Archive of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention
Various Places: 1950s to 1980s. A collection of photographs, letters and reports documenting the missionary work of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, an African American Baptist denomination. The materials document National Baptist missions in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and date from the 1950s through the 1980s, when the organization was led by C.C. Adams, and by his successor, Dr. William J. Harvey III. The collection includes over 2000 photographs documenting missionary work abroad and organizational activities back home, as well as 53 letters and eight reports by missionaries working abroad. Includes the following:
Photos
A collection of 2045 photographs, dating from the 1950s through the 1980s. Most are black and white, with some color, ranging in size from snapshot photos to 8 x 10” professional photographs. A minority bear handwritten or typed captions on the backs; we estimate that several hundred are captioned. A number of these photos have been marked up or mounted for inclusion in the “Mission Herald”, the organization’s magazine. Photos overall in very good condition. Soiling, tearing or chipping to some photos, some photos with damage or loss to typed captions.
The photographs document the activities of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, which was in charge of various missions in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa. The majority date from the secretaryship of Dr. William J. Harvey III, who took over from C.C. Adams in the 1960s. Harvey “was such a prominent figure in the Baptist Missionary world that his tombstone…refers to him as ‘Mr. Foreign Mission’ (Haas, “A Building Demolished, but the Mission Continues”). Most of the photographs relate to National Baptist Missions, primarily in Africa, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, South Africa, and Swaziland. Missions in the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, and Nicaragua are also represented.
Pictured in numerous photos are African men, women, and children who prayed, taught, studied, received food, or received treatment at the missions. Also shown are African and African American mission staffers. Examples include images of teaching staff, classroom students, pre-schools, construction of mission buildings, sick children receiving treatment, religious ceremonies, church attendees, and much more. A particularly well identified series of photos depicts the P.I.M. missions in Malawi, including the “Women of the P.I.M. Domestic School of Arts”, and “Ladies sewing on the side porch of Mrs. Josephine Minter…These ladies unloaded the truck of logs and other equipment for our lights.” Another group of photos relates to the Bendoo Mission in Liberia, including one image of a group of girls, captioned “Girls asking for school. No school for girls here on Bendoo Mission. ‘Why can’t we girls go to school here.’” The Suehn Industrial Mission in Liberia features prominently in the archive as well, including a photo of a staffer interviewing the principal on a tape recorder “for the folks back home.” A series of 8 x 10” images, many captioned, depicts missions in the Bahamas, including Ebenezer Baptist Church on Andros Island, a kindergarten and more.
Many images document trips to missions made by visiting African Americans, including Harvey himself. He is shown praying with a congregation in Swaziland, giving instructions to missionaries on a bus in Africa, taking part in an “inspection team” in Malawi, and more. Another series of photos, meanwhile, depicts a trip to Africa made by members of a “preaching team.” Finally, another significant group of images depict Foreign Mission Board activities in the United States. These include shots of Harvey visiting churches in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Austin, plus photos of banquets, speeches, sermons, and conventions. A particularly interesting series of photos shows educational and promotional displays set up by the Foreign Mission Board at various conventions, including the 1971 West Virginia Baptist State Convention. Another interesting photo shows Coretta Scott King giving a speech.
Correspondence
53 letters, together with eight reports, mainly sent to C.C. Adams by missionaries in Nyasaland, Liberia, Nicaragua, Nevis, and the Bahamas. In very good condition with creasing to letters, tears and chips to a few letters. Includes the following:
1) 14 letters, dated 1958 to 1960, together with a 3pp partially printed report filled out in manuscript, relating to the Providence Industrial Mission in Nyasaland (today Malawi). Includes eight letters from Daniel S. Malekebu, president of the mission, and four letters by his wife, Flora. Malekebu was one of the first students at the mission, the first Malawian to receive a medical degree (he graduated from Meharry in Tennessee), and a prominent missionary and activist. He and his wife write upon returning to work at the mission in 1958 despite their advancing age. Malekebu laments the poor condition of the mission, writing that “we should always have someone to take our place when leaving for United States. There is much to do all over again…The time for Baptists in U.S. and for us all to help Africa is now” (Feb 23, 1959). He discusses needed renovation and construction projects to bring the mission up to standard, and requests funds for these projects. There is also a letter from Ethel Thambo, a member of the mission women’s auxiliary, thanking Adams for his support of women in Africa, and a letter from I.J.K. Wells regarding a film he was producing to document the mission.
