Ethelyn Murray Parker (1895-1995) Papers (ca. 1899-1992; bulk, 1920-1980)

 

Avery Research Center Manuscript Number 1029

 

Biographical Note:

 

Ethelyn Murray was born in 1895 to Georgie Westcott and Robert J. Murray, in Charleston SC.  Her father served as a butler at the Silas Francis Rodgers Mansion on Wentworth Street, and her mother was a homemaker.  Murray attended the Simonton School and the Avery Normal Institute, graduating in 1914.  She taught in several counties in South Carolina before enrolling at Voorhees Institute in 1918, studying religious and elementary education.  In 1920, she relocated to Mobile, AL, teaching for five years.  She received a Rosenwald Scholarship to Tuskegee Institute to study physical education and dressmaking.  Returning to South Carolina, Murray worked at Voorhees for nine years and in 1936, she moved back to Charleston, teaching at Henry P. Archer Elementary School, and at Hampton Institute, VA in the summer. 

She married Sebastian L. Parker in 1939. In the 1940s, Parker took a writing correspondence course and upon completion, she began a column for The Lighthouse and Informer, an African American weekly newspaper.  She also wrote for Baltimore’s The Afro-American, the Pittsburgh Courier, and The Charleston Chronicle, commencing in 1971.  Parker was a member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), serving as president for the Charleston Council (1956-58); she was affiliated with the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC), served as treasurer and publicity chairperson for the South Carolina Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (SCFCWC), and was a member of The Elite Art and Social Club, Charleston, SC.  She attended Central Baptist Church, working with the church’s Missionary Society and the Ever Ready Club, and was director of the YWCA Senior Citizen Program (c.1975-1985).   Parker died in Charleston, July 28, 1995.

 

Scope and Content:  Approximately  3.5 linear feet (ca. 1899-1992; bulk, 1920-1980)

 

The Ethelyn Murray Parker collection consists of her early writings, correspondence, photocopied newspaper clippings from The Lighthouse and Informer and The Charleston Chronicle, with booklets, ephemera, awards and plaques, the majority of items consisting of photographs throughout various series.  The correspondence series contains a letter from Josephine Pinckney (1947), letters (1949-1964) from The Chicago Defender and Afro-American Newspapers and The Pittsburgh Courier; and greeting cards and postcards (1927 – 1960, nd) from relatives and friends.  The school related series contains Parker’s unbound autograph book (1925) from Tuskegee Institute, with an inscription from principal Robert R. Morton; and numerous photographs of Parker, the campus and class mates. Also included are invitations, booklets and photographs (c.1920-1931) from Voorhees Institute, Denmark, SC; group photographs (1955) of faculty from Sanders-Clyde Elementary, Charleston; and one with Septima Clark at the "South Carolina Congress of Parents and Teachers/ PTA Workshop.” The National Council of Negro Women, National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, and SC Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs series contain organizational materials, minutes, correspondence, newsletters, clippings, programs and photographs of Parker and notable SC women such as Mamie Garvin Fields, Albertha Murray, Sarah Dart Butler and others at various organizational meetings (1953-1968).  With some data from The National Council of Negro Women re the Interracial Conference of Women (1956).  The SC Federation of Women’s Clubs materials contain financial reports, magazine articles, programs, and photographs (1940, 1957, 1963) re the Wilkinson Home for Girls; conference programs and photographs (1949, 1958-1966) from the Coastal District, and Elite Art and Social Club members. Central Baptist Church files (1951, 1962-64, 1972) include photographs, minutes and programs (1960, 63, 65-66) of the Women’s Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of S.C.  With many images (c. 1920-1960s) of Parker, her husband, relatives and friends, mostly unidentified.  A photograph (c. 1899) of an African American soldiers (possibly Troop H, 9th Calvary) deployed for the Philippine Insurrection is included as well, along with photographs of Parker at the Highlander Center (c. 1950s), a photograph of Ella Baker, and group picture featuring Septima Clark and Guy Carawan. Photos (1954) taken by Boags Modern Arts Photo Studio (1954) are of the Charleston Chapter of the NAACP honoring Judge Julius Waites Waring; present are NAACP counsel Robert L. Carter, Elizabeth Waring, Septima Clark and Parker. With other images of Charleston’s African American policemen, playing pool (1952), photos (1956) by Coards Studio of the opening of F. D.Ward Wilson Drug Store, and a variety of photos (c. 1920-1960) featuring many significant buildings in Charleston, and statues at Brookgreen Gardens.  With some miscellaneous items.

