FALL 2011/WINTER 2012

LETTERS

Dear Dr. Ellis,

I received your letter dated August 1, 2011, and postmarked August 9, 2011 on August 11, 2011. This letter is the first communication I have received from you since we met. If you will recall, we, Francis C. Harris and Charles F. Harris, Jr.,and I first met you at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on April 13, 2011. Thank you very much for inviting us and giving us the opportunity to present details of The Pictorial Historyof the African American Athlete by Francis C. Harris and Charles F. Harris, Jr. To reiteratethis work exists of on a computer disk. It has been edited, copyedited, proofread, and designed. With some minor editorial changes and additions it can be ready for the printer. This work consists of four volumes, has 2500 photographs and680 pages eachin hardcover format. We intend to publish at least 35 smaller editions in paperback form. The content in this work begins in the 19th Century and comes up to the present. There are two volumes on collegiate sports and two volumes on professional sports. Almost every majorcollege and university in this country is included in this work.

This is the most comprehensive and most extensive work on African American athletes ever accomplished. It has taken more than 17 yearsand two and half

million dollars to get this work to its present stage of development. This has been accomplished through private financing. At the end of our meeting with you, and eight of your colleagues from the Smithsonianstaff, we were exhilarated and ecstatic about the positive comments we received from you, Dr. Lonnie Bunch, and the others. We wereproud andastounded when Dr. Bunch said you would be presenting an offer forus to work with you and your colleagues to develop the sports section of the NMAAHC by the middle of May 2011.

Iwas stunned to get this letter of August 1, and shocked at your comments. Your letter states "Your stated expectations for a partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture exceed our capacity to work with you in ways that are useful given our vision for this work and your stated concerns regarding our strategies.Finally, Iam concerned that developing such a partnership at this time would jeopardize our primaryfocus at this point-- opening the museum in 2015." Yourcommentsare particularly puzzling because of the accusations that I criticized the timing of the museum's schedule and the museum's strategy for the sports section. I have no knowledge of the particulars of the museum's strategy or its schedule.I am insulted at the statement that working with us would hinder the museum from opening on schedule in2015. I strongly believe that working with us would save the museum some of the taxpayers' money. Your statements suggest you have proposed something that we have rejected. This to me is disingenuous.

I have devoted my adult life to presenting the achievements and contributions of African Americans toUnited Statesand world history and culture. The recent death of Sherman White, who could have gone down in history as one of the greatest basketball players ever, brings to mind the basketball scandal of 1950when White was a star at Long Island University, and he was caught in a point shaving scheme. The point shaving phenomenon was uncovered when Junious Kellogg, a basketball star at Manhattan College, was offered $1000 to shave points. He informed his coach, who informed the District Attorney, Frank Hogan. The D.A. found this was not just a lone incident but a pattern in college basketball. Junius Kellogg was a graduate of I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, Virginia.

The sports editor of the Portsmouth Starnewspaper (now defunct) Pete Glazer, and his deputy Howard Jacobson suggested that the students of I.C. Norcom High School and their readers should raise $1000 andpresent it to Junius Kellogg. The students of I.C. Norcom High School raised most of the money and some anonymous donors contributed the rest.

In the spring of 1951, as President of the I.C. Norcom High School student government, I presented JuniusKellogg a check for $1000. The ceremony was held outdoors on the I.C. Norcom High School grounds andattended by the City Manager, the Chief of Police, other city officials, the student body, and throngs of local citizens. Incidentally,I.C. Norcom was an African American educator who taught William Henry Lewis (Harvard), the first African American All-American football player. Lewis later became United States Assistant Attorney General under President William Howard Taft. I wrote sports stories and general news for the Portsmouth Star and the Norfolk Journal and Guide while a student at I.C. Norcom. I read most of the leading sports writers at that time. They include Wendell Smith and Bill Nunn (Pittsburgh Courier), Calvin Jacox (Norfolk Journal and Guide), Sam Lacey (Baltimore Afro-American), Frank Graham, Arthur Daley, and Red Smith to name a few. I also read the pioneering work, The Negro In Sports by Dr. Edward Bancroft Henderson.

While a student at Norfolk State University, a part of Virginia State University then,I served as editor of the college newspaper, The Spartan Echo, and I wrote for the Norfolk Journal and Guide.

When I became an editor at Doubleday & Co. in 1961, the first contract I signed andedited of original content was John Hope Franklin's ground breaking classic ofanalysis and evaluation, was The Emancipation Proclamation. It was published January 1, 1963. John Hope Franklin and I became life long friends based on mutual respect and admiration. I edited Robert C. Weaver's Robert C. Weaver's The Urban Complex soon thereafter.ByJackie Robinson introducing meto Harvey Russell of Pepsi-Cola, one of a few African Americans who was an officerofa major corporation at that time, and his introducing meto Jim Brown led to the publication of Off My Chest, Brown's autobiography written with Myron Cope. I also edited Footsteps Of A Giant by Emlen Tunnell, the first African American to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Simultaneously, I worked with Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps to edit and publish a revised and enlarged edition of The Poetry Of The Negro. Doubleday Zenith Books, launched in January 1965, was the first series to present African American history suitable for use in elementary and secondary schools, andit was adopted first by the state of California.

I began research on the feasibility of this series in 1962. It was financed by Doubleday. I received great assistance from Dr. Daniel Collins of the California State Board of Education. Mervyn Dymally, Yvonne Braithwaite, and Willie Brown, who were in the California state legislature in the early 1960’s, were of great assistance as well.

