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Dr. Nathan Hare, Sociologist, Clinical Psychologist
The Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare archives are available for acquisition. The archive is appraised at $300,000. If you or your institution is interested and would like to arrange a viewing, please call Marvin X at 510-200-4164. Email him at jmarvinx@yahoo.com.
Appraisal of the Archives of Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare
Introduction
Nathan and Julia Hare, among the most prominent Afrocentric psychologists in the United States, were born in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. They met while attending Langston University, and both pursued academic careers. Nathan Hare obtained an MA (1957) and PhD in Sociology (1962) from the University of Chicago, then received another PhD in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco, California (1975). Julia Hare received a M.A. degree in music education from Chicago’s Roosevelt University and a PhD in education from the California Coast University in Santa Ana, California.
Black Studies
Nathan Hare came to national prominence as one of the intellectual fountainheads of the Black Power Movement during his academic career at Howard University and at San Francisco State University. His ideas began to jell with the publication of his first book, The Black Anglo-Saxons, emphasizing the need for what became black studies at historically black colleges. In 1967, he wrote and publicized “The Black University Manifesto” at the behest of the student-led Black Power Committee at Howard.
Hare wrote the “Conceptual Proposal for a Department of Black Studies" and coined the term “ethnic studies” after he was recruited to San Francisco State in February 1968. At San Francisco State, where the Black Student Union demanded an “autonomous Department of Black Studies,” Hare was soon involved in a five-month strike led by The Black Student Union, backed by the Third World Liberation Front, thousands of white students, community leaders, the Black Faculty Union and the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. In
February, 1969, SF State President S.I. Hayakawa dismissed Dr. Hare as chairman of the newly formed Black Studies department, the first in the United States,“to become effective June 1, 1969.” Hare stayed on until June at the request of the Black Student Union and remained for many more months in an unofficial capacity of “Chairman in Exile.”
February, 1969, SF State President S.I. Hayakawa dismissed Dr. Hare as chairman of the newly formed Black Studies department, the first in the United States,“to become effective June 1, 1969.” Hare stayed on until June at the request of the Black Student Union and remained for many more months in an unofficial capacity of “Chairman in Exile.”
Nathan Hare then teamed with Robert Chrisman and Allen Ross to found The Black Scholar in November of 1969. Nathan's invitation to the First Pan African Cultural Festival held in Algiers, enabled him to obtain articles from leading African intellectuals as well as his former student at Howard University, Stokely Carmichael, and the recently exiled Black Panther leader, Eldridge Cleaver. Nathan also wrote the journal’s lead article, "Algiers 1969: The First Pan African Cultural Festival," covering the politics of and happenings at the Festival. Through Julia Hare’s friends and contacts, The Black Scholar was featured in Newsweek --"From the Ebony Tower" -- and The New York Times, would soon call it “the most important journal devoted to black issues since ‘The Crisis.'”
Meanwhile, Julia Hare had created her own career. She served as Public Information Director of the Western Regional office of the National Committee against Discrimination in Housing (headed by Aileen Hernandez), the director of educational programs at the Oakland Museum and later hosted talk shows for both ABC television and KSFO radio stations. She also served as the public relations director in the local federal housing program in San Francisco.
During his tenure at The Black Scholar, Nathan received a second PhD, in clinical psychology. Working with Julia, he soon entered private practice, with offices in San Francisco and Oakland. They focused on forming a movement for “A Better Black Family” (the title of a popular speaking out editorial Nathan wrote for the February 1976 issue of Ebony magazine) shortly after completing his dissertation on “Black Male/Female Relations”.
By 1979, the Hares formed The Black Think Tank, which published the periodical, “Black Male/Female Relationships”. Most notably, the BTT sponsored the Rites of Passage movement, including workshops and lectures, based on bringing black boys to manhood. . Julia became an internationally-known motivational speaker and television personality, offering her expertise on male/female relationships, gender interactions in the workplace, mate selection, and much more. Both Hares have won numerous academic and public honors too numerous to mention.
