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Gwendolyn Midlo Hall (June 27, 1929 – August 29, 2022) was an American historian who focused on the history of slavery in
the Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
,
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
(United States),
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, and the
African Diaspora in the Americas. Discovering extensive French and Spanish colonial documents related to the slave trade in Louisiana, she wrote ''Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century'' (1992), studied the ethnic origins of enslaved Africans brought to Louisiana, as well as the process of creolization, which created new cultures. She changed the way in which several related disciplines are researched and taught, adding to scholarly understanding of the diverse origins of cultures throughout the Americas.
In addition, Hall created a database of records identifying and describing more than 100,000 enslaved Africans. It has become a primary resource for historical and genealogical research. She earned recognition in academia, and has been featured in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
People Magazine
''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the lar ...
'',
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, and other popular outlets for her contributions to scholarship, genealogy, and the critical reevaluation of the history of slavery.
Hall was also ''Professor Emerita'' of Latin American and Caribbean History at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, where she taught for 25 years.
Biography
Early life and education
Gwendolyn Midlo was born June 27, 1929, in
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, the daughter of Ethel and Herman L. Midlo, a civil rights and labor attorney. Her parents were of Russian– and Polish–Jewish ancestry. She was influenced by her father's activism.
In 1990 her mother founded the Ethel and Herman Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the
University of New Orleans
The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...
, where her father had donated his papers.
Hall has had a career marked by early political activism as well as academic scholarship. After World War II, at age 16 in 1945, Hall helped organize and participated in the New Orleans Youth Council, an interracial, direct-action community group, which encouraged and helped African-American voter registration and defied
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
laws. In 1946 she was elected to the Executive Board of the
Southern Negro Youth Congress
The Southern Negro Youth Congress was an American organization established in 1937 at a conference in Richmond, Virginia. The Southern Negro Youth Congress consisted of young leaders who participated in the National Negro Congress. The first gath ...
at the Southern Youth Legislature in
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-largest ...
. It had operated since 1937 to end
lynching, racial discrimination and segregation, and to achieve
voting rights
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...
for all.
[Jacqueline Dowd Hall, "The Long Civil Rights Movement"](_blank)
Hall helped organize Young Progressives, an interracial youth and student movement in segregated New Orleans that included students from
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...
,
Newcomb College
H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, or Newcomb College, was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter. ...
, and
Loyola University (white colleges) and from
Dillard and
Xavier universities (
historically black colleges
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...
). She was active in the 1948 presidential campaign of
Henry Wallace, the
Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to:
Active parties
* Progressive Party, Brazil
* Progressive Party (Chile)
* Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus
* Dominica Progressive Party
* Progressive Party (Iceland)
* Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...
candidate, working in New Orleans, rural Louisiana, and
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
. She also was active in the
Civil Rights Congress
The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional Li ...
and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare.
Starting at
Sophie Newcomb College
H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, or Newcomb College, was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter ...
of
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...
, Hall studied
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
. After years of political activism and marriage, Hall completed some of her academic studies outside the United States, which gave her broader insight as she acquired fluency in
French and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and could use archives in other countries. She earned a B.A. in history at
Mexico City College
Mexico City College was founded in 1940, as an English-speaking junior college in Mexico City, Mexico.
In 1946, the college became a four-year Bachelor of Arts degree-awarding institution, changing its name to University of the Americas in 1963. ...
, 1962 and a master's in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
n History, also at Mexico City College in 1963-64.
While a doctoral graduate student at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, Hall published an article advocating medical treatment for heroin addicts: "Mechanisms for Exploiting the Black Community", ''
The Negro Digest
The ''Negro Digest'', later renamed ''Black World'', was a magazine for the African-American market. Founded in November 1942 by publisher John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company, ''Negro Digest'' was first published locally in Chicago, Illi ...
'', November 1969. It inspired demonstrations in the streets of Detroit. She organized
methadone
Methadone, sold under the brand names Dolophine and Methadose among others, is a synthetic opioid agonist used for chronic pain and also for opioid dependence. It is used to treat chronic pain, and it is also used to treat addiction to heroi ...
-maintenance treatment programs in both
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
and
Ann Arbor, Michigan. Adoption of such treatment by major cities helped reduce heroin use and the crime rate in the inner city of Detroit and others. Hall earned a Ph.D. in Latin American History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1970.
Academic career
Hall and Harry Haywood moved to Mexico City, Mexico, in early 1959, shortly before he was expelled from the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
over ideological differences. Hall completed her B.A. and master's degrees in Mexico City before returning to the US in 1964. In 1966 she started her graduate studies to earn her doctorate at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. The couple separated and she raised their children by herself after 1964.
