Overview
The Ragan Henry letters to Joseph LeVow Steinberg, dating from 1953 to 1959, provide insight into the life and experiences of a Black Harvard student and cross-racial friendships. Topics discussed within the letters include work, dating, family, recreation, military service, and law school.
Dates
- Creation: 1953-1959
Creator
- Henry, Ragan, 1934-2008 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The Ragan Henry letters to Joseph LeVow Steinberg are open for research.
Extent
0.17 cubic feet (1 half document box)This collection contains six letters from Ragan Henry to his friend Joseph LeVow Steinberg. The letters offer insight into the life and experiences of a Black Harvard student and cross-racial friendships. Two letters are dated June 1953 and were written in Hamilton, Ohio. In these letters Henry discusses his efforts to find work, including his difficulties finding employment as an African American; working in a factory, recreation, dating, living in a small town, and registering at the local draft board.
The other four letters date between 1958 and 1959, after Henry’s marriage to Helen Smith. In 1958 Henry discusses his service as an instructor in the United States Army stationed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, a concert at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein, books he’s reading, and the New York gubernatorial election. He also provides updates on his wife’s pregnancy. In 1959 Ragan describes balancing his time between work and law school. He discusses working at New England Baptist Hospital, the birth of his first child, and serving in the active military reserve. He also comments on the teaching abilities of Harvard Law School professors Arthur E. Sutherland, Robert Braucher, and Donald F. Turner. Interested in politics, Ragan discusses the 1959 Boston mayoral election between John F. Collins and John E. Powers.
Throughout the letters Ragan references former Harvard classmates Howard Muson, Daniel Rezneck, Charles Edson, Al Ganz, and Stephen Hochhauser.
Biographical Note on Ragan Henry
Lawyer and broadcast entrepreneur Ragan Henry was the first African American to own a network-affiliated television station, purchasing WHEC in Rochester, New York in 1979. Throughout his career he was a successful media executive who profited from buying and selling broadcast stations. Born in 1934 to Augustus Wilson and Ruby Helen Henry in Sadiesville, Kentucky, Henry received an AB from Harvard College in 1956. As an undergraduate, he was captain of the 1955-1956 junior varsity football team and a member of the Phillips Brooks House Association. He was friends and roommates with Joseph LeVow Steinberg. After graduating Henry served in the United States Army. He went on to receive an LLB from Harvard Law School in 1961 and was a partner at the firm Wolf, Block, Schorr, and Solis-Cohen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Henry initially viewed broadcasting as an off-hand way to invest the money he earned as a lawyer. He started his own business in 1978, Broadcast Enterprises Network Inc., which became the largest Black broadcasting group in the United States. By 1990 he owned more than 60 broadcast stations across the United States. Henry married Helen Smith in 1958 (divorced 1980) and Regina Amanda Godwin in 1980. Henry died on July 26, 2008.
Biographical Note on Joseph LeVow Steinberg
Lawyer Joseph LeVow Steinberg was born in 1934 to Orvin and Lita Steinberg in Passaic, New Jersey. He received an AB from Harvard College in 1956. As an undergraduate he was a member of the Kirkland House basketball team, the Phillips Brooks House Association, the WHRB student radio station, and the Young Democratic Club (Treasurer, Vice President). After receiving an LLB from Harvard Law School in 1959, he briefly served in the United States National Guard. In 1960, he returned from Fort Gordon, Georgia, to practice law at Lowenstein and Spicer in Newark, New Jersey. He married Vivian Tomich in 1961.
Steinberg is currently an attorney at Lowenstein, Sandler, Brochin, Kohl, Fisher and Boylan, P.C. in Roseland, New Jersey where he specializes in real estate.
Arrangement
The letters are arranged in chronological order.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Joseph LeVow Steinberg, November 2017; accession 2019.219.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Jehan Sinclair in June 2019. Folder titles were devised by the archivist.
Creator
- Henry, Ragan, 1934-2008 (Person)
- Title
- Henry, Ragan, 1934-2008. Ragan Henry letters to Joseph LeVow Steinberg, 1953, 1958-1959: an inventory
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua12019
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
Pusey Library
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Cambridge MA 02138 USA
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