Harold Cruse Papers
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Harold Cruse (1916-2005) was an author and professor best known for his monograph Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967), a Marxist-nationalist critique of the Communist movement and an endorsement of an autonomous revolutionary Black culture. Cruse was a professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and helped found their Center for Afro-American and African Studies (CAAS). The Harold Cruse Papers (1940-2007) consist of materials created and collected by Cruse. Materials include published and unpublished articles, as well as drafts of various written works; correspondence; ephemera and photographs; course syllabi, handwritten notes, conference materials, and lecture notes; and subject files and research materials.
Biographical Note
Harold Cruse (1916-2005) was an African American author and professor best known for his monograph Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967), a Marxist-nationalist critique of the Communist movement and an endorsement of an autonomous revolutionary Black culture.
Cruse was born in 1916 in Petersburg, Virginia and as a young child he moved to New York City with his father. After graduating high school and working a variety of jobs, Cruse served in World War II as a member of the 28th Quartermaster Regiment. He fought in North Africa and Italy.
Harold Cruse joined the Communist Party in 1947 and remained a member for seven years. During his time with the Communist Party, he contributed drama and literature reviews to its newspaper, the Daily Worker. He also attended the Communist Party's George Washington Carver School in Harlem. Cruse wrote four plays during the 1950s, but none were produced. Thereafter, he concentrated on nonfiction. In the late 1960s, Cruse joined the faculty of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and helped found their Center for Afro-American and African Studies (CAAS).
Cruse's other books include Rebellion or Revolution? (1968), Plural but Equal (1987), and The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader (2002).
Arrangement
The collection is organized into four series:
Series I: Correspondence, 1943-2005
Series II: Topical Files, 1941-2007
Series III: Writings, 1940-2005
Series IV: Personal Materials, 1943-2007
Folders are arranged alphabetically within each series, though some correspondence are also arranged chronologically.
Scope and Content Note
The Harold Cruse Papers (1940-2007) consist of materials created and collected by Harold Cruse. The collection contains correspondence from individuals including John Conyers, Langston Hughes, Manning Marable, Mara Julius, and Wole Soyinka. It also contains correspondence from book publishers, Cruse's literary agent, and academic institutions.
Harold Cruse's interest in revolutionary Black culture and the Civil Rights movement is represented throughout the collection in the form of Freedom Now Party materials; correspondence with author, Civil Rights activist, and former president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Robert F. Williams; correspondence related to the Eldridge Cleaver Legal Defense Fund, an organization established in 1976 designed to provide financial assistance to Black Panther Party leader Eldrige Cleaver for his ongoing legal expenses; and research materials related to African American and Civil Rights history.
The collection also contains published and unpublished copies of Harold Cruse's articles; drafts of his various written works; copies of plays and musicals written by Cruse; articles about Harold Cruse and obituaries; handwritten notes; course syllabi, and lecture notes; research materials, subject files, and conference materials; and copies of his manuscript, the Crisis of the Negro Intellectual.
Personal materials related to Cruse's life outside of academia can also be found within this collection. These items consist of a scrapbook and documents relating to his military service during World War II; photographs of Cruse's travels, portraits of himself, and photographs of his family; some of his undergraduate coursework focused on film studies; address books and contact lists; and copies of his curriculum vitae.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
In September 2024, the typescript "Cuba, Marxism, Nationalism, and the Afro-America" and a set of untitled poems, plays, and essays in Series II were restricted for preservation reasons, pending treatment or digitization. Access to box 22 is also restricted. All other materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection, created by Harold Cruse, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; Harold Cruse Papers; TAM 187; box number; folder number;Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Harold Cruse initially donated his papers to the Virginia Commonwealth University Special Collections and Archives in 1994. In 1995, the deed agreement between the two parties was mutually voided and the materials were returned to Dr. Cruse, who then donated them to Tamiment Library in 1996. The accession number associated with this gift is 1996.002. Additional materials were sent by Ivana Kukic in 2011. The accession number associated with these materials is 2011.104. Additional correspondence was found in the repository and added to the collection in 2014. The accession number associated with this material is 2014.045.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The Harold Cruse Papers (1940-2007) was processed in 2003 by Elliot Silver and Peter Meyer Filardo. Correspondence found in the repository in 2014 was added to Box 2, Folder 7.
Accretion materials associated with accession numbers 2011.104 and 2014.045 were arranged and described by an archivist in September 2023. Materials were placed in new archival folders and boxes. Original folder titles were retained when possible. Accretion materials were grouped together thematically and then arranged alphabetically by file title. They were also intellectually grouped with related materials pre-existing in the collection.
Duplicate materials were removed from the collection and returned to the donor. Copies of Harold Cruse's Last Will and Testament, financial documents, and legal documents relating to his Estate were removed from the collection and returned to the donor.
Harold Cruse's binder with undergraduate coursework and scrapbook were stabilized and rehoused by New York University's Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department.
