favorite historical book. book tv wants to know what you are reading. tweet us @booktv or posted on our facebook page. >> beverly cook, where are we? we are in the library. we are in chicago illinois. what is special about this library? >> this library has a huge research collection. >> was the first african-american branch manager. she is my mentor and the one who started this negro collection. >> what is the negro collectiono >> it opened up in the black community in the black belt inta

1932.rt it was the first black library for that community. she was the first library manager and she had a mission to create a place or a space for people to come in and learn to continue lifelong learning. how to read and how to discover and how to do anything theyarni needed to know how to do. to that and she would bring in special books and special people to talk about things that worktt current in the city and she was just fantastic. she and her counterpart. >> where were they physically? >> this collection started out at 48th and tha michigan. if you ever get a chance, go down there and look at it. the building is still there and the architectural is fantastic. it was verych uniqueit for thate because there was a room forme

adults in a room for teenagers in a room for check children. >> was it considered a black library? >> it was the only black library back in this time because it was 1932. you have to remember we have this huge this huge influx of african-americans fleeing the south and coming to chicago. >> whyhy chicago. >> chicago because a lot of part it was because of robert abbott. he advertised inause the chicaga area that chicago was the place for us to come to have freedom of choice, to have better education, and for opportunity. the chicago defender was illegal in the south. robert abbott died in 1905 and they worked hand-in-hand where they would drop off as they were going through the south. if you look at the early

descendent, it was heavy on visuals because were talking about a population that that was not really very literate. they were illiterate. so he advertised it, they trained and left in the middle of the night, they came toould chicago. vivian harsh collected what? vivian harsh collected black history. she collected black cereal, black newspaper, anything that would. >> guest: the black experience. when you study her, she's she's g thwoulian who never wrote. however she left a big footprine to follow. in the early paper, she was a socialite. you see her her at tea parties and things like that, but she became a social activist. she started going to the schaumburg and looking for other collections to see what made up a special negro collection.

she started collecting books on black history and there were not many at that time. she collected them and she had them in a bookcase in her office. she called it the special negro collection. from what people tell me today, you could, she didn't just lete anybody go in that room and read those books. you had to really prove that you are worthy of reading those books. that is the new gillis of our collection. >> how large is the collection today? >> wethate nu have over. [inaudible] we have about 30,000 or 40,000 books. it changes. we had one of the largest periodical collections in the united states because remember we started collecting back in 1932. what you may recognize is we have hangve oodic every issue of theo digest. we have said chicago defender on

microfilm. in the exhibit we also have a magazine collection that she started. it didn't last but we still have some of the additions. >> i know we will look at some defender items on our tour. is that still publish? >> yes it is. it is weekly now because it started off in 1905.it 1940, it s went daily and here recently it's gone back to ay an weekly newspaper, but is still very popular and very influential and very heavily red in the black community. >> who uses the vivian collection and who can use it? >> we are open seven days a weec so everybody who can use it but the wonderful thing is that i

would say our constituents are from the cradle to the grave and i truly mean that. it doesn't matter if you'ret m black or white because we havehi people from all races coming here. we have people from international from france and japan, from great britain, they come come here to use the collection and this case that were standing in front of righte now, it's an output of act lot f research researchers who come here. they use our manuscripts and they write theirse t book. that he talks about the rise of gospel music in chicago and weeo talk about some of the early church figures in chicago. you have a professor at northwestern doing a book on the black chicago renaissance which i'm happyor r to say, we have ry promoted that because everybody

is always talking about that in the sense but they've forgotten it really started in those riders came to chicago to finish their research and finish their work. >> when was the chicagotherly renaissance? it was from about 1937 untill about the early 60s what was it like? are we located right now in an african-american neighborhood in chicago? >> yes wet waike? are.e. remember, fdr started the project in an effort to put people in the humanities back to work. you had riders and photographers and camera people, you hadotog musicians able to go out into the black community. people would recognize that it would be open to them to get

their story. were still doing it today. with story craft back in those days you had african-americans going into the tha communities finding out where to their grandfather come from. they got the first-hand story of people who cameme from the soutm the migration story theyun met people like charles cb and walton, they were members of the community. it still probably one of the fes that aou still lasting was cread under fdr. chicago has a lot to boast about. what is this about with adambook selling this book pretty. >> he looks at the economy, whay works and what didn't work. he spent a a lot of time in his book explaining the rise of then black press. people like the chicago defender, and others.

