Guide to the Paula Giddings papers, 1918–2023

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2024

Collection Overview

Title:	Paula Giddings papers
Date range:	1918–2023
Creator:	Giddings, Paula
Extent:	38 linear feet (35 record center cartons, 2 file boxes, 1 half-file box, and 1 oversize box)
Abstract:	This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Paula J. Giddings, notable American writer, editor, and chronicler of African American women's history. She is the Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor Emerita of Africana Studies at Smith College and the author of four critically acclaimed books: When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America; In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement; Burning All Illusions: Writings from The Nation on Race 1866-2002 (Editor); and Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, the leading biography of anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells. While at Smith, Giddings was the editor of Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, a peer- reviewed journal featuring cutting-edge scholarship by and about women of color in the United States and internationally. Prior to teaching in the academy, Giddings was a free-lance journalist reporting on national and international issues, a book editor at Howard University Press and an associate editor and Paris Bureau Chief for Encore American & Worldwide News. The collection includes family photographs and memorabilia, personal and professional correspondence, book drafts, research materials, and print materials, and electronic records dating from 1918 to 2023.
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	MS.2023.008

Scope & content

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Paula J. Giddings, notable American writer, editor, and chronicler of African American women's history. She is the Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor Emerita of Africana Studies at Smith College and the author of four critically acclaimed books: When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America; In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement; Burning All Illusions: Writings from The Nation on Race 1866-2002 (Editor); and Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, the leading biography of anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells. While at Smith, Giddings was the editor of Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, a peer- reviewed journal featuring cutting-edge scholarship by and about women of color in the United States and internationally.

Prior to teaching in the academy, Giddings was a free-lance journalist reporting on national and international issues, a book editor at Howard University Press and an associate editor and Paris Bureau Chief for Encore American & Worldwide News.

The collection includes family photographs and memorabilia, personal and professional correspondence, book drafts, research materials, and print materials, and electronic records dating from 1918 to 2023.

The collection is arranged into 9 series. Original folders titles are listed in quotations. All other folder titles were created by the processors.

Series 1, PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, 1918 – 2019, includes awards, clippings about Giddings, diplomas, funeral materials, and genealogical material from Gidding's mother's lineage, the McGee family. Of particular note are press passes and reference books from Giddings' time in the American press corps that accompanied United States President Jimmy Carter on his first multi-nation trip abroad in 1977-1978. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 2, PHOTOGRAPHS, 1936 – 2013, contains black and white and color photographs. Subjects include Delta Sigma Theta Sorority events, Virginia Stokes Giddings and the Stokes family, professional headshots of Paula Giddings, and vacation photos. Of particular note is a 1978 White House press photo of Giddings sitting with Zbigniew Brzeziński, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Series 3, CORRESPONDENCE, 1939 – 2023, includes personal and professional correspondence. Correspondents include Arthur Ashe, Edwidge Danticat, Curtis and Virginia Giddings, Toni Morrison, and Gloria Steinem. Topics include professional appointments and invitations to speak. This series is arranged chronologically then alphabetically.

Series 4, TEACHING MATERIALS, 1992 – 2003, includes syllabi and teaching evaluations. Some of these materials were contained in a binder related to the African and African American Studies and Women's Studies programs at Duke University, others were contained in a binder related to Giddings' reappointment review. Courses include "Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement," "Introduction to Womanist and Feminist Thought," and "Women, Life-writing, and the Black Experience in America." This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then by subject.

Series 5, WRITINGS, 1964 – 2021, includes clippings, correspondence, chapter drafts, proofs, reviews, and typed and handwritten notes for articles, books, and talks, written by Giddings. Materials primarily relate to Ida: A Sword Among Lions, but other titles include "Education, Race, and Reality: A Legacy of the 60's," When and Where I Enter, Burning All Illusions, and "Encore American and Worldwide News." There is a series of folders titled "compiled chapter drafts" that contain various typed chapter drafts that were grouped together by Giddings in binders and preserved in their original order by the processors. The remaining chapter drafts that are individually listed were originally loose in boxes and thus foldered individually by the processors. This series is arranged alphabetically by writing format then by title then by record type.

Series 6, RESEARCH, 1980 – 2006, is arranged into 2 subseries.

Series 6, subseries 1, RESEARCH BY SUBJECT'S NAME, 1993 – 1994, includes photocopied materials from various archives, readings, and typed notes, about people significant to Giddings' writings. Subjects include Jane Addams, Laura Ormiston Chant, Hugh Price Hughes, John Douglas Sutherland, and Ida B. Wells. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject's last name.

Series 6, subseries 2, RESEARCH BY TOPIC, 1980 – 2006, includes photocopied materials from various archives, readings, and typed and handwritten notes about various topics related to Giddings' writings. Topics include "Black press," Chicago, churches, "education," "Lynching," Memphis, "Nineteenth Century women," and "social conditions." Note that listed topics were typically grouped together in folders and labeled by Giddings. The series of materials related to "various topics" were typically loose items that were neither grouped nor assigned specific topics. They often speak to multiple topics, thus the processors did not assign specific topics. This series is arranged alphabetically by topic then by record type.

