James T. Haley

James T. Haley was an American writer, editor, and publisher. His Afro-American Encyclopaedia is an encyclopedia for and about African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was among the first works documenting African American history in encyclopedic form.[1][2] It is now regarded as a "classic historical encyclopedia".[2] His other works include Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading, a compendium of talks and essays. It "emphasize[d] a sense of community through point-counterpoints on language used by the African American community and editorials describing successful African Americans."[3]

Title page to the Afro-American Encyclopaedia

His encyclopedia illustrated with historically signifcant images and print illustrations. The encylopedia was published in Nashville, Tennessee by Haley & Florida. He later ran J. T. Haley Publishing Co. His books were among the first of their kind documenting African American history in encylopedic form. The publication of Sparkling Gems may have been arranged to coincide with the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition.[4]

Image of Mary A. McCurdy from Sparkling Gems
Georgia Gordon Taylor

Mary A. McCurdy contributed an introduction amd essays to Haley's works. Sparkling Gems includes an image of restaurateur and hotelier Georgia Gordon Taylor. The encyclopedia included images of Sissieretta Jones, Mary Rice Phelps, and Clarissa Thompson. The encyclopedia also includes images of buildings such as Dr. Robert Fulton Boyd's residence in Nashville and Preston Taylor's residence. Booker T. Washington and Rev. George Washington Dupree, a preacher,[5] also appear in the encyclopedia.

Haley also published William Councill's illustrated cultural history book Lamp of Wisdom; or Race History Illustrated in 1898.[6][7]

Bibliography
  • Afro-American Encyclopaedia, or, The thoughts, doings, and sayings of the race, embracing addresses, lectures, biographical sketches, sermons, poems, names of universities, colleges, seminaries, newspapers, books, and a history of the denominations, giving the numerical strength of each. Nashville, Tennessee: Haley & Florida (1895). With introduction by Mary A. McCurdy.
  • Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading: A Compendium of Valuable Information and Wise Suggestions that Will Inspire Noble Effort at the Hands of Every Race-loving Man, Woman, and Child (1897). With introduction by Mary A. McCurdy.
  • From darkness into light, or, Bible mysteries unfolded, Nashville, J. T. Haley Publishing Co. (1911).

References
  1. Jenkins, EarnestineLovelle (July 5, 2017). ""Race, Representation & Photography in 19th-Century Memphis ": From Slavery to Jim Crow". Routledge – via Google Books.
  2. Glover, Denise Marie; Association (Chicago), American Library (1995). Voices of the Spirit: Sources for Interpreting the African American Experience. American Library Association. pp. 2-4. ISBN 978-0-8389-0639-2.
  3. Athon, Amanda (Fall 2015). "Assimilative Rhetorics in 19th Century African American Literacy manuals" (PDF). Reflections. 15.1: 41–60.
  4. Jenkins, EarnestineLovelle (July 5, 2017). ""Race, Representation & Photography in 19th-Century Memphis ": From Slavery to Jim Crow". Routledge – via Google Books.
  5. Callahan, Allen Dwight (October 1, 2008). "The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible". Yale University Press – via Google Books.
  6. Association, Southern History (April 30, 1899). "Publications of the Southern History Association". Southern History Association – via Google Books.
  7. Alderman, Edwin Anderson; Harris, Joel Chandler; Kent, Charles W.; Smith, Charles Alphonso; Knight, Lucian Lamar (April 30, 1910). "Library of Southern Literature". Martin and Hoyt Company – via Google Books.
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