Givens: The Arts of Social Justice

Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book, by Muriel Feelings, with illustrations by Tom Feelings. New York: The Dial Press, 1971.

Bemba: An African Adventure, by Andrée Clair, with illustrations by Harper Johnson. New York: Harcourt, 1962 [1957].

Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book, by Muriel Feelings, with illustrations by Tom Feelings. New York: The Dial Press, 1974.

Swahili Alphabet Book.

Golden Legacy: Illustrated History Magazine, 1966-1972. Volume 12. Originally published in individual volumes by Bertram A. Fitzgerald, Jr., of Fitzgerald Publishers, Dix Hills, NY.

According to its publisher, Golden Legacy is not a comic book collection. It is “a new approach to the study of history” designed for young people with contributing writers such as the esteemed Pan-Africanist historian, John Henrik Clarke.

I Want to Be, by Thylias Moss, with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1993.

Artist Jerry Pinkney has illustrated over one hundred children’s books including Julius Lester’s historic retelling, Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales (1999). His works have received numerous awards including the prestigious Caldecott Medal.

John Henry, by Julius Lester, with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1994.

Artist Jerry Pinkney has illustrated over one hundred children’s books including Julius Lester’s historic retelling, Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales (1999). His works have received numerous awards including the prestigious Caldecott Medal.

The Taking Eggs, by Robert D. San Souci, with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1993.

Artist Jerry Pinkney has illustrated over one hundred children’s books including Julius Lester’s historic retelling, Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales (1999). His works have received numerous awards including the prestigious Caldecott Medal.

Vacation Time: Poems for Children, by Nikki Giovanni. New York: William Morrow, 1980.

The Great Encounter: A Special Meeting before Columbus, by Patricia A. Piercy, with illustrations by Napoleon Wilkerson. Chicago: African American Images, 1991.

Vacation Time: Poems for Children, by Nikki Giovanni. New York: William Morrow, 1980.

Golden Legacy: Illustrated History Magazine, 1966-1972. Volume 1. Originally published in individual volumes by Bertram A. Fitzgerald, Jr., of Fitzgerald Publishers, Dix Hills, NY.

According to its publisher, Golden Legacy is not a comic book collection. It is “a new approach to the study of history” designed for young people with contributing writers such as the esteemed Pan-Africanist historian, John Henrik Clarke.

Golden Legacy: Illustrated History Magazine, 1966-1972. Volume 2. Originally published in individual volumes by Bertram A. Fitzgerald, Jr., of Fitzgerald Publishers, Dix Hills, NY.

According to its publisher, Golden Legacy is not a comic book collection. It is “a new approach to the study of history” designed for young people with contributing writers such as the esteemed Pan-Africanist historian, John Henrik Clarke.

Golden Legacy: Illustrated History Magazine, 1966-1972. Volume 13. Originally published in individual volumes by Bertram A. Fitzgerald, Jr., of Fitzgerald Publishers, Dix Hills, NY.

According to its publisher, Golden Legacy is not a comic book collection. It is “a new approach to the study of history” designed for young people with contributing writers such as the esteemed Pan-Africanist historian, John Henrik Clarke.

Golden Legacy: Illustrated History Magazine, 1966-1972. Volume 1. Originally published in individual volumes by Bertram A. Fitzgerald, Jr., of Fitzgerald Publishers, Dix Hills, NY.

According to its publisher, Golden Legacy is not a comic book collection. It is “a new approach to the study of history” designed for young people with contributing writers such as the esteemed Pan-Africanist historian, John Henrik Clarke.

Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book, by Muriel Feelings, with illustrations by Tom Feelings. New York: The Dial Press, 1974.

Cane, by Jean Toomer. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923.

The Black Aesthetic, edited by Addison Gayle, Jr.

Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley. New York: Norton, 1990.

Spike Lee’s Gotta Have It: Inside Guerilla Filmmaking, by Spike Lee, photos by David Lee. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

The Writers Workshop Anthology: Harlem Education Program. A collection of student poems with an introduction by workshop director Clarence Major, 1967.