Publications
In addition to dozens of articles in a number of scholarly journals and popular magazines, from d The Black Scholar and Ebony to Newsweek, Saturday Review and The New York Times, Nathan Hare is the author of The Black Anglo Saxons, which was reprinted numerous times, as well as a number of books in collaboration with Julia Hare, including:
- The Endangered Black Family, San Francisco: The Black Think Tank, 1984,
- Bringing the Black Boy to Manhood: the Passage, San Francisco: The Black Think Tank, 1985,
- Crisis in Black Sexual Politics, San Francisco: The Black Think Tank, 1989,
- Fire on Mount Zion: An Autobiography of the Tulsa Race Riot, as told by Mabel B. Little. Langston: The Melvin B. Tolson Black Heritage Center, Langston University, 1990,
- The Miseducation of the Black Child: The Hare Plan to Educate Every Black Man, Woman and Child, San Francisco: The Black Think Tank, 1998 and
- The Black Agenda, San Francisco: The Black Think Tank, 2002.
While publisher of The Black Scholar from 1969–75, Nathan Hare co-edited two books with Robert Chrisman:
- Contemporary Black Thought, Indianapolis: Bobs-Merrill, 1973, and
- Pan-Africanism, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974.
In addition, Dr. Hare has written and published many articles in such scholarly and popular periodicals as Ebony, Negro Digest, Saturday Review, the Massachusetts Review, Newsweek, Newsday, The Black Collegian, Social Forces, Social Education, The Black Scholar, the Journal of Negro Education, Black World and The Times of London, to name a few. Some of his articles have been reprinted in anthologies and two of them, "Black Ecology" (from The Black Scholar) and "Understanding the Black Rebellion" (from the London Times) were translated into other
languages around the world.
languages around the world.
Julia Hare also authored How to Find and Keep a BMW (Black Man Working).Her written work has been featured in several magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Miami Herald.
Description of the Archive
The Hare’s archive consists of approximately 170 banker’s boxes containing a variety of materials. The first fifteen items all have at least some research value, but the most important materials begin with XVI.
I. 17 boxes contain books from Nathan Hare’s library, many, if not most, with his handwritten margin notes and underlinings. In addition, one box contains miscellaneous Who’s Who volumes.
II. Two boxes contain materials pertinent to the Black Scholar, including copies of the magazine, copies of articles, drafts, etc.
III. Six boxes contain various magazines, while a seventh contains copies of Negro Digest, Jet, Black World and Ebony. There are copies of some of these publications in the other six boxes, and among the 17n book boxes. While m most of the magazines in the six boxes are common mass market material, at least 10% are important publications pertinent to the civil rights and/or black power movements of the 1960s and beyond.
IV. One box contains copies of papers and proceedings from conferences attended by the Hares.
V. One box consists of Nathan Hare’s published articles, and there are two boxes of miscellaneous articles not authored by the Hares.
VI. One box consists of Nathan Hare’s published books.
VII. One box contains photographs, including an album of 8x10 black/white photographs of Muhammad Ali’s visit to Howard University.
VIII. One box contains a miscellany of materials from Nathan Hare’s six years at Howard University – clippings, articles, a handwritten note, etc.
IX. Three boxes contain honors bestowed upon the Hares – plaques, awards, certificates, etc.
X. One box consists of personal materials – vitae, travel records, etc.
XI. One box contains event programs and flyers.
XII. Two boxes contain address books, calendars, phone logs, etc.
XIII. One box contains material pertinent to Nathan Hare’s early career as a boxer and as a boxing trainer.
XIV. 19 boxes contain newspaper clippings, articles and notes, many with handwritten notations by Nathan Hare.
XV. 28 boxes contain the Hare’s financial records (taxes, personal finance, business records (including materials from the Black Think Tank, Male/Female Relationships, and The Black Scholar.