In 1965, while teaching black students at
Elizabeth City State College in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
, Hall encouraged them to organize armed resistance against the
Ku Klux Klan and to oppose the United States military intervention in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. She chaired the Defense Committee for civil rights leader
Robert F. Williams when he was extradited from Michigan to
Monroe, North Carolina, in 1975.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, she published a number of influential essays in African-American magazines. Hall was fired and blacklisted in 1965 by
Elizabeth City State College and the F.B.I. for her activities.
When she moved to Michigan, Hall worked in Detroit during 1965 and 1966, often with
Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs (June 27, 1915 – October 5, 2015) was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. In th ...
, as a temporary legal secretary. She had to keep a step ahead of the F.B.I. which tried to get her fired from wherever she worked. The F.B.I. engineered the eviction of Hall and her two young children from three apartments which she rented in Michigan during her first year: two in Detroit and one in Ann Arbor.
She persisted in completing course work and her Ph.D. dissertation for her doctorate, which was published as ''Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies: A Comparison of St. Domingue and Cuba'' (1971) by
Johns Hopkins University Press.
After completing her doctorate, Hall started as an assistant professor at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
in
New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she advanced to full professor in 1993. She taught Caribbean and Latin American history, as well as classes on the African
diaspora. Publication in 1992 of her ''Africans in Colonial Louisiana'' supported a reevaluation of African-American contributions to Louisiana and United States culture. She discovered significant colonial data in courthouses in
Pointe Coupee Parish
Pointe Coupee Parish ( or ; french: Paroisse de la Pointe-Coupée) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,802; in 2020, its population was 20,758. The parish seat is New Roads.
Pointe ...
and others in Louisiana, and also used national and state archives in France, Spain and Texas. Finding that French and Spanish records had more details about the origins and individual characteristics of slaves than did those of the British and Americans, she developed important material on the cultures of Africans in Louisiana, documenting many individuals as part of specific ethnic cultures on the African continent.
She worked for 15 years, five years with research assistants, to develop a searchable database on more than 100,000 slaves identified in historic records. These included Africans transported to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries. The material was published on a CD in 2000 by
Louisiana State University Press and online in 2001 by
ibiblio
ibiblio (formerly SunSITE.unc.edu and MetaLab.unc.edu) is a "collection of collections", and hosts a diverse range of publicly available information and open source content, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politic ...
. The database includes such details as slave name, gender, age, occupation, illnesses, family relationships, ethnicity, place of origin, prices paid by slave owners, slaves' testimony, and emancipations of slaves.
While an influential academic work, her book ''Africans in Colonial Louisiana'' has also become popular among
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
musicians in
. It continues to be appreciated by Afro-Americans and many whites in Louisiana. New Orleans jazz musicians refer to it as the "purple book". It is an important starting point for people who want to learn more about African-American culture in Louisiana and elsewhere.
In 2010, Hall accepted a position as Professor of History at
Michigan State University, where she devoted most of her time to ''Biographies: The Atlantic Slave Database Network''. Walter Hawthorne, Chair of the History Department, is co-principal investigator of this project. MATRIX provides the technology, hosting and storage. The project was initially funded by a contract from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
.
Hall's work has been distinguished by her use of original language archives in France and Spain, as well as of records in Latin America, providing a broad base for comparison of slavery in different societies. She has published internationally in English, French,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, and
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
, and lectured internationally in English, French and Spanish.
In 2021, Hall published a memoir, ''Haunted by Slavery: A Southern White Woman in the Freedom Struggle''. She died on August 29, 2022, in Guanajuato City, Mexico, where she lived with her son, Haywood Hall, and his family.
Marriage and family
In 1949, Hall's family sent her to Paris after she was arrested for violating segregation laws. There she learned French and studied classical piano. She married piano instructor Michael Yuspeh, but by 1955 the pair separated and later divorced. Her oldest son Leonid Avram Yuspeh was born in Paris, France, in 1951 from this marriage.
After divorce, she next married
Harry Haywood
Harry Haywood (February 4, 1898 – January 4, 1985) was an American political activist who was a leading figure in both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). His goal was to connec ...
in 1956. He was a political activist, member of the
Communist Party, USA
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
, and theoretician of self-determination for the African-American nation of the
Deep South. She changed her name at marriage to conform to his legal birth name of Haywood Hall. They were married until his death in 1985. Two children were born from this marriage: Dr. Haywood Hall, an emergency physician, and Rebecca Hall, an attorney with a Ph.D. in history.
