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Mazie B. Hall Collection
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Held at: Temple University Libraries: Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Temple University Libraries: Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Mazie B. Hall (July18, 1902-January 1, 2006), born in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, was an educator, mentor, civil rights activist, and community leader . Miss Hall grew up in the Mt. Pleasant section of Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania with a younger brother, Billy (born in 1906). Miss Hall's maternal grandmother was enslaved until the age of eleven in Virginia on the Bumpas Plantation. When her mother, Carrie Watson, relocated to the north, she began working in Chester County, Great Valley, Pennsylvania. This provided the context in which Miss Hall's parents would meet. Mr. William Isaiah Hall, from a small town near Frankford, Delaware, was a secondary farmer who raised (cultivated) pigs, chickens, a horse, and tended a garden.
Miss Hall graduated from the former Tredyffrin-Easttown High School and West Chester University (then West Chester Normal School) with a teaching certificate in 1924. As a result of the segregation laws upheld in her hometown, Miss Hall's first teaching opportunity was in Trenton, New Jersey at the New Lincoln School. The school was built in 1924 for Black girls and boys. She was a passionate educator, who as a child advocate, created innovative mentoring and tutoring programs in her community. Miss Hall taught at Powell Elementary School in Camden for twenty-three years. Her career as an educator also included serving one year as principal at the former Mt. Pleasant School in Tredyffrin.
A lifetime resident of Philadelphia's Main Line, Miss Hall was significantly involved in the civic and community affairs of her community. Her accomplishments include her crusade for fair housing practices in the area. Her efforts helped to influence the formation of the Pennsylvania Fair Housing Act. She was the founder of both the Mt. Pleasant Community Center and the Main Line Business and Professional Women's Club, for the latter she served as the president. Additionally, she served as the chairperson of the YWCA in Mt. Pleasant. Other organizational and institutional commitments included the First Baptist Church of Mt. Pleasant, the Red Cross Board of Directors, Tri-County Concerts Association, the Links, Phi Delta Kappa, Eta Chapter, and the Community Garden Club of Wayne.
As an educator, historian, and civic leader Miss Hall received many awards and certificates. Among them are service awards from the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Inc., the Links, Inc., Kids' First Now!, the Second Baptist Church, Wayne, PA., and the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. Other recognitions included the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the House of Representatives Citation, and an award from the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. On her 98th birthday a park, was dedicated in her name in Mt. Pleasant. Additionally, the West Chester University maintains a scholarship fund in her honor.
Miss Hall was a longtime contributor to the Suburban and Wayne Times, writing on Black history, poetry and providing personal reflections.
See: A Witness for my Lord: The Autobiography of Mazie Beatrice Hall. 406 typewritten pages; The Suburban and Wayne Time, January 5, 2006.
The Mazie B. Hall Collection consists of books, pamphlets, journals, newspaper and magazine clippings, correspondence, notes, various organizational minutes, reports, manuscripts, photographs, prints and posters, sound and video recordings, memorabilia and other ephemera material. The collection also contains 224 funeral services programs which includes genealogical as well as biographical information. While much of the material in this collection document Miss Hall's career, community, civic, and social affairs, the inclusion of numerous published material provide information on African American history and culture with a particular focus on Philadelphia.
Series 2: Awards and Certificates, 1956-2002, undated
Series 3: Organizations, 1946-2001, undated
Series 4: Minutes, 1937-2001, undated
Series 5: Financial records, 1949-2001
Series 6: Publications, 1809-2001, undated
Series 7: Prints and Posters, 1937-1985, undated
Series 8: Photographs, 1930-1953, undated
Series 9: Media, 1955-1993, undated
Series 10: Memorabilia, undated
Series 11: Miscellaneous, 1919-1994, undated
Donated in September 2007.
Original audiovisual materials, as well as preservation and duplicating masters, may not be played. Researchers must consult use copies, or if none exist must pay for a use copy. Certain digital files may also be inaccessible. Please contact the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection for more information.
Processed by Aslaku Berhanu, Supervisor: Margaret Jerrido, December 10, 2008.
- Publisher
- Temple University Libraries: Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
- Finding Aid Author
- Machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan, Sky Global Services India (P) Ltd.
- Finding Aid Date
- January 2025
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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The Mazie B. Hall Collection is the physical property of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries. The creator/donor has not assigned their rights to Temple University Libraries. Other creators' intellectual property rights, including copyright, belong to them or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.
Collection Inventory
Series 1 consists of letters, diaries, autograph books, conference programs, greeting cards, handwritten notes, articles by or about Mazie B. Hall, manuscripts (autobiography) by Ms. Hall and other miscellaneous material. These documents are primarily on Mazie Hall's personal life, family affairs, organizational and church activities. Church activities records 1) a list of pastoral candidates for the Second Baptist Church in Wayne, Pennsylvania, 2) cover letters and resumes, 3) handwritten notes, 4) speaking engagement schedule of ministers, 5) a correspondence about the pastoral election process written to Second Baptist Church members, and 6) correspondence between pastoral candidates and the Pulpit Committee.
