(BOY SCOUTS) JACKSON CURTIS A rare and important archive of

Sale 2204 - Lot 157

Price Realized: $ 4,080

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000

(BOY SCOUTS.) JACKSON, CURTIS. A rare and important archive of material relative to the African-American Boy Scouts of America. Includes: five 8x10 photographs of boy scout and cub scout troops; uniform scarves, official manuscript troop record books, letterheads, award certificates, charters and more. should be seen. Vp, 1930s-1950s

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The first Negro Boy Scout troop in America was formed in Elizabeth City, North Carolina in 1911, not without protest from local whites. However, despite opposition, the movement grew nationally and the first official Boy Scout Council approved Negro Troop, Number 75, in Louisville Kentucky in 1916. In ten years the number of troops grew to 248, with 4,932 black Scouts, and by 1936 only one Council in the South still refused to accept any black troops. However, things were not easy for black Scouts. By the 1950s the Boy Scouts of America had an annual endowment of $2.6 billion, but local black councils struggled to provide funds for their troops. The cornerstone of this archive is Curtis Jackson's "My Scouting History," an autobiographical scrapbook, with typed and handwritten entries, enhanced with photographs, merit badges, certificates and other ephemera chronicling the history of a black Boy Scout troop. Jackson joined Troop 42 of Camden, New Jersey in 1937. He not only kept a careful history of his own Boy Scout experience, he kept a careful account of his troop's meetings, etc. The last part of "My Scouting History" consists of "Records of My Correspondence," including letters from such diverse organizations as the Campbell's Soup Company, the Department of Public Safety, Department of Agriculture, numerous letters from the state Boy Scout Council and a final page, signed by all members of his troop. Jackson earned just about every possible merit badge, including the difficult Explorer and Eagle Scout.