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Article by Andre Nieto Jaime  Harold T. Pinkett c. 1979 National Archives History Office Collection Born on April 7, 1914 in Salisbury, Maryland, Harold T. Pinkett was the youngest child of Reverend Levin Wilson Pinkett and Catherine Pinkett. His siblings included seven brothers, Earl M., Franklin B., Llyod G., Allison J., Levin W., and Otho Pinkett as well as a single sister named Catherine Pinkett (later Catherine Thomas). Harold, seeking to improve himself and his standing in society through education, obtained higher education at Morgan College (now Morgan University), the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and American University over the course of many years and his endeavors led him to become the first African American hired at the National Archives at the professional level. Through his passion for education, history, writing in numerous publications, and his professional pursuits, Dr. Harold Pinkett was able to break barriers in the archival and professional world, paving the path for future Black professionals and scholars. In addition, through his work, Dr. Pinkett was a champion for the study of Black history as part of American history by advocating for its further exploration and emphasizing the Black role in record keeping. Harold Pinkett was born to Reverend Levin W. Pinkett and Catherine Pinkett in Salisbury Maryland, the place where Harold’s ancestors also hailed from. Harold’s father was a minister, much like Harold’s grandfather, Adam Pinkett, was. Much of Levin and Catherine’s time seemed to have been spent traveling to preach in various towns across the Eastern Shore from the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church in their hometown to Marydel, MD along the Maryland-Delaware border. Several issues of the Afro-American make note of Harold’s grandmother, Charlotte Irving, visiting the family wherever they were at the time, often times being in a different town every year. In 1924 it was Cambridge. The following year it was East New Market, and then it was Williamsburg. In 1930 Levin and Catherine were living in Easton, but the 16 year old Harold, according to census data, was not with them. Instead, he was living with his grandmother Charlotte back in Salisbury where he was attending high school (likely Salisbury Industrial High School) where he graduated summa cum laude. After graduating from high school, Harold Pinkett followed his brother Otho to Morgan College (now Morgan University), reportedly using a scholarship for his tuition and paying his remaining expenses by waiting tables in Ocean City. At Morgan, Harold was hugely successful. So successful in fact, that his feats were published in the Afro-American showing he ranked high among his peers and even made it to the top of his class during his junior and senior years. His graduation photo and name were also featured in The Crisis, the NAACP’s official publication and oldest continuously printed Black publication. It was also in college that Pinkett began testing his mettle as a scholar, either to test himself as a writer or to have a chance at winning a large cash prize (which most college students would find irresistible), when he submitted an entry to the paper for a slogan competition. The slogan he penned was “The Fearless Crusader for the Equality of All Men,” which foreshadowed Pinkett’s own contributions in the future.  This undated photograph shows Harold Pinkett as a youngster, presumably in Maryland. Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Even if this entry was incentivized by a cash prize, Pinkett’s letters to editor were certainly not. Just a year later, in 1933, Pinkett had written a letter to the editor of the Baltimore Sun titled “Forgotten Groups Again,” in which he commented on the National Recovery Administration (NRA) established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Pinkett reminded the paper of the discrimination faced by African Americans “in every phase of their national life” and how white society was complicit in perpetuating it and if the NRA was truly to help the nation, that it must benefit all racial and economic groups as well. As early as his college days, Harold Pinkett was an activist for Black representation and equality in American society. In 1935, Harold Pinkett graduated from Morgan College as the valedictorian of his class, unsurprising given how he consistently made it to the top of his class at the end of semesters. Additionally, both Levin and Catherine Pinkett encouraged Harold to improve himself through education. His grandfather, Adam Pinkett, undoubtedly also served as inspiration for Harold. Adam Pinkett and his brothers liberated themselves from enslavement to join the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War. Afterwards, Adam learned to read and write, became a landowner, and a minister. Likewise, Levin Pinkett also became a successful minister and while Harold did not become a preacher like his father and grandfather, he did inherit their spirit of self-improvement and determination. It was also around 1935 that Harold Pinkett received a gift from his father, perhaps a graduation gift, in the form of a collection of books. One of said books, Lives of the First Twelve Caesars, contributed to Harold’s life in several ways, including some that he likely did not foresee. First, this 1739 book was a unique addition, perhaps among the first and certainly among the oldest, to his collection of rare books that he started in college and would maintain through his life. Second, it was reflective of his “natural interest in things that document the past,” and interest in history which led him down his future career path. Lastly, the book became a useful tool for his next step in life where he used it as a teaching aid as a high school teacher.  