William G. Ballinger Papers:
University of Cape Town Collection, BC 347. Mostly correspondence.
Yergan to Ballinger, 30 January 1930, BC 347 B4.II.1
Program, Fort Hare Conference, 1930, BC 347, II, 2
Yergan to Ballinger, 24 March 1930, BC 347 F3.II.1. 6
Yergan to Ballinger, 9 June 1930, BC 347 F3.II.1.8
Yergan to Ballinger, 11 July 1930, BC 347 F3.II.1.10
Yergan to Ballinger, 22 April 1953, BC 347 B3.IV.4.1
University of the Witwatersrand Collection, c2.7.1. One letter. See infra.
Beinecke Library, Yale University:
James Weldon Johnson Collection. Five brief letters to Richard Wright.
Letters to and from Ralph Johnson Bunche
Mary McLeod Bethune Museum and Archives, Washington, D.C.:
Records of the National Council of Negro Women.
Series 5, Box 10, Folder 171 (Council on African Affairs)
Series 5, Box 24, Folder 359
Series 5, Box 25, Folder 372
Series 5, Box 38, Folder 542 (Yergan correspondence)
Ralph Johnson Bunche Papers:
Schomburg Collection for Afro-American Research. Critical materials concerning the National Negro Congress in Carnegie Commission Files.
James Burnham Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University:
Box 9, File Congress for Cultural Freedom.
Killie Campbell Africana Collection, University of Natal, South Africa:
Minutes of the College Council, Fort Hare Native College, 12 Nov. 1924.
Minutes of the Governing Council, Fort Hare Native College.
9 March 1927, Item 421
9 November 1927, Item 441
21 March 1928, Item 466
24 October 1928, Item 479
13 March 1930, Item 495
12/13 March 1930, Item 532
9 March 1932, Item 592
2 November 1932, Item 613
7 March 1935, Item 733
Carnegie Corporation Archives, New York:
Correspondence concerning Yergan’s South African activities, mainly those related to funding construction of the YMCA’s Christian Union Building on the campus of Fort Hare “Native” College in Alice, E. Cape. Correspondence, press releases related to International Committee on African Africans and successor institution, Council on African Affairs.
F[rederick] PK[eppel], Memorandum of Interview, Max Yergan, 16 November 1927
Yergan to Keppel, 14 December 1927
Keppel to Yergan, 16 December 1927
William Jay Schieffelin to Keppel, 7 March 1929
Keppel to Schieffelin, 14 March 1929
Keppel to Appleget, 23 July 1931
Appleget to Keppel, 27 July 1931
Keppel to Appleget, 28 July 1931
Keppel to Appleget, 1 October 1931
$5,000 Appropriation, 11 October 1931
Keppel to Yergan, 13 October 1931 (incl. notice of $10,000 award)
Yergan to Keppel, 17 November 1931
Keppel to Yergan, 17 December 1931
“A Project for Training Native Social Workers in South Africa: An Institute of Social Research and Service.” Memorandum prepared for the Honourable Patrick Duncan, Trustee, Carnegie Corporation, by Max Yergan, Alice, C.P., South Africa, 1 June 1932
Yergan to Hon. Patrick Duncan, 14 June 1932
Yergan to Frederick Keppel, 22 June 1932 (incl. Yergan Memo to Patrick Duncan, 1 June 1932, above)
RML [for Keppel] to Yergan, 21 July 1932
Loram to Keppel, 1 August 1932, incl. Yergan to Loram, 17 June 1932.
Keppel to Yergan, 28 October 1932, incl. Yergan to Keppel, 28 September 1932
Yergan to Lester, 1 November 1932 (incl. Report to Carnegie Corp.)
