James E. Campbell papers

James Eber Campbell was born in Charleston, South Carolina on July 31, 1925 to James and Eva Jones Campbell. He received his primary and secondary education at Immaculate Conception School in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Voorhees Normal and Industrial School in Denmark, South Carolina.

In 1943, Campbell was drafted into the Marine Corps and served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, Campbell attended Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland. His studies were interrupted by employment and two years of stateside service as an Army reservist during the Korean War. He then returned to Morgan State, where he graduated with a major in English and a minor in theatre in 1953. After graduation, Campbell taught elementary school in Baltimore and helped organize the Arena Players, the only continuously running black theatre company in the United States. During this time, Campbell became an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1964, after relocating to New York City to teach, Campbell met Malcolm X, with whom he collaborated in creating the Organization of Afro-American Unity's Liberation School. He became a teacher for the New York City public school system and, during the summer, traveled to Mississippi and Georgia to register voters for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Campbell took graduate courses at the City University of New York from 1960 to 1967 and attended the Bank Street College of Education, where he earned a master's degree in Educational Administration and Supervision in 1972.

From 1970 to 1975, Campbell was a contributing editor to Freedomways, a quarterly journal devoted to African-American arts and culture.

From 1973 to 1982, Campbell taught English in Tanzania, first in Bihawana and later at the International School in Dar es Salaam. After teaching for nine years in Tanzania, Campbell returned to New York City to work as a school administrator until his retirement in 1991.

Throughout these years, Campbell collected a variety of monographs, pamphlets, and collected works that reflected his political and ideological interests and pursuits, including those on Marxism-Leninism (especially dialectical materialism), socialism, Pan-Africanism, Black Nationalism, African American literature, African literature in the late colonial period, freedom movements, and Afrocentric pedagogy.

After retirement, Campbell moved back to Charleston, South Carolina where, as of 2011, he remains active in local political and educational issues. Campbell has served as the state coordinator of the South Carolina Algebra Project, an advisory board member for the School of Education at the College of Charleston, and the chair of the Education Committee for the Charleston branch of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He has served as the national co-chairman of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and has lead a socialist education project in Charleston.

James Campbell had three sons, Glenn, Gary, and Paul T. R., and one daughter, DuBois. As of 2011, he had four grandchildren: Urai Elaine Mitchell, Dylan Rivera, Jay Rivera, and DuBois M. V. Campbell. Campbell has regularly contributed to the Charleston County Public Library in honor of his daughter, the late DuBois Kenyatta Campbell.

SOURCES: (1) Frazier, Herb. James Campbell: Retired Educator, a Student of Life, Returns to His Past, The Post and Courier, July 23, 2005, F1 (2) James E. Campbell: Interview by Dana Campbell.