Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Jerry Washington Ward Collection (T/032).
Creator/Collector: Jerry Washington Ward; and others.
Date(s): 1939; 1960-2010 (bulk 1972-2010).
Size: 19.11 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: Tougaloo College staff; MDAH staff, 2005.
Provenance: Loan of Tougaloo College of Madison County, MS, in 2004.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research. Boxes 32, 33, and 34 are restricted.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to Tougaloo College. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to MDAH Reference Services, Attention: Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Tougaloo College as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Jerry Washington Ward Collection (T/032), Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

Jerry Washington Ward, Jr.

Jerry Washington Ward, Jr., was born on July 31, 1943, in Washington, D. C. to Jerry Washington Ward, Sr., and Mary Theriot Ward. In November 1949, when his father took an early retirement from government service, the family moved to Moss Point, Jackson County, Mississippi, his father’s hometown. Ward’s Mississippi roots go back to July 4, 1847, when his great-grandfather J. C. Walker was born in Lauderdale, Lauderdale County, Mississippi. Ward’s maternal grandparents, Alfred Theriot and Victoria Richard Theriot were from St. James Parish, Louisiana.

Immediately after the move to Moss Point in 1949, Ward went to Mrs. Reena Berry’s private school for a short while and then entered the second grade at Magnolia Elementary in 1950. He attended St. Peter Catholic School in Pascagoula, Jackson County, Mississippi, in 1951-52. After graduating from eighth grade in 1957, he spent his first high school year at Our Mother of Sorrows High School in Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi. He left parochial schools after his father’s death in December 1957, and transferred to Magnolia High School. He spent two years at Magnolia as an honor student before entering Tougaloo Southern Christian College, Tougaloo, Madison County, Mississippi, in 1960 as a mathematics major.

Ward graduated from Tougaloo in 1964 with a B. S. degree in mathematics. In 1966 he earned an M. S. degree in English at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After serving in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, Ward returned to Tougaloo to join the English faculty. Early in his career, he took a leave of absence from Tougaloo completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of Virginia. His dissertation was on Richard Wright and his critics. This work would establish him as one of the important authorities on Wright and his works.

Ward would remain as a member of the Tougaloo faculty for thirty-two years. During that period, he would progress through the academic ranks. He served as Chairman of the Department of English from 1979-1986, and assumed the post of Lawrence Durgin Professor of Literature in 1988. He held that post until he left Tougaloo in 2002. Ward was an ardent supporter of one of the most important programs at Tougaloo for developing stellar students. This program was the United Negro College Fund/Mellon program funded through the Andrew Mellon Foundation. He mentored Mellon Fellows from their freshman years in college to their achievements of doctorates at prestigious institutions. Fellows included national scholars Howard Ramsby, Candice Love-Jackson, Valarie Matthews Dotson, Rian Bowie, and Stefan Wheelock.

While at Tougaloo, Ward developed an active career of scholarship and teaching. He served as a visiting scholar at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, and Wayne State University in Michigan. He was, as well, Scholar in Residence at Talledega College in Alabama; visiting professor at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi; and the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee. Ward also held a position as fellow at the National Humanities Center. In addition, Ward has earned a reputation as a writer, poet, reviewer, and lecturer. He has written numerous essays, articles, and reviews; he has served as a lecturer throughout the United States and beyond, even to mainland China, delivering over 80 professional lectures and papers; he joined John Killens as the coeditor of the anthology Black Southern Voices; and was the editor of the anthology, Trouble the Waters: 250 years of African American Poetry. Jerry Ward’s most recent works include The Katrina Papers: A Journal of Trauma and Recovery, published 2008, and the Cambridge History of African Literature, co-edited with Maryemma Graham.

Ward and Richard Wright’s daughter, Julia Wright, were among the founders of the Richard Wright Circle in 1990, an organization dedicated to the study of Wright’s life and work. Among Ward’s many writings on the subject some of the most significant are: the introduction to the Harper Perennial edition of Black Boy; Black Boy (American Hunger) Freedom to Remember, a work he coauthored with Maryemma Graham; Richard Wright and the Common Reader, written for Black Magnolia; and an entry for the Mississippi Encyclopedia.

