Research Catalog

Title

Errold D. Collymore audio collection : 1 item.

Author

Collymore, Errold, 1892-1972

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Summary

The collection consists of 1 audio recording of Collymore addressing a youth group at a community church.

Subject

• Collymore, Errold, 1892-1972
• African Americans in dentistry
• African American dentists
• Caribbean Americans
• Civil rights
• Emigration and immigration
• Families, Black
• African Americans > Political activity
• African Americans > Intellectual life

Genre/Form

Sound recordings.

Source (note)

• James L. Collymore

Biography (note)

• Errold Duncan St. George Collymore was born in the Caribbean nation of Barbados in 1892, one of five children born to Walter O. A. M. Collymore Sr. and Louisa St. Clair Peer Collymore. Collymore immigrated to Panama, joining the many thousands of laborers from the Caribbean working on the Panama Canal. By 1912, he had made enough money to migrate to the United States. To fast track his United States citizenship, Collymore served in World War I, where his knowledge of Morse code and skills as a radio operator proved useful. Collymore graduated from Howard University's dental school in 1923. His subsequent struggle to rent an office in White Plains, New York, compelled him into a life of activism. To force the issue of housing inequality, he purchased a house in an all-white neighborhood. In response, a seven-foot cross was burned on his lawn; 500 people protested the purchase at a neighborhood meeting; local newspapers made it quite clear that Collymore was not welcome; and he was offered a large sum to re-sell and move out of the community. He refused. Described as a "virtual civic hurricane" by one news report and "the fighting dentist" by another, Collymore determinedly pursued a civil rights agenda in his chosen community. His activism was propelled by the perspective that while he "did not have any academic degrees in social work… [he] knew where the needs were" (letter to A. W. Taiano, April 1, 1971; filed in "Personal Correspondence"). In 1935, five years after he moved into White Plains, he organized a local chapter of the NAACP and served as its president for several terms. Collymore was also involved in the formation of the United Colored Republican Clubs, established with the aim of electing blacks to public office or getting them into city and county jobs. Collymore also served as chairman of this committee. With time, Collymore would add to his many hard-won victories the desegregation of White Plains's police force, movie theaters, public swimming pools, and schools, as well as the attainment of equal pay for black garbage men and the hiring of the first black nurses at what is now the Westchester Medical Center. Focused on equality in the religious realm as well, Collymore and his family integrated the White Plains Community Church when they joined its congregation in 1927. Collymore married Johnnie Nazarene Ewing in 1932. They had two children, Cynthia Rene (born 1934) and Errold Duncan, Jr. (born 1938). A year after Ewing's death in 1943, Collymore married Magdalene Lewis with whom he had another son, James Lewis, in 1953. Magdalene Lewis Collymore was an amateur actress and member of the Paul Robeson Players of Tarrytown who appeared in a number of plays in local Westchester playhouses. She played the lead, Nora, in a rendition of Ibsen's A Doll's House and appeared in a series of dramas on WNYC dedicated to the "heroic role of the Negro in American history," which depicted such historical figures as Ira Aldridge, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, and Nat Turner. Later, she took up dancing, studying Middle Eastern and hula dance, and performed with the Newman Folk Dance Performing Group of Lehman College. Having learned clock repair from a friend, Philip Merriman Jenkins, a master clock repairer, she served as a local chapter president for the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. She was also involved with Crafts By Our Elders, Inc., a non-profit that highlighted and promoted arts and crafts created by Westchester County seniors. In early 1971, Errold Collymore suffered a heart attack which necessitated a one-month hospital stay to recover. Acceding to the advice of his physician, he retired from his dental practice. He died the following year of stomach cancer; he was 79 years old. In 2007, Magdalene Lewis Collymore passed away, also succumbing to stomach cancer.

Linking Entry (note)

• Forms part of the Errold D. Collymore archive. Papers can be found in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division: Errold D. Collymore papers, 1928-1999. (Sc MG 888). Photographs can be found in the Photographs and Prints Division (Sc Photo Errold D. Collymore Collection).