Series 2 is made up of framed awards, certificates, and plaques that Miss Hall received between 1956 and 2002. There are a few unframed certificates of appreciation and recognition, but the vast majority of the items are framed. Among them are recognition from Kids First Now!, Phi Delta Kappa, The Links, Upper Merion Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:, the House of Representatives, the Second Baptist Church, Wayne, PA., and the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women.
Series 3 covers the dates 1948-2001 and items included in this section are newsletters, programs, meeting notices and minutes. Ms. Hall's organizational memberships and activities included The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs Incorporated, National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, The Links Incorporated, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and The Association of Black Women Historians.
Series 4 contains minutes of the various annual conventions and meetings attended by Miss Hall. Twenty-three of the 29 total minutes are from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women, 1950-1967. Other organizations include The Links, and the Afro-American Baptist State Convention.
Series 5 contains account statements, receipts, payments, charge statements and The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs' financial report for 1985-1986.
Series 6 covers the dates 1809-2001, but the bulk of the collection cover the time period 1960-1997. It is representative of Miss Hall's reading and study material, which include magazines and newspaper clippings, books, pamphlets, reports, and a variety of programs from funerals to social and organizational events. Many of the clippings come from the following newspapers: The Evening Bulletin, The Philadelphia Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The New York Times Magazine. It is in this series that an interview with theologian James Cone, an annual report of Miss Nannie H. Burroughs, reports on the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearing, and articles on historical figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., appear. Some of the Black general magazines in this collection are Ebony, Jet, the Black Enterprise, and the National History Bulletin. Funeral, civic, and social organizational programs comprises a bulk of this series.
Volume one
vol. II
vol. 1, no.4, 1965
vol. 57, no. 3
pp. 51-67
No. 1, pp. 2-7
pp.11-19, 26, and 31
p. 18
pp. 91-96
Volume VI, No. 4
pp.16-18
pp. 40-42, 72,78
Vol. 1, No. 7
pp. 24-26
p. 3
pgs. 12-13, 18
p. 25
vol. viii, number 35, 1954, vol. 112, number 22
Vol. 2, No. 1
Vol. XXVIII, No. 3
Vol. 7
Vol. 5, No. 1
Vol. I
Vol. II
volume 14
Series 7 consists of three major series of posters/prints, the Famous Black Americans, The African Scene, and Treasures of Art: the world's greatest paintings. Items feature images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hammer, and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, among others.
The majority of the photograph collection consists of unidentified people. Only 8 of them feature images of Mazie B. Hall. Others include Miss Mazie B. Hall's mother, Carrie Hall, school children, buildings and structures. Most of the photographs are not dated; however, those that have dates are 1935, 1938, 1951, and 1953.
11.2 x 15.7 cm
20.6 x 25.6 cm
15 x 29 cm
13.8 x 23.8 cm., print is intact
10.7 x 15 cm
15 x 22.5 cm., print is intact
10.1 x 15.3 cm
7.6 x 12.7 cm
8.9 x 12.6 cm
12.1 x 8.5 cm
5.9 x 8.1 cm
32.5 x 24.5 cm.
6.3 x 9.2 cm
8.7 x 13.8 cm
12.6 x 8.9 cm
7.2 x 11.5 cm
6.2 x 8.7 cm
25.8 x 38.7 cm
35 x 27.7 cm
7.25 x 11.5 cm
8.2 x 10.5 cm
8.6 x 13.7 cm
5.6 x 7.7 cm. (small damage on right hand side)
12.5 x 17.1 cm., (small damage middle of top edge)
24 x 17.3 cm
41 x 34 cm
Series 9 consists of tape recordings with speakers, videos, 1 CD, and records of popular African American musicians like Diane Warwick, Lou Rawls, Billie Holiday, Steve Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Pearl Bailey, and Ray Charles among others.
Series 10 contains hand fans, plaques with quotes, complimentary gifts from organizations such as the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., Martin Luther King fact cards, and wallets. These memorabilia contain themes of Christ, funeral homes, flowers, and Africa. There are also two empty jewelry boxes, a trophy inscribed, "Presented by Epicurean Social Club 1927 to Rebecca E. Young," shoes and bags, Philco clock radio, an egg bitter and a bugle.
Series 11 contains publications ranging from 1919 to 1994. It includes several magazines, articles, leaflets, brochures, advertisements for upcoming books, an album cover, as well as a children's coloring book. The publications cover a wide range of topics including history (African America and world), politics, economics and education.
[5 copies]
[2 articles]