few years ago, I bumped into an African American woman who told me that her aunt was a member of the Women’s Army Corp during World War II. I knew that there were not many black women who served in the women’s branch of the Army back then, so this was important history.
She also told me that the family had photos and other documents pertaining to the aunt’s service. Her nephew had hold of them, and she had no access to them. That worried me, because if the nephew did not know the significance of the materials, he could easily toss them out. I encouraged her to try to get them.
That’s the type of information that should be donated to a museum or perhaps sold to one. And that’s what auctions are for.
I thought about our conversation recently when I was browsing items at Swann Auction Galleries’ Printed and Manuscript African Americana sale. I used to often go to the yearly sale because I was certain to learn some African American history that had gone missing from the history books. The sale also reminded me that our history today is valuable, and museums and collectors want it.
I didn’t have to look far to reach that conclusion. At the mom-and-pop auctions I attend, I have to fight for anything “black.” The photos, books and history of African Americans sell because dealers know that they can buy them for nothing at those auctions and sell them for something at a place like Swann’s.
It had not always been that way. As a people, we were told that we had no history – either in this country or in Africa (the exhibits on the ground floor of the National Museum of Africa American History and Culture in Washington refute that). Historian/collector Charles L. Blockson tells the story of being told the same by a white elementary-school teacher, and that set him on a lifelong journey to prove her wrong. Today, his collection of more than 500,000 items is housed at Temple University in Philadelphia. Arthur Schomburg was another such historian whose Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY, is a major source for research.
American history books left our pages blank, so African American scholars wrote it for us. Carter G. Woodson was so determined to celebrate our past that in 1926 he designated a week in February as Negro History Week, which he hoped would eventually be discarded. Instead, it evolved into Black History Month during the 1970s and has yet to be fully integrated into a year-round study of U.S. history.
That campaign to strip African Americans of their history ran and still runs deep. Even today, some of us don’t think that our photographs, documents or old family Bibles with births and deaths matter. But something very simple may hold important history.
At an auction once, a cargo receipt for a railroad held an amazing story. The railroad was founded in Charleston, SC, in 1870 during Reconstruction. Four of its founders were black U.S. congressmen from that state. The horse-drawn rail service carried passengers and goods throughout the city, with connections to railroad stations and the docks.
I’m sure that had I been more aware, I would have found or learned of people and items of historical importance in my own family – such as the uncle who was a Tuskegee airman who may have had photos and artifacts from his time at the Tuskegee airfield (he did not participate in the war). He died before I became fully aware of his service.
Like me, there are plenty of others whose families may have histories that we take for granted. The key is to consider the value of your items in chronicling and enhancing the country’s history. If you’re uncertain, Google, check eBay, or follow these steps I’ve outlined.
Here are a few items from the recent auction that may spur you to look a little bit closer. (Sale prices include a 25% buyer’s premium. Photos are from Swann website.)
Group of 26 photos of civil rights demonstrations and related subjects from 1946-1968, $3,500. The photos include the funeral of two lynching victims, funeral of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, protests, Klan rallies and a Birmingham, AL, marcher being attacked by a police dog.
“Why We Can’t Wait,” signed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1964. $8,750. The book tells of the civil rights campaign in the spring and summer of 1963. Maybe you don’t have a book autographed by King, but you may have his autograph on something else.
“You Can Jail a Revolutionary, but You Can’t Jail the Revolution,” poster by Black Panther artist/illustrator Emory Douglas, circa 1969-1970, $8,125. The man in the photo is Fred Hampton, an Illinois Panther leader who was killed by Chicago police as he slept in his bed. Many of Douglas’ posters do well at auction; some don’t. A friend once asked me about the value of another of Douglas’ posters “Remember . . . Uncle Tom Says – ‘Only You Can Prevent Ghetto Fires,'” which was selling well at the time. In this auction, it did not sell but it could sell the next time one comes up. That’s the fickleness of auctions.
Signed stock certificate for 10 shares of common stock in Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line, $5,000. It was a shipping line founded by Garvey and his Universal Negro Improvement Association whose aim was to give African Americans a way to return to Africa while also serving as a means for shipping goods.
A 1952 directory of black businesses, professions and churches in Detroit and its surroundings, $1,500. This is the type of book that could easily be discarded because most people would not see its historical value as a documentation of African American businesses.
A business card with photo of Bruce Payne, an Iowa stockyard businessman, $2,080. This is documentation of a black man in the business of “dehorning and branding” in Iowa. A small but important piece of history.
Poster by Carter G. Woodson titled “Important Events and Dates in Negro History,” $2,000. It was published by his Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1936.
Photographer Danny Lyon’s “One Man, One Vote” poster, circa 1963. $1,875.
This is one of those books that could get past you:
A 1944 handbook titled “Southern Pacific Company: Special Recipes for Guidance of Chefs on Dining, Cafe, and Coffee Shop Cars,” written for railroad workers, $938. Southern Pacific employed African American porters, maids, cooks, redcaps and waiters.
Very interesting