Justine J. Rector papers

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biographical note

Scope and content note

Overview of arrangement

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Controlled Access Headings

Bibliography

Collection Inventory

Organizations and committees

Information files

Publications

Summary Information

Repository

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Creator

Rector, Justine J.

Title

Justine J. Rector papers

ID

MSS076

Date

1943-1989, undated

Extent

5.5 Linear feet ; 8 boxes

Author

Finding aid prepared by Monique Bourque.

Sponsor

EAD encoding of this collection’s finding aid in 2020 was supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and by the Young Friends of HSP.

Language

English

Abstract

Justine Rector was born in Philadelphia and educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. She was an active teacher and prolific journalist, and taught at many schools, including at Howard University. Throughout her life, she was involved in promoting civil rights, high standards in journalism, and in documenting and improving race relations, particularly in Philadelphia. This collection consists primarily of materials documenting a range of civic organizations and conferences, Rector's professional activities, and her research on Black history. Included are correspondence, research files, publications, clippings, and conference materials.

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Biographical note

Justine J. Rector was born in Philadelphia in 1927 and attended high school there. She held jobs in life insurance sales, the Detective Bureau of the Philadelphia Police Department, and the Office of the District Attorney before beginning studies in liberal arts at the Community College of Philadelphia in 1967, in conjunction with a job as assistant to the Financial Aid Officer. She obtained a BA in history (education minor) at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970. During the period 1969-1972, she worked as administrative assistant and editor of the community newsletter of the North City Area-Wide Council (the citizens’ participation organization of the Model Cities Program).

During this period she also served as the Home and School Coordinator for Overbrook High School (1966-1967), worked as a guidance counselor at West Philadelphia High School (1970-1971), and became an instructor in the Great Lakes Colleges Urban Semester (1969-1970). After receiving a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1972, she began teaching courses in English, Mass Media and Society, and Black literature at the Community College of Philadelphia. Before her appointment as an instructor at Howard University in 1978, (she was promoted to assistant and then associate professor in the Department of Journalism there), she also taught courses in English and mass media at A & T University in North Carolina and at Temple University in Philadelphia.

During her time at Howard, Rector sought to establish an organization to address the concerns about Black men becoming “an endangered species”, leading to her establishing the African American Male Resource Center. Its straightforward mission was “to bring to the attention of the public the plight of the Black male in America.” This notion of Black males as an endangered species in America permeated much of her life’s work, and Rector promoted the organization until she retired.

Rector’s other academic achievements have included serving as the Director of the Morgan State – University of Pennsylvania Cooperative Project from 1972 to1976. The project aimed at gaining university status for Morgan State, in Baltimore, MD, which was successful, and at improving Morgan State’s overall program, particularly in matters of budget, financial aid for students, and curricula.

Meanwhile, Rector started to build her career in journalism, television and radio. In 1970, Rector began researching, writing, and producing radio and television broadcasts with “Something Else to Say” for WXPN-FM, and “Black Perspective on the News” for WHYY-TV, both in Philadelphia.

During the 1970s Rector worked as a freelance reporter, writing pieces for the Wilmington News Journal, the  Philadelphia New Observer, the  Philadelphia Tribune, the  Washington Post, and the  Washington Star. She was press secretary in 1976 for Charles W. Bowser’s campaign for Mayor for Philadelphia under the auspices of the Philadelphia Party. She produced, wrote, and narrated a series on Black males as an “endangered species” for WHYY-FM in Philadelphia. On this same subject, she developed a program for local television stations, a 1978 conference at Temple University, and several other talks and articles. Rector also researched articles and presentations on the history of racism (WHYY-FM, 1975) Black teenage unemployment (KYW-TV News, WHYY-FM, 1975); Blacks and the mass media, the “role of the Black journalist” (CBS, Channel 10, 1977); and on historic individuals for a show on Black heritage called “the Family Tree” (WDVM-TV, Washington, DC). She participated in conferences concerned with Blacks in the communications industry and racial stereotypes in the press in Bowie, Maryland, at Howard University in Washington, DC, and in New York. After 1978, she combined her diverse freelance and professional activities with teaching at Howard University and service on several academic committees.

During the early 1980s Rector began to operate more often as a consultant and as a guest speaker at functions and conferences, and less often as a reporter. She continued to be involved in coverage of special events, anchoring broadcasts in 1981 for WPFW-FM in Washington, DC on the Congressional Black Caucus Weekend and the Atlanta Mothers’ March on Washington after the serial murder of over 20 young Black boys in Atlanta in 1980 and 1981. She also reported for the Pacifica News Bureau in the summer of 1981. In 1983 she anchored broadcasts on the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington (and 1983’s Mobilization for Jobs, Peace, and Freedom) and the 13th Annual Awards Dinner for the Congressional Black Caucus.

Rector’s other professional activities in this period included service in 1983 as moderator for the National Black Media Coalition of a panel on racism in the news. She consulted for Pacifica News Bureau, WPFW-FM and WETA-TV in Washington, DC, for WFBW-FM in Los Angeles, California; for the Department of Communications at Bowie State College in Maryland; and for the Philadelphia branch of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in a “withdrawal of enthusiasm” campaign against a local Coca-Cola bottling company. She also published articles on the Black press, on Black Americans and the “nuclear threat”, and on Black history.

