The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Waldemar E. Debnam papers

Repository: East Carolina University. J.Y. Joyner Library. Special Collections

Collection Description (CRHP): See the interview with Roy Wilkins in the Journalism Career Subgroup.

Collection Description (Extant): Waldemar Eros Debnam (1898-1968), a son of Joseph Eppye and Birdie Lee (Speight) Debnam, was born in Wake County. When Debnam was about five years old, the family moved to Snow Hill, where Joseph taught school and founded the Standard-Laconic, a weekly newspaper. After attending the University of North Carolina, W. E. Debnam returned to Snow Hill, where he worked for his father's newspaper. Debnam left Snow Hill to work for newspapers in Kinston; South Carolina; Danville, Va.; Washington, D.C.; and Norfolk, Va. In 1928 he married Stella Mae Glass (October 1902-November 28, 2000) of Rockingham County, N.C. In 1939 he helped start the Norfolk News-Index, a weekly paper, but moved to Raleigh in 1941 to work for WPTF radio as a news commentator. Debnam gained notoriety during the 1950s for Weep No More, My Lady (1950), a book critical of Eleanor Roosevelt, and Then My Old Kentucky Home Good Night! (1955) a book concerning the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. In 1956 he unsuccessfully challenged Harold Cooley for the Fourth Congressional District Democratic nomination. Subsequently, Debnam worked for television stations in Greenville and Washington, N.C.

Date(s): 1854 [1922]-1967

Digital Status: Partial

Existing IDs: #426

Extent: 3.080 cubic feet, 1,500 items , consisting of correspondence, literary manuscripts, speeches, tape recordings, scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, a 16 mm. film, and miscellany.

Finding Aid URL: http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/0426/

Language: English

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

Subjects:

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Journalists
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
School integration--Massive resistance movement

Genres:

Interviews
Manuscripts
Photographs
Sound recordings
Transcripts