Arnold De Mille

by Christopher Harter, Director of Library and Reference Services, Amistad Research Center

"Working for Freedom: Documenting Civil Rights Organizations" is a collaborative project between Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, and The Robert W. Woodruff Library of Atlanta University Center to uncover and make available previously hidden collections documenting the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta and New Orleans. The project is administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Each organization regularly contributes blog posts about their progress.

Journalist and photographer Arnold De Mille (1908-1996) spent his career capturing the African American experience for publications such as the Negro World (1927-1932), Newspic (1940-1942), and both the Chicago Defender and the New York Age Defender (1950-1955). He served under the Federal Writers Project, WPA (1937-1939) and joined Milady Publishing Corporation in 1944 as a photographer-writer, with his works appearing in early cosmetology textbooks. As a United Nations news photographer (1948-1961) and correspondent (1978-1987), De Mille traveled the world to interview world leaders and to document their countries.  He also worked for the City of New York as the assistant personnel director and served as the press relations director for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund under Thurgood Marshall. 

"Working for Freedom: Documenting Civil Rights Organizations" is a collaborative project between Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, and The Robert W. Woodruff Library of Atlanta University Center to uncover and make available previously hidden collections documenting the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta and New Orleans. The project is administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Each organization regularly contributes blog posts about their progress.

Journalist and photographer, Arnold De Mille (1908-1996) spent his career capturing the African-American experience for publications such as the Negro World (1927-1932), Newspic (1940-1942), and both the Chicago Defender and the New York Age Defender (1950-1955). He served under the Federal Writers Project, WPA (1937-1939) and joined Milady Publishing Corporation in 1944 as a photographer-writer, in which his works appeared in early cosmetology textbooks. As a United Nations news photographer (1948-1961) and correspondent (1978-1987), De Mille traveled the world to interview world leaders and to document their countries.  He also worked for the City of New York as the assistant personnel director and served as the press relations director for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund under Thurgood Marshall.