Series 7, PRINT MATERIAL, 1962 – 2023, includes books, booklets, journals, magazines, newspapers, and programs. Titles include A Poetic Equation by Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker, Poems from Black Africa edited by Langston Hughes, The Black Scholar, Meridians, Encore, and various programs for Delta Sigma Theta events. Note that several books have inscriptions from the author, including Beloved by Toni Morrison. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then by title.

Series 8, EPHEMERA, 1990, n.d., contains an Ida B. Wells Barbie doll, bookmarks, buttons, envelopes, and pencils all related to Ida B. Wells events. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 9, ELECTRONIC RECORDS ON REMOVABLE CARRIERS, 1974 – 2017, includes 3.5" floppy disks, audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and vinyl records. The floppy disks primarily relate to Ida: A Sword Among Lions. Other titles include Black women in America, "Soundings from the National Humanities Center from Protest to Power," "Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas and Black Frontline," and Roses and Revolutions by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then by title written on the carrier.

Advance notice is required to view any audiovisual media or born-digital records that exist in this collection. Audiovisual media and born-digital records in this collection may not have been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical audiovisual or born-digital media is restricted.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Wells-Barnett, Ida B., 1862-1931

Subject Organizations

• Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women.
• Feminist Theory Archive.
• Black Feminist Theory Project (Pembroke Center).

Subject Topics

• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
• African Americans -- Civil rights
• African American Greek letter societies
• African American women--Political activity.
• Feminism
• Journalism--Politics and government
• Journalism--United States--1970-1980
• Lynching
• Race relations

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into 9 series.

Biographical/Historical Note

Paula Jane Giddings was born on November 16, 1947, in Yonkers, New York, to Virginia I. Stokes and Curtis G. Giddings. Her experiences of growing up in a politically active family, confronting discrimination, and witnessing student-led movements—particularly the Freedom Rides in 1961--led to her quest to understand and write about the dynamics of both oppression and the resistance to it throughout her writing and academic career.

In 1965, Giddings enrolled in Howard University, where she worked on the university's newspaper during her freshman year. She eventually became editor of the university's literary magazine, The Promethean—which she renamed The Afro-American Review--and was part of a group of students who demanded that the university revise its Eurocentric curriculum to include what is now known as Africana Studies. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1969.

From 1969 to 1972, Giddings worked at Random House, first as a secretary and editorial assistant and later as a copy editor. She then became an associate book editor for the Howard University Press, the first Black university press in the country which was founded by Charles F. Harris--one of the earliest Black editors in mainstream publishing. In 1975, she moved to Paris, France, to cover news in Africa and Europe as the Paris bureau chief for Encore American & Worldwide News. In that same year, she traveled to South Africa, where she interviewed leaders of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, including Winnie Mandela and Robert Sobukwe. Giddings was also a member of the American press corps that accompanied United States President Jimmy Carter on his first multi-nation trip abroad in 1977-1978. After leaving Encore in 1979, she was a contributing and book review editor at Essence Magazine and subsequently a free-lance journalist who wrote about national and international issues for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jeune Afrique (Paris), The International Herald Tribute, and The Nation, among other publications.

In 1984, Giddings published her first book, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. The book was a pioneering text that documented the role of African-American women in both race and women's movements throughout American history. The following year, Giddings was invited to teach at Spelman College as a distinguished scholar of the United Negro College Fund.

In 1988, Giddings was named the Laurie Chair in Women's Studies at Douglass College/ Rutgers University. That same year, she published In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement, a history of that organization for which she is a member. Subsequently, Giddings was a visiting professor at Princeton University, had an extended fellowship at the National Humanities Center, and in 1996 joined the faculty of Duke University.

In 2001, Giddings accepted a teaching position at Smith College where she was subsequently named the Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor of Africana Studies. While there she served as the third editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism. In 2002 she edited Burning All Illusions: Writings from the Nation on Race, an anthology of articles on race published by The Nation magazine from 1867 to 2000.

Perhaps most notably, Giddings published Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching in 2008. This has become the leading biography of civil rights and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells and has received numerous awards including the 2008 Los Angeles Times prize in Biography. The book was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; the Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians; the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights; and the 2009 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Nonfiction Literary Award, among others. In addition, it was named a Best Book of 2008 by both the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. Additionally, IDA won the inaugural Duke University John Hope Franklin Research Center Book Award in 2011.

Giddings has earned fellowships from the National Humanities Center and the Guggenheim Foundation. She has chaired the nonfiction panel of the National Book Awards and has Honorary Degrees from Wesleyan University, Bennett College, and Howard University. In 2016, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view any audiovisual media or born-digital records that may exist in this collection. Audiovisual media and born-digital records in this collection may not have been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical audiovisual or born-digital media is restricted.
Use of the materials:	All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Paula Giddings papers, Ms.2023.008, Box [#], Folder [#], Pembroke Center Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Gift of Paula J. Giddings beginning in 2023.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Amanda Knox, Julia Park, and Erin Perfect, on behalf of the Pembroke Center for the Teaching and Research on Women and the Brown University Library.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-02-29.
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
Sponsor:	Curatorial work provided by Mary Murphy and N'Kosi Oates on behalf of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women and the Brown University Library.

Additional Information

Inventory

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