The WPA’s “Negro in Illinois” Papers

Summer usually calls to mind family vacations, beaches and barbecues. But for many graduate students and academics, summer means endless days of research in overly air-conditioned libraries. One of our most frequently accessed archival collections here in the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection, opens a new window is The Illinois Writers Project: “Negro in Illinois” Papers, opens a new window. A large number of scholarly and popular works and even Chicago Metro History Fair, opens a new window projects were all created after long hours of combing through the “Negro in Illinois” Papers.

As part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration, the Illinois Writers Project used over 100 researchers to document the African American experience in Illinois from 1779 to 1942. The study was supervised by Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy. Among the writers who participated were Richard Wright, Fenton Johnson and Margaret Walker.

Destined for a book to be titled “The Negro in Illinois,” the project was cancelled in 1942. Chicago Public Library’s first African American branch head, Vivian G. Harsh, agreed to house a large chunk of the research in her Special Negro Collection at our George Cleveland Hall Branch, opens a new window.

Fast forward more than a half a century and scholar Brian Dolinar, opens a new window has pieced together the scattered documents from the project (found not just here but also at the Newberry Library and in special collections at Syracuse and Fisk universities). His compiled and recently published version is The Negro in Illinois.

Dolinar sought the assistance of numerous librarians in a variety of special collection repositories but he worked most closely with our now-retired senior archivist, Michael Flug. The book provides us with a carefully annotated and long sought way to ensure a wide audience for this well preserved treasure. Dolinar’s also begun displaying digital copies, opens a new window of some of the original documents on his website.

Have you come into the collection to use the "Negro in Illinois" Papers or have a favorite book based on research done in our collection?