LOMAX, ALMENA.
Almena Lomax papers, 1942-2014

Restrictions on Access

Series 5: Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance for access to unprocessed born digital materials in this collection. Collection restrictions, copyright limitations, or technical complications may hinder the Rose Library's ability to provide access to unprocessed born digital materials.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Separated Material

In Emory's holdings are some complete issues of The Los Angeles Tribune and The Tribune formerly owned by Almena Lomax. These materials may be located in the Emory University online catalog by searching Lomax, Almena, former owner.

Source

Gift, 2008 with subsequent additions.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Almena Lomax papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Rebecca Sherman, March 2014.

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Biographical Note

Hallie Almena Davis Lomax was born in Galveston, Texas, on July 23, 1915, the daughter of Clifford and Geneva Davis. As a child Lomax lived in Chicago before her family settled in Los Angeles, where she graduated from Jordan High School in Watts. She briefly studied journalism at Los Angeles City College.

From 1935-1941 Lomax worked as a journalist for the California Eagle, an African American newspaper in Los Angeles under the editorship of Charlotta Bass. In 1941 Lomax founded the Los Angeles Tribune, a weekly newspaper of which she served as editor and chief writer. In 1943 Lucius W. Lomax, Jr. became the publisher and financier for the Tribune. Almena and Lucius married in 1949 and divorced in 1957. Together they had six children: Michele, Michael, Melanie, Mia, Mark, and Lucius W. Lomax, IV.

In the late 1950s Lomax became active in the Civil Rights Movement and traveled to the South as a reporter for the Los Angeles Tribune. She covered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, during which time she met Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1960 she ceased publishing the Los Angeles Tribune, and the following year Lomax and her children moved to Tuskegee, Alabama, for six months to cover the civil rights movement. Lomax, along with some of her children, made several more trips to the South over the next few years.

Throughout the 1960s Lomax worked as a freelance journalist, publishing articles in several major publications, including The Nation. She briefly published another newspaper, also called The Tribune, in 1964 and 1965, first out of Tuskegee, Alabama, and then out of Los Angeles. During the 1970s Lomax sought employment with mainstream newspapers, working for a time for the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. In 1972 she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that the Los Angeles Times had practiced racial discrimination in hiring when the newspaper refused to hire her. Lomax later filed a class action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Times in 1977.

In addition to being a journalist, Lomax also wrote fiction. Her body of work includes numerous short stories and novellas. She also authored three unpublished novels, one of which, The Women of Montgomery, was a fictionalized account of her own life story and involvement in the civil rights movement. Lomax died on March 25, 2011, in Pasadena, California.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of Almena Davis Lomax from 1942-2011 and includes personal papers, writings, printed material, and born digital material. The materials document Lomax's work as a journalist, newspaper publisher, civil rights activist, and fiction writer.

Personal papers include personal and editorial correspondence, as well as a few photographs. There are also materials pertaining to a racial discrimination complaint filed by Lomax with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against the Los Angeles Times in 1972, as well as the subsequent U.S. District Court case. Writings contain typescript drafts of published and unpublished articles, short stories, and book-length works. These works include two novels, The Ten Most Wanted White Men and Masters and Sons, the latter of which was inspired by the history of Lucius W. Lomax, Jr.'s family in Texas. Writings also include a novelized account of Lomax's life entitled The Women of Montgomery. Printed material contains issues and clippings from the Los Angeles Tribune and The Tribune. Audiovisual material consists of sound recordings of oral history interviews with Wright. Audiovisual material consists of sound recordings of oral history interviews with Wright. Born digital materials consist of unprocessed floppy disks.

Arrangement Note

Organized into five series: (1) Personal papers, (2) Writings, (3) Printed material, and (4) Audiovisual material and (5) Born digital material.