Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the Alice Royal Collection
MS 140
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Alice Royal Collection
Dates: 1913-2011
Collection number: MS 140
Creator:
Royal, Alice.
Harris, Dorothy Hickerson.
Hickerson, Joseph William.
Calbert, William E.
Collection Size:
1 linear foot
(2 boxes + 1 oversize box)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
Abstract: Alice Calbert Fauntleroy Royal (1923-2014) was born Alice Lucinda Calbert on January 15, 1923, in her grandparents’ home in
Allensworth, California to William Riley Calbert and Sadie Hickerson Hackett Calbert. The Alice Royal Collection includes
material assembled and donated to the African American Museum & Library at Oakland by Royal on the activities of family members
Joseph W. Hickerson (1883-1971), Dorothy Hickerson Harris (1916-1989), and William E. Calbert (b. 1918).
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Permission to publish must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.
Alice Royal Collection, MS 140, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.
Processed by Sean Dickerson.
Biography / Administrative History
Alice Calbert Fauntleroy Royal (1923-2014) was born Alice Lucinda Calbert on January 15, 1923, in her grandparents’ home in
Allensworth, California to William Riley Calbert (1879-1932) and Sadie Hickerson Hackett Calbert (1885-1987). The family farmed
the San Joaquin valley outside Lemoore, California, while Royal attended primary education in the Allensworth school. In 1933
the family moved to Alameda, California, where her mother worked as a governess. Royal graduated from Haight School in 1936,
and completed Alameda High School in 1940.
From 1940 to 1943, Royal attended San Francisco Junior College and San Francisco State, completing a program in pre-nursing.
She did her nursing training at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, and became licensed in 1946. From there Royal sought
a career as a public health nurse and administrator, working with the Oakland Health Department, as an Oakland Public Schools
nurse, and as nursing advisor to the Oakland Board of Education under Superintendent Wilson Riles. In 1950, Royal married
African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Reverend G. Fauntleroy. Reverend Fauntleroy died in 1958, though Royal maintained a lifelong
membership in A.M.E. Zion. She remarried in 1960 to Cornelius C. Royal, a dedicated member of the Church for the Fellowship
of All Peoples in San Francisco, California.
Royal formally retired in 1978 to care for her mother, moving to Visalia, California, where she took up the project of acting
to preserve and educate about the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, California’s first state historical park designated
to African-American pioneers. With assistance from her brothers, James W. Calbert, and William E. Calbert, Royal worked to
restore the township’s historic structures, produce staffing reports and resource management plans and promote the Allensworth
townspeople as beneficiaries of the park under the Allensworth Citizens Council. She chaired the Colonel Allensworth State
Park Advisory Committee from 1985 to 1989, served on the Allensworth planning task force for 2008, and was a member of the
Friends of Allensworth. In 2008 Royal published the book
Allensworth, the Freedom Colony: A California African American Township. Alice Royal died December 9th, 2014.
In addition to her work with Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, Royal spent much of her middle and late years collecting
Hickerson and Calbert family histories. As legal executor of Dorothy Hickerson Harris (1916-1989), Royal assembled material
related to Hickerson Harris’ active participation in the First A.M.E. Church, Oakland, California, as well as material related
to Hickerson Harris’ father, Joseph W. Hickerson (1883-1971). Royal also documented the service and chaplaincy career of her
brother, U.S. Army chaplain William E. Calbert (b. 1918).
Scope and Content of Collection
The Alice Royal Collection includes material assembled and donated to the African American Museum & Library at Oakland by
Royal on the activities of family members Joseph W. Hickerson (1883-1971), Dorothy Hickerson Harris (1916-1989), and William
E. Calbert (b. 1918). The collection includes service bulletins, events programs, ledgers, newsletters, printed material,
brochures, ephemera, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and a scrapbook. The bulk of material relates to First
African Methodist Episcopal (First AME) Church activities and its members, as collected by Hickerson Harris, and U.S. Army
chaplain William E. Calbert service and chaplaincy career. The collection is arranged in five series: Series I. Dorothy Hickerson
Harris Series II. Joseph W. Hickerson Series III. William E. Calbert Series IV. Allensworth calendar of events Series V. Photographs
Series I. Dorothy Hickerson Harris
Series II. Joseph W. Hickerson
Series III. William E. Calbert
Series IV. Allensworth calendar of events
Series V. Photographs
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Calbert family.
Military chaplains--United States--History..
First African Methodist Episcopal Church (Oakland, Calif.).
African Americans--California--East Bay--History.
African Americans--Families.
African American freemasonry--California--History.
African American churches--California.
African Methodist Episcopal Church--History.
Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park Advisory Committee Audio Recordings Collection, African American Museum & Library
at Oakland, Oakland Public Library
Calbert Family Papers, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library
Hickerson Family Papers, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library