Daniel Webster Wynn papers

The papers of Dr. Daniel W. Wynn, clergyman, educator, administrator, and author, consist mainly of correspondence, but also includes his writings in the forms of articles, book reviews, reports, sermons, speeches, and his autobiography. Other materials include teaching contracts, invitations, programs, news clippings, and photographs, as well as agenda, constitutions, and minutes from institutional bodies.

Wynn's 1979 typescript autobiography tells of his lineage, which includes African American, Caucasian, and Creek members, of growing up poor in small towns in Oklahoma, and of his struggle to attend Langston University in that state. Family materials include correspondence and information on Wynn's wife, Lillian, his children and parents, as well as other members of his family and that of his wife. Obituaries are included, as are a series of photographs pasted onto paper with captions.

While at Langston University, Wynn became friends with fellow student William H. Hale, who later served as president of the University from 1960 to 1969. Wynn and Hale maintained a lifelong correspondence, which is reflected in this collection. Wynn's association with the Tuskegee Civic Association is presented in the correspondence with Charles Goode Gomillion, as well as programs covering several years of the Association. These programs contain chronologies of the civil rights struggle in Alabama, as does Wynn's annotated copy of the book Gomillion Versus Lightfoot.

Wynn's work with various United Methodist Church-related, historically Black colleges are reflected in various files, which include information on college histories, problems, fund-raising, policies, personnel, alumni, trustees, and correspondence with various college presidents. Those presidents include: Ernest Thomas Dixon Jr. (Philander Smith), William Asbury McMillan (Rust), Hubert Vernon Manning (Claflin), Richard V. Moore (Bethune-Cookman), and Julius Samuel Scott (Paine). Church officials with whom he corresponded most frequently were Myron Forest Wicke, General Secretary of the Division of Higher Education and Ministry of the Board of Education; Ralph Winfield Decker, Director of the Department of Educational Instruction of the Board of Education; and James Samuel Thomas, Wynn's predecessor and later a Bishop. Wynn's work as Associate Director within the Division of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, especially his efforts to combat segregation within the Division, is reflected in his correspondence with Wicke, Samuel L. Gandy, Julius S. Scott, Roy C. Nichols, and J.M. Lawson Jr.

Other correspondents include: Allen Knight Chalmers, Charles Goode Gomillion, William H. Hale, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr., Jacob C. Oglesby, and John Jarvis Seabrook.