as
the artistic demands of drama, theater is an awesome task.
With your support, a sensitive, well-oriented theater can
develop and begin to build an intellect in the South of which
we can be proud.

Thank you again for your interest in and support of the
Free Southern Theater.

PWH:pfh

FRIENDS OF TOUGALOO

211 W. 56th St. New York 10019

Membership fee of $.................... 196....
paid on..................

Keep this stub for your records

FRIENDS OF TOUGALOO

Dear Mr. Kaplan:

Yes, I want to be among the Friends of Tougaloo. Please enroll me
as a member. My check in the amount of $.................... is enclosed.

Life Membership.... $500      Sponsoring ......... $75
Annual Memberships      Supporting ......... 50
Sustaining ....... $100      Contributing ......... 25

Checks made payable to TOUGALOO COLLEGE are tax deductible.

Name..................................................

(Please Print)

Address..................................................

City........................................ State.................. Zip No............

FRIENDS OF TOUGALOO

211 West 56th Street

New York, New York 10019

KIVIE KAPLAN, PRESIDENT
LEROY JACKSON, EXEC. DIR.

Dear Friend of Tougaloo:

James Carson* is a Negro.

James Carson is also poor.

James Carson has just graduated from a very small, poorly equipped Negro high school in Greenville, Mississippi.*

Under ordinary circumstances James would find some kind of work on the farm or in the nearby paper mill doing those things which are considered "proper" for Negroes in the Deep South.

However, an extraordinary circumstance has changed James's whole outlook on his future. Last September, upon the recommendation of his school principal, James talked to the Admission Officer of Tougaloo College. Academic tests had indicated that if James could be enrolled in Tougaloo's famed pre-freshman summer seminar for entering students and could discipline himself to accept two years of extremely hard work, he could do college work and perhaps follow in the footsteps of other Tougaloo graduates into the professional schools at the major universities.

James Carson is going to try.

Helping him are the members of a new organization known as the "Friends of Tougaloo." These are people like you and me who admire raw courage and who want to lend a helping hand when it can do the most good.

I guess you could call us a sort of "foster Alumni" of Tougaloo, providing through our annual gifts the scholarship aid which boys like James Carson must have if their dreams are to come true.

Not that James or others like him are going to have everything handed to them. To the contrary, just as soon as the "catching up" process has been completed, James will receive

Request of Langston Hughes

some scholarship aid, but will also have a part-time job
through the work-study program of the College. Even so, with
a family income of less than $1,500, it is easy to understand
that James is going to need help and lots of it.

Through their gifts the "Friends of Tougaloo" provide this
help. There are four annual memberships:

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     1. Contributing member
    </td>
    <td>
     $ 25.00
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     2. Supporting member
    </td>
    <td>
     50.00
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     3. Sponsoring member
    </td>
    <td>
     75.00
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     4. Sustaining member
    </td>
    <td>
     100.00
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

A life membership is $500 and can be taken out in units for
each member of one's family.

I hope you will consider joining the "Friends of Tougaloo"
through one of the memberships described above.

Please use the enclosed reply envelope to register your
enrollment and your desire to lend a helping hand to James
Carson and others like him.

*Name and place fictional to protect actual student.