When the Harlem Writers Guild Came Home to the Schomburg Center
Members of the Harlem Writers Guild in the Schomburg Center's Jean Blackwell Huston Research and Reference Division Aaron Douglas Reading Room for the 2019 program "An Evening with the Harlem Writers Guild"
Photo by Lisa Herndon
The Harlem Writers Guild and its members have had a long association with the Schomburg Center. It was those ties that inspired my former colleague Tracy Crawford and I to collaborate with the Guild on a program at the Schomburg Center that put the spotlight on this organization. In November 2019, the Schomburg Center’s Jean Blackwell Huston Research and Reference Division hosted “An Evening with the Harlem Writers Guild.” The sold-out event took place in the Aaron Douglas Reading Room and offered attendees—who ranged in age from middle school students to seasoned Harlemites—a glimpse into the history of the organization and readings by current Guild members.
Kenneth Sousie, a student at Baruch College, also attended and wrote an article about the event for his college’s publication. The article includes photos and audio clips of the Guild members reading from their works during the program.
Now in its seventh decade, the Guild evolved from the organization The Committee for Negro Arts which advocated for equality in the entertainment industry in the 1940s. The Guild was established in 1950 as The Harlem Writers Club and its original members included African diasporan authors including Dr. John Henrik Clarke, John Oliver Killens, Rosa Guy, Willard Moore, and Walter Christmas. According to the Guild’s website, the Guild was created to be a forum where writers from the African diaspora who were excluded from the mainstream literary culture could develop their craft in the company of their peers. Members of the Guild strive to “create and publish compelling literature of all genres of the African American and African diasporan experience of struggle, survival and success…’; and to also use their “art expressions of protest against racism, social injustice and economic tyranny while embracing, promoting and sustaining” Black voices of all ages.
Harlem Writers Guild wrote a letter to President Eisenhower to demonstrate their solidarity with Africans fighting for independence.
New York Amsterdam News, Aug 6, 1960.
Not only did The Guild provide a space for its members to give each other feedback about their writing, according to its website, members agreed that there would be vigorous discussions on the state of Black affairs both nationally and internationally. Indeed, on August 6, 1960, the New York Amsterdam News published an article with the headline “Harlem Writers Urge Ike Act on Congo Crisis.” The article stated that on behalf of the Harlem Writers Guild, chairman John Oliver Killens appealed to President Dwight Eisenhower to “use the prestige of his office to bring about a solution” to the upheaval in the Congo during the African country’s fight for independence from colonial forces. In his letter to President Eisenhower, Killens stated that the U.S. can, through the United Nations, demonstrate to African people “we are in full sympathy with their yearnings for independence and full status in the world community of nations.”
Over the course of its history the Guild has sponsored literary contests, hosted conferences, and celebrated the contributions made by its members in the literary arts and publishing. The Guild attracted influential members who came from backgrounds in public service, performing arts and activism including Audre Lorde, Sarah E. Wright, Lonne Elder, Alice Childress, Ossie Davis, and Maya Angelou. Angelou, who had has presence at the Schomburg Center where her personal papers are held, wrote about the Guild in her memoir The Heart of a Woman.
In the first decade of the new millennium, William H. Banks Jr. edited the 2005 anthology Beloved Harlem, A Literary Tribute to Black America's Most Famous Neighborhood: From the Classics to Contemporary which contains excerpts of works by Guild members from different eras including Diane Richards, John Oliver Killens, and Louise Meriwether. Patrons interested in sampling work by Guild members can read Beloved Harlem and be inspired to read more by the authors represented in the anthology.
While researchers can learn about the Guild by accessing resources in the Schomburg Center’s Research & Reference Division such as the Schomburg Clipping File and newspaper and periodical databases, below we are highlighting work of some of the Guild’s earliest and current members who are keeping the Guild legacy’s alive into the 21st century.
Founding and Early Members
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Winter 2009/2010
Dr. John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998) had a long and distinguished career as an author, educator, lecturer, and historian. In his formative years, Clarke was mentored by Arthur Schomburg, and he co-founded the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. Among his numerous accomplishments, he is credited with playing a pivotal role in the creation of the Black Studies program at New York City’s Hunter College. Here is a selection of titles authored by Clarke whose personal papers are housed at the Schomburg Center’s Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division: African People in World History; Christopher Columbus and the African Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism; Rebellion in Rhyme, and Harlem, A Community in Transition. Clarke also edited and wrote the introduction for New Dimensions in African History: The London Lectures of Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan and Dr. John Henrik Clarke.
