William H. Moses Jr. papers

The papers of William H. Moses, Jr., architect, columnist, and founder of the architecture program at the Hampton Institute in Virginia mainly consist of manuscript drafts of his weekly column, “A Dark Point of View,” published in The New Observer and The Carolinian. This column was published from 1969 to 1986 and Moses described it as, “A collection of Black concerns expressed by a Black columnist.” In “A Dark Point of View,” Moses provides commentary about elections and politics in the United States, cultural and social issues of the African American community, and race relations and the role of African Americans within the wider society. Of particular interest are Moses columns regarding President Richard Nixon’s administration and the Watergate scandal, the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1980, and the presidential campaigns and elections of 1984 and 1988 in which civil rights activist and Baptist Minister, Jesse Jackson, ran as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The correspondence within the collection includes incoming and outgoing letters to Moses with the bulk containing inquiries regarding publishing submissions, speaking engagements, and occasional political commentary regarding Moses’ responses to presidential campaigns and elections. There is little family correspondence within the papers, except that of Moses with his nephew, Robert “Bob” Moses, who lived in Tanzania, Africa throughout the 1970s.

Of interest within the correspondence for 1943 is an open letter and petition by Moses as the corresponding secretary of the Virginia Peninsula Teachers Union, Local 607 of the American Federation of Teachers regarding the full participation and acknowledgement of Blacks in the war effort and the Hampton Institute’s contracts for special training with the United States Army and Navy. In particular, a protest against the United States Navy’s policy of excluding African Americans from service as commissioned officers. Moses, received responses to the petition from Joseph Bressler, New York College Teachers Union; Lester B. Granger, National Urban League; Walter White, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and others. Also of interest are letters from Langston Hughes regarding Moses and his wife, Julia’s attendance at the New York City opening of Hughes’ play, Simply Heavenly in 1957 and Hughes’ pleasure of being a possible nominee for the 1959 Spingarn Awards. An individual item of note includes a planning letter from the Community Committee for Human Dignity to the Hampton community exploring the possibility of protests and demonstration to eliminate segregation in Hampton, Virginia businesses (1960). Lastly, Moses’ letter to the editor of the Daily Press regarding its editorials and coverage encouraging the civil rights bill be voted down or key parts of it removed (1964).