XVI. Three boxes of materials from Nathan Hare’s tenure at San Francisco State University. Two of the boxes are the materials that he kept from the San Francisco State strike described above, including internal Black Student Union documents, while the third is his archive of materials pertinent to the Black Studies Program that he headed. This material, some of which can be found nowhere else, clearly adds to our knowledge of this hectic year. See also Box 1 of correspondence (XXIV, below).
XVII. Three boxes of material from the Black Think Tank and one box of issue of Black Male/Female Relations, along with a number of manuscripts submitted to the magazine. Other BTT material can be found in other parts of the archive, e.g., the financial records, correspondence, etc.
XVIII. Four boxes of the Hares’ manuscripts – some handwritten, many with their emendations.
XIX. Seven boxes of Julia Hare’s materials, including notes, drafts of articles and speeches, manuscripts, etc. Another box contains Julia Hare manuscripts and bound copies of Nathan Hare’s three dissertations.
XX. A box of Nathan Hare’s notes on various topics, many handwritten.
XXI. 17 boxes of electronic materials, both Nathan’s and Julia’s: emails, backups, patient records, speeches (including notes and drafts), presentations, manuscripts, public events, teaching and professional aids, etc.
XXII. One box of vinyl records, including numerous valuable small issues by movement groups, the Black Muslims, etc.
XXIII. 37 boxes of records from Nathan Hare’s clinical psychology practice: patient records, protocols, state contracts, depositions and other legal materials, professional materials and more. A gold mine for researchers.
XXIV. Four boxes of correspondence to and from the Hares, primarily Nathan, in general including emails; submitted manuscripts; prisoner. Personal and professional correspondence; cards; press releases; and material on personal and cultural activities. Highlights include:
Box 1: At least 10 substantive letters + one of his handwritten appeals from Ruchell Magee to the Hares; Black Think Tank correspondence files; substantive tlss from publishers and authors (Carlton Goodlett, Robert Johnson, Jerry Mander, Bob Chrisman); an als from Tom Feelings with 12 signed small drawings; letters and flyers from the California Homemakers Association; and a San Francisco State file. Box 2: A letter to, and reply f rom, Shirley Graham Dubois; ditto Robert F. Williams; three letters from Eldridge Cleaver (a 3p. als and 2p tls from 1976 and a 1p. als from 1973), plus a 1p. als from Kathleen Cleaver in 1976).
Box 3: Considerable correspondence to and from activists, academics and elected officials (including a 1981 Willie Brown tls); a 2p. tls from Abdul Wali Muhammad on Final Call letterhead, 1988.
Box 4: 2p. tls from Geronimo Pratt attorney Sharon Meadows in 1978; a 1p. tls from Richard Tropp – Jim Jones’ assistant – on Peoples Temple letterhead.
Analysis:
The Hare archive is, in many ways, unique. The couple’s role in the development of Afrocentric clinical psychology and couples therapies enabled the creation of an archive that has no parallel. Major African American psychiatrists, such as Alvin Poussaint and Price Cobbs, appear to have concerns from the Hares’. In addition, Nathan Hare’s role in the development of Black Studies within the American university setting is pioneering; the boxes of materials from his tenure at San Francisco State University will enable researchers to shed light on the stormy period that led to the creation of separate academic departments designed to serve students of various ethnicities.
While it is possible to put commercial values on some of the materials, those values would in no way reflect the overall import of this archive. A university library would find the archive to be a treasure trove of research materials in psychology, African American studies, gender studies, the criminal justice system, the history of the 1960s and 1970s, media and much more. In particular, Nathan Hare’s patient records, Julia Hare’s media files, the materials related to the Black Think Tank and Black Male/Female Relationships, along with their voluminous correspondence will influence scholarship in many areas for decades to come. Accordingly, I would place a monetary value of $300,000.00 on this archive.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael A. Pincus
Andover Street Archives