Call Number

Sc MIRS Collymore 2013-36

OCLC

1193566652

Author

Collymore, Errold, 1892-1972, creator.

Title

Errold D. Collymore audio collection : 1 item.

Biography

Errold Duncan St. George Collymore was born in the Caribbean nation of Barbados in 1892, one of five children born to Walter O. A. M. Collymore Sr. and Louisa St. Clair Peer Collymore. Collymore immigrated to Panama, joining the many thousands of laborers from the Caribbean working on the Panama Canal. By 1912, he had made enough money to migrate to the United States. To fast track his United States citizenship, Collymore served in World War I, where his knowledge of Morse code and skills as a radio operator proved useful. Collymore graduated from Howard University's dental school in 1923. His subsequent struggle to rent an office in White Plains, New York, compelled him into a life of activism. To force the issue of housing inequality, he purchased a house in an all-white neighborhood. In response, a seven-foot cross was burned on his lawn; 500 people protested the purchase at a neighborhood meeting; local newspapers made it quite clear that Collymore was not welcome; and he was offered a large sum to re-sell and move out of the community. He refused. Described as a "virtual civic hurricane" by one news report and "the fighting dentist" by another, Collymore determinedly pursued a civil rights agenda in his chosen community. His activism was propelled by the perspective that while he "did not have any academic degrees in social work… [he] knew where the needs were" (letter to A. W. Taiano, April 1, 1971; filed in "Personal Correspondence"). In 1935, five years after he moved into White Plains, he organized a local chapter of the NAACP and served as its president for several terms. Collymore was also involved in the formation of the United Colored Republican Clubs, established with the aim of electing blacks to public office or getting them into city and county jobs. Collymore also served as chairman of this committee. With time, Collymore would add to his many hard-won victories the desegregation of White Plains's police force, movie theaters, public swimming pools, and schools, as well as the attainment of equal pay for black garbage men and the hiring of the first black nurses at what is now the Westchester Medical Center. Focused on equality in the religious realm as well, Collymore and his family integrated the White Plains Community Church when they joined its congregation in 1927. Collymore married Johnnie Nazarene Ewing in 1932. They had two children, Cynthia Rene (born 1934) and Errold Duncan, Jr. (born 1938). A year after Ewing's death in 1943, Collymore married Magdalene Lewis with whom he had another son, James Lewis, in 1953. Magdalene Lewis Collymore was an amateur actress and member of the Paul Robeson Players of Tarrytown who appeared in a number of plays in local Westchester playhouses. She played the lead, Nora, in a rendition of Ibsen's A Doll's House and appeared in a series of dramas on WNYC dedicated to the "heroic role of the Negro in American history," which depicted such historical figures as Ira Aldridge, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, and Nat Turner. Later, she took up dancing, studying Middle Eastern and hula dance, and performed with the Newman Folk Dance Performing Group of Lehman College. Having learned clock repair from a friend, Philip Merriman Jenkins, a master clock repairer, she served as a local chapter president for the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. She was also involved with Crafts By Our Elders, Inc., a non-profit that highlighted and promoted arts and crafts created by Westchester County seniors. In early 1971, Errold Collymore suffered a heart attack which necessitated a one-month hospital stay to recover. Acceding to the advice of his physician, he retired from his dental practice. He died the following year of stomach cancer; he was 79 years old. In 2007, Magdalene Lewis Collymore passed away, also succumbing to stomach cancer.

Linking Entry

Forms part of the Errold D. Collymore archive. Papers can be found in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division: Errold D. Collymore papers, 1928-1999. (Sc MG 888). Photographs can be found in the Photographs and Prints Division (Sc Photo Errold D. Collymore Collection).

Source

James L. Collymore Gift July 2013

Connect to:

Request Access to Schomburg Moving Images and Recorded Sound

Added Author

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Research Call Number

Sc MIRS Collymore 2013-36