The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Elton C. Fax collection

Repository: Boston University. Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center

Collection Description (CRHP): Elton C. Fax (1909-1993) was a distinguished African American author, artist, and educator. This collection contains research materials for his publications including "Seventeen Black Artists" (1971), which won the Coretta Scott King Award, and "Black Artists of the New Generation" (1977). He conducted interviews for both publications in which black artists discuss their experiences with racism and in the Jim Crow era as well as discuss how the civil rights/black power movement had an impact on their artwork. Materials in this collection on "Black Artists of the New Generation" include page and galley proofs, correspondence, and tape cassettes of interviews. For "Seventeen Black Artists," there are approximately 100 items, including photographs of the artists and their work and news stories. Other parts of this collection include manuscripts, subject files, book reviews, and articles and artwork by Elton Fax. There is correspondence with and photographs of notable African Americans including Ruby Dee, Kenneth B. Clark, Thurgood Marshall, Charles B. Stokes, Edward Brooke, Charles Evers, Floyd McKissick, Coretta Scott King, Whitney M. Young Jr., Bayard Rustin, and Richard G. Hatcher. There is also a subject file on the appeal for parole for H. Rap Brown as well as a typescript on Mary McLeod Bethune that consists of a short biographical sketch on her authored by Fax. In addition, Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer are two subjects of artwork of Fax in this collection. Also included is an oral history and published interview of Fax in which he discusses his childhood and career.

Digital Status: No

Extent: 39 boxes, 23 packages

Language: English

Related Archival Items: There are also Elton Fax collections at Syracuse University and the Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library.

Interviewees: Kay Brown, Maurice Burns, Carole Byard, Dana Chandler, Emory Douglas, Miriam Francis, Manuel Gomez, Horathel Hall, Al Hinton, Rosalind Jeffries, Valerie Maynard, Onnie Millar, Otto Neals, Trudel Obey, Kermit Oliver, John Outterbridge, Bertrand Phillips, Alfred Smith, Shirley Stark, Leo Twiggs, Elton Fax

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African American artists
African American arts
African Americans--Social conditions
African Americans--Social life and customs
Black Panther Party
Black power
Civil rights movements in art

Genres:

Interviews
Manuscripts
Photographs
Sound recordings
Speeches