Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Aurelia Norris Young Papers (T/034).
Creator/Collector: Aurelia Norris Young; and others.
Date(s): 1943-1991; n.d..
Size: 7.50 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. Audio tapes must be used in the media room.

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: Aurelia Norris Young Papers (T/034), Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.
 

Biography:

Aurelia Norris Young

Aurelia Norris was born December 9, 1915, in Knottsville, Kentucky, the only daughter among the three children of John and Hilda Norris. When she was five years old, Norris and her family moved to New London, Ohio, where Aurelia attended public school. Throughout her elementary and secondary school years, Norris studied piano and violin. She was the pianist for the boys and girls glee club, and played the violin in the high school orchestra. She graduated in the top ten percent of her class.

Norris attended Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, on a college scholarship. She was awarded additional scholarships from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the Greene County, Ohio, Republican Women’s Club. She graduated in 1937 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, and was inducted into the Sigma Pi and the Cup and Saucer honorary societies. After graduating Norris moved to Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi. On September 4, 1938, she married Jack Harvey Young. They had two children. Hilda Jeannette Young, born on July 22, 1941 and Jack Harvey Young Jr., born on February 12, 1943.

Young started her professional career in music upon her arrival in Jackson. From 1937 to 1941, she was the choral director at Jackson College, now Jackson State University. From 1941 to 1943, she taught piano classes and music fundamentals at Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Madison County, Mississippi. In 1943, she became the band and orchestra director, taught instrumental classes, and accompanied the choir on its national tours. In 1947, she was invited by Dean Henry Thomas Sampson of Jackson State College to help establish a Bachelor of Music program. Once there, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Music. In 1955, she received grants from Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Indiana University. These awards allowed her to obtain a Master’s degree in music theory from Indiana University-Bloomington, Indiana. She returned to Jackson State College and continued as a professor in that department until she retired in 1977.

Young earned many honors and awards as a composer and scholar. Her works include the musical scores for two operettas, seven songs for voice and piano, and the centennial hymn and alumni song for Jackson State University. During the 1960s and 1970s she traveled throughout the world studying musical techniques and sharing her knowledge of African American music. She shared her research and knowledge with the high schools of Jackson, Mississippi; various colleges throughout the state; the Mississippi Folklore Society; the Junior League of Jackson Arts Festival; and a variety of radio and television stations.

Aside from her music career, Aurelia Young has been noted for her contributions to the Jackson Civil Rights Movement (1961-1975). She encouraged and supported her husband, Jack Harvey Young, Sr., in his role as the lead attorney for the NAACP. In 1961, when a large group of Freedom Riders were arrested and sent to Parchman Penitentiary, the Mississippi state prison, it was Jack Young’s responsibility to raise the bail for them and secure their release. The Freedom Riders were released after spending thirty-nine days in Parchman, and when they arrived in Jackson, Aurelia Young assumed the role of feeding them and finding them suitable clothing. Young was an active charter member of Womanpower Unlimited, an organization of middle class African American women that was interested in improving the lives of African Americans throughout the state. Womanpower Unlimited was active in voters’ rights until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While she was engaged in social activism throughout this period, Young collected articles that appeared in the local papers and other periodicals throughout the nation that dealt with the Civil Rights Movement. She also maintained a daily journal that chronicled her impressions of the events of the time.

Aurelia Young continued her involvement in civil and human rights activities after the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. She was active in the American Association of University Professors, served as the first president of the AAUP chapter at Jackson State College, and joined with them in condemning the slaying of the two young men on the college campus (May 14, 1970). She was active on the Mississippi Council of Human Relations, an association that aimed at searching out injustices that existed throughout the state. During the 1980s she was very active in mass communications and community empowerment. In 1983, she founded and was President of the Board of Directors of WMPR, the first community-based public radio station in Mississippi.