Following Pinkett’s graduated from Morgan College, he was assigned to be a high school teacher at Douglass High School in Baltimore, Maryland. While he had majored in history, Pinkett’s minor in Latin became useful. In 1937 he was reassigned as a special substitute for Latin and English at the same high school. In total, Harold spent roughly a year and a half teaching in Baltimore’s school system. He was not particularly fond of this position, at least at the high school level, citing that his young face and age resulted in difficulty asserting authority over his students who were barely younger than he was. After all, Harold Pinkett was only about 20 years old when he graduated from college. Wanting to enhance his education and continue teaching, Harold pursued a master’s degree in history. At the time Harold sought to enroll in graduate school, the University of Maryland remained segregated. The state did, however, offer a heavily criticized solution: offering to pay prospective graduate students to go to graduate school outside of the state. The program began in 1935, offering up to $200 per student to pay for the difference in tuition for going to graduate school outside of the state if training in their field was not available at home. This program continued until 1957 and was condemned as an illegal practice intended to keep the University of Maryland “lily-white,” by spending over two million dollars to send students of colors out of the state for their education, rather than integrating. Harold Pinkett was awarded a scholarship through this program and attended the University of Pennsylvania, staying with family to save on costs. He received his Master of Arts degree in history from there in 1938.  Rather than waiting for a response, Pinkett took a position at Florida Normal College teaching history, government, and geography for six months before being contacted by Livingstone College with asking him to return to teach there. Professor Edward Pierce. Pinkett must have made a positive impression and made for a logical replacement given the fact he had substituted for Pierce just over a year ago. At this point, Pinkett was already becoming an accomplished author, having written an article in the Journal of Negro History titled “Efforts to Annex Santo Domingo to the United States, 1866-1871 for which he earned praise from individuals like Dr. Carter G. Woodson and Dr. Allan Nevins. Following his graduation, Pinkett received teaching position at Livingstone College to fill-in for Professor Edward Pierce. Pierce had left on sabbatical for the University of Chicago to get his PhD, allowing Pinkett to come in to teach history for a year. Recent events must have weighed heavily on Pinkett’s mind as during a December chapel service at Livingstone, he gave an address on the topic “Must There Be War?” At the time, the world was already becoming engulfed in war. In Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese war had kicked off the year prior and in East Africa, Ethiopia was being occupied by Italy’s fascist regime. In Europe, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime were steering a course for war in Europe having occupied the Sudetenland in September of 1938. Needless to say, Pinkett likely saw the writing on the wall and, distraught by the growing world tension, wished to issue his own condemnation of war. Drawing on wars from antiquity to the 20th century, Pinkett dubbed war to be “the scourge of nations” and urged “peace-loving nations” to make concerted efforts to prevent it. While the global powers paid his words no mind, his lecture did demonstrate that Pinkett was also concerned with the issues surrounding world peace and international affairs. Once Pinkett’s year at Livingstone came to a close in 1939, he once again used the out-of-state funding opportunity to work on his PhD at Columbia University, during which he stayed with his brother Allison and his sister-in-law Grace who were living in New York. However, after a year, financial issues forced Pinkett to put his studies on hold to seek employment once again. It was here that Harold Pinkett made a decision that defined his career. While studying at Columbia, he became aware of a civil service exam for an open archival position and while he did not know much about archival work, he technically did meet all of the requirements for the position. Seeing this, he took the civil service exam and scored well, but did not hear back immediately. Being short on funds, Pinkett could not afford to wait for a response. Instead, he took a position at Florida Normal College teaching history, government, and geography for six months before being contacted by Livingstone College with asking him to return to teach there. Unfortunately, Professor Edward Pierce, had passed away, leaving a vacancy. Pinkett must have made a positive impression and made for a logical replacement given the fact he had substituted for Pierce just over a year ago. At this point, Pinkett was already becoming an accomplished author, having written an article in the Journal of Negro History titled “Efforts to Annex Santo Domingo to the United States, 1866-1871 for which he earned praise from individuals like Dr. Carter G. Woodson and Dr. Allan Nevins. Harold Pinkett taught at Livingstone College for roughly a year when he at last heard back from the civil service with an offer for an entry level position at the National Archives in 1942. The position was classified at the time as SP4, a subprofessional level, but offered the opportunity to be promoted to the professional level and paid more than what Pinkett was making at Livingstone. Several other factors made the position appealing to Pinkett. It promised greater job security than that of Livingstone College since it was government funded