Joanne Grant's Personal and Professional Address Book
Joanne Grant
The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library - Joanne Grant's Papers Collection
Box 62, Folder 16
SPEC.RARE.CMS.0166
Joanne Grant was a mixed-race civil rights activist and journalist. In 1959 she worked as an editorial assistant for W.E.B DuBois, who was one of the founders of the NAACP. Not long after she was exposed as a member of the Communist Party, but continued to work as a journalist with the National Guardian newspaper covering the Civil Rights movement. In 1967 Grant married civil rights lawyer Victor Rabinowitz, but continued to use Grant as her professional name. Using her maiden name as her professional name allowed Grant to have autonomy from her husband.
This book is Grant's personal and professional address book, which includes the contacts for many civil rights activists. As seen in the photos above Grant had the contact for both Langston Hughes, the American poet, and Lorraine Hansberry, who was the first African-American woman to have her work performed on Broadway. The added contact in the second photo of this case is of Col. Hubert F. Julian, who was a decorated American airman. These contacts provide an example of a woman who was able to rise outside of the societal norm and be a voice among the activists. The use of her maiden name as her professional name and the fact that these contacts are in her own personal address book allows Grant to stand on her own outside of her marriage and become a leader for women involved in activism.