The Madison Harvey Jr. papers include photographs, black history newsletters, and funeral programs documenting the life and professional activities of Madison Harvey Jr. The papers are organized in to three series: photographs, publications, and funeral programs. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs documenting Harvey’s family, friends and classmates at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa Oklahoma, career as a sailor in the United States Navy in the late 1940s, a surprise party prepared by his co-workers at the Continuing Education of the Bar, and photographs of businesses making preparations prior to the Rodney King verdict.

Madison Harvey Jr. (1928-2013) was born on August 27th, 1928 in Colbert, Oklahoma the youngest son of Madison Dyne and Blanche Harvey. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1947, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served aboard the U.S.S. Eldorado as an electrical technician. After fighting in the Korean War, he was honorably discharged from the navy and relocated to Oakland, California. He attended Contra Costa College and the University of California Berkeley and worked as a research assistant at the Chevron Research Corporation for fourteen years. After leaving Chevron, he was hired as an insurance agent for the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company where he also worked for fourteen years. Harvey was also an amateur historian and ardent advocate of black history. He was a founding member of the East Bay Negro Historical Society and was an active member collecting and exhibiting historical material related to African Americans in the East Bay. Beginning in the 1980s, Harvey also published a monthly newsletter on black history – The Bokchito Herald, and later renamed Madison’s Monthly and The Whip-O-Will – that featured interesting newspaper clippings, quotations, photographs, and obituaries related to black history.

.5 linear feet (1 box + 1 oversized box)

Permission to publish from the Madison Harvey Jr. Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.

No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.