Braithwaite and Dymally later served in the U.S. Congress. These books were adopted and used in the following city school systems;Detroit, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Iconceived this series and it was adopted because African Americans were not included in a positive light in the textbooks at the time. The series was a resounding educational and commercial success. Some of the authors and consultants on the books include John Hope Franklin (General Editor), J. Rupert Picott, William Leo Hansberry, Lawrence Reddick,

C. Sylvester Whitaker, Ernest Crichlow, Rayford Logan, Benjamin Quarles, Romare Bearden, and James Brewer.

As an editor at Random House, I conceived and created theAmistad serieswith renowned African American writer andteacher John A. Williams as co-editor. It was used in college courses, and some of the contributors include Paula Giddings, Sterling Stuckey, Vincent Harding, John A. Williams, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Calvin Hernton, Leroi Jones, John O. Killens, Mel Watkins, and Chester Himes. The series received outstanding reviews, and was a commercial success. Romare Bearden did the cover of the first issue, which appeared in April 1970. I own this collection

today.While at Random House, in 1970 I also signed Muhammad Ali to a contract, when he was not fighting, forhis autobiography The Greatest. He was not the revered personality he is today. It became an international bestseller. You can readabout this online in Ishmael Reed's magazine.

On November 1, 1971, I began work at Howard University Press as Executive Director. My employment agreement was negotiated by Reginald Lewis, later famous as Chairman and major shareholder in Beatrice Foods. Initially, I was the only employee, and I hired and trained the staff, most of whom had never held a position with responsibilities for which they were hired. The formal launching of the Howard University Press was in a ceremony at the National Press Club on April8, 1974. Howard University President James E. Cheek gave a rousing speech.

It was broadcast around the world. This was also the date that Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record.

A major highlight of my career at Howard University Press is that we won, through a competitive bidding process,a contract to publish for the United States National Archives and Records Service. The records of publishing when I was Executive Director are easily available.Early in my tenure there we were admitted to membership in the Association of American University Presses, which has its own rigorous standards of admission. A significant part of the publishing program at Howard University Press was financed by the Ford Foundation. The program officer in charge of administering our grant from Ford was Dr. Benjamin Payton. Dr. Payton is better known today for his extraordinary achievements as President of Tuskegee University.

I left Howard in 1986, andstarted a private company. In July 1986, I formed Amistad Press, Inc. with my own funds. Arthur R. Ashe, Jr. was my first investor.Through the efforts of Ed Lewis, its Chairman, Essence Communications became a minority shareholder in Amistad. In addition, Arthur Ashe was one of the first authors I signed to a contract.

In 1988 my company published Arthur's pioneering and classic work A Hard Road To Glory (3 volumes). As Arthur noted in his acknowledgements, Francis Harris "single-handedly created the reference section."Francis was Arthur's chief researcher on this project.From 1986 until 1999, I owned and managed Amistad Press Inc. During this time I published John H. Johnson's autobiographySucceeding Against The Odds, which he wrote with

Lerone Bennett, Jr.; Lionel Hampton's autobiography Hamp, writtenwith Jim Haskins;Just Permanent Interests: A History ofBlacks In Congress by Congressman William L. Clay (retired); and the acclaimed Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius, a biography written by thelegendary poet, novelist, and educator Margaret Walker Alexander. It is the only biography of Wright written by someone who actually knew him. Other spectacular, and notable works published by Amistad Press include Spencer Haywood's (Olympic Gold Medal winner and former player with the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks) autobiographyThe, The Fall, The Recovery written with

Scott Osler;and Donald Bogle's powerful biography of Dorothy Dandridge. For Essence Magazine, my company published the best selling inspirational classic In The Spirit by Susan Taylor, then Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. We also published the Essence Cookbook, which contains the healthiest recipes using traditional African American cuisine.

Henry Louis Gates created and edited the Amistad Literary Series, essays about African American writers. Some of the writers are as follows:Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Gloria Naylor, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker. These books were used by colleges and universities throughout the country. The last work I published under Amistad Press Inc.was Skin Deep: AHistory Of Black Fashion Models by Barbara Summers. It is a pioneering and acclaimed work because it presents thesuccessful struggles ofBlack women, and shows their beauty and diversity on the national and international stage. Arguably, there is no book on Black women more beautiful than Skin Deep.It was described by many knowledgeable critics as a tour de force.

I have written this letter because I feel that your letter to me dated August 1, 2011 impugns my reputation and achievements.The goal ofmy life's work is making this nation and the world know about the accomplishments of African Americans. Your statement"We have brought together a team of scholars, architects, designers, and educators whom we are convinced will help us achieve our goals. Their work has embodied a spirit of collaboration, collegiality and teamwork”, suggests I have done something that shows that I am incapable or unwilling of "collaboration, collegiality and teamwork" and you have spoken to me about it. I have never had a conversation or correspondence with you about any of this. To me this is some form of bureaucratic sleight-of-hand maneuver.

Because you are an officer and key executive of the world renowned Smithsonian InstitutionI feel that I should respond in this waybecause I have been treated with a lack of respect and maligned. I believe the Smithsonian is known for its accuracy and professionalism.Your letter calls those attributes into question. I hope that your letter does not reflect the attitudes and perspectives of the rest of the key executives at the NMAAHC. We are open to discussions and interactions. If you know of another work that is more authoritative and comprehensive than

`The Pictorial History of the African American Athlete byFrancis C. Harris and Charles F. Harris, Jr., I will greatly appreciate it if you bring it to my attention. Thank you for your attention and your time.

Respectfully yours,

Charles F. Harris

President & CEO
Alpha Zenith Media Corporation
cc. Dr. G. Wayne Clough

Secretary
Smithsonian Institution