New York Council of the
ARTS, SCIENCES and PROFESSIONS inc.

47 West 44th Street, New York 18, N. Y., MU 7-2161

August 22, 1951

Dear Mr. Hughes:

This is the third year that the Writing Division of the Arts, Sciences and Professions Council is sponsoring a school in creative writing.

More than ever before, we feel that this year there is the greatest need to help train an entire new generation of writers devoted to creating a literature that is in the best tradition of American humanism. With censorship inhibiting artists in every channel of communication, it is particularly important too, to teach our craft so that our culture does not wither away by sterility.

We feel it would be of inestimable value and prestige to have you conduct a course in poetry under the auspices of the school.

Because we are trying to make the school accessible to as many young Negro, trade union, and campus writers, our budget is limited and we are only able to offer a nominal fee of five dollars per class to our instructors.

Would you kindly advise us of your availability for teaching such a class, and also inform us of the best week night for you. Classes are expected to commence the first week of October, and will run for ten consecutive weeks. Each class will be one hour and a half. If you will be able to teach, would you please enclose a three to four line description of the course so that we may include it in the brochure announcing the school.

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 E. 127th Street
New York City

412

**ROBERT MORSS LOVETT**
Honorary Chairman

**JOHN J. DE BOER**
Chairman

**STEFAN HEYM**
Chairman of Art

**LINUS PAULING**
Chairman of Science

**COLSTON E. WARNE**
Chairman of Professions

**HENRY PRATT FAIRCHILD**
Secretary

**STANLEY FAULKNER**
Treasurer

**VICE CHAIRMEN:**

DR. ALLAN M. BUTLER
A. J. CARLSON
OLIN DOWNES
W. E. B. DU BOIS
E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER
LILLIAN HELLMAN
ROBERT W. KENNY
HOWARD KOCH
JOHN HOWARD LAWSON
FREDERICK L. SCHUMAN
HARLOW SHAPLEY
O. JOHN ROGGE

**BOARD OF DIRECTORS:**

Partial List
HOWARD BAY
HERBERT J. BIBERMAN
IRVING BIEBER
PETER BLUME
EDWIN BERRY BERGUM
SERGE CHERMAYEFF
JEROME CHODOROV
DANIEL DE KOVEN
DEAN DIXON
THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY
BARROWS DUNHAM
THOMAS I. EMERSON
PHILIP EVERGOOD
HOWARD FAST
ALLAN FREELON
FRANK S. FREEMAN
DAN GILLMOR
MAX GOBERMAN
DR. CARLTON GOODLETT
HARRY GOTTLIEB
DAVID HABER
FOWLER HARPER
JOHN JACOBS
I. M. KOLTHOFF
WILLIAM LAWRENCE
ISABEL B. LINDSAY
ALBERT MALTZ
THOMAS MANN
DR. LEO MAYER
WILLIAM R. MEEK
SAMUEL D. MENIN
W. PEPPERELL MONTAGUE
SAM MOORE
PHILIP MORRISON
WILLARD MOTLEY
CLIFFORD ODETS
ERWIN PANOFSKY
MARTIN POPPER
WALTER RAUTENSTRAUCH
ANTON REFREGIER
DAVID ROBISON
THEODOR ROSEBURY
VICTOR SAMROCK
DR. BELA SCHICK
ADRIAN SCOTT
GALE SONDERGAARD
MOSES SOYER
RAPHAEL SOYER
KENNETH SPENCER
BERNARD J. STERN
PAUL M. SWEEZY
EBA LOU WALTON
MAX WEBER
CHARLES WHITE
DR. PHILIP R. WHITE
HENRY WRIGHT
DR. EDWARD L. YOUNG

National Council of the
ARTS, SCIENCES and PROFESSIONS inc.

49 West 44th Street, New York 18, N. Y., MU 7-2161

February 24, 1951

Dear Mr. Hughes:

Please consider the enclosed letter. We are
planning to circularize this appeal to a wide
list of writers throughout the country. Would you
be willing to endorse it? We feel your endorsement
would be of inestimable value in making the appeal
truly effective.

May we phone you today or tomorrow to discuss
it further with you?

16

WRITING AND PUBLISHING DIVISION
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL, ARTS, SCIENCES AND PROFESSIONS
47 West 44th Street

Dear Fellow Writer:

We feel it is of utmost concern to you, as writer and citizen, that the execution of Willie McGee, scheduled for March 20, shall not be carried out as planned. The enclosed fact sheet gives the details of the case.

One of the finest of America's traditions is that our writers have been the conscience of the nation. Those who brought greatest honor to American letters were always the first to pit life, limb, skill and reputation to battle when democratic human rights were violated.--- and their fight for justice was not confined to the world of books. All sincere American writers, however great or small their place in the fraternity of the written word, consider themselves part of this heritage. The writer who writes that life is sacred cannot be silent in the face of slaughter. He who writes of human dignity and decency must speak up when decency is befouled before his eyes. And for the writer who sets his pen in search of moral truth, the deliberate murder of an innocent man must certainly be an unspeakable and intolerable act.

Willie McGee is an innocent man who is being "legally murdered". This is fact enough for all persons of conscience to cry outrage. But there is more - for the all-too-familiar pattern of the spurious "rape" charge, the steam-roller trial in a jimcrow court, makes this more than the case of one innocent man. This is the vicious pattern of terror against Negroes that has shamed us throughout the world, that dry-rots the fabric of decency in our land. The life or death of Willie McGee is a moral issue which will define the course of American democracy in the future. Writers have a stake in this.

The terror against the Negro people has already taken a hideous toll. The "legal lynching" of the seven Martinsville, Virginia Negroes has no precedent for cruelly and vindictiveness. In their case, too, there was ample proof of innocence. It must not happen again!

Therefore, in addition to the actions suggested on The Fact Sheet, we are asking you to make some statement protesting the execution of Willie McGee and to send this statement to us. If you do not wish, by such action, to associate yourself with our organization or with any other group, we assure you that we will honor your preference to speak as an individual only. We DO ask you to speak out in the cause of justice for the life of an innocent man. If he should die, something very important in American democracy will die with him. And if writers remain silent, then too will something very precious in American letters have died.

Sincerely yours,

April 8, 1952

Mr. Lester Cole,
New York ASP,
49 West 44th Street,
New York 18, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Cole,

I am delighted that Robert McFerrin is using some of
my songs on Friday's program, but very sorry I cannot
be there myself, and regret this late answer. I'm a
year behind on a contracted biography, the subject is
in the country, and I have to be up there working this
week-end. No help for it! But I'm hoping some members
of my family will be able to see the show.

All my good wishes for its success,