Guide to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Unit of Work with Colored People Records
Open for research.
In 1923, the Board of Home Missions (PCUSA) was reconstituted as the Board of National Missions. At that time, the Board of Missions for Freedmen, which the Board of Home Missions had created in 1865 to minister to freed African-American slaves, became the BNM's Division of Work for Colored People (later called the Unit of Work with Colored People). The Associate Secretary for this work under the old board had been John M. Gaston; he was promoted to Secretary of the Division of Work for Colored People, and he remained in that post until retirement in 1938. He was succeeded by Dr. A.B. McCoy, who retired in 1950. In 1950, McCoy was succeeded by Jesse Belmont Barber. In 1951, the Unit's name was changed to Department of Work in Atlantic, Blue Ridge and Canadian Synods, and in 1959 to Work in the South. The following year, the few remaining projects were shifted to the Departments of Educational and Medical Work and Town and Country Church Work.
Very few records of the early BNM work with African-Americans have survived. RG 301.10 contains scattered records of the Division of Work for Colored People from 1930-1938, although all of the series contain one or two older items and one or two more recent items. The bulk of the collection consists of a file on schools for African-American children operated in the Southeastern part of the country--these files include correspondence, reports and newsletters. Other records in the collection include reports, articles, lesson materials and photographs.
SERIES I: REPORTS, 1924-1938
SERIES II: MANUSCRIPTS/PUBLICATIONS, 1934-1945
SERIES III: ARTICLES, SCRIPTS, LECTURES, 1926-1938
SERIES IV: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, 1927-1942
SERIES V: SCHOOLS, 1927-1943
SERIES VI: PHOTOGRAPHS
Available on microfilm: MFPOS 1171 r.1-2
Related collections include:
Record Group 376, United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Missions for Freedmen Records
Record Group 301.7, United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. Board of National Missions Department of Mission Development Records
Record Group 301.8, United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of National Missions Department of Health, Education and Welfare Records
Record Group 301.9, United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Council on Church and Race Records
Record Group 143 was reprocessed to form this collection.
Collection processed and finding aid prepared: 1979
Robert A. Goldstein, Assistant Records Researcher
Collection reprocessed and new finding aid prepared: June 1992
Stephanie Muntone, Processing Archivist
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| 1 | 1 | Finding Aid to Record Group 301.10 | |
| SERIES I: REPORTS, 1924-1938 | |||
| 1 | 2 | Annual Reviews of Work, 1933-38 | Microfilm: MFPOS 1171 r.1 |
| 1 | 2a | Grants to Churches and Schools, 1924-25 | |
| 1 | 3 | BNM Survey Report on Negro Work, 1932 | |
| SERIES II: MANUSCRIPTS/PUBLICATIONS, 1934-1945 | |||
| 1 | 4 | Adult Study Book on the Negro in America--correspondence with Missionary Education Movement of US and Canada, 1934-36 | |
| 1 | 5 | "History of Work of Presbyterian Church Among Negroes" by Jesse Barber--correspondence, 1936 | |
| 1 | 6 | "Like a Spreading Tree" manuscript and correspondence, 1936 | |