he really does a lot of things saying how the economy work to during the black migration. and during world war i and world war ii. it's really fantastic work. one thing that people really like is the book kings. it's a subject matter that a lot of people knew about, especially the older people. >> what is this book about? >> policy. yesterday's lottery. policy kings and limbo's and racketeers. >> exactly. in those days, it was not. i can remember my on giving me numbers and i didn't even remember what they were. she would say go down the number and she would say put 5-cent on this and 5-cent on that. somebody else would turn the wheel and give the numbers out.

later on the state decided tonu legalize it and we have lotto today. it'smb fantastic. it was illegal during those days but people did what they had to do to make it to put food on the table. >> how did you end up here at the library? >> i started off at the rehabilitation institute and i had a job working there. i was getting pretty tired of being hung up on because i was in outpatient billing.d so i went back and got my masters in library and science. >> my connection is this collection was always in the black community. i was there. when i moved here in 75i followed it because it was everything you needed to know when you could find in theit b research collection. it was the most exciting new book people would come out and

talk about their books. they always found meth andat the assistant curator at that time, he asked me why don't you become a librarian. i said i have a job, i don't need to be a librarian. he said you're always out here and i see than people who work there. the next time i came out here, he had an application to the college. he made me fillelie it out. he mailed it off and i got accepted. when i graduated he said did you call and get an interview.call i said no. and he said we set up an interview for you. he did and i went down was interviewed and i interviewed one day and was hired the next day. i started december 23 and never left.ve >> you been here since 1980. >> i have not been in this physical site but i've been at] the chicago library since 1986.

>> what was your role with the vivian harsh collection question. >> it's a dual role because i am a librarian but i'm also, i carry both rows of the librarian who does reference services and helps those who come in but i'm also an archivist who loves to dig into other peoples business. so if somebody somebody came in and said i'm really interested in so-and-so, could you you help them? >> definitely i could now we are heading toward a main exhibit gallery.re a we usually try to do two exhibits per year. you are coming out to interview us so we decided to let this out for you. you asked me about richard. everybody knows richard. he was an angry black man.

richard wright lived in chicago for a while before he went on to new york. he spent more time in new york to chicago but he is such a huge influence on the chicago renaissance riders of that. because they moved back and but forth that we claim them. here's a picture of richard rice. he's presenting an autographed copy invivi the library she wasy light and a lot of early african-american leaders were light enough to pass for white. >> that meant they were able to fit into society in a way that created no animosity or fear to the existing society which was mostly white. >> this is a first draft.

this is kind of important. weof learn here that he lived at 3743 south indiana. indiana is three or four blocks from state street. it's the dividing line west. this is fantastic because in 1936 it was built and strippingt the innocence away of youngis black boys. it starts off in the south somewhere have been a good time running and playing and jumping like kids do. then they decide they're going to swim in the swimming hole. one of them said mr. howard and going to like that. that's the white guy who own the land.

and they said no it's okay. they took off all their close and they were swimming in all us and they heard something. when they looked up they saw this white lady standing there. she had come upon them unexpectedly. they immediately felt fear. they knew they were not supposed to be there. they jump out of the water and start to run away. - the other to say let's get our close. she started screaming, they never did say in the book if it was her husband or whoever but some white guy heard and came along with a shotgun and shotn two of the boysth and they dieds right then. they wrestled with him and they got the gun away and he showed no fear and said boy give me that gun. while they were fighting, the gun went off and he killed the white guy. the story to me is about how fou young men go from the idyllic childhood seen to an angry young man because now the run for your life.

now you're leaving your home and all your people in your run into the north. he wrote this book in chicago. >> yes. in 1936. part of a later publication, uncle tom's children. the white man, taller and heavier flung the big boy to the ground. they dropped the close and iran up and jumped on top of the white man's back. even then, in 1936, you could see the anger. it's an anger frankly that spoke to the public because a lot of people were feeling that anger met disconnect because they were in america. it was the land of opportunity in the land ofere the free buty didn't have the same

opportunity. in 1986 was six was there a large enough black population to this book? to read it and buy it and understand where he was coming from? >> they didn't publish it in 1936, but remember, remember the library, it was a universitye outside of a university at 48th eighth and michigan. that meant that the public was invited in. people like richard rice, that was their home place. that was their meeting place. you could come in and listen to people like margaret walker who we study ande in read. in that sense, yes, the public to read it and got a chance. wor remember, were still talking about a lot of people who could not read and write. for them to be able to be invited where the author is reading his own work isadin fantastic. 1936, most african americans, what kind of jobs did they have?

laborer, made, selling newspaper >> better than the southwest mark. >> while in the south, they had infestation and new mechanization coming along so it's really not a big job to pick cotton because they are machines that can do it. you have jim crow laws and lynching so it's pretty muchhi betterne to leave. there are no jobs because after world war ii sharecropping came in which meant that i have to go to you to borrow money and rent your lan and to farm your lad and buy the equipment to work your lan. by the time i harvest came in, i owed you my whole paycheck. what i have to show for that who whole year? >> you mention langston hughes. i think of him as ao sh new yor.

