Gift of Marjorie Content Toomer, 1980, and transferred to Yale University from John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, Fisk University between 1985 to 1988, and in 2022. See Custodial History note for additional information., The Toomer Papers were deposited at Fisk University in 1962 and stewarded by Fisk University Library until 1980 when Marjorie Content Toomer signed a deed of gift donating the papers to Yale University. In 1982, Yale University sued Fisk University for possession of the papers in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The case was heard at trial in 1985, and the court ruled in favor of Yale. The Sixth Circuit Appeals Court upheld the decision the next year. The original decision was published as Yale University v. Fisk University, 660 F. Supp. 16 (U.S. Dist. 1985). The Toomer papers were subsequently transferred to Yale University from John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, Fisk University between 1985 to 1988, and in 2022.
Permission from the Yale University Committee on Literary Property is required to publish Jean Toomer materials in any format. To learn more, contact the Curator, Yale Collection of American Literature.
Citation
Jean Toomer Papers. James Weldon Johnson Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.