Rector’s organizational memberships have included the National Black Media Coalition, the NAACP, the Associations for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, the Black Faulty and Administrators (BFA) of the University of Pennsylvania, Black Presbyterians United, the Congress of African People and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She has been included in the Who’s Who in Community Organizations and Outstanding Americans (1978 and 1979) and Who’s Who Among American Women.

Professor Rector lived quietly in Philadelphia after her retirement from Howard University in 1986, and died in 2014.

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Scope and content note

The Justine J. Rector papers (approximately 6.25 feet) are a series of subject files collected by Rector in the course of her research on Black history, her professional activities as a Black journalist, and her participation in a variety of civic organizations and conferences. The bulk of the collection dates between 1968 and 1985. Much of the collection consists of magazine and newspaper clippings, organization newsletters, student publications, and other published or printed materials. It contains very little correspondence or personal ephemera.

Since Rector had contacts with and participated in a range of organizations across the political spectrum, this collection allows insight into a variety of attitudes and responses in regard to both broad issues such as civil rights and Black voter turnout, and local issues such as neighborhood mobilization for education or the Market East train terminal construction (which critics alleged was funded by allocations for neighborhood rehabilitation). The papers provide little illumination on Rector’s private life, but excellent documentation for her professional and civic activities, and for civic and social concerns of the Black community in Philadelphia during the late 1960s to the mid-1970s.

Series 1, the files relative to organizations and committees, is the most useful in documenting Rector’s professional and civic activities. Particularly informative are the files on the Area Wide Council, the Philadelphia Party, and the Black Faculty and Administrators (BFA) of the University of Pennsylvania. While the files provide quantities of information about the organizations’ activities but only indirect evidence of Rector’s, her comments on the margins of handouts and publications often testify eloquently to her views on the questions at hand. Rector belonged to a number of the groups represented; she seems either to have been on the mailing list of other organizations, or to have had regular contact with members.

In addition to documenting individual group activities, this series is useful in illustrating differences of opinion, and policy in particular, for organized action within the Black community in addressing social problems, such as neighborhood deterioration, education, and the poor relationship between the police force and the Black community in Philadelphia.

Series 2, the information files, speak most directly to Rector’s professional development, in large part because of the presence of broadcast scripts and research notes. Strongly represented in this series, which is the largest of the collection, are various aspects of Black history. Rector was interested in both reading and teaching Black history, so the files include research notes, articles by herself and others, and information on sources available for research, including a number of bibliographies and bibliographical publications. As a journalist, Rector was very interested in the conservation of history and the historical interpretation process, and her notes deal with this issue in particular, as does some of the material on African-Americans in the media. Several of her articles address Black history and were intended for presentation on relevant radio programs.

Like the organizational material in Series 1, the information files address important issues in the Black community, such as the Rizzo administration (as both Police Commissioner and Mayor) and police brutality. They tend to provide information on the events and viewpoints on the issues, rather than responses to them. Of particular interest to the study of local politics and the role of African-Americans within, are the files concerning Rizzo and police brutality, and African-Americans in the media. Of interest in a larger political context are the files concerning South Africa and those containing papers, proposals, and policy statements, most of which were connected with conferences.

Series 3, Publications, is most informative in terms of race relations and local political issues, particularly police brutality. Much of the non-newspaper material is radical in viewpoint, and is concerned with the improvement of African-Americans’ status in society- Philadelphia in particular. The student publications are concerned both with general social issues and with questions of special interest to students at local universities and colleges, such as the treatment of students by the administration, and a teachers’ strike at the Community College of Philadelphia in 1968.

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Overview of arrangement

Series 1: Organizations and committees

Series 2: Information files

Series 3: Publications

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1990.

Processing note

The original headings given by Rector to most of the files, particularly those in Series 2, have been retained. A large portion of the material was loose in the boxes received, and was therefore sorted into files according to group name or subject indicated by her notations. Articles and clippings which arrived in a particular subject or organization file have been retained in that file; most loose clippings and articles have been placed in Series 2. Whole magazines, newspapers, and other complete publications have been placed in Series 3. Materials which were extremely few in quantity and which could not clearly be associated with a subject or group or were not marked by Rector have been filed according to format; thus, miscellaneous subject files should be searched in addition to the other files. Oversized materials have been separated (see Box 5) and arranged in similar fashion to the rest of the collection.

Finding aid reformatted by Lindsey Schwartz, 2020.

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Related Materials

Related materials

At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania:

People’s Voice research and editorial files (Collection 3086)

Justine Rector photographs (PG269)

Justine J. Rector papers (Collection 3088)

Bernice Dutrieuille Shelton papers (MSS131)

James Samuel Stemons papers (MSS012)

Separated materials

Photographs have been removed and can be found in PG 269.

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Controlled Access Headings

Subject(s)

• African American Presbyterians--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
• African Americans--Education--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
• African Americans--Politics and government--20th century.
• Black nationalism--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
• Police brutality--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
• Urban policy--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.

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Bibliography

Tribune Staff Report. “Justine Rector, 87, journalism professor.” The Philadelphia Tribune, 7 November 2014, https://www.phillytrib.com/obituaries/justine-rector-journalism-professor/article_3ba82447-305a-5556-a482-a87cc3b22ce4.html. Accessed 23 January 2020.

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Collection Inventory