Derrick Joshua Beard collection

This collection contains news clippings, programs, brochures, and slides regarding Derrick Joshua Beard's private collection devoted to African American decorative arts and exhibitions of his collection under the title Sankofa Exhibition: African American Traditions in Decorative Arts. Also present is an article by Beard on the Muslim presence in the United States; articles on Omar bin Said, a West African Muslim enslaved in North Carolina; a photocopy of a manuscript in Arabic written by Said; and photocopies of letters written to Theodore Dwight. A set of slides is included in the collection, which features representations of African Americans, many of which are examples of racial stereotypes common in the early twenthieth century. A blank stock certificate, circa 1870s, for the People's Ice Company of San Francisco is present, as is an audiocassette of an undated presentation by Beard on African American material culture and representations of African Americans in popular culture.