Chairman
HENRY J. CADBURY

Honorary Chairman
RUFUS M. JONES

Executive Secretary
CLARENCE E. PICKETT

American Friends Service Committee

Twenty South Twelfth Street
Philadelphia 7, Pennsylvania

Telephone, RITTENHOUSE 9372

October 30, 1945

MRS. WAKEFIELD'S DAUGHTER:
Miss Martha Lindsay
759 North 26th Street,
Philadelphia 30 (Poplar 0496)
Office: Friends General Con-
ference, 1515 Cherry St.
(Rittenhouse 2286)

Mr. Langston Hughes
63 St. Nicholas Ave.
New York 30, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Hughes:

The American Friends Service Committee has recently established a Negro lectureship. The purpose of this is for distinguished Negro teachers and scholars to lecture in their field of specialization in white colleges and universities.

The plan is for the lecturer to spend from a few days to a week or ten days in a college or university. He will be available for speaking in chapel or convocation, in classes, in special student groups and for appointments before clubs in the community. The lecturer is to speak on his own field of specialization rather than on the general theme of race relations, except as the students and faculty, after he arrives on the campus, ask the lecturer to speak on race relations.

Dean Faulkner of Fisk University was our first lecturer during the second semester last year, that is, the spring of 1945, and we are continuing, and hoping to expand, the lectureship during the second semester of this college year, the spring of 1946. Dr. Ira De A. Reid is going to be able to give us several weeks during the second semester for lectures in the East. We are hoping we can secure another person for the whole second semester to give most of his time to the Midwest.

A number of people have highly recommended you for this work, and I would like to have the opportunity of talking to you about it if it appeals to you. If you could not consider it for the second semester, we would like to know if you would be interested in the lectureship for the academic year 1946-47.

If you are to be in Philadelphia at any time, please let me know. If not, I shall try to arrange a time when I can see you in New York.

FSL:he

November 26, 1945

Mr. Frank S. Loescher
American Friends Service
20 South 12th Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Dear Mr. Loescher:

I have just returned from a lecture tour of the Middle West where I read poems at North Michigan College at Marquette, the University of Illinois at Urbana, and before other college and community groups. At the end of December I leave for a long lecture tour which takes me all the way to Los Angeles and Seattle. I am booked through William B. Feakins, Incorporated, and I am sending you, under separate cover, one of their folders and a list of my itinerary as it now stands, but other engagements are continuing to come for the Spring.

You can see from this that I would not be available to speak for you at all this season since I am already pretty heavily booked up. During the first semester of 1946-1947, from September to February, I have an agreement to conduct a couple of seminars at Atlanta University. On week-ends during that period I might be available for programs of my poems at points not too distant from Atlanta. But if I were to devote an entire semester to this work, it could not be before the Spring of 1947.

As you probably know, I have for more than ten years now been reading my poems before student groups all across the country almost every winter. Last Fall, under the auspices of the Common Council for American Unity, I devoted a month to appearing before high school assemblies in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. I also spent a week in Philadelphia as the guest of the school board there, and another week last Winter in Maryland giving several programs before student assemblies, so I have had quite a good deal of experience in this sort of thing, and find student audiences most delightful. During the Common Council tour I spent a whole day at each high school visiting classes, having luncheec with these students and often going to student group meetings after school hours. Since many of these schools have never had a Negro speaker before, the Common Council considered this a good way of helping in inter-cultural communication. At any rate, I had a fine time with the students and enjoyed it very much.

If I were to do such work for the American Friends Service Committee, I would have to seek a release from the William B. Feakins Bureau, who have now an exclusive option on my bookings. Would you be so kind as to let me know what the Friends Service Committee pays for this work, or just how arrangements for fees are worked out? Or is the lectureship a set sum granted for a certain period?

