James Melvin Washington papers, circa 1970 -- 1997
Summary Information
Abstract
At a Glance
- Bib ID:
- 11986579 View CLIO record
- Creator(s):
- Washington, James Melvin
- Repository:
- Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
- Physical Description:
- 93 linear feet (93 linear feet; 93 boxes)
- Language(s):
- English .
- Access:
-
This collection is open for research.
This collection is located offsite. Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.
Description
Scope and Contents
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of James Melvin Washington, including correspondence, subject files, course files, and writings. See box listings for detailed contents.
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James Melvin Washington papers, circa 1970 -- 1997
This series contains the personal and professional papers of James Melvin Washington, including correspondence, subject files, course files, and writings. See box listings for detailed contents.
Burke Library record group:
Union Theological Seminary Archives: UTS 1, papers of faculty and students
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in one series in original order.
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
This collection is located offsite. Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.
Conditions Governing Use
Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.
Preferred Citation
Item description, James Melvin Washington papers, box #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Related Materials
Washington, James Melvin Papers 1965-1997, held by Fuller Theological Seminary.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was donated by Patricia Washington, accession FIC-2021-004.
About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
Processing Information
Materials were minimally processed: sensitive material was weeded (including the entirety of Box 70), and original order, boxes, and numbering were maintained when possible. The finding aid, including a box-level inventory and series-level description, was created by Leah Edelman with assistance from Matthew Baker in 2024.
Biographical / Historical
James Melvin Washington (1948-1997) was an American Baptist pastor, church historian and professor, whose scholarship primarily engaged the African-American religious experience. Son of James W. Washington and Annie Moore Washington, he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1948. His mother especially encouraged Washington's education and religious development, and in 1967 he was ordained to ministry at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, his home congregation. He earned a BA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1970, an MTS at Harvard Divinity School in 1972, and an M. Phil and Ph.D. from Yale Divinity School in 1975 and 1979. While a graduate student at Yale, Washington began teaching. He took an assistant professorship at Union Theological Seminary in New York, held from 1976 until his promotion to Associate Professor in 1983. In 1986, he earned tenure serving Union as full professor in Modern and American Church History. He worked at Columbia University as adjunct professor, and was visiting professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, Haverford College, Oberlin College, and Princeton University.
In 1986 he published Frustrated Fellowship: The Black Baptist Quest for Social Power. He also compiled and edited three anthologies dealing with the African-American religious experience: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1986); I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World (1992); and Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans (1994). In addition Washington published a number of scholarly articles and before his death was preparing a major culminating work: his religious history of the Civil Rights Movement.
He held several board and leadership positions with the National Council of Churches, the American Historical Association, the American Society of Church History, the American Baptist Historical Society, and the American Academy of Religion. Among honors received were a Doctoral Fellowship from the Rockefeller Fund for Theological Education (1972-74), a National Endowment for Humanities Grant (1981), the Christopher Award (1987), and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor Award (1995). Wsahington died of a stroke on May 3, 1997, and was survived by his wife, Patricia and his daughter, Ayanna.
Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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