and on top of that, it guaranteed his re-employment should he serve in the military. This last detail was important and likely pushed Pinkett into accepting. During his last stint at Livingstone, Pinkett had issued a warning about the current state of global affairs and he certainly kept these in mind as the U.S. entered the war in 1941. He was well aware that was going to be drafted, more likely than not, and this reality was one of the deciding factors for Pinkett to enter the National Archives. In April of 1942, Pinkett made the move to Washington D.C. This transition to Washington was not an easy one. Socially speaking, D.C. was akin to the South. As Pinkett put it, “the South is in the Saddle” of the Archives and to a larger extent, in D.C. He struggled to find places he could sit and eat in, a situation that became even more frustrating when he was invited out to lunch by colleagues. They would either have to go to a lunch counter where Pinkett was forced to stand to the side, find an establishment that was not segregated, or eat at desegregated cafeterias like that of the Recorder of Deeds office. On top of segregated facilities, there was the added pressure Pinkett felt by being the only Black employee at the National Archives in a non-custodial role in 1942. When Pinkett joined the National Archives team, African Americans made up over 15% of the staff, but this 15% were only employed in custodial positions. Solomon J. Buck, Archivist of the United States, reported that the National Archives would appoint African Americans to “high positions by promotion and from the outside in steadily increasing numbers,” in line with their policy of “getting the best employees available” to them. As the first African American hired in a professional capacity, the pressure was on Pinkett to demonstrate that African Americans were more than capable of professional archival work and that they should be employed at the professional level in what was described as “gentleman’s club” that, until Pinkett’s arrival, was practically all white.  When Harold Pinkett first started at the National Archives, he had been assigned to a packing and shelving unit where he took records, placed them on to steel trays, made lists of the records, and then labeled the steel trays. This work appeared so mundane that it made Pinkett question his decision to work at the Archvies and whether or not he wished to remain there. Luckily, Pinkett did not have to do this work for long. Vacancies were appearing at higher levels and within two months he was interviewed by Theodore Schellenberg, Chief of the Agriculture Department, and promoted to the P1 level at the Archives. His promotion made headlines at the time and his appointment as a junior archvist was announced in several papers in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. Work in the Agriculture Department was much more enjoyable for Pinkett. Here, his duties consisted of mainly arrangement, descriptive, and reference work. He also helped develop finding aids for records dealing with Agricultural topics. 1943 was another eventful year for Pinkett. On April 24, 29143, he was married to Lucille Cannady who he had met while at Livingstone College. She was a high school teacher in North Carolina and, much like Pinkett, valued education as she was an honor graduate from Livingstone College. While the couple never had any children together, they remained together until Harold’s passing in 2001. She moved to Washington D.C. and settled into D.C. life, becoming known for her work in the Labor Department as a social science adviser. If an article of “Pearlie;s Prattle” is to be believed, she also became renowned among her neighbors for her remarkable cooking skills which she showed off at buffet parties the couple held. Later on in 1943, after having worked at the National Archives for over a year now, Harold Pinkett joined the Society of American Archivists (SAA), an organization he went on to spend much of his career with. Almost twenty years later, in 1962, Harold Pinkett was named the group’s first Black fellow for his significant contributions to the archival world. Six years later, he became the editor of the society’s publication, The American Archivist and in 1971, he was elected to their council. Needless to say, Pinkett spent many years with the organization and broke barrier within it. While 1943 brought much joy and success to Pinkett's life, it also brought him “the most fateful greeting” he had ever received, but something he foresaw coming. That fateful greeting came in the form of a draft notice, but with little choice in the matter, Pinkett reported for duty and was inducted into the U.S. Army on December 9, 1943. For the duration of his service, Pinkett felt that he had not been prepared for many of his duties. After drilling a squad for the first time, he wrote “I suspect with no little dread that I shall have more of this and other military duties for which I have no effective training.” However, he was assigned a familiar task at the beginning of his service when he was sent to a special training unit at Camp Holabird (later named Fort Holabird) as a teacher, training semi-literate Black soldiers how to read and write as well as math. Pinkett remained an instructor in this unit until early 1945, Pinkett when he and his fellow teachers were put on a ship to be sent to Europe, leaving the day after President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died. As Pinkett was getting close to the potential of seeing combat, breaking news came. Just a few days after landing in France, Nazi Germany had surrendered. However, Pinkett and his fellow soldiers were not out of the woods yet. War continued for the United States in the Pacific, meaning that Pinkett was once again put on to a ship headed to where the global