Various Interests
The Director, who is editor of the Journal of Negro History as well as the executive of the Association, has devoted some of his time to administrative duties, which, with the expansion of the work, are rapidly multiplying. It has been possible, however, to give much stimulus to all phases of the work in spite of arduous duties. That the additional assistants now associated with the Director will relieve him of some of these tasks is indeed gratifying.
The Journal of Negro History has found its way into additional libraries and schools where it is becoming more and more to be regarded as a valuable aid in research. It is now used as such in the accredited colleges and universities of both races in the South and serves for similar purposes in centers of research in the North. A larger number of institutions abroad, moreover, are now subscribing to this publication, requiring, too, a complete file of the magazine in bound form. Briefly stated, then, while this publication has not a popular subscription list, it circulates throughout the civilized world as a library magazine of value for advanced students, investigators, and social workers.
The Director has spent some of his time in field work. Wherever there is a call to encourage a school or a club to do more for the study of Negro life and history, the Director generally responds. In this way the people of Kentucky, especially in Lexington and Louisville, were made acquainted with the purposes of the Association and induced to do something for the preservation of the local records of Negroes who have achieved well. Enterprising citizens of Lexington have organized for this purpose.
At Nashville, the Director availed himself of a similar opportunity to carry the work of the Association to the thinking people of the city, speaking to them for two days in their schools and churches. The interest aroused was most encouraging and resulted in the organization of a local club to co-operate with this national organization. In addition to preserving the records of Negroes in that particular community, this group will engage in the actual study of the neglected aspects of Negro history, using the Branch Library as a center where numerous works on Negro life and history have been provided.
In Baltimore, where the Spring Conference of the Association was held, the citizens showed the same sort of interest in the work and pledged themselves to do more to save local records which are now being rapidly lost. Persons having an intelligent interest in the past of the Negro are now taking steps to organize there a Maryland Historical Society, to record and popularize the achievements of the Negroes of that commonwealth under the leadership of the teachers of history of the public schools and instructors at Morgan College.