Yergan to Lester, 12 December 1932
“Memorandum of Interview, FPK and Max Yergan, May 9, 1933”
Yergan to Keppel, 1 September 1933
Loram to Keppel, 6 September 1933
Memo, “Proposal for Institute of Social Research and Service for non-Europeans in South Africa 10/9/33” (stamped “Peffer”)
Duncan to Keppel, 30 April 1934
Keppel to Yergan, 29 May 1934
Keppel to Duncan, 29 May 1934
Yergan to Keppel, 22 June 1934
Yergan to Keppel, 3 October 1934
Keppel to Yergan, 4 October 1934
Memorandum of Interview, JMR and Max Yergan, 11 January 1935
Yergan to Keppel, 3 May 1935
Yergan to Keppel, 10 May 1935
Keppel to Yergan, 13 June 1935
Keppel to Duncan, 13 June 1935
Keppel to Yergan, 10 October 1935
Yergan to Keppel, 21 February 1936
Record of Interview, FPK and Max Yergan, 28 February 1936
Yergan to Keppel, 19 January 1938
Yergan to Keppel, 2 May 1938
Record of Interview, JMR and Max Yergan, 11 May 1938
Yergan to John M. Russell, 17 May 1938
Record of Interview, WHS and Max Yergan, 24 September 1949
George Edward Cory Library Collection for Historical Research, Rhodes University Library, Grahamstown, South Africa:
Die Christen-Studentevereniging/The Christian Student Association, 1896–1936. Contains:
H. P. Cruse, “Die C.S.V. En Die Nie-Blanke Rasse van Suid-Afrika” (135–37) and C. P. Dent, “The Bantu S.CA.” Ibid., 137–39
D. J. Kritzinger, “Die Konferensie Op Fort Hare” (29–30)
Christianity and the Natives of South Africa: A Year-Book of South African Missions,” Bloemfontein (?) n.d., ca. 1927 or 1928
The Realignment of Native Life on a Christian Basis. Being the Seventh General Missionary Conference of South Africa Held at Lovedale June 26–29, 1928 (MS 16 602)
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois Papers. Microfilm edition
Dwight David Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas
Hampton Institute Archives, Collis P. Huntington Memorial Library:
“News from Max Yergan,” No. 1.
Max Yergan, “A Y.M.C.A. Secretary in Africa,” Southern Workman 47 (August 1918) (Excerpts from an address made at Hampton, 21 April 1918)
“Hampton Incidents.” Southern Workman 49 (1920) (re. Max Yergan address to Hampton student body Sunday evening, 30 November 1919, en route to France)
Kenneth Saunders, “A Forward Move in Africa.” Southern Workman 49 (1920)
Max Yergan, “Race Currents and Conditions in South Africa,” Part 1. Southern Workman 56 (March 1927) and Part 2 (May 1927)
“The Y.M.C.A. in Africa” and “What Others Say.” Southern Workman 57 (March 1928)
Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, Texas:
White House Central Files, Name File, “American A”:
White House Central Files, memo, Rick Haynes to Bromley Smith, 3-7-66
White House Central Files, letter, Wm. Rusher & Max Yergan to “Friend,” 9-13-65
White House Central Files, memo, American- African Affairs Association To All Concerned, 11-30-67
National Security Files, Name File, “Haynes Memos” Box 3:
National Security File, memo, for the Record, 2-17-66
Mary van Kleeck Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College:
Twelve letters written between 1938 and 1940 in folders entitled “Max Yergan” and correspondence, typed manuscript of “Gold and Poverty in South Africa” in “I.R.I. publications—Max Yergan, 1938.”
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division:
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Papers:
Group I, Administrative File:
Box C212, Awards, Spingarn Medal, l933
Box C298, Federal Council of Churches
Box C383, National Negro Congress, 7 April–2 December 1938
Group II, NAACP, 1940–55, General Office File, 1940–1955:
Box A7, Africa, South Africa General, 1950–55
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Box A444, National Negro Congress, 1945–47
Box C365, Leagues—Council on African Affairs
Box A373, Leagues—Council on African Affairs, 1948–55
Box A675, Max Yergan, 1941–53
Materials total approximately one hundred pages.
Lincoln University Archives, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania:
Frank Wilson Collection. Correspondence, fliers from Max Yergan re. International Committee and Its Successor, Council on African Affairs.
Alain Locke Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University:
One letter, Yergan to Locke, 17 May 1937, concerning Yergan’s recent visit to Europe and describing dinner as guest of M. and Mme. René Maran at their Paris residence.
Charles Templeman Loram Papers, Sterling Library, Yale University:
A Yale-educated South African, Loram served on the Native Affairs Commission from l920 to 1930. Correspondence with philanthropist A. P. Stokes. The files contain a few isolated but key references to Yergan.
