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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 2.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1,500 items) |
Abstract | Kenny Jackson Williams (1927-2003), an African American studies scholar, taught at Duke University and was appointed to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The collection consists of correspondence, writings, clippings, photographic slides, and other miscellaneous papers of Kenny J. Williams. The correspondence is chiefly professional, with publishers, students, members of the English Department at Duke University, and others, regarding publishing, teaching, and faculty matters, and her NEH appointment. Also included are some personal letters from friends and other correspondence regarding membership in a women's club. Writings include drafts of various articles on African American writers, Sherwood Anderson, and midwestern writers of the nineteenth century, and Williams's conservative positions, considered controversial in the academy, on multiculturalism, affirmative action in higher education, and the ideological implications of studying African American literature. The photographic slides document travel to Liberia, Romania, Hungary, and China during the 1960s. |
Creator | Williams, Kenny J. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Kenny Jackson Williams (1927-2003), named after Kentucky, the state in which she was born, received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She taught at several universities before joining the English Department at Duke University in Durham, N.C., in 1977. Williams published extensively on African American writers, Sherwood Anderson, and other midwestern writers of the nineteenth century. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kenny J. Williams died in 2003.
Back to TopThe collection consists of correspondence, writings, clippings, photographic slides, and other miscellaneous papers of Kenny J. Williams (1927-2003), an African American studies scholar who taught at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and was appointed to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The correspondence is chiefly professional, with publishers, students, members of the English Department at Duke University, and others, regarding publishing, teaching, and faculty matters, and her NEH appointment. There are some personal letters from friends and other correspondence regarding membership in a women's club. Writings include drafts of various articles on African American writers, Sherwood Anderson, and midwestern writers of the nineteenth century, and Williams's positions, considered controversial in the academy, on multiculturalism, affirmative action in higher education, and the ideological implications of studying African American literature. The photographic slides document travel to Liberia, Romania, Hungary, and China during the 1960s.
Back to TopArrangement: in two runs (folders 1-45 and 46-66) chronologically then alphabetical by subject.
Note that original file folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.