A Panorama of Progress of the Negro in Alabama
[n.p.]: Alabama State Teachers Association, 1959. Introduction by J. Garrick Hardy, Executive Secretary of the Alabama State Teachers Association. First and only published edition. Quarto. 42 pp. Mimeographed text stapled in publisher’s photomontage wrappers. VG (a touch abraded with toning and light foxing).
A publication conceived by the immediate past president of the Alabama State Teachers Association, Vernon McDaniel, A Panorama of Progress sought to collect data on “behalf of the ‘black brother’” to “be used in the process of building confidence in a race of people which has long been a contributing factor to the basic culture of our country” (i). Hardy laments the lack of positive publicity of the achievements of minority groups, noting, “Many newspapers in the South restrict the news about Negroes to the Negroes themselves by printing separate papers…The section edited by the Negroes themselves in which they talk about their educational programs, their clubs, their churches, etc. is never seen by the other group. Only murders, thefts and rapes by Negroes make the front page of certain of our papers.” Hardy remarks that it is the responsibility of the minority group to present facts about themselves to the public, which he sees will serve as “a fundamental base of inspiration and motivation to Negroes to want to achieve” (ii). An expanded edition is alluded to but was never published.
Several HBCUs throughout the state of Alabama contributed to the ten sections: Alabama A&M College (Agriculture), Miles College (Art and Sculpture & Literature), Daniel Payne College (Business), Alabama State College (Education & Music), Selma University (Religion), and Tuskegee Institute (Science and Military Service), along with the Alabama Interscholastic Athletic Association (Sports), which governed athletics at African American schools. More than 200 Alabamans with short biographies are listed, including Martin Luther King, Jr. (“Pastor of Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery…known for his stand on the non-violence practice in the Montgomery Bus Protest”), George Washington Carver, Hale Woodruff, Arna Bontemps, Ralph Ellison, W.C. Handy, Claude McKay, Margaret Walker, Booker T. Washington, A.G. Gaston, Josephine Allen, Nat “King” Cole, Coretta Scott King (listed as a soloist of national and international fame), Ralph David Abernathy, Jessie Owens, Hank Aaron, Willie Mayes, Joe Louis, and Satchel Page.
Rare, published five years before the Civil Rights Act, with no holdings in commerce or OCLC. Item #1217
Price: $5,000.00