Aurelia Norris Young survived her husband, Jack Harvey Young, Sr., who died on September 25, 1976. Her son, Jack Harvey Young, Jr., died on May 28, 2006. As of 2007, Aurelia Norris Young resided in Jackson.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection spans the years of 1943 to 1991. It is divided into six series. Series one contains Young’s personal materials: her correspondence, other writings and notes; and materials related to family matters. Series two contains materials related to her professional interests and highlights of her career. Series three contains records of the events of the Civil Rights era as seen and recorded by Young. Series four describes her involvement in community service organizations. Series five contains the records of WMPR; a community based public radio station. Series six contains the collection of magazines, art reproductions, photographs, and audio tape reels. Of particular interest in series one is Young’s personal journal that records events in Jackson during the Civil Rights period (1961-1965).

 
Series Identification:

Series 1: Personal Correspondence and Writings. 1954-1990; n. d. 17 folders.
This series contains the personal correspondence and other writings of Aurelia Young. There are letters between her and her husband, Jack Harvey Young, Sr., as well as correspondence between Aurelia Young and friends. Of note in this series are a personal journal and other writings in which Young describes events during the Civil Rights Movement, 1961-1965. Young and Ethel Payne, a prominent syndicated columnist, discuss these events in letters, and Payne discusses her plans to publish Young’s journals.

Box 1, folders 1-17

 

Series 2: Professional Career Papers. 1943-1991. 19 folders.
This series contains materials associated with Aurelia Young’s professional career. The material covers her activities both as a professor of music and as a musical scholar. Much of the correspondence is from the time (1947-1977) that she worked at Jackson State College. The Jackson State riots and shootings (1970) are highlighted in the documents and correspondence, particularly those from the American Association of University Professors. There is some additional correspondence documenting her involvement with the Mississippi Humanities Council and musical agencies throughout the state.

Box 1, folders 18-36

 

Series 3: Civil Rights and Social Causes Material. 1957-1972. 62 folders.
This series contains clippings, correspondence, and documents associated with events of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi and the nation from 1957-1972. Newspaper clippings, selectively chosen by Young, are the significant portion of this series. Young chose those clippings that directly affected her, her husband, and the African American Community in Jackson and arranged them chronologically in a scrapbook format. Also included are general correspondence and documents from major Civil Rights and social agencies, such as the Mississippi Council of Human Relations and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). One of the highlights of this series is the copy of the story of Brenda Travis, an activist who at age fifteen was imprisoned for participating in a demonstration.

Box 1, folders 37-66
Box 2 folders 1-32.

 

Series 4: Community Service and Organizational Affiliation Papers. 1962-1984. 8 folders.
This series contains correspondence and documents of community organizations in which Aurelia Young and her family actively participated. Most of the material is from artistic groups, such as the Arts Alliance of Jackson, or sorority and community support groups, such as Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Links, Inc. There is some material related to social and political causes, such as Tactics, Inc., a research group based on the campus of Tougaloo College, to provide assistance in the Ayers school desegregation case.

Box 3 folders 1-8

 

Series 5: WMPR Community Radio Station Records. 1980-1987. 21 folders.
This series contains contracts, correspondence, legal files and other materials that document the history of WMPR, a community-based public radio station located adjacent to the Tougaloo College campus. Various letters detail Young’s efforts to bring the station to Jackson and her work to overcome the many difficulties that the station faced. The most significant parts of this series are the legal documents involving continuous employee problems and court documents filed on behalf of J. T. Maxwell, Inc., the parent corporation of WMPR, in its bankruptcy proceedings.

Box 3 folders 9-29

 

Series 6: Collected Works, Photographs, and Audiotapes. 1963-1987; n. d.
This series contains book excerpts, books, audiotapes, and photographs (f. 52) collected by Aurelia Young. Some of it concerns events that occurred in Mississippi and the United States during the period of 1963 to 1965. Of particular importance are: excerpts from relevant Civil Rights literature; an autographed copy of Cold Steel, an analysis of the U. S. criminal justice system, written by L. C. Dorsey; and a book, Strike City, that is the account of twelve families that refused to work on a plantation in Tribbett, Washington County, Mississippi, in 1965. Included in this series, as well are seven audio tapes that record various events during the Civil Rights struggle, such as a recording of the riot at the University of Mississippi (Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi), in 1962; a sermon by R. L. T. Smith in 1967; and interviews with Food Stamp recipients in 1967. Other topics covered in these tapes are the story of Alex Haley, the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the poetry of Aurelia Young.

Box 3, folders 30-52
Box 4