| 1 | 7 | "Map Talk"--work for Colored People, 1936 | |
| 1 | 7a | "The New Advance" Newsletter, 1945 | |
| 1 | 8 | "News from the Colored Field" newsletters | |
| 1 | 9 | Printing of Pamphlet by C.P. Pritchard, 1936-37 | |
| 1 | 10 | "The Rise of a Race," 1936 | |
| SERIES III: ARTICLES, SCRIPTS, LECTURES, 1926-1938 | |||
| 1 | 11 | Articles by Marjorie W. Smith, Secretary, 1930-33 | |
| 1 | 12 | Articles/Stories, 1926-38 | |
| 1 | 13 | Scripts, 1930-33 | |
| 1 | 14 | Slide Lectures--Correspondence, Script, 1935-36 | |
| 1 | 15 | Worship Services--"Sepia Tones," "Service for Race Relations Sunday," 1936 | |
| SERIES IV: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, 1927-1942 | |||
| 1 | 16 | Conference/Discussion Materials re Negro in America, 1935-38, 1942 | |
| 1 | 17 | Correspondence re publication of educational materials, 1936-38 | Microfilm: MFPOS 1171 r.2 |
| 1 | 18 | "Course for Young People on the American Negro," 1936-37 | |
| 1 | 19 | "Course for Presbyterians on the Negro In America," ca. 1936 | |
| 1 | 20 | Leader's Manual for "We Sing America," 1936-37 | |
| 1 | 21 | Outlines, Bibliographies, 1932-36 | |
| 1 | 22 | "Putting First Things First"--educational material and correspondence, 1934-35 | |
| 1 | 23 | Statistics, 1930-36 | |
| 1 | 24 | Sunday School Missionaries, 1927-36 | |
| SERIES V: SCHOOLS, 1927-1943 | |||
| 1 | 25 | Alice Lee Elliott Academy, Valliant, OK, 1933-36 | |
| 1 | 26 | Arkadelphia Academy, Cotton Plant, AR, 1932-34 | |
| 1 | 27 | Barber-Scotia Junior College, Concord, NC, 1931-36 | |
| 1 | 28 | Boggs Academy, Keyesville, GA, 1933 | |
| 1 | 29 | Bowling Green Academy and Students' Home, Bowling Green, KY, 1932-36 | |
| 1 | 30 | Brainerd Institute, Chester, SC, 1931-35 | |
| 1 | 31 | Coulter Memorial Academy, Cheraw, SC, 1930-33 | |
| 1 | 32 | Fee Community Station and Memorial Institute, Nicholasville, KY, 1932-34 | |
| 1 | 33 | Fisk University, Nashville, TN, 1931-32 | |
| 1 | 34 | Gould Academy, Chadbourn, NC | |
| 1 | 35 | Harbison Institute, Irmo, SC, 1932-37 | |
| 1 | 36 | Hodge Academy, Washington, GA | |
| 1 | 37 | Hot Springs Academy, Hot Springs, AR | |
| 1 | 38 | Ingleside/Ingleside-Fee Seminary, Burkeville, VA, 1927-34 | |
| 1 | 39 | Irmo Church and Grade School, Irmo, SC, 1932-33 | |
| 1 | 40 | Johnson C. Smith University (formerly Biddle Institute), Charlotte, NC, 1931-36 | |
| 1 | 41 | Kendall Institute, Sumter, SC, 1933 | |
| 1 | 42 | Larimer High School, Edisto Island, SC, 1933-36 | |
| 1 | 43 | Lincoln University, Lincoln, PA, 1935 | |
| 1 | 44 | Margaret Barber Seminary, Anniston, AL, 1932 | |
| 1 | 45 | Mary Allen Junior College, Crockett, TX, 1930-43 | |
| 1 | 46 | Mary Holmes Seminary, West Point, MS, 1935 | |
| 1 | 47 | Mary Potter-Redstone-Albion Academy, Oxford, NC, 1931-34 | |
| 1 | 48 | McClelland Academy, Newman, GA | |
| 1 | 49 | Monticello Academy, Monticello, AR | |
| 1 | 50 | Mt. Nebo School, Lone Star, SC | |
| 1 | 51 | Nannie J. Gillespie-Selden Normal and Industrial School, Cordele, GA | |
| 1 | 52 | Newton Community Center, Chattanooga, TN | |
| 1 | 53 | Richard Allen Institute, Pine Bluff, AR | |
| 1 | 54 | Swift Memorial Junior School, Rogersville, TN, 1932 | |
| 1 | 55 | Schools, General, 1933-36 | |
| SERIES VI: PHOTOGRAPHS | |||
| 1 | 56 | Photographs--Women Students, Brainerd and Fee Memorial [folder and contents missing at microfilming in 2001 and in June 2011] |