Ward has been involved with many professional organizations, such as the College Language Association, the Modern Language Association, and the Southern Black Cultural Alliance. He has played a decisive role in the Mississippi Humanities Council and was recognized for his contributions to that organization by being given the Humanities Teacher Award, the Humanities Scholars Award, and being elevated to an executive position in the Council. Aside from his academic affiliation Ward served on the Mississippi Advisory Committee to U. S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Ward has received numerous honors and awards throughout his career. His most cherished awards are the Darwin T. Turner Award of Excellence for Contributions in Research, Scholarship and Mentoring; the Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award from the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration; his induction as Honored Girot and Lifetime Member of the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent;and his induction into the Tougaloo Hall of Fame. Since 2002, Dr. Ward has been the Distinguished Eminent Scholar and Professor of English at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection of Jerry Washington Ward spans the years 1939-2010, with the major focus on the years 1972-2010. It is divided into the following series: personal matters, consisting of awards, collected items, correspondence, and programs of events; career, consisting of correspondence, documents, and other materials related to Ward’s career at Tougaloo, Dillard and other educational institutions; works by Ward, consisting of the major works by Ward as a speaker, reviewer, newspaper columnist, and manuscript writer; anthologies, collected works and larger works, consisting of writings that Ward authored or co-authored; scholar affiliation, consisting of correspondence, documents, and writings of noted scholars; organizational affiliation, consisting of correspondence, documents, and printed materials of professional organizations; collected magazines, newspapers, photographs, and audiotapes.

Box and Folder List

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Personal: 1959-2010; n.d. 3 boxes.

Subseries 1.1: Personal Matters. 1959-2010; n.d. 34 folders.
This subseries contains personal materials of Ward. Of particular interest are a comprehensive bibliography that catalogues Ward’s life and works, written by Rose Marshall in 2009, and a personal interview that explores his desires to be a writer. Included as well in this subseries are collected programs, brochures, and flyers that reflecting Ward’s personal activities, or his interests, particularly those associated with literary history.

Box 1

Subseries 1.2: General Correspondence. 1971-2009; n.d. 43 folders.
This subseries contains Ward’s correspondence from many different persons, companies, academic institutions, and publishing houses during this period. The correspondence is chronologically arranged.

Box 2, folders 1-43

Subseries 1.3: Specific Correspondence. 1964-2009; n.d. 83 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence with different scholars and personalities who had a profound impact on Ward’s life, career and writing. They include such persons as Margaret Walker Alexander, Tom Dent, Michael Fabre, Maryemma Graham, Ahmos Zu-Bolton, and many others in the literary and educational fields. The correspondence is alphabetically arranged.

Box 2, folders 44-52
Box 3

Series 2: Career: 1960-2009; n.d. 2 boxes.

Subseries 2.1: Tougaloo College. 1960-2009; n.d. 74 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence, documents, programs, manuscripts, and publications associated with Ward’s career at Tougaloo College. Prominent among the materials are those that describe his involvement with the UNCF/Mellon Fellowship program at the college. The materials used for preparing English majors for their careers are a significant part of this subseries. Throughout this subseries are correspondence, documents, and memorandum that detail Ward’s relationship with the administration and faculty. Material concerning Ward’s involvement in the development of faculty forums and book review sessions is included as well.

Box 4
Box 5, folders 1-4

Subseries 2.2: Dillard University. 2002-2007. 4 folders.
This subseries contains material associated with Ward’s career at Dillard University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Box 5, folders 5-6

Subseries 2.3: Other Career Experiences. 1986-2000. 3 folders.
This subseries contains materials reflecting other aspects of Ward’s career, including his position as a visiting professor at the University of Memphis in Memphis Tennessee and as a National Humanities Fellow.

Box 5, folders 7-10

Series 3: Works by Ward. 1970-2010; n.d. 5 boxes.

Subseries 3.1: Interviews: Written Transcripts. 1975-1995; n.d. 11 folders.
This subseries contains the transcripts of the interviews Ward has done with various activists, scholars and writers. The interviews are arranged alphabetically. Prominent among then is his interview with Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander.