On Friday, December 7, I am reading my poems and spending the day at the Germantown friends School on Coulter Street in Philadelphia, whose principal was formerly the principal of my high school in Cleveland when I was a student there. And on Saturday, December 8, I am spending the day at George Bucks County. I expect to come to Philadelphia

School

Mr. Frank S. Loescher

November 26, 1945

on the afternoon of Thursday, December 6, and shall be stopping with Mr. Irvin
C. Poley, Vice-Principal, Germantown School, 6012 Chew Street, Philadelphia 30.
Perhaps you could give me a ring there, or if you are in New York any time be-
tween now and the holidays, I would be happy to talk with you here.

I very much appreciate your kind letter and the invitation to visit various
schools under the auspices of the American Friends Service Committee, whose work
I have greatly admired.

Sincerely yours,

Chairman
HENRY J. CADBURY

Telephone, RITTENHOUSE 9372

December 5, 1945

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York 30, New York

Dear Mr. Hughes:

Thank you very much for your letter of November 26th, expressing an interest in our program.

We have already made arrangements for the lectureship for 1945-46. Dr. Ira De A. Reid of Atlanta University is to be one of the lecturers and the name of the other lecturer will be shortly announced. It appears then that all we can do under the circumstances is to keep your name on our list for future years.

In regard to your questions about the financial arrangements; our policy is to pay to the lecturer the salary he would receive from his educational institution during the period he is on leave with us. In addition, of course, hospitality and travel expenses are provided. In your case a special type of arrangement would have to be made and that is something that we would have to work out at a later time.

Mr. G. James Fleming and I will be out of the City on Thursday December 6th and probably Friday December 7th, so I am afraid that we will not have the pleasure of seeing you on your visit to Philadelphia. I hope, however, that on one of your subsequent trips it will be possible for us to get together.

FSL/emb

ELY
After 5 days, return to
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE,
Peace Section,
20 South Twelfth Street,
PHILADELPHIA 7, PA.

PERSONAL
PLEASE FORWARD

Mr. Langston Hughes
Sopha A. Hopf, Inc.
230 West 42nd Street
New York

Chairman
HENRY J. CADBURY

Telephone, RITTENHOUSE 6-9372

December 1, 1947

Mr. Langston Hughes
c/o Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
730 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

Dear Mr. Hughes:

Would you please send me copies of plays you have written which you feel have a direct bearing on some of our social problems whether it be race, religion, politics, or economics?

For the last two and a half years I have been on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee as field secretary in colleges. During this time I have constantly been impressed with the cold indifference and the lack of interest in basic issues on the part of the college people with whom I work. I have come to realize that we who are in the field of social action will need more than convictions and intentions of goodwill to make a dent in the minds of the people. To make a real contribution one must also have a working knowledge of techniques and means by which these convictions can be used most effectively, which is what I am concerned with now. I feel that drama has a worthy contribution to make along these lines. I am planning a graduate study on drama as an instrument of social reform. I hope to study the dramatic productions of leading American dramatists with the intention of discovering to what extent they have criticized the American social order, the techniques in doing so, and, as far as possible, the results achieved. Your works are listed among those I would like to study.

A speedy reply and any additional suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

ELY:nbf

National Chairman
HENRY J. CADBURY

National Executive Secretary
LEWIS M. HOSKINS

Executive Secretary Emeritus
CLARENCE E. PICKETT

CHICAGO REGIONAL OFFICE
American Friends Service Committee
INCORPORATED
Fifty Nine East Madison Street

Chicago 2-663 Illinois

Central 6-2663

607

MM/ch

February 20, 1959

Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York, New York

Dear Langston,

I am very sorry that I was unable to see you in Chicago last Friday, or talk with you by telephone.

We were sponsoring a peace seminar which, unfortunately, conflicted with your concert at Orchestra Hall.

It has been quite a long time since I served as your Morehouse amanuensis, and I would have appreciated seeing you again.

AFSC's peace education program is planning a *Week for World Peace* in Chicago during Easter week, March 21-28. This is envisaged as a week of intensive activity for peace, to be co-sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

The week's activity will include neighborhood meetings, campus meetings, massive literature distribution, peace film showings, and statements by prominent Chicagoans. The week will culminate in a mass meeting and poster parade in the Loop on Saturday, March 28th. Car caravans will come to the Loop from cities and college campuses in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa; delegations will be walking in from Chicago suburbs, and the mass meeting will also draw from churches, labor unions, high schools, colleges and other peace organizations.