Between 1953 and 1964, Hall collaborated with Haywood in freelance writing about theoretical aspects of the civil rights and black protest movement in the United States.
Some of these articles were a joint publication in several issues of ''Soulbook Magazine'', which began publication in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
, in 1964.
Works
Collected papers
The Gwendolyn Midlo Hall papers (1939–1991) are housed at the
Bentley Historical Library
The Bentley Historical Library is the campus archive for the University of Michigan and is located on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor. It was established in 1935 by the regents of the University of Michigan. Its mission i ...
at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
and later ones associated with her work on Africans in Louisiana at the
Amistad Research Center at
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...
.
The Harry Haywood papers are housed at the Bentley Historical Library and the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Division of the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,
New York Public Library.
Published books and databases
* ''Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies: A Comparison of St. Domingue and Cuba'' (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971)
*''Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century'' (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1992) (This won nine book prizes, including the John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association.)
* ''Love, War, and the 96th Engineers (Colored): The New Guinea Diaries of Captain Hyman Samuelson During World War II'' (editor; University of Illinois Press, 1995)
* ''Louisiana Slave Database and Louisiana Free Database 1719–1820'', in Hall, Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, Compact Disc Publication (Louisiana State University Press, 2000)
* ''Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005)
* "Escravidão e etnias africanas nas Américas: Restaurando os elos". (Editora Vozes Limitada, Brazil, November 8, 2017)
* ''A Black Communist in the Freedom Struggle: The Life of Harry Haywood'' (editor; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012)
*''Haunted by Slavery: A Memoir of a Southern White Woman in the Freedom Struggle'' (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021)
Articles
*"Negro Slaves in the Americas", ''
Freedomways
''Freedomways'' was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s. It began publishing in 1961 and ceased in 1985.
The journal's founders were Louis Burnham, Edward Strong, W.E.B. Du Bois and its f ...
'', Vol. 4, No. 3, Summer 1964, pp. 296–327.
*"Detroit's Moment of Truth", ''Freedomways'', Vol. 7, No. 1, Fall 1967.
*"St. Malcolm and the Black Revolutionist", ''
Negro Digest
The ''Negro Digest'', later renamed ''Black World'', was a magazine for the African-American market. Founded in November 1942 by publisher John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company, ''Negro Digest'' was first published locally in Chicago, Illi ...
'', November 1967.
*"Black Resistance in
Colonial Haiti", ''Negro Digest'', February 1968.
*"Race and Class in Brazil", ''Freedomways'', Vol. 8, No. 1 (Winter, 1968).
*"The Myth of Benevolent Spanish Slave Laws", ''Negro Digest'', March 1969.
*"Africans in the Americas", ''Negro Digest'', March 1969.
*"Rural, Black College", ''Negro Digest'', March 1969.
*"Junkie Myths", ''The Black Liberator'', July 1969.
*"Mechanisms for Exploiting the Black Community", Parts 1 and 2, ''Negro Digest'', October and November 1969.
*"What
Toussaint L'Ouverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
Can Teach Us", ''
Black World'', February 1972.
Honors
*
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
"We the People Fellowship" 2006–07
* Distinguished Service Award,
Organization of American Historians (2004)
*
Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, elected by the National Assembly of France (1997)
*
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1996
Further reading
* Amy Wold,
Courthouse Records Reveal Trove of Data About Slavery, ''The Advocate'', February 18, 2001.
* Erin Hayes
ABC News, July 30, 2000.
* David Firestone
''The New York Times''.
* Jeffrey Ghannam
"Repairing the Past" ''American Bar Association Journal'', November 2000
"Southern Negro Youth Congress (1937–1949)" ''
BlackPast.org''.
* Ned Sublette
"Interview with Gwendolyn Midlo Hall" Afropop Worldwide, 2005.
*''Rediscovering America: Thirty-Five Years of the National Endowment for the Humanities''. Report to Congress pursuant to PL 101-152. , p. 19.
*
Rep. Major R. Owens (D–NY),
Recognizing the Shared History of Slavery of France and the United States, ''Congressional Record'', Proceedings and Debates of the 109th Congress, Second Session, May 10, 2006. House of Representatives.
References
External links
''Louisiana Slave Database''Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the
University of New Orleans
The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...
*
"Celebrating Midlo Center: 25 Years of Promoting Louisiana's History" (2016)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo
1929 births
2022 deaths
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Rutgers University faculty
University of Michigan alumni
Elizabeth City State University faculty
American women historians
20th-century American historians
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American women writers
Historians of slavery
Michigan State University faculty
Writers from New Orleans
Historians from Louisiana
Mexico City College alumni