conflict continued to rage on. En route, just days after crossing the Panama Canal, Pinkett was once again spared from combat as Japan had surrendered. Yet, soldiers were still needed to garrison and occupy parts of Asia, so Pinkett was sent to the Philippines where he became the Assistant Battalion Supply Sergeant and then promoted to Battalion Supply Sergeant after his Signal Corps unit was sent to Japan. By the end of his service in April 1946, Harold Pinkett was a technical sergeant with several commendations for his service. After a brief period of well deserved leave for his service, Pinkett returned to the National Archives. As promised, he was allowed to return to his duties without issue. Once a few months had passed, Pinkett was promoted to P2 and then in 1951 he was elevated to assistant chief of the Agriculture Section under Carl Kulsrud. This achievement and promotion to a supervisory position caused Pinkett to be highlighted in the local paper, particularly the Washington Afro-American, which touted that Pinkett was going to be responsible for around 60,000 cubic feet of records and supervising archivists in his section. Additionally, the Washington Afro-American lauded Pinkett’s other academic contributions including his participation in the SAA, American Historical Association, and Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History). This paper also reveals Pinkett was beginning to assist with record retention and disposal, determining which records were archived for future generations. It was around this time, specifically 1948, that Harold Pinkett decided to return to school to finish his studies for his doctorate, electing to attend American University and earning his PhD in 1953. His work at the National Archives actually inspired him, as it exposed him to what became his dissertation topic: Gifford Pinchot and his contributions to early conservation work in the United States. In 1957 it was published in the North Carolina Historical Review. Then, a decade later, it won the Agricultural History Society’s book of the year award in 1967. By 1970 it was picked up by the University of Illinois Press. The excellence of his work in highlighting a lesser known aspect of Gifford Pinchot and the recognition it received contributed greatly to Pinkett’s scholarly career. Combined with the influence he was gaining from his position in the Archives, Dr. Pinkett was becoming a recognizable figure among historians and archivists alike.  When the National Archives came under the General Services Administration (GSA) in 1949, there were fears that the Archives was going to shift away its historical and cultural mission toward a more service oriented one. While there was not much interference from the GSA initially, there was a gradual shift to an emphasis on service. The 1950s were relatively quiet in terms of Dr. Pinkett’s career in the Archives. With a change in policies, the focus of the Archives shifted to reference services to the point where, by 1952, the staff was devoting around half its time to providing reference services. During this time, Pinkett finished six preliminary inventories and outside of the Archives became an influential figure. In 1954, he was listed among attendees at a banquet that brought out “Washington’s best” in an article of “Pearlie’s Prattle.” He also was participating in other activities, among which was promoting Black history and encouraging Black employment in the Federal government. In 1959, he gave a talk during History Week for the Midway Civic Association on the increasing interest in Black history and the role of African American have played in public affairs, particularly the growing civil rights movement. A few months later, now the Chief of the Agriculture and General Services Branch after a successful application, he was interviewed by Edward Peeks of the Washington Afro-American where Pinkett promoted the idea of Federal employment for young people, including African Americans, citing that it offers them “greater opportunity than some of the traditional professions” and that “times are changing” for people of colors. Although, he admits that they may “have to have more on the ball” than their peers if they are to stand out and advance in their career, similar to how Pinkett had to work harder for his promotions. Pinkett himself had stated that his employment at the Archives was influenced by changes in policy and pressure on the Archives. Going back to early 1942, the Fair Employment Practices Committee began pushing Soloman Buck to hire a Black archivist. By April, Harold Pinkett was brought into the fold as a subprofessional and promoted to the professional level. However, that does not diminish Pinkett’s skills and abilities as an archivist, it simply meant he had to work harder than his white colleagues. When he was promoted to branch chief in 1959 following the retirement of Dr. Carl Kulsrud, there were doubts about where Pinkett would be promoted as it would have been the first time an African American would be in charge of a unit. Ultimately, he was selected for the promotion, but Pinkett felt that it “came somewhat more slowly than it normally,” should have. The increased effort that Pinkett had to put into his promotions became apparent in the 1960s. Just three years into Dr. Pinkett’s tenure as branch chief, in 1962, the National Archives underwent another large restructuring that dismantled the section he had been heading. Pinkett was moved to a newly created office called the Office of Records Appraisal where he was tasked with creating retention plans for the Agriculture Department. By the mid-1960s, many of the employees of the Archives who were considered part of the “first generation” began to retire, leaving available offices that could be filled by people like Harold Pinkett. T.R. Schellenburg, head of the Office of Records Appraisal, left the Archives Pinkett and was replaced by Lewis Darter, who also retired after a few years. Pinkett had applied to fill the vacancy and, by his account, was the most qualified of the applicants and the only one with a PhD. Indeed, even E. Franklin Jameson of the National Democratic Committee commented that had Pinkett been anything “other than Negro, he would have been promoted faster,” in the Archives. Pinkett also agreed with this sentiment years after his retirement. In an interview in 1985, he noted that he did not advance as far as he wanted to or could have had he “not been black,” although he had no resentment over this fact and instead took it as a sign that there were still barriers to be broken in the fight for equality. 