 

Suggested Subject Headings

 

Parker, Ethelyn  Murray (1895 -1995)

Baker, Ella (1903-1986)

Butler, Susan Dart (1888-1959)

Carawan, Guy (1927-

Carter, Robert (1917-

Clark, Septima Poinsette (1898-1987)

Fields, Mamie Garvin (1888-1987)

Morton, Robert Russa (1867-1940)

Murray, Albertha Johnston (1889-1969)

Pinckney, Josephine Lyons Scott (1895–1957)

Waring, Elizabeth Avery (1895-1968)

Waring, Julius Waties (1880-1968)

 

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Charleston, SC chapter

National Council of Negro Women

National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACWC)

Southeastern Association of Colored Women’s Clubs

South Carolina Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (SCFCWC)

Elite Art and Social Club, Charleston, SC

Central Baptist Church—(Charleston, SC)

Dart Hall—Charleston, SC

Highlander Folk School (Monteagle, Tenn.)

Tuskegee Institute,

Voorhees College, Denmark, SC

Wilkinson Home for Girls

 

Coards Studio—Photographer—Charleston, SC

J.D. Ward Wilson Drug Store—Charleston, SC

Boags Modern Arts Photo Studio-- Photographer—Charleston, SC

 

The Charleston Chronicle

The Lighthouse and Informe

The Chicago Defender

 Afro-American Newspapers

The Pittsburgh Courier

 

Philippine Insurrection

 

African Americans--education

African Americans---South Carolina---History

African American teachers---South Carolina---Charleston

African American policemen – South Carolina – Charleston

African American soldiers

African American –women’s clubs—South Carolina—Charleston

African American women—Societies and clubs

Awards. aat

Clippings. aat

Ephemera.aat              

Poetry, SC.aat

Photographs.aat

                                                                

 

Ethelyn Murray Parker

 

 

Avery Manuscript Number 1029

 

 

Inventory

 

 

 

 

 

 

Box#/

I

Writings

Folder#

 

 

 

1

Original and photocopied poems, letters, invitations, certificates, brochures,

1-1

 

newspaper clippings and bookmark, from disassembled scrapbook (1947-49); with

 

 

Parker's honorable mention for Talent-Songwriters and Poets from Haven Press, NY;

 

 

and notification of Parker's inclusion in The Poetry Digest Annual Anthology of

 

 

Verse, 1949

 

 

 

 

2

Photocopied newspaper clippings (1948-1950) of Parker's published poems in the

1-2

 

Beacon Hill News, Boston, MA; "Letters to the Editor," The Lighthouse and

 

 

Informer, Charleston, SC (c. 1940s); and Parker's typed poem (1980) "Hugo"

 

 

 

 

3

Photocopied newspaper articles (c. 1980s) of The Chronicle newspaper and

1-3

 

Charleston YWCA honoring Parker

 

 

 

 

4

Photocopied newspaper columns by Parker (1987) "Keeping Up With Ethelyn M.