>> i want to show you one more>> thing. i bring her up because we have her collection and she was the editor for abney. she is actually the manager of abney africa for the years thata it ran. i bring her up because at the same time that she was writing, the world knows richard wright but the world doesn't know annabelle thompson. only people who are professional inorld the field because, this r was louder than her humor. she had the same feelings that he had coming from the south and being discriminated against but as a 4-foot 11-inch woman she used humor to get her story outh a lot of her stories have been untold but i think you will see a lot of books coming out that

kind of compared them. she did her autobiography of africa, land of boo my father ad she gave us a manuscript and iti was publish the same timed ga richard rice publish.shed they're both autobiographical stories of their year in africa. everybody has read this book and very few people know it was publish. >> it was called africa, land of my father. she has some wonderful stuff here. >> could you buy it today? >> yes. it's at the library and people just haven't noticed it yet, but trust me. we'll finish processing her paper and you will be hearing about her. some of the things in her collection, you can see how beautiful this paper is.gh this wast a a letter that she received in 1963 from a minister in seoul korea. we have so much great technology that i was able to call on one

of my colleagues to translatehnl this because you know i can't read that. >> ebony, christ jesus, those other words i can read. i'm in a read that first paragraph. >> okay no subject discussed in the world divides as widely as the subject of race. it has been a play on humanity for thousands of years. our world continues to beuman sharply divided by race, not divided by the blood of jesus. >> isn't that fantastic. >> it's things like this that keep this collection so vibrant and so alive.this you see the mixture in the connection. he's coming to tell his story and the two interconnects. very quickly, who are the

johnsons? >> publisher and founder of ebony magazine during this time, he started in 1945, he lived in the same timeframe they did right here in chicago. this is really something important to remember about chicago. they were all here, almost at the same time. their livesthey interconnected. they believe they were given whatever choices are chances they were given that they should go back and it's also about service to the community. now we get to langston hughes. >> yes, the the new yorker who started out here in chicago andn went back to new york but because of the friendship he made here, he spent a lot of his

time here. he also utilized this to write the first draft and this is hise editing yes and we have the original. >> this is a copy of it. >> it was in bad shape. a lot of times we have to do preservation and conservation of our book. we had a new cover put on so that the public can utilize it really great because a lot of people like to come in and they like to see the additions that the riders themselves due to the work. then they compared to the finished product of the work. >> how long did langston hughes spend in chicago? >> from the letters between him, there are about a 20 year span of letters. he didn't spend all that time in chicago. as i said, he went back to new

york but because of theeth friendships he made, he kept coming back and forth. you know, back in those days a penn was a mighty weapon because people had to use letters to communicate with each other. today we have the internet andte whatever else we want to use, our smart phones, but because of the letters they wrote back and forth, we had, we had a chance to see their developing friendship. the first couple were about ms. thompson, thank you for publishing my poem. by the end, you can tell, youy o see the friendship growing so that is fantastic. i found this. this is his autograph copy of langston hughes. i put this out here because it also was written by arnold and

jack conroy would be head of tht illinois riders project. also within this courtship, it's an early form from gwendolyn brooks. it is fantastic also. a lot of it depends on what your need. researchers like to come in and see early writings by earlyhe black authors. >> if somebody wanted tors comen and said i saw on book tv the original draft by langston hughes, could they come in and o see a? >> of course. weorig have some of the most wonderful collections from the united states.r th roping 48 hours to the public. it simply means, when you come in you have to fill out a registration form telling us who you are and what you want to see. will run an id.

the glove on the end of thent t table, which we are using, just to let you know that certain materials you have to put on the gloves because we will don't want the oils from your fingers to take our touch our papers or our books because it causes deterioration. >> what else you want to show us from your collection? >> okay, her picture is opposite here on the wall. she worked hand-in-hand with vivian. she was very open and very friendly and very social. she was a mentor to gwendolyn brooks and langston hughes. a lot of the riders, they came in and really loved her. vivian harsh, on on the other hand, she was called the lieutenant. i won't even tell you why. you can imagine. she was more from the old social elite.