“Afro Woman,” a poem by sixteen-year-old workshop attendee, Susan Pettengill, 1967.

Spike Lee’s Gotta Have It: Inside Guerilla Filmmaking, by Spike Lee, photos by David Lee. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

“Othello” LP, by Paul Robeson, 1953.

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972.

Costume design for the 2006 production of the Fats Waller musical, “Ain’t Misbehavin.” Designed by Reggie Ray.

Jubilee, by Margaret Walker. Boston: Houghton Mifflin; Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1966.

Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry, by Lorraine Hansberry with an introduction by Julius Lester. New York: Random House, 1972.

A New Song, a collection of poem by Langston Hughes, introduction by Michael Gold, frontispiece by Joe Jones. New York, N.Y.: International Workers Order, 1938.

Freedom’s Plow, a poem signed by Langston Hughes, 1943.

1909 musical score “Who Knows?” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Born in 1872 in Dayton, Ohio, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African American poets to gain international recognition. Besides being a poet, he is the author of short stories, novels, songs, librettos, plays, and essays.

Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool” broadside, December 1966. From Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, 1959. Donated to the Givens Collection by the author, February 26, 1988.

“What Black Children Must Learn....Now!” Prepared by Mark Hyman Associates, Inc. Philadelphia, PA, n.d.

The Child’s Story of The Negro, by Jane D. Shackelford, with illustrations by Lois Mailou Jones. Washington, DC: The Associated Publishers, Inc., 1968 [1956].

Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat, edited by Nikki Giovanni. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2008.

Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, by Ashley Bryan. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997.

Maud Martha: A Novel, by Gwendolyn Brooks. New York: Harper, 1953

Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, by Ashley Bryan. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997.

12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States, by Richard Wright, photo-direction by Edwin Rosskam. New York: Viking Press, 1941.

Black Means, by Barney Grossman, with Gladys Groom and the pupils of P.S. 150, The Bronx, New York; illustrated by Charles Bible. New York: Hill & Wang, 1970.

The Third Life of Grange Copeland: A Novel, by Alice Walker. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1977.

Prejudice and Your Child, by Kenneth B. Clark. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955.

Brown Girl, Brownstones, by Paule Marshall. New York: Random House, 1959.

Negro Life in New York’s Harlem: A Lively Picture of a Popular and Interesting Section, by Wallace Thurman; edited and published by the American social reformer E. Haldeman-Julius for his Little Blue Book pamphlet series, 1928.

The Street, by Ann Petry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946.

The Black B C’s, by Lucille Clifton, with illustrations by Don Miller. New York: Dutton, 1970.

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, by Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Cover image from Eyes: The Negroes’ Own Picture Magazine, June 1946.

Photos from an Eyes: The Negroes’ Own Picture Magazine story on Neighborhood Cooperative Store Number 3. June 1946.

This integrated co-op was located in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, MN, a historically black neighborhood that was razed in the 1960s for the construction of Interstate 94.

Photos from an Eyes: The Negroes’ Own Picture Magazine story on Neighborhood Cooperative Store Number 3. June 1946.

This integrated co-op was located in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, MN, a historically black neighborhood that was razed in the 1960s for the construction of Interstate 94.

Cotillion Escorts. Kathryn Gagnon Collection. 1989.

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Links presented these debutantes and escorts at the 1989 cotillion. The Links, the women’s service organization founded in 1946 for women of color, was committed to enhancing the quality of life in African American…

Cotillion Debutantes. Kathryn Gagnon Collection. 1989.

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Links presented these debutantes and escorts at the 1989 cotillion. The Links, the women’s service organization founded in 1946 for women of color, was committed to enhancing the quality of life in African American…

The Negro in Our History, by Carter Godwin Woodson. Washington: Associated Publishers, 1924.

World’s Great Men of Color: 3000 B.C. to 1946 A.D., by Joel Augustus Rogers. New York: J.A. Rogers, 1947.

Calypso Song Book, by William Attaway, edited and compiled by Lyle Kenyon Engel; illustrations by William Charmatz. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957.

