Willie Lee Hart papers

The Willie Lee Hart papers reflect the personal collecting interest of Mrs. Hart as they relate to her interest in African American history and her longtime support of the Amistad Research Center. Materials include correspondence, pamphlets/leflets, collected programs, VHS videocassettes, and news clippings. Prominent topics include the Congregational Church of Park Manor UCC in Chicago; Metropolitan Community Church in Chicago; the Vivian G. Harsh Society; Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ in New Haven, Connecticut; collected items on the Bronzeville area of Chicago; flyers and campaign material for African American political candidates from Chicago and Illinois; printed ephemera regarding the Association for the Study of African Life and History, the DuSable Museum of African American History, and the South Side Community Art Center; Freedom Schooner Amistad; programs for various events attended by Ms. Hart, including those for the Friends of Amistad Chicago Chapter and the Illinois Women's Society.

A portion of the papers document the her family's history in Uniontown, Alabama, and with Lincoln School in Marion, Alabama, as well as her book collecting interests. Materials include correspondence (1995-2002), photographs, collected news clippings and articles, programs, and financial documents. Family photographs include those of Ms. Hart's grandmother, Augusta Zimmerman Morrissette (undated); her mother, Gertrude Banks (1960s); and a Banks family gathering in Uniontown, Alabama (1960s). The family's association with the Fairhope Benevolent Society, Uniontown District Women's Convention, and the First Congregational Church of Marion are documented in programs, minutes, and newspaper clipipngs (1933-1998). News clippings and articles regading the Fisk Jubilee Singers and Lincoln School are present. Funeral programs for family and friends include: Jean Childs Young, Edward Craig Moore, Maude Evelyn Hayden, and Helen Gordon Seawell. Business cards, bookmarks, and receipts document Ms. Hart's book collecting interests.

Also documented is Hart's involvement with the National Summit on Bunce Island, which launched a campaign to preserve a former Britsih slave castle located on the Sierra Leone River.

Audiovisual material in the collection includes two VHS videocassettes that document a visit by Ms. Hart and others to Sierra Leone sponsored by the Amistad Committee of New Haven, Connecticut. An additional VHS videocassette documents celebrations marking the end of civil war in Sierra Leone. Also included is a volunteer manual compiled by Ms. Hart for a visit to Chicago by the Amistad Freedom Schooner.

Items of note in the collection include a bibliography of books on Afro-Brazilian history compiled by Ms. Hart and correspondence regarding an archaeological survey project on Bunce Island conducted by Syracuse University. Also present is a 2004 political sign for Barack Obama's candidacy for the U.S. Senate, as well as three illustrations from Harper's Weekly: "Colored Troops Under General Wild, Liberating Slaves in North Carolina" (January 23, 1864), "Would You Marry Your Daughter to a Nigger?" (July 11, 1868), and "Private Theatricals in Blackville" (April 20, 1878).