1-4

 

Parker," and "Charleston by the Sea," (nd)

 

 

 

 

II

Correspondence

 

 

 

 

1

Letters (1949-1951) from The Chicago Defender and Afro-American Newspapers

1-5

 

re payment for Parker's writings; letter (1964) from The Pittsburgh Courier re

 

 

Parker's press card

 

 

 

 

2

Letter (1947) from Josephine Pinckney, declining Parker's magazine subscription offer;

1-6

 

and letter (1950) from The Hills Brother Company re consumer dissatisfaction

 

 

 

 

3

Scattered greeting cards and postcards (1927-1960, nd) from Parker's relatives and

1-7

 

friends

 

 

 

 

III

Affiliations: Schools and School Related Materials

 

 

 

 

1

Unbound autograph book (1925) signed by Parker's Tuskegee Institute classmates; 

1-8

 

with handwritten message (1924) from principal Robert R. Morton

 

 

 

 

2

Photocopied newspaper clippings (1948) re George Washington Carver U.S. postage

1-9

 

commemorative stamp; and magazine photograph of Booker T. Washington and family

 

 

 

 

3

Original and photocopied black and white photographs (c. 1920) of Tuskegee campus

1-10

 

buildings including the home of Booker T. Washington

 

 

 

 

4

Black and white photographs (c.1920-1925) of Parker with Tuskegee classmates

1-11

 

 

 

5

Invitations and booklets (1928-1931) from Voorhees Industrial School.  Includes

1-12

 

invitation booklets (1928) from Voorhees Institute Cadet Corps; and the Royal Blue

 

 

Literary and Debating Club (1931) with signed dance card

 

 

 

 

6

Black and white photographs (c.1928-1931) of Parker, students and faculty at

1-13

 

Voorhees Institute

 

 

 

 

7

Miscellaneous school related items including program (1938) of Burke High School

1-14

 

fiftieth reunion; photocopied newsletter (1943) from Henry P. Archer School; and

 

 

roster (1960) of first class of McClellan-Banks Hospital Grey Ladies

 

 

 

 

8

Black and white photographs (1955, nd) of various groups including "East Bay School

1-15

 

Faculty" a.k.a. Sanders-Clyde Elementary School with principal Wilmot J. Fraser; and

 

 

"South Carolina Congress of Parents and Teachers/ PTA Workshop" with Septima

 

 

Clark in group photo

 

 

 

 

IV

Affiliations: National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)

 

 

 

 

1

Programs (1949-1950, 1956-57) from NCNW and regional conferences; letter

1-16

 

(1956) from Iola Jones, president of Region III, re national conference in Washington,

 

 

D.C. and regional meeting in Sumter, South Carolina, with program and photocopied

 

 

newspaper clipping re Annual Regional III Conference in D.C.

 

 

 

 

2

Convention typescript and photocopied newspaper clippings (1956) of "Interracial

1-17

 

Conference of Women Program," with mission statement of NCNW, historical

 

 

background of conference by president Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, and summaries

 

by keynote speakers, Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Mordecai Johnson; program (1962)

 

 

of International Cotillion

 

 

 

 

3

Memorandum (1957) from Vivian Mason, National President re nomination of

1-18

 

candidates for regional director; and invitation (1957) re the election of Dorothy I.

 

 

Height as NCNW president

 

 

 

 

4

Photocopied newspaper clippings (1953-57) re NCNW conferences and individuals

1-19

 

including Vivian Carter Mason, NCNW president; Alma Illery, chairman; Dorothy

 

 

Height, NCNW president; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

 

 

5

Charter certificate (1955) re inclusion of Charleston Chapter into the NCNW, letter

1-20

 

(1958) from Anna B. Tolbert, corresponding secretary re raffle list for Senior and

 

 

Junior Council, with reference to group involvement with Jenkins Orphanage

 

 

 

 

6

Bound handwritten journal ledger (1955-58) re minutes of Council of Negro Women,

1-21

 

Charleston Chapter, with Parker serving as president

 

 

 

 

7

Photocopied newspaper clippings (1957-58, nd) re members of the Charleston and

1-22

 

Junior Council of Negro Woman, including Ethyl R. Brown, Septima Clark, Iola

 

 

Jones, and Fannie Ivey