she had a tendency to be standoffish but she was very passionate passionate about her collection. >> where did the money from her family an come from. .> money is not even the issue here. old settlers club, they settled in chicago from the very beginning. it was a status that you had. just like if you could read and write back in the day, you had a status. as opposed to just having a million dollars.oppo however vivian had her degree in library science.then charlemagne left the south ahead of danger, i'll put it that way. she came to chicago for a better life. she was married to joseph rawlins who was in the army. she had a child and started off in her passion and her love was children. she was a gifted storyteller

from whatever but he tells me. she wrote herself. we have all of her public works in her collection. she also had a passion about what type of collection should be in the library. a grant and was able to get together to write this curriculum guide that we built together back in 1939 in 1940. what it really is is a manifesto of the types of materials that libraries, not only in chicago but around the country and around the world, what type of books they should have on thetei shelves. this developed a set a study for the chicago public schools, what do you want to do when you grow up. they asked the white kids in the white little girl said i'd like to go to school to learn how toa sew but i guess i can't go there so the question was why not because that's in the black

community. back then, even then there was this bias, this child didn't know why. she was probably just repeating what someone else said but that struck her and they started doing studies and looking at the books on the shelf. what you see out here are examples that she was fighting against. >> this book, the whole point is that if a book doesn't present a positive image to a child, it should not be on your shelf. whether it's a black child or white child or asian child, they have several models and someonel to look up to. she kept these books in her collection to use as tools as what not to purchase. she took this nationally. >> what is the point? why is that negative question and. >> look the imagery on it. they exaggerated features around the eye, the mouth, the color.

it doesn't present a positive image to black kids of what they can expect in life. that's the type of negative image that she wanted off the shelf. another thing, i didn't put it out here, it was on almost all the shelves of libraries around the country. she said, this this is very negative. don't want our children tothis believe this is what they're to expect to bey sh or how people should see them. this double negative images was not only on the black kids reading it but on the white kids reading it because that is what they saw as the face of the black child. you and i know that's not true.u her purpose, and she did it.sh this ise election season. i've brought this to show you some of the other things we have

in our collection. this committee was starting to get very, very close to the kkk and how they reacted to people criticizing them.o th even though his family was from old money and was part of a social elite of the black down south, he to had to leaveal because he started getting threatening letters and he had about four or five children, but the point i'm making is that even this is from 1938 or 39 and this is from 1950, to vote, you had to prove that you could answer those wonderful questions that they had and then somebody would give you a document to let them know you had paid your dues and you could register to vote.

he thought so much of it so that even though he left, he kept hit papers and when he died his family donated his papers. : mississippi $2 and his name is filled $2 as a look like much now because it would buy a bottle of pop the back then that would account for something. >> host: who was just your? >> he worked for the chicago defender for about 40 years we have his collection his original cartoons documents even some of the memorabilia because he loved making trains using his hands he also recognized the public

he was speaking to could not read a lot so he really use the idea the pitcher is worth a thousand words to tell a story the exhibit over there but also the supreme court decision brown verses board of education because it speaks to what is happening today this is one of his collections. >> is this the original? >> no. he drew on everything. >> this is 92 and this weekend in 201651 shootings last weekend. >> kirby and the epicenter right now? >> not the epicenter because when i have noticed lately

it is jumping it isn't just in one community now in the past it was the south for the west side by noticing the violence is jumping communities rogers park and something to do besides standing on the corn e and think of bad things. remember, what they used to tell us when we were growing up? okay, that is so true. that is so true. if you gave the kids something to do whether it's work or whatever like library tries to provide, we are doing something today called on the table where people can come in and express their wishes of what they think the library should do to their community. we are providing the kids with lunches like the ones that don't have lunches, you know. parents my work.ul we provide safe harbor for the kids that come in.

trying to find primary source material to do their books, trying to create a documentarian on chicago or paper trail or obama. all things to all people. >> joining us on our tour of the vivian collection beth lock. now, your partner -- >> yeah, beverly cook. >> beverly cook mentioned chester comedor. >> and so we have quite a bit about him because he was integral to the newspaper. he drew cartoons for almost 50 years. he was nominated for the prize twice. he first joined the paper and became an editorial cartoonist

in 1954. this is actually the very first cartoon that he drew for the chicago p defender. very samous and important case. he drew this and it was publicized june 12th. they already had this idea that we helped african americans and victory abroad and victory in civil rights. another cartoon that he did was the mississippi cartoon and this was done in september of 1955. you can see hanging from the tree a little bit graphic that she wanted to shock his readers.