Essence, November 1991
Caribbean born Rosa Guy (1922-2012) was a co-founder of the Harlem Writers Guild. Guy, who came of age in Harlem during the Great Depression, tried her hand at theater at the American Negro Theatre before focusing on writing novels. She gained acclaim and awards for writing a series of YA novels and her literary career spanned more than four decades. Her personal papers are housed at the Schomburg Center’s Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division. In the 1970s Guy authored a trilogy of novels—The Friends, Ruby, and Edith Jackson. She also penned Bird at My Window; The Disappearance; My Love, My Love, or The Peasant Girl, and many others.
Jet magazine, Feburary 7, 1963
John Oliver Killens (1916-1987), a founding member of the Harlem Writers Guild, was a prolific and esteemed author and is recognized as one of the influential Black literary figures of the 20th century. Killens, who graduated from Howard University, intended on being a lawyer, but changed his course and enrolled in the army. Killens worked in union organizing while studying creative writing. Killen's first novel Youngblood was published in 1954 and his other novels were released during the following decades. Killens lectured at colleges and universities around the country. Here are some of Killen's other works: The Cotillion; ‘Sippi; Slaves; and Black Man's Burden.
The New Crisis, Mar/April 2001
Like her peer Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall (1929-2019) had roots in the Caribbean and was an award-winning author who achieved notoriety for her 1959 debut novel Brown Girl, Brownstones. Marshall has influenced and inspired generations of Black women writers and scholars—many of whom have devoted chapters and essays to the study of Marshall’s novels. Here is a sample of books written by Marshall during her long and prolific career: Soul Clap and Hands Sing; The Chosen Place, The Timeless People; Reena, and Other Stories, Praisesong for the Widow and The Fisher King.
Ebony magazine, July 1970
Louise Meriwether has had many careers–author, educator, journalist–and will be celebrating her 100th birthday in 2023! Meriwether may be best known for her 1970 novel Daddy Was a Number Runner, but she also authored numerous children’s books and has written for newspapers, journals, and other publications. In the 1960s Meriwether had the distinction of being the first Black story analyst at Universal Pictures. She was also an activist during the civil rights movement and fought to end apartheid in South Africa. Here is a selection of titles both for adult and young readers by Meriwether: Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls; Fragments of the Ark; Don’t Ride the Bus on Monday: The Rosa Parks Story; The Heart Man: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and Shadow Dancing.
Current Members
Cover page of the program for "An Evening with the Harlem Writers Guild"
Presently the Guild has over a dozen members who are actively publishing works in various styles and genres. Among the many Guild members who were included in the presentation at the Schomburg Center in 2019, we are highlighting just of a few of these writers and their books which can be found in the Schomburg Center's Research and Reference Division.
Throughout her career Guild member Judy C. Andrews has served as an educator, freelance writer and educator. Her work spans poetry and novels including A Gift to Treasure and An Ocean of Jewels.
Minnette Coleman who hails from Atlanta, Georgia, has been a performer, music critic and is the author of a collection of novels including The Blacksmith’s Daughter and No Death by Unknown Hands.
Angela Dews, who has a background in journalism and working in the public sector, teaches meditation and edited the book Still, in the City: Creating Peace of Mind in the Midst of Urban Chaos.
Marc Polite established the blog Polite On Society and he has written collections of poetry, and essays. Here are three of Polite’s published works: The Binge Watcher’s Guide to Black Mirror: An Unofficial Companion; Poetic Ruminations; and Everything to Learn, Nothing to Teach: A Compilation.
Eartha Watts-Hicks has been a member of the Harlem Writers Guild since 2010. Watts-Hicks is a Hurston-Wright fiction fellow and an award winning author. Watts-Hicks works include Graffiti Mural: Off the Wall, Creative Collection , and Love Changes.
The Guild has continued to collaborate with the Schomburg Center following the event in the fall of 2019. In 2021 the Guild participated in the Schomburg Center's second Literary Festival which was virtual due to the pandemic and when the Literary Festival returned to being held in person in 2022, the Guild was also there. To find out about the Guild's upcoming programs, books that their members are publishing and other activities you may learn more by visiting their website.