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Acknowledgments This book is dedicated to those who, over the years, have been the caretakers of the Illinois Writers’ Project papers. Foremost is the role played by librarian Vivian G. Harsh, who in 1943 first agreed to house the IWP papers in her Special Negro Collection at the Hall Branch Library. In 2007, what is now named the Harsh Research Collection celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary as the “Black Jewel of the Midwest.” Today, due largely to the vision of its founder, it is the largest repository of African American literature and history in the Midwest. Current curator Robert Miller has built up a staff that keeps a watchful eye over the collection. Archivist Michael Flug, who first organized and produced a finding aid for the IWP papers, has been the most knowledgeable and gracious collaborator a researcher could ask for. Additionally, assistant curator Beverly Cook, librarian/preservationist Denise English, librarian Cynthia Fife-Townsel, and archive clerk Lucinda Samuel were extremely kind to me during my visits and patient in accepting my many requests for boxes of IWP materials. I benefited tremendously from a Timuel D. Black, Jr. fellowship awarded by the Vivian G. Harsh Society, which allowed me to spend the summer of 2010 at the Harsh collection to complete the research for this project. The other library institutions that have materials from the IWP papers within their collections should also be acknowledged. I am grateful for a fellowship I received in 2009 to examine the papers of Jack Conroy at the Newberry Library, where there is a significant holding of IWP documents. I am also thankful to historian James Grossman, then at Newberry , for talking with me at length about the historical significance of The Negro in Illinois. At Syracuse University’s Special Collections Research Center, Kathleen Manwaring was enthusiastic and helpful in guiding me through the Arna Bontemps papers. The late Beth Howse at Fisk University Special Collections and Archives was always kindly willing to assist in tracking down a document or photograph. I also utilized the collections at several other institutions. I am indebted to librarians at the Library of Congress, National Archives, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Iowa University Special Collections, Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, Chicago History Museum Research Center, and University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center. Dolinar_Text.indd 7 3/14/13 9:58 AM viii Acknowledgments There were also many conversations with those who graciously shared their insights and provided me with context for The Negro in Illinois, including Timuel D. Black, Jr., Darlene Clark Hine, Douglas Wixson, Bill Mullen, Anne Meis Knupfer, Sonja Williams, Richard Courage,Ayesha Hardison, Michelle Y. Gordon, June O. Patton, Maryemma Graham, John Edgar Tidwell, Richard Yarborough, Christopher Reed, Chris Benson, Sundiata Cha-Jua, Abdul Alkalimat, Mary Helen Washington, and the late Susan Cayton Woodson. I am also grateful to my editor Larin McLaughlin for her patience and persistence in helping to bring this manuscript to print. I am deeply indebted to the Scott family for introducing me to Chicago’s South and West Sides. Gregory Koger and Eric Myers kindly provided me a place to stay in the city while I was doing research. Finally, I would like to recognize all of the unknown writers who worked on the Illinois Writers’ Project, who struggled and survived during the hard times of the Depression to leave us this manuscript. Dolinar_Text.indd 8 3/14/13 9:58 AM ...

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