Ewart Guinier photograph collection

Abstract

The Ewart Guinier Photograph Collection mainly depicts aspects of his career as a labor leader, social activist and academic, from the late 1930s to the mid-1980s.The collection consists of individual and group portraits and candid shots of Guinier, personal friends, and colleagues; some views of labor and academic conferences, labor meetings and pickets, receptions, and social gatherings; and a small group of contact sheets. The collection lacks views of Guinier's early life, and his political, civic and academic activities during the 1950s to late 1960s. Views of his personal life and family are limited.

The portraits series includes an early studio portrait of Guinier (ca. 1930s); a studio portrait of Guinier at the time he ran for Manhattan Borough President in New York City (1949); a series of studio and publicity portraits taken when he was chairman of Harvard University's Afro-American Studies Department (1969-1974); and a candid shot of Guinier, probably at home (1985). Also included is an individual and a group portrait of his daughter, Lani Guinier, with United States District Court judge Damon J. Keith, of Michigan's Eastern District, for whom she clerked, and an unidentified individual (ca. 1974).

The labor activities series depicts Guinier's activities as an official of the United Public Workers (UPW) union including a view of him addressing an outdoor rally for higher wages by state workers at the New York State Office Building in Lower Manhattan, New York City (1947); views of Guinier and city workers at an unidentified rally (ca. 1940s); with a group of UPW delegates at a Congress of Industrial Organizations convention, probably in New York (1947); in views from a union organizers conference in Washington, D.C. (1947); with a group of African-American civic and community leaders meeting with Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry Wallace (1948); in group portraits at a meeting of the Emma Lazarus Division of the International Workers Order (1949); and marching with anti-Jim Crow picketers (n.d. and 1950).

The Harvard activities series includes a group portrait of Guinier with others, including actor Ossie Davis and Newark, New Jersey, mayor Kenneth Gibson, at the Harvard Club reception, held in New York, for Guinier's appointment as Head of the Afro-American Studies Department (1969); views of Guinier in attendance at a Colloquium Series lecture, sponsored by the Afro-American Studies Department, featuring Professor Herbert Aptheker of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1972); Guinier greeting former Harvard President Nathan Pusey at Memorial Church (ca. 1972); group portraits of Guinier with others, including Dr. James Turner of Cornell University's Africana Studies and Research Center, attending the Rosslyn Conference for black studies scholars (1972); views of Guinier, including one with historian Lerone Bennett, at an annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (ca. 1970s); a series of contact sheet images, depicting Guinier, faculty and staff of the Afro-American Studies Department, that accompanied the March 10, 1974 Boston Globe article "The Pit in Harvard Yard"; and views of Guinier attending some Harvard commencement exercises (n.d. and 1974).

The miscellaneous series includes a candid portrait of Guinier and others, including New York State Governor Hugh Carey, at the One Hundred Black Men Affair (1975); a group portrait of Guinier and others at the 12th Annual Dinner for the Interracial Council for Business Opportunity, at the Americana Hotel, New York City (1975); and Guinier speaking to two unidentified individuals at a USA/USSR Friendship Society gathering in Moscow (1979). Among those depicted with Guinier at various gatherings are political activist C.L.R. James (1971), Professor Herbert Aptheker (1974), and United States Representative John Conyers of Michigan (1979). The series also includes portraits of Guinier's professional colleagues such as Harlem Affairs Committee Chairman Robert W. Justice (ca. 1950s); Captain Hugh Mulzac, whose 1951 campaign for Queens Borough President in New York City was organized by Guinier; former African National Congress President Stanlake Samkange and his wife, Professor Tommie Marie Samkange, who were lecturers in the Afro-American Studies Department (1971); and writers A.B. Spellman and Sterling Stuckey (ca. 1970s). Other images include studio portraits of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (n.d.) and educator/theater historian Helen Armstead-Johnson (ca. 1970s), and a group portrait of Dr. Betty Shabazz and her daughters (ca. 1970s).

Dates / Origin

Date created: 1938

Library locations

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division

Shelf locator: Sc Photo Ewart Guinier Collection