Nights with Uncle Remus, by Joel Chandler Harris, with illustrations by Milo Winter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1917.

Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil (1920), by W.E.B. Du Bois, introduction by David Levering Lewis. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004. Givens Collection Series.

Book from the Givens Collection reprints series (Washington Square Press) and the Black Arts Movement Series (Coffeehouse Press).

The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer (1913), by Oscar Micheaux, introduction by Jayna J. Brown. New York: Washington Square Press, 2003. Givens Collection Series.

Book from the Givens Collection reprints series (Washington Square Press) and the Black Arts Movement Series (Coffeehouse Press).

Dem, by William Melvin Kelley.

Book from the Givens Collection reprints series (Washington Square Press) and the Black Arts Movement Series (Coffeehouse Press).

Bird at My Window (1966), by Rosa Guy, forward by Sandra Adell. Minneapolis: Coffee House Pess, 2001. Givens Collection Black Arts Movement Series.

Book from the Givens Collection reprints series (Washington Square Press) and the Black Arts Movement Series (Coffeehouse Press).

Letter from Richard Wright to fellow novelist Henrietta (Henri) Weigel, 1938.

Richard Wright’s letter of support for Henrietta Weigel, addressed to the executive director of Yaddo, an esteemed artist residency program located in upstate New York, 1941.

Envelope from Richard Wright to fellow novelist Henrietta (Henri) Weigel, 1938.

Richard Wright’s letter of support for Henrietta Weigel, addressed to the executive director of Yaddo, an esteemed artist residency program located in upstate New York, 1941.

Envelope from Richard Wright to fellow novelist Henrietta (Henri) Weigel, 1938.

Richard Wright’s letter of support for Henrietta Weigel, addressed to the executive director of Yaddo, an esteemed artist residency program located in upstate New York, 1941.

Letter from Richard Wright to fellow novelist Henrietta (Henri) Weigel, 1938.

Richard Wright’s letter of support for Henrietta Weigel, addressed to the executive director of Yaddo, an esteemed artist residency program located in upstate New York, 1941.

Strong Souls Singing: African American Books for our Daughters and our Sisters, edited by Archie Givens, Jr., with an introduction by Marian Wright Edelman. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.

Spirited Minds: African American Books for our Sons and our Brothers, edited by Archie Givens, Jr., with an introduction by Gordon Parks. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Archie Givens, Sr. at the Givens Ice Cream Bar. The Givens Ice Cream Bar opened in 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Givens Foundation Photos

Givens would later become a prominent businessman and Minnesota’s first African American millionaire. With the support of ten prominent African American families and the University of Minnesota, “The Black Literature Collection,” (later renamed the…

Archie Givens, Jr. and Kenneth Keller, then president of the University of Minnesota, at the opening ceremony of the Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature at the University of Minnesota Libraries in 1986. Givens Foundation Photos

Photograph from 1997 production of Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Fences by August Wilson at Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul Minnesota. Penumbra Theatre Archives.

Fences, part of Wilson’s “20th Century Cycle,” was written when Wilson was a Penumbra Theatre company member and chronicles the 1950s through the story of a gifted African American baseball player who gets shut out of the game and of history because…

Countee Cullen Correspondence and poetry manuscripts

Countee Cullen Correspondence and poetry manuscripts. The Givens Collection holds a substantial collection of correspondence and poetry manuscripts by Harlem Renaissance poet and writer Countee Cullen (1903-1946) sent between 1918 and 1927 to his…

Countee Cullen Correspondence and poetry manuscripts

Countee Cullen Correspondence and poetry manuscripts. The Givens Collection holds a substantial collection of correspondence and poetry manuscripts by Harlem Renaissance poet and writer Countee Cullen (1903-1946) sent between 1918 and 1927 to his…

Countee Cullen Correspondence and poetry manuscripts

Countee Cullen Correspondence and poetry manuscripts. The Givens Collection holds a substantial collection of correspondence and poetry manuscripts by Harlem Renaissance poet and writer Countee Cullen (1903-1946) sent between 1918 and 1927 to his…