Dr. Melvin Drimmer (1935-1992) was a professor of Black and African history at Cleveland State University (CSU) in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1972-1992. Drimmer was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of City College of New York and earned his doctorate in history from the University of Rochester.
Drimmer's first teaching position was at Hunter College in New York in 1960. Following that, he was the first person to teach Black History at Spelman College, a prestigious women's school in Atlanta, Georgia. A passionate civil rights advocate and specialist in Black-Jewish relations, Drimmer was arrested in 1964 for his participation in a civil rights demonstration in Atlanta. He taught at Spelman College until 1972, when he was hired as CSU's history department chairman. At CSU, Drimmer also served as the academic adviser to the CSU basketball team and was the local liaison for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with CSU.
In each class Drimmer taught at CSU, he assigned his students a family history paper, which was intended to provide not only a family tree, but also a socio-economic history of each family.
During his years at Spelman and CSU, Drimmer traveled to Africa over twenty times as director of the American Forum for International Study. He also published numerous articles and books, including
Drimmer died in 1992 while still teaching at Cleveland State University. Following his death, the Cleveland chapter of the NAACP honored him with a ceremony.
The Melvin Drimmer Family History Research Papers, 1977-1998 and undated, consist of correspondence, syllabi, classroom materials, and student-written essays.
This collection is of particular value to those studying genealogy of families in Cleveland and northeast Ohio, as each family history paper details the family tree of the author. The collection is also useful for those studying the immigrant experience, particularly of those immigrating to the Cleveland area. Personal narratives of the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and other historical events may provide valuable information regarding the social and economic history of Cleveland. The large collection of African-American family history papers may be of use to those studying the experience of slaves and former slaves, as well as the experience of those who migrated north in the Great Migration to the Cleveland area.
This collection has been retained in original order and is arranged in two series.
Processing of this collection was made possible by a gift from Gina Hamister. Processed by Jessica Marra in 2014.
Access to this collection is restricted. Consult the WRHS Curator of Manuscripts for details.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5230 Melvin Drimmer Family History Research Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Julian Madison in 2000.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.