Our meeting and demonstration will be coordinated with major events for peace taking place in Germany, England, and the East Coast on the same date. We feel that we have the cooperation, organizational ability and man power to make a real impact on Chicago and the surrounding region at this time.

Will you please present some poetry (or any other literary material) for us at the mass meeting on Saturday afternoon, March 28th. You perhaps have a fresh view on peace. We can offer you no honorarium, but can only take care of your expenses and provide an opportunity to speak to a great number of people, cutting across all lines and areas of Chicago on the most crucial issue of our day.

NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL OFFICE

44A BRATTLE STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02138
POST OFFICE BOX 247 TELEPHONE 864-3150

JAMES HOWARD
College Secretary

December 30, 1964

Langston Hughes
The New York Post
New York, New York

Dear Langston Hughes:

At the suggestion of David Ignatow we are
sending you the enclosed information regarding
our Caravan Theatre Project.

I am sorry that we did not have a more direct
address for you but we trust that you will
receive this correspondence through the
New York Post.

We are now in the process of getting materials
together for presentation and we would be very
pleased with any suggestions that you might
give in the way of plays, poems, etc.

We look forward to hearing from you in the
near future regarding this matter.

meg
Enc.

CARAVAN THEATRE, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee is now planning their summer tour. We are looking for bookings during the latter part of July through August.

IN WHITE AMERICA, by Martin Duberman, a chronicle of Negro struggle in the United States, will probably be our first production. It was first performed at the Sheridan Square Theatre in New York where it received critical acclaim. We are also arranging an original revue around the theme of apathy and commitment, entitled, "Who Cares?" and a third play on a contemporary provocative question; to be announced.

Our purpose, is to explore through dramatic means the burning issues of our time; while maintaining high level of artistic production. During the discussion period following each performance the audience and cast will thrash out the ideas in the material presented.

The group will consist of a dozen college students with background and a vital interest in this theatre forum. Barbara and Stan Edelson, the directors of Caravan Theatre, have had considerable leadership experience in community, college, and their own group theatre.

As payment for performing we ask only room and board during our stay in your community. You may wish to use the performance as a fund raising event.

We would be happy to discuss any further details with you. If interested please contact::

Jim Howard, Director
New England College Program
44A Brattle Street - P.O. Box 247
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Review taken from December 9, 1964
Issue of Broadside of Boston -
Volume III, No. 20

"Caravan Theatre Debut Announced"

by janet chartier

Hopefully, next summer there'll be several establishments in the Boston area, including coffee houses, which will serve as hosts to the new Caravan Theatre, directed by Barbara and Stan Edelson and sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. Members of this group theatre project will work and live as a cooperative unit with Cambridge, Massachusetts as their home base. During the summer of '65, there'll be a nine-week tour of the New England area. The tuition fee will cover room, board and insurance.

In most theatre groups, the presentation of plays is for ego fulfillment of the actors and entertainment of the audiences. It can't be denied that these will play a role in the Caravan Theatre. The greater goal, however, is for the social expression of all those present. Performances, which will include several art forms (song and dance as well as dialogue, etc.) will have a central theme of a contemporary nature. The group will not attempt to solve the problems of the day, but they will strive to provoke a greater awareness of existing fallacies. They'd like to do this through original script as well as known material.

The second half of each evening will be devoted to discussion by the audience and cast. Thoughts projected during the performance will be pursued in positive terms. Rather than leaving the audience with the senselessness of human life and effort ("theatre of the absurd"), the ultimate goal of this project is to encourage constructive action on the ideas brought forth.

The committee is now accepting college applicants. Requirements are a good speaking voice and experience in at least one of the theatre arts. They are also interested in receiving new material. Contact:

Cambridge, Massachusetts - 864

Jim Howard, College Program Director

Barbara and Stan Edelson,

Caravan Theatre Directors

rh
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE

Suite 220
2 West 20th Street
New York, N. Y. 10011

Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York, N.Y. 10035