Francis Pickens Miller Papers, Alderman Library, University of Virginia:
Number 9760, Box 2, 1930–31. “The Affair.” Re: Yergan and Rena Car-swell Datta, administrative secretary of the World’s Student Christian Federation from April 1928 to June 1930. F. P. Miller chaired the World’s Student Christian Federation from 1928 to 1938. Approx. fifty pages.
Jesse Edward Moorland Collection, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University:
One of the most extensive repositories of data on Yergan’s early life and career, covering circa 1915–1930s.
Jesse Edward Moorland Reading Room, Howard University:
Marieta Harper, “Case Study of the Relationship of Max Yergan and Paul Robeson in the Historical Development of the Council on African Affairs,” Seminar Paper, History Department, 1974
Robert Russa Moton Papers, Tuskegee University Archives, Tuskegee University:
General Correspondence, Box 71, File 477. Letters written in 1921, principally concerning Yergan’s efforts to enter South Africa.
John Raleigh Mott Papers. Mott Room, Divinity School Library, Yale University:
Manuscript Collection #45, Box 117, Folder 1940, Reports, Letters, Diaries, Concerning Mott’s Official YMCA Visit to South Africa, 1906.
Box 101, Folder 1779, Correspondence with Max Yergan, 1948–1952.
World Student Christian Federation MS Collection #46, see below.
Municipal Archives, New York City:
Fiorello H. La Guardia Papers:
Harlem—1943 Race Riots. Correspondence on racial unrest.
Mayor La Guardia’s Daily Appointment Book, 1943.
National Council of Negro Women, Records of the, Washington, D.C.:
See Mary McLeod Bethune Museum and Archives listing above.
National Negro Congress Papers:
Microfilm. Originals in Schomburg Center for Afro-American Research, New York Public Library.
Anson Phelps Stokes Papers, Sterling Library, Yale University:
Correspondence, 1920–1950. Official and unofficial documentation:
Manuscript Group 299A. P. Stokes Papers, Series I, Box 31, Folder 512—“General Correspondence, 1922–1930.” Includes miscellany by, from, to, or about C. T. Loram, T. J. Jones, inter alia.
Box 98, Folder 1592
Yergan to APS, 22 October 1930
Yergan to APS, 25 April 1931
APS to Yergan, 29 April 1931
APS to Yergan, 2 May 1931
Yergan to APS, 4 May 1931
Lyon et al. to APS, 8 May 1931
Box 98, Folder 1593
Yergan to APS, 6 July 1931
Yergan to APS, 1 February 1934
APS to Yergan, 2 February 1934
Yergan to APS, 8 February 1934
APS to Yergan, 9 February 1934
Yergan to APS, 13 February 1934
Box 128, Folder 2301
Yergan to APS, 26 August 1941
APS to Yergan, 28 August 1941
Yergan to APS, 2 September 1941
APS to Yergan, 2 November 1943
Box 128, Folder 2302
APS to Yergan, 9 February 1944
Yergan to APS, 22 March 1944
APS to Yergan, 28 March 1944
Box 138, Folder 2304
“The American Negro and Mr Robeson,” New York Herald Tribune, 23 April 1949
APS to Yergan, 30 April 1949
Yergan to APS, 4 May 1949
Yergan to APS, 16 May 1949
APS to Yergan, 21 May 1949
Yergan to APS, 3 June 1949
APS to Yergan, 13 November 1950
Journal of Clarence Pickett, American Friends Service Committee Archives, American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia, Penn.:
Entry dated 2/8/38 treating meeting with Pickett, Mary van Kleeck, M. Fled[d]erus, Helen Bryan, and Yergan “about plans for a conference on Negro standards of living and labor conditions throughout the world, which conference is to be conducted next October.” The paper Yergan presented was published as Gold and Poverty in South Africa.
Paul Robeson Archives, New York:
Correspondence and Council on African Affairs–related documents. Written and photographic data generated by both Paul and Eslanda Robeson, as well as occasional ephemera by and about Max Yergan. This archive was closed in 1975, at which time the vast majority of its contents were transferred to the Manuscript Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C. (see below).
Paul Robeson Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C.:
These appear to be the same papers as listed immediately above.
Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, N. Tarrytown, New York:
Rockefeller Family Archives, RG 2 John D. Rockefeller, Jr.:
Sub-Series Welfare Interests—Youth, folder, “YMCA—National Council Max Yergan—Work in Africa, 1927–1947” (Box 35) (John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s financial assistance to Yergan’s bldg. project).
21 October 1927 to 29 May 1947 (approx. one hundred pages re. So. Africa 1927–1931)
Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RG General Correspondence, Series 487:
South Africa: Box 45 (1930) folder 367
Box 60 (1931) folder 495
Box 423 (1948) folder 2857
Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund, Series Three, Box 101:
Folder 1021, “Negro Problems 1927–1929.” Two memoranda, dated 21 October and 11 November 1927, specifically single out Yergan.
Russell Sage Foundation, Early Office Files, 138. The Department of Industrial Studies, Monthly Reports, 1937–1943. IV4B1. Memoranda, notes, and letters concerning activities of Mary van Kleeck, Mary L. Fleddérus, International Industrial Relations Institute, and Yergan.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York:
Materials sent to author.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library:
Council on African Affairs Vertical File
National Negro Congress Vertical File
Max Yergan Vertical File
Ralph Johnson Bunche Papers
Alphaeus Hunton Papers MG 290
National Negro Congress Papers
Paul Robeson Papers
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Independence, Missouri:
President’s Personal File:
Papers of Harry S. Truman. Official File.
Telegram, Yergan to Truman, 13 April 1945
Jonathan Daniels to Yergan, 1 May 1945
Memo, AW to [W. D.] Hassett [Secretary to the President], n.d.
Yergan to the President, White House, 27 March 1946
Hassett to Yergan, 24 May 1946
Memo, WDH, referred to David K. Niles, 16 May 1946
Yergan to Harry S. Truman, 15 May 1946
Handbill Advertising Tenth Nation
al Negro Congress, Detroit, 30 May–2 June, bearing slogan, “Death Blow to Jim Crow”
Papers of Philleo Nash
Revels Cayton to President Harry S. Truman, 18 March 1946
Yergan and Revels Cayton to Harry S. Truman, 1 June 1946
Petition to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations… on Behalf of the Negro People of America by the NNC…
Files of Philleo Nash:
Papers of Harry S. Truman.
David K. Niles to Yergan, 24 May 1949
General File:
Papers of Harry S. Truman.
Memorandum, W.D.H. referred to Mr Niles, 5 August 1946
Memorandum, M. C. Latta, referred to Department of State, 14 June 1946
Memorandum, William D. Hassett to the President, 6 June 1946
Yergan, Telegram to President Urging Permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee, 6 June 1945
M. C. Latta, Memo, Department of State, 15 November 1945
M. C. Latta, Memo, Department of State, 10 November 1945
W. D. Hassett, Memo, Secretary of War, 31 October 1945
Yergan, Letter to President, 15 October 1945
Official File:
Papers of Harry S. Truman.
Telegram, Yergan to Truman, 28 July 1946
Telegram, Robeson to David K. Niles, White House, 19 September 1946
Telegram, Robeson to the President, 13 September 1946
Memo, “The Following Delegation will meet with the President 11:30 A.M.,” 23 September 1946
Memo, M.J.C. to David K. Niles, 13 September 1946
President’s Secretary’s Files:
Personal and Confidential. By Special Messenger. J. Edgar Hoover to Major General Harry Hawkins Vaughan, Military Aide to the President, 19 November 1946.
Personal and Confidential. By Special Messenger. J. Edgar Hoover to Major General Harry Hawkins Vaughan, Military Aide to the President, 13 November 1946.
United Nations Archives:
Registry Records (TRI 132/1/04, Future Status and Administration of Mandated Territories, South West Africa Petitions)
Photograph: Yergan presenting petition on the status of South West Africa to P. T. Schmidt, shown with Herbert Aptheker, Revels Cayton, Lyman White, and Charles Collins, June 13, 1946. (People’s Voice photo, A. Hansen. Courtesy United Nations Library)
University of the Witwatersrand Library, Johannesburg, So. Africa:
William G. Ballinger Collection:
A 410/C2.7.1 (File 1), Yergan to Ballinger, 11 May 1930
Max Yergan Page 42
