Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Kenny J. Williams Papers #5182, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the estate of Kenny J. Williams in October 2004 (Acc. 99913).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Nancy Kaiser, December 2005

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, December 2005

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American scholars.
• African American studies.
• African American women college teachers.
• African Americans--Education (Higher).
• American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.
• American literature--African American authors--Study and teaching.
• American literature--History and criticism.
• American literature--Study and teaching.
• Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941--Criticism and interpretation.
• Authors, American--20th century.
• China--Description and travel.
• Conservatives--United States.
• Duke University--Faculty.
• Duke University. Dept. of English.
• Hungary--Description and travel.
• Liberia--Description and travel.
• Multiculturalism--United States--History--20th century.
• National Endowment for the Humanities.
• Romania--Description and travel.
• Williams, Kenny J.

Kenny Jackson Williams (1927-2003), named after Kentucky, the state in which she was born, received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She taught at several universities before joining the English Department at Duke University in Durham, N.C., in 1977. Williams published extensively on African American writers, Sherwood Anderson, and other midwestern writers of the nineteenth century. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kenny J. Williams died in 2003.

The collection consists of correspondence, writings, clippings, photographic slides, and other miscellaneous papers of Kenny J. Williams (1927-2003), an African American studies scholar who taught at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and was appointed to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The correspondence is chiefly professional, with publishers, students, members of the English Department at Duke University, and others, regarding publishing, teaching, and faculty matters, and her NEH appointment. There are some personal letters from friends and other correspondence regarding membership in a women's club. Writings include drafts of various articles on African American writers, Sherwood Anderson, and midwestern writers of the nineteenth century, and Williams's positions, considered controversial in the academy, on multiculturalism, affirmative action in higher education, and the ideological implications of studying African American literature. The photographic slides document travel to Liberia, Romania, Hungary, and China during the 1960s.

• Pictures (P-5182/1-2)