2) 21 letters and retained carbon copies of letters, dated 1954 to 1960, related to the Zion Baptist Mission at Bluefields, Nicaragua and Mt. Olivet Baptist Mission at Puerto Cabasas, Nicaragua. The letters are from various mission officials relating to fundraising, financing, and proposed mission buildings. Correspondents include Harry L. Smith, F.G. Downs, D.A. Timpson, Esters Thomas, J. Raymond Henderson, and C.C. Adams himself. Many of the letters relate to a dispute among D.A. Timpson, a Black Nicaraguan and longtime missionary, Esters Thomas, an African American missionary, and other mission staff. In one letter, Timpson excoriates Thomas:
“Instead of helping, he is in war against me…I can not go any where to work, for I have no money, he has it all, and I have to paddle several days and nights to reach the station…His last and only baptism is all my work, but he has got the credit and praise and pay. I master the Spanish and Indian language…and he never said a word…I say nothing about the Mrs. Viola Marcial who is at his home all day visiting there and four times a day…I sleep on ground floors not bed, I eat where I can get. All the mission has launches and army cots. I have none” (May 2, 1954)
In another letter, Harry L. Smith, the mission president, accuses Thomas of stealing church funds and forming a schism in the community. Revered J. Raymond Henderson, a friend of the Martin Luther King family, weights in on the issue in one letter, as does C.C. Adams in several carbon copies of letters, writing that “such contention in these South American fields is nothing new to this office but has been our constant pain” (Aug 15, 1957).
3) 16 letters, together with seven reports, dated 1959-1960, relating to Baptist schools and churches in the Bahamas supported by the National Baptist Convention. Correspondents worked at several churches in Nassau, a nursery school, the Jordan Memorial Baptist School, and Mount Zion Baptist Church in Bimini. The letters relate to funding these churches and schools, as well as the growing independence of the Bahamas Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention, a local organization, from the National Baptist Convention. In one letter, R.E. Cooper of Mission Baptist Church, cites the convention’s growing organizational strength and writes that “The cause of Mission in the Bahamas is stifled. You, Dr. Adams, have no faith in us, and we in turn have no faith in you” (July 21, 1959). A couple letters mention the (white) Southern Baptists, i.e. a letter in which Talmage Sands writes “I do not receive one penny from them…I shall never allow this work to fall in the hands of Southern Baptists” (Jan 29, 1960). The seven reports, meanwhile, run to 23 pages. Five are typed, and one is mimeographed. These discuss the annual convention of Bahamian Baptists, the Jordan Memorial Baptist School (including four reports from that school), the nursery school, missions in the Outer Islands, and more. In one report, Baptist leader T.E.W. Donaldson writes that:
“Some of these churches are over 460 miles from Nassau. Transportation is inadequate. In some cases only small sailing boats can be used, and to other places one must go by the public mail and to a few places by plane. The congregation on the Out Islands are very poor so much that they cannot pay their pastors any salary and he must farm for a living, and where there is a drought, they suffer terribly.”
The mimeographed report is by Dr. Sylvester Williams, who was commissioned by Adams to report on the islands. It runs to 11 pages. Regarding the nursery school, Williams writes:
“The old leaning shack that served for many years has been demolished and on the site stands a small, modest building, equipped with kitchen and rest room, and facilities for approximately 50 children. Currently, 115 are enrolled. Program in the one-room nursery school, is supervised by Sister Mildred Donaldson and a corp of underpaid teachers, who are performing miracles with their meagre resources.”
He also provides a history of Baptists on the islands, and celebrates their achievements:
“Since this initial interest by Baptists, the Methodists have removed the barriers of segregation, and the government has improved the standards of education in the elementary schools, Much of this can be credited to our pioneer work in elementary education, The Jordan School.”
Finally, the collection contains two letters sent from Nevis, regarding missionary work on that island, and a letter from Charlotte Levi at the Suehn Industrial School in Liberia. Levi was an African American woman and a long time teacher at the school. She writes upon arrival at the school, discussing religious services, and providing updates about a new fish pond and station wagon at the school. Item #12940
Price: $10,000.00