The Theatre

Concert and opera

painting: Jacob Laurence, Romare Bearden etc.

medicine: Hinton

Jackie

Charles D. Drew etc.

sports, Jo Louis, Levi Jackson, Ray Robinson, Satchel Paige etc.

The boy who does my mounting

photographer Carleton at Ivy's.

Langston Hughes, JWJ, DP, Walter Wjite, Still, and barthe

Pushkin and Dumas

The past two decades have been perhaps the most wonderful advance for the Negro in the history of any race. And the Yale Collection represents this as advanced. Parts in the theatre, writes, sports, painter, etc.

Janet Collins combination of Jo Baker, arkova, Isadora, and Argentinita

The JWJ Collection is the only collection in pristine condition.

The schomburg Collection largely rebound, wrappers destroyed etc. Fisk, Mrs Spingarn's super Collection now at Howard.

JAMES Balwin, etc.

Torrence, 1917/Gilpin EM Jones, 1920.

In September 1926, James Weldon Johnson wrote his secretary, Richetta G. Randolph, "Thank you so much for sending me the clippings re Van Vechten's book. I was much interested in your reaction to the story. You are right in feeling that *that* story is in many respects --in fact, in the main-- unpleasant. At the same time I believe that you feel it is truth. It is truth, and it is life as you and I know it to be. We could find a counterpart in Harlem life for everything Mr Van Vechten has pictured in his book. Of course, we often dislike the truth. I think the 'decent people' get a pretty good show in the book. They are set off well by the contrast. But the story is not primarily about them--it is the story of Byron Kasson. Byron is a symbol of the tragic struggle of the Negro race--but his is also a true individual story--and an old story--It is the story of many a gifted, ambitious colored boy who has come to New York and has been sucked down by the underworld. 'Nigger Heaven' might have been given a happy ending, but it would not have been so strong a book as it is. Mr Van Vechten has paid the Negro this tribute in 'Nigger Heaven', he has written of them as people--and as he would of any other people, as he has often written of white people. He has sketched them in every phase of life. Of course, there is going to be a storm of criticism, but I think the dispassionate view will prevail. I myself will come in for some of it by writing about the book what I believe to be a just estimate. I am willing to take it. Of course, YOU don't know anybody like Lasca, but there ARE Lasca-colored and white ones."

This letter is now in the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters in the Yale University Library.

(Index to Scrap Books)

-3-

13 Poetry from "The Crisis" and "Opportunity" - April 1923-March 1925
14 Poetry from "The Crisis" and "Opportunity" - October 1929, Sept 1929
15 Negro in New York (Typed)
16 Negro sportsmen and Actors (Typed)
17 J.W.J. Field Secretary - Addresses and Articles (Typed)