Box 6, folders 1-11

Subseries 3.2: Speeches. 1974-2010; n.d. 35 folders.
This subseries contains copies of speeches Ward has given throughout his career. The speeches are arranged alphabetically.

Box 6, folders 12-56

Subseries 3.3: Reviews. 1970-2009; n.d. 59 folders.
This subseries contains the reviews, mostly literary, that Ward wrote during his career. The reviews are chronologically arranged.

Box 6, folders 57-115

Subseries 3.4: Jackson Advocate. 1978-2008; n.d. 31 folders.
This subseries contains the articles, columns, and reviews Ward wrote for the Jackson Advocate (Jackson, Mississippi) newspaper. The material is arranged chronologically.

Box 6, 116-146

Subseries 3.5: Manuscripts. 1972-2010; n.d. 88 folders.
This subseries contains the manuscripts Ward wrote throughout his career. The manuscripts are arranged chronologically.

Boxes 7-9

Subseries 3.6: Richard Wright Material. 1991-2009; n.d. 37 folders.
This subseries contains materials on Richard Wright. Some of the material was written by Ward, such as his introduction to Harper Perennial edition of Black Boy and his entry for the Mississippi Encyclopedia 2009. Included in this subseries as well are articles by scholars on various aspects of Richard Wright’s life and accomplishments.

Box 10

Series 4: Anthologies, Collections, and Larger Works. 1966-2008; n.d. 6 boxes.

Subseries 4.1: Collected Poetry. 1966-1990; n.d. 5 folders.
This subseries contains a collection of Ward’s poetry assembled at various periods during his life. Such collections as Signs and Changes, 1968-1976, and Three Poems, 1975 are included in this subseries.

Box 11

Subseries 4.2: Anthologies. 1980-1997; n.d. 18 folders.
This subseries contains material for the anthologies either edited by or co-edited by Ward, or which contained his work. Prominent in this subseries are materials for Black Southern Voices: An Anthology of Fiction Poetry and Drama, edited by John Killens and Ward, and Trouble the Waters: An Anthology of African American Poets, edited by Ward alone.

Boxes 12-15.

Subseries 4.3: Book. 2006-2008. 2 folders.
This subseries contains material for Ward’s work, The Katrina Papers: A Journal of Trauma and Recovery.

Box 16

Series 5: Scholarly Affiliation. 1939-2010; n.d. 6 boxes.
This series contains the correspondence and writings of distinguished scholars with whom Ward maintained a close relationship throughout his career. The material is arranged alphabetically.

Subseries 5.1: General Scholar Affiliation. 1939-2010; n.d. 122 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence, documents, and writings of noted scholars, including Maryemma Graham, Pinky Gordon Lane, and Ahmos Zu Bolton. The material is arranged alphabetically.

Boxes 17-18

Subseries 5.2: The Works of Julius Thompson. 1973-2007; n.d. 55 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence, poetry, articles, and biographical material of Julius E. Thompson, a close friend and professional associate of Ward. The correspondence is arranged chronologically.

Boxes 19-21.

Subseries 5.3: Other Major Works. 1986-1999; n.d. 7 folders.
This subseries contains major works by other scholars with whom Ward was affiliated. Materials that Ward used for teaching and writing are included in this series as well. The material is alphabetically arranged.

Box 22

Series 6: Organizational and Journal Affiliation. 1963-2007; n.d. 4 boxes.
This series contains articles, correspondence, documents, and manuscripts from Ward’s many associations with journals and professional organizations. The material is alphabetically arranged.

Boxes 23-26

Series 7: Magazines, Journals, Newspapers, and Newsletters. 1965-2004; n.d. 2 boxes.
This series contains published information Ward collected throughout his career.

Boxes 27-28

Series 8: Posters and Placards. 1976-1992; n.d. 1 box.
This series contains posters and placards Ward collected.

Box 29

Series 9: Audio Tapes and Photographs. 1974-1995; n.d. 2 boxes.
Inventory is in the box list.

Boxes 30-31

Series 10: Restricted. n.d. 3 boxes.
The restricted material contains newspapers, personal correspondence, and duplicate materials.

Boxes 32-34