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Books by Marcus Bruce
Christian
Song of the Black Valiants: Marching Tempo
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High Ground: A Collection of Poems /
Negro soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans
I Am New Orleans:
A Poem
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Negro Ironworkers of Louisiana, 1718–1900 /
The Liberty Monument
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* * Letter 27
Christian
Reports to Benjamin Quarles
on War Information Center & WPA
Project
DIRECTOR'S REPORT
WAR INFORMATION CENTER
DILLARD UNIVERSITY
April 2, 1943
Dr. Benjamin Quarles, Chairman
Library Board
Dillard University
Dear Doctor Quarles:
A period of a month and a half has elapsed since I made my last
report to you concerning the activities of the War Information Center.
In my last report the fact was mentioned that I had organized and opened the center. After opening the center I
was able to accomplish a few things in calling it to the attention of the public. Towards this end editors of the local Negro
press have given me all of the cooperation that was promised, some things which I mentioned in my report at that time. A few
news items have also appeared in the local white press.
As much of this was in the nature of calling the attention of the public to the center, I shall enumerate a few
of the things accomplished. Several days after the opening of the center I was able to have Mr. Samuel Hoskins, city editor
of the New Orleans SENTINEL, come out and look over our
office. He later wrote a lengthy article on the activities of the center and the material it had to offer to the general public.
Since that time I wrote five or six poems, news
releases, and articles for the local Negro press which covered several columns, and received front-page or editorial-page positions.
I also appealed to OPPORTUNITY Magazine of New York, asking its editors that whenever mention is made of me in regard to five
separate items of mine that they are going to publish . . . . The demand of one of the newspapers that I write exclusively
for its own publication and my deeper immersion into the writing and editing of the first draft of the last remaining
chapters of THE NEGRO IN LOUISIANA have caused me to suspend for a time my activities in regard to newspaper copy.
One of the news releases written for the local Negro and white press was a short article on a display of early Negro
newspapers and magazines, etc., which I had arranged in the
the display case in the name of the Dillard University Library.
My other activities were directed to devoting some time to inquiries coming into the center for facts and material, and
then receiving and arranging between 100 and 200 pamphlets, booklets and mimeographed releases.
The center has also written to several agencies for booklets, etc., and in connection with this hundreds of pieces
of material have been received and place upon our free distribution table where the supply has steadily diminished.
Doctor Daley of the Romance Language Department also kindly donated to the center nearly a
hundred copies of booklets on Inter-American relations. These were also
distributed to students and persons visiting the center.
As much of my time during the last month has been
devoted to the history manuscript, it is well that I tell you
something of what has been attempted and accomplished. I understand that it has been suggested that I might better employ my time in
writing the remaining part of the manuscript by removing
myself to the room adjoining the Art Department.
I had several reasons for preferring to finish the study where I am now located. The fact that I would either have to
close the War Information Center during the time I should be upstairs, or else leave it open for hours at a time with no
one to supervise it, was an added factor in my decision to remain where I am now. I understand that I was to receive some
student aid, but I have learned that it may be difficult to do so.
My wife, who is yet to be assigned to me on that basis, has already been doing voluntary work in the typing of the
last draft of the chapter which I am now bringing to a close. I
have about completed the first draft of this chapter upon which she is working, and the second chapter--with a few small
editions--is expected to be completed within the present
month. This will then leave me free for the cataloging of the
material on cards, which will bring to a completion my duties under the contract.
In this manner I shall devote approximately one month to organizing and opening the center; two months to the actual
writing of the manuscript; and one month to indexing or cataloging the material on cards. I am mailing you an extra
copy of this report, asking that you will please pass it to Dean Moses so that he will know of the progress made thus far
in writing the manuscript which I am to present to you both on May 31, 1943. I should be glad to receive any suggestions that
you or he may have on any phases of the work mentioned here.
Sincerely,
Marcus B. Christian, Director
War
Information Center
Dillard
<<---Previous
Next--28->>
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Selected Letters
Selected Diary Notes Memories of Marcus B. Christian
(Cains) Christian's
BioBibliographical Record Introduction to I AM NEW
ORLEANS
A
Theory of a Black Aesthetic Magpies,
Goddesses, & Black Male Identity
Activist Works on Next Level of Change
Intro to I Am New
Orleans
Letter from Dillard University
A
Labor of Genuine Love
Letter of Gift of
Photos
Letters from
LSU and Skip Gates * * *
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Negro Iron Workers of Louisiana: 1718-1900
By Marcus Bruce Christian
Study of the blacksmith tradition and New
Orleans famous lace balconies and fences.
Acclaimed during his life
as the unofficial poet laureate of the New Orleans
African-American community, Marcus Christian recorded a
distinguished career as historian, journalist, and literary
scholar. He was a contributor to Pelican's
Gumbo Ya Ya, and also wrote many articles that appeared
in numerous newspapers, journals, and general-interest
publications. |
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Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
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Marcus Bruce
Christian
Selected Diary Notes
/ Selected Poems
/
Selected Letters
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Debt: The First 5,000 Years
By David Graeber
Before there was money, there was debt. Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it. Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it. Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history—as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy. Economist Glenn Loury /Criminalizing a Race
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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updated
5 April 2010
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