Guide to the Edna Chappell McKenzie Papers, 1936-2005, AIS.2005.15

Arrangement

Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
Edna Chappell McKenzie Papers
Creator
McKenzie, Edna Chappell, 1923-
Collection Number
AIS.2005.15
Extent
17.065 Linear Feet (32 legal size document boxes, 2 A/V boxes, 1 oversize box)
Date
1929-2005
Abstract
Edna Chappell McKenzie (1923-2005) was a historian, professor, and journalist whose professional career focused on the experiences of African Americans. As a journalist, she was a reporter at the Pittsburgh Courier in the 1940s and following the completion of higher education, taught at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) in Pittsburgh from 1973 to 2005. The papers include drafts of an unpublished biography of Daisy Lampkin (1883-1965), research files on various historical subjects, records from her faculty position at CCAC that reflect both teaching and administration of the Black Minority and Ethnic Studies department, records of professional and cultural organizations that she was actively involved in, student course work while at the University of Pittsburgh, and papers related to her religious affiliations.
Language
English .
Author
Ben Snyder
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Business Number: 412-648-3232 (Thomas) | 412-648-8190 (Hillman)
Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist
URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Ben Snyder, November 2021 to July 2022.

Acquisition Information

Gift of June Pickett Dowdy on April 3, 2010.

Biography

Edna Chappell McKenzie (1923-2005) was a historian, professor, and journalist whose research, writing and teaching focused on African American life and experience in the United States. She was born Edna Beatrice Chappell on 29 December 1923, in Grindstone, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school in 1941, she moved to Los Angeles and worked as a general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Tribune under Almena Davis Lomax. She returned to Pittsburgh a year later and began working for the Pittsburgh Courier as both a copywriter and general assignment reporter. During her time there, she covered racism and discrimination against African Americans in western Pennsylvania. She was involved in the Courier's "Double V" campaign during WW2, calling for victory against racism at home alongside victory against the Axis powers abroad. She would often work alongside Charles "Teenie" Harris at the Courier.

McKenzie would return to school in the 1960s, attaining a Bachelor of Science in education in 1968, Master of Arts in history in 1970, and PhD in history in 1973, all from the University of Pittsburgh. She is recognized as the first black woman to receive a PhD from the history department. In the 1970s she began teaching at the Community College of Allegheny County's (CCAC) Allegheny Campus. In 1973 she established and became chairperson of the Black, Minority, and Ethnic (BME) Studies department at CCAC. She wrote and published articles and books on African American history, including works focusing on Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh. Among her published books were Freedom in the Midst of a Slave Society in 1989, an anthology of historical documents on free African Americans, and Ten Essays on Contemporary Issues Critical to the African American Community in 1994. She was writing a book on Daisy Lampkin, a Pittsburgh activist who was field secretary and board member of the NAACP. This book had the working title Servant, Well Done. It would remain unfinished and unpublished, but various drafts of it are preserved in the papers. In 1995, McKenzie was named professor emeritus and retired from teaching at CCAC.

Over the course of her life, she participated in a wide range of political, academic, cultural, and religious organizations, gaining important positions in many of them. She was on the Board of Trustees for the University of Pittsburgh (from 1988 to 1990), Cheyney University, and Trinity African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church of Pittsburgh. She was a member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), on the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), a chairperson of PHEAA's Committee on Need Analysis and Aid Coordination, charter member of the Black History Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), vice president of the Lucy Stone Civic League, and part of the Higher Education Council of the Pennsylvania Board of Education. Alongside this, she was also a life member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and part of the Zonta Club of Pittsburgh.

Her parents, Settie and Beatrice (Hendricks) Chappell, were both ministers in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. She married Clyde Marcellus Jackson in 1949, and later married Edmond McKenzie. Among her children were Clyde Marcellus ("Marc") Jackson, Jr. and Edmond McKenzie, Jr.

McKenzie died on 26 June 2005 and was buried in Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh. The Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Pittsburgh Branch of the ASALH has since been named in her honor.

Arrangement

The Papers have been arranged into eighteen series:

I. African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

II. Articles and Profiles about McKenzie

III. Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)

IV. Assorted Government Events and Activities

V. Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC)

VI. Correspondence

VII. Daisy Lampkin Research and Writing

VIII. Harty Bible School

IX. Historical and Cultural Organizations

X. Other Churches and Christian Organizations

XI. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC)

XII. Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA)

XIII. Research Files

XIV. University of Pittsburgh

XV. Writing by McKenzie

XVI. Photography

XVII. A/V Recordings

XVIII. Realia

Scope and Contents

The papers cover a wide range of McKenzie's life, from her scholarly and professional work to religious activities. Little materials predate McKenzie's student years at the University of Pittsburgh, and they are predominantly from her time as a professor in the 1970s onwards. A large portion of the papers consists of research material used by McKenzie for her work as a historian and teacher, containing copies of articles, historical documents, and various published material.

Preferred Citation

Edna Chappell McKenzie Papers, 1936-2005, AIS.2005.15, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Copyright

The University of Pittsburgh holds the property rights to the material in this collection, but the copyright may still be held by the original creator/author. Researchers are therefore advised to follow the regulations set forth in the U.S. Copyright Code when publishing, quoting, or reproducing material from this collection without the consent of the creator/author or that go beyond what is allowed by fair use.

Access Restrictions

No restrictions.

Related Materials

Percival L. Prattis Papers, 1916-1980, AIS.2007.01, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

K. Leroy Irvis Papers, 1947-1995, AIS.1971.06, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Frank E. Bolden Papers, 1930-1967, AIS.2008.05, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Pittsburgh Branch Records, 1964-1966, 1974, AIS.1964.38, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Urban League of Pittsburgh Records, 1915-1963, AIS.1981.11, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

The Childs Family Collection on Daisy Lampkin, 1928-1997, MSS 0657, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

The Courier's Big Story: A Romance in Journalism, 1953, film: Can 599, 600, Cinecraft Productions films (Accession 2019.227), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Association for the Study of African-American Life and History -- Records and correspondence
    • Community College of Allegheny County -- Faculty

    Personal Names

    • McKenzie, Edna Chappell, 1923-
    • Lampkin, Daisy E. (Daisy Elizabeth), 1882-1965

    Genres

    • Faculty papers
    • Correspondence
    • Manuscripts (Documents)
    • Personal papers
    • Articles

    Other Subjects

    • African American churches -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • African Americans -- Societies, etc.
    • African American college teachers -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • College teachers, Black -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • African American historians
    • African Americans -- History -- Study and teaching
    • African Americans -- History -- Research

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