European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 9, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                April had Clifton Johnton director of the am Tad rehear or Center in new Orleans with artefacts of Meek and ethnic american ate. Treasure trove of Black history by Philip Drysdale associated press arved african statues collected by  8. Dubois Are on display in the Reading room of a new Orleans museum. Tha piano on which Flelcher Henderson Learned to play nestles under a staircase. Next to the piano is a Model of la Amistad lha ship aboard which a slave revolt galvanized the anti slavery movement in America. They Are Perls of a treasure trove Lor scholars called the Amistad collection a repository of More than 8 million manuscripts dating Back to the late 1700s, America s fullest and richest collection of material dealing with Biack and ethnic Lile. Once it was Aust rely lucked away on the third door of the old us mint where the occasional tourist might wander by looking for the jazz museum. Tuchol its collection of african Art was stored. Today the Amistad research Center is housed at the Entrance to 1he Tulane University Campus in Tillon Hall la s new Home was officially dedicated in Early april. The acquisition of this collection adds nol Only to the vitality of scholarship on Campus bul to our scholarly reputation As a major research institution says Tulane president Eamon Kelly. To Clifton Johnson the director of the research Center the Challenge is to prove thai in can Benefit Tulane its fourth Home in a decade. Inside Are records concerning the South Carolina coloured regiments among the first made up of former slaves that historian Willie Lee Rose used in writing rehearsal for Flemons Lucr on the port Royal Experiment. Here also Are the records of the Southern tenant Farmers association that Theodora Rosengarten brought to life in his National Book award winning All god s dangers Trie biography of Nate Shaw. And then there Are the records of the 1839 incident trom which the collection takes its name. The Amistad incident began when 53 african slaves took control of la Amistad As it was transporting them trom Havana to the cuban port of Guanaga three Days of to sea the africans under the leadership of Cinque mutinied killed the Captain and a member of Tho Crew then ordered the men who had purchased them to set a course for Africa. Cinque could sleep by the Sun during the Day but at night the cubans steered North and Wesl. After 63 Days of digging and lagging the Amistad arrived off Mon Auk Long Island where the ship and its cargo of slaves were seized by an american warship for Salvage the cubans in turn sued to recover their property and charged the adult males with murder and piracy. A group of abolitionists led by Lewis Tappan Simeon Joycelyn and Arthur Leavitt volunteered to provide Legal assistance to the africans. The diplomatic negotiations and lawsuits lasted More than a year. John Quincy Adams argued the Case before the United states supreme court which rated in 1b41 that the africans wore free. The records of the defense committee form the Core of the Amistad collection from the appeals for clothing and Money to reports Ort the africans religious instruction and Progress in English. Among the letters of thanks written by the africans is one bound into a Bible that was presented to Adams Mendi people will remember you when we go to our own country we will Tell our friends about you and we will say to Thorn or. Adams is a great Man. We write this because you plead for us. We give you Good  after the successful Resolution of the Amistad Case the members of the Amistad committee founded the american missionary society one of the leading organizations in the anti slavery movement among the institutional records is the correspondence among the people thai devoted their lives to the cause of abolition and the later Battles to Aid the newly freed slaves. A letter from Laura Haviland written during the impeachment crisis of president Andrew Johnson bemoans the weakened slate of the freedmen s Bureau under the Johnson administration Andy has crippled everything but the rebels and they Are loud and defiant in their mein she wrote. Then with the combination of evangelical Fervour and shrewd political Cense that the veterans of the abolitionist movement developed she continues i think Grant looks better in shoulder straps than m the while House. Perhaps i was in his division a Little too Long during the War to be repossessed m his favor " Johnson says we Don just go looking or papers of Iho elite. That s the trouble Wilh american history arid that s the trouble Wilh what has been written about Black history he was Tho first to so and so or she was the first or they were so called Black leaders what we re iry mrs to do is really document Black life play to Day. Family relations Community activities the new concept of history social rather than elitist history the of Gina of the collection Date Back to 1950. When Johnson started leaching history at Lemoyne College a Predo Mcanlly  institution in Memphis term. Founded by the american missionary association Al the time. Johnson a doctoral candidate at Iho University of Georgia was planning to Wulc his dissertation on Joe Brown who civil War governor of Georgia. Despite his personal interest in Black history he had never heard o the american missionary association until he began leaching at Lemoyne and Hal s really horrible when you think about someone who has As much american history As i had the american missionary association which grew out of the Amistad incident and All of its educational work and All the schools ii founded and ils importance in reconstruction and i had never heard of it Johnson said so i began to re educate myself that re education led Johnson to write his dissertation on the american missionary association and to the association s files which form the Core of ins Amistad collection,.then stored at Fisk University in Nashville. When Iheama asked Johnson to return to Fisk University in the Early 1960s to organize the records he proposed creating the Amistad research Center the Center was. Established in 1966. From the beginning Johnson said he began to come across other collections of papers unrelated to the american missionary association that needed a Home needed cars they needed to be accessible to  by 1969 the misled research Center was Independent incorporated raising its own Money and growing. Ii was he demand for space lha led Johnson to move the Center from Fisk to Dillard University in new Orleans then in 1980, to the old . Mint in the French Quarter a place Johnson said he fell would be adequate Lor 10 to 15 years by late 1983 the Center needed to move again. Johnson began discussing a possible move to the Hampton Institute another Ama founded school bul word got out and other schools including Harvard the University of North Carolina Mississippi Prairie View and Tulane began to inquire about having the Center move onto their Campus quite frankly some members of my Board were concerned about the Ami Alad research Center going onto any Campus thai had been traditionally White and especially a Campus that had at one time denied admission to Blacks such As Tulane or the University of Mississippi Johnson said former mayor Ernest Morial who is Black persuaded the presidents of nine local institutions of higher education to lorm a consortium to support the move to Tulane. Saturday May 9. 19b7 the stars and stripes Page 17