Pinkett lost his bid for promotion to Meyer Fishbein due to the latter’s proclaimed computer experience, a developing technology at the time, but Pinkett was granted what he referred to as a “consolation prize.” On top of being the Assistant or Deputy Director of the Records Appraisal Division, he was also made editor of the American Archivist in 1968. This was the SAA’s publication in which Pinkett had already written for and this position gave him a window into the affairs of the SAA council. Additionally, this editorship allowed him to more overtly blend the roles of historian and archivist, something he had already been doing and was immensely proud of during his career. Despite seeing the post as consolation, he came to enjoy it and was reluctant to let it go when he was promoted to the role of Division Chief of the Social and Economics Records Division in 1971. The official reason that Pinkett was given for having to give up his editorship was that his superiors feared he would be unable to perform both his new duties and that of editor. However, Pinkett suspects that the Archives wished to present the role of editor to another individual who they wished to coax into coming to Washington. Regardless of the true reason, Pinkett took the new position. As Chief of the Social and Economic Records Division, Pinkett was at the helm of one of the Archive’s largest collections, managing what Pinkett estimated to be about 200,000 cubic feet of records. By this point, he had written at least eight preliminary inventories, more than most of his colleagues had completed at this level, and still held a strong interest in description work. As such, he guided the branch toward the completion of more descriptive work as much as he was able to. This continued until Pinkett decided it was time to retire in 1979. Pinkett’s choice to retire at the age of 65 was largely voluntary, but influenced by several factors within the National Archives. First, Pinkett felt that he “accomplished perhaps as much professionally” as he was able to and had not been promoted in quite sometime, despite his significant contributions and stellar reputation at the Archives. Additionally, the policy shift under the GSA was starting to be more greatly felt. To Pinkett’s displeasure, the National Archives had become more concerned with the quantity of their services over quality, scholarship and work. There was also a push to concentrate on managerial matters, with Pinkett’s superiors wishing that the heads of units would focus more on writing reports and managing their subordinates over efforts to “make records more readily available for research.” With the lack of advancement and the shift in the National Archives’ objectives, Dr. Harold Pinkett felt comfortable parting ways with the organization he had dedicated nearly 40 years of his life to. Despite his retirement from the National Archives, Pinkett remained an active and respected figure in the scholarly world. In fact, leaving the National Archives allowed Pinkett to focus more on scholarly and professional pursuits. His involvement in the SAA carried on into his retirement and to honor his legacy and contributions, the society renamed their award for minority graduate students after Harold T. Pinket in 1999. This award continues to recognize students with shining scholastic and personal achievement and a promising future in the archival world. Pinkett also continued to be a prolific writer, publishing over 60 works and a sizeable amount of books as well. On top of his writing, Harold Pinkett also kept advocating the research of Black history and heritage, carrying on his search for records that scholars like himself could use to shed light on America’s Black history. In a similar fashion, he also assisted with the preservation of Black history by assisting several Black institutions with their own archives. In 1980, Harold Pinkett assisted Howard University when the university started its own archive. Additionally, he served as a consultant for other Black organizations that sought his expertise. Just as Pinkett had picked up his pen in 1932 to describe the Afro-American as the crusader fighting for equality, Harold too used his pens to put these words into practice. His scholarship earned him respect in a world that, more often than not, was dominated by white male society. He wielded this respect not just to advance his own scholastic career, but to also open the door for future black scholars, archivists, and professionals in other fields. Just a few years after Pinkett’s retirement, in 1981, James Moore was elevated to Assistant Archivist of the United States, a massive advancement for African Americans within the National Archives. Pinkett’s legacy of preserving and writing about American history and breaking barriers in Black scholarship will be and has to be remembered.  Harold and Lucille Pinkett attended Lyndon B. Johnson's inauguration in 1965.
Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
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