you have three men reverend george smith, three black men murdered in the south. and so you can see them hanging from the tree. they're going away with his dog and coming up behind them like cavalry, you have roy wilkins. he was actually working down on the south on the case and invited journalists to stay at his house and advise them about people who he should interview. this was published one week before the trial started for the men who killed emett . >> chester was never awarded a

prize -- >> he was nominated twice in the 1970's, 1973, 1980. around that time. we actually have both of the proposals he put together to have prize but unfortunately and i think unfairly he lost both times. but i can be a little biased. >> what's the importance of the chicago defender to black journalism to chicago itself? >> well, it was really a local paper. what's important about the chicago defender is that it had two printings, national printing and local printing and the local you can see seven days a week we are open and it was important because we had local news. what was happening in bronzeville, all over the city was kind of something that businesses could go in and talk about their businesses, schools could have names printed, local ladies organizations they were working with and then you had

the national addition that was smuggled into the south during the civil right's era which was an unofficial contract that the publish's had, they would sneak them in because in the south they weren't highly regarded. >> did the defender provide writers? >> each of those contain writers. there was a poetry section called life and shadows that was edited by rasco jones. that's when brooks was published for the first time. first c african-american women o wit prize. why don't you show us. >> absolutely. >> what do you have here? >> so this is rasco jones. you can see that he was the

editor of the life and shadows and this is a column that really anybody can contribute to so you have all sorts of people writing in short stories, long stories, and became more like a club than just a column in the newspaper. he encouraged the idea of inclusiveness so you felt it was the local paper that you were writing to but it had a national audience. he left the chicago defender and went onto work at the whole house which hee had just start today work when he passed away in 1939. >> it's a little north and west. >> i want to ask you about the cover of defender and the display here. you have all of the copies of the defender on display? >> microfilm and we have hard

editions of the paper because everybody loves to look at them. early publishing, local and national writers. here is something very recent in terms historical context. we have president barack obama becoming president in 2008 and as everybody from chicago knows, he was the senator of illinois before he went there. so he actually gave an interview on behalf of the chicago defend er, to chicago, nationally important work that they did. so we have that transcript here. >> why do you have dreams from my father and the promise in here as well inal this bookcase? >> we want to show some of the books. people think it's dusty old materials that you have to sit down and read, half of our election a big portion of that are referenced books.

these are just a few in the collection. but it really speaks not only to the chicago defender but as as senator but life-long work to the community. >> how did you get to library? >> yeah, it was a long trip, originally from minnesota. came from chicago because it's the second largest cities with museums and historical centers and i just really got into irish history, my background which monitors the civil rights of african americans and who couldn't fall in love with the south side chicago history. >> so archivist have a number of projects that they are working on. we helped researchers and teach them how to scan in documents, but one of my favorite tasks is

processing sobi collections come in garbage cans and boxes, we can pick them up. >> are they willed to you? >> sometimes it's family members who drop them off, sometimes papers of organizations that just hear about the good work that we do and want to be part of the collection. so this collection that i'm currently working on that o i'm processing are the reverend addy and reverend wyatt. we have the manuscript. a speech that she wrote after visiting alabama, shortly after martin luther king's march from salma to montgomery.

this part is processed. people can come in. what's unprocessed is the very large photograph collection that she and her husband left us. about 3,000 photographs unprocessed. there's a number of duplicates but this is just the first one. >> who were the reverend addy? >> they were pastors on the south side over located on stonie island and 90th. the church is still going. church of god, the name of the church. however, addy white was a meat cutting packard and also founder of black trade union organization and in this photo you can see that she was a speaker and a cofounder of the first coalition of labor women.

they held their first convention here in chicago in 1974, over 3,000 women attended and she's here in this photo giving the opening address. >> when do you see yourself finishing the papers? >> hopefully as soon as possible. sometime within this year. there's going to be work done to the library and we would like to have her photograph collection fully processed before that happens. it starts in the 1940's and goes all the way to the thousands o. there's work with mary harold washington. >> all right. once again, if people want to come and see the vivian harsh collection, how do they do do

it? >> walk in. mondays through thursdays and then saturdays. the only thing you need to look at the collection is a photo id or library card. >> you're watching book tv on c-span2. this weekend we are visiting utah to talk with local authors and tour the city's literary sights with our partner comcast. next we hear from fluhman. >> for me and my own research it's unmistakenable that mormonism has drawn more than its fair share of public discussion given the size of the