Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).

Collection Summary: Source material on African Americans in Mississippi, compiled by the Mississippi Federal Writers’ Project between 1936 and 1941.  The series consists primarily of handwritten and typed draft manuscripts.  Notations on these drafts suggest that they were intended for the Federal Writers’ Project Guide Book, Fact Book and Encyclopedia.  In addition to the manuscripts, the series includes the following published items: The Negro: A Selected List for School Libraries of Books by or About the Negro in Africa and America, a 1935 pamphlet by the Tennessee Education Department; The Health Situation of Negro Mothers and Babies in the United States:  A Brief Statement of Health Status, Health Services, and Needs, a 1941 pamphlet produced by the U.S. Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau; and Songs of the Soul, an undated illustrated brochure by the Mississippi Advertising Commission. The records have been boxed alphabetically by subject.  Subject categories are as follows: Arts, Churches, Communities, Education, Emancipation Celebration, Health, History, General Information, Negro Folk Ways, Organizations, Press, Slavery, Social Groups, “The Mississippi Negro: Temperament, Psychology, and Culture” by C. Sessions Fant, Wallace’s History of Negroes of Mississippi, “What the Negro has done for Mississippi” by Lawrence Jones, and World War II. 

Access Restrictions: None.

Date(s): 1936-1941.

Volume: 1.25 Cubic Feet.

Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in September 2024.

Related Materials: TBD.

Record Group History: The Works Projects Administration (WPA) was a federal program established on May 6th, 1935, in order to increase employment during the Great Depression. While the WPA was a federal program, it was implemented and managed on the state level with each state having their own director and office to guide the operation of the WPA for each state. The WPA was primarily focused on employing individuals for the purpose of creating public works and infrastructure, but a small portion of its funding was devoted to cultural and artistic endeavors which the files in this collection are primarily concerned with. Two of the major cultural projects the WPA undertook were the Federal Writers’ Project and the Historical Records Survey. The Federal Writers Project employed writers to create guides, histories, and chronicles for each state and the Historical Records Survey sought to catalogue the historical records of each state.

Collection Inventory:
Box Content Box Number
Arts - Education10561
Education - World War II 10562
Songs of the Soul brochure (oversized)20772