Archivist and historian par excellent, Mamye Clayton,
passed away last week and left the world a treasure beyond measure.
A former librarian for both USC and UCLA, Dr. Clayton established
and developed African American historical archives at a time when
others thought black history wasn’t important. Let me rephrase that;
when other people thought that black history was non-existent. Outside
of Carter G. Woodson and Arthur Schomberg, there weren’t any (largely)
known archives of colored history, Negro history, black history,
African American history—whatever you want to call the various machinations
of identity that Africans descendents born in America have struggled
with. Knowledge of self is essential to understanding of ones self.
It’s one thing to see black Americana in the abstract—in singular
presentations exclusive to any particular space and time. But it’s
another thing to see the dynamicity of an awesome collection that
spans space and time. That’s why visiting museums and seeing the
wonders of history can be so overwhelming at times. A collection
foments one’s understanding of the totality of a people’s contribution
that singular works cannot encompass. If you never got to see Mayme
Clayton’s black history archives that spanned literature, art, movies,
plays, records, posters, memorabilia, racial collectibles…anything
black (and when I say anything black, I mean anything having
to do with black identity, black autobiography, black imagery, black
culture that spans four centuries (I didn’t say four decades),
meaning 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, 2000s, then you can’t really understand
Mayme Clayton’s contribution. But if you ever saw her archives,
you know she was the West Coast’s Arthur Schomberg.
Black historiographers, true culturalists that document
and trace the evolution of blackness in America, are a rare breed.
People put together a few “knick-knacks” and call themselves collectors
or historians. But when it comes to black history, which is considered
“Racial Americana,” much of it is buried with America’s troubled
past. The Schomberg collection, that started as a part of the “Negro
Division” of the 135th St. Public Library in Harlem and was named
for its curator, Arthur Schomberg, in 1940, is the world’s largest
collection of cultural memorabilia of the African Diaspora, with
over five million items. For the entirety of its existence, the
Schomberg collection has been on public display. Dr. Mayme Clayton
was the most unassuming lady you could ever meet. Quiet, with a
penetrating gaze, you could literally see her analyzing everything
in the context of culture and cultural contribution. What does it
mean in the long term scheme of things? How will it be seen, not
tomorrow, but 100 years from now? And where will people go to find
it? She had the answer; they would come to her—her collection of
documents, primary source documents. Dr. Mayme Clayton started her
collection in 1957 as the Law Librarian at UCLA, where she was a
founding member of the Afro-American Studies Center library. Founding
the Western States Black Research and Education Center in 1976,
over the next 30 years, she amassed the world’s second largest collection
of African/African American memorabilia, with an estimated two million
items—including 20,000 rare and out of print books, 10,000 rare
recordings and sheet music, over 75,000 rare photos and a vast collection
of uncounted primary source documents that, with the exception of
a few annual shows, have never been on public display.
Between slavery, redemption, segregation and colorblindness,
it didn’t leave a lot for black historians to document, and white
historians had only told a fraction of the story. To unearth real
“black” history was too painful for us and too embarrassing for
them, so African Americans were often encouraged to put their past
behind them and “don’t look back.” The truth is never found that
way, and America has never wanted the Negro to find nor understand
truth. An example of a covered up past is the history of the Massive
Resistance movement that stalled the implementation of Brown
versus the Board of Education for a full ten years. Do you know
there are less than a half-dozen books written about the second
greatest cultural upheaval in America’s history? The nation’s greatest
cultural upheaval was the battle to save (or end) slavery that we
now call the Civil War. Over 700 books have been written about the
Civil War, but less than a half dozen about the upheaval to defend
(or end) segregation. Why? Because it is an ugly past that whites
never wanted to revisit. Historiographers have a way of
pulling back the covers of history, past the lies, past the half-lies,
past the revisions of history, to get to the truth. That’s what
an archival collection means to a people, a pathway to the truth
about one’s self. When I wrote a history of the state of black equality
in America, I was seeking truth as to why black America had not
progressed more than we had. Were we self-hating? Were we lazy?
Were we brainwashed? Were we just stupid? The trail was fuzzy and
the history according to the other man just didn’t add up. It needed
some primary source documents. I needed some archival photos. I
needed some help connecting the dots.
I had heard about Mayme Clayton’s collection for years,
but I had never seen it. Dr. Clayton was a regular attendee of my
Urban Issues Forum (until she got sick), so I went to her and asked
her, could I see her photo archives? She said, “Sure,” and I made
an appointment to go by there—expecting it to be at a college, or
a library, or a commercial building. She said, “No, you’re coming
to my home.” I thought, Okay, how large can it be, right. I blocked
two hours. I got to her modest home, but I didn’t see any collection.
She said, “Come with me.” We went out of her house (past the biggest
dog I’d seen in a long time), and into her garage, where I thought
I’d died and gone to “Black Heaven” (not to be confused with Ni**er
Heaven). There I saw more books, posters and film trays than were
in most high school (and small college) libraries. And in front
of me was an eight foot table with six long boxes of pictures. I
just sat on the floor and pored through the boxes of photos that
I had never seen in my life (and I thought I had seen most of the
archival footage of the significant movements of the past 150 years).
I was flabbergasted. Here was one of the most significant black
history collections, in the garage of a little brilliant old lady.
My two hour window turned into five four hour visits. Most of the
archival photos in my last book came from the Mayme A. Clayton collection.
Thank God, the Mayme A. Clayton collection found a permanent home,
finalized the day before she died. It’s housed at 4130 Overland
Ave. in a former Court house building donated by the city of Culver
City and the County of Los Angeles. Probably the best use of justice
that building has ever seen. In lieu of flowers, the family has
asked that donations be sent to the Mayme A. Clayton
Library and Cultural Center. That’s the least we can do for
a woman who spent the last 40 years trying to save a treasure of
a collection that nobody thought was worth saving until the end
of her life. Mayme Clayton was our Arthur Schomberg. Pay her the
ultimate tribute, by going to see her collection—now that it’s finally
on public display, we hope, forever.
Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist,
managing director of the Urban
Issues Forum and author of 50
Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality In America.
He can be reached at AnthonySamad.com. |