DeWayne Wickham Collection
The Enoch Pratt Free Library is proud to host the DeWayne Wickham Collection, which reflects his career as a journalist, author, educator, and public figure.
Wickham's Career
The DeWayne Wickham collection reflects DeWayne Wickham’s career as a journalist, author, educator, and public figure. The collection includes manuscripts, research files, interviews, working drafts, correspondence, ephemera, pamphlets, and images. Wickham’s journalism career spans from the 1970s–2010s. In that time, Wickham wrote for The Baltimore Evening Sun, U.S. News and World Report, USA Today, and other publications. He also served as a talk show host for WBAL-TV from 1976 to 1989.
In 1995, Wickham led the first delegation of Black columnists to the White House for a meeting with United States President Bill Clinton, and he led the group back for another lengthy session in 1997. In 2015, he and other Black journalists joined President Barack Obama aboard Air Force One to commemorate the 50th anniversary of marching for voting rights. Wickham was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and The Trotter Group, and he served as a distinguished professor at different universities.
Wickham is the author of several books including Woodholme: A Black Man’s Story of Growing Up Alone (1995) and Bill Clinton and Black America (2002).
The Collection
Mr. Wickham’s collection came to the Enoch Pratt Free Library in the 2010s through a collaboration with the African American Department and Special Collections. The Wickham collection further connects DeWayne Wickham’s journalistic legacy to his hometown of Baltimore, and it provides researchers with an invaluable resource of materials related to journalism in Maryland and African American journalism studies. The Special Collections Department continues to receive materials from Mr. Wickham, and this collection will grow.
Download the Finding Guide for the DeWayne Wickham collection (PDF)
Access the Collection
The Special Collections department is a non-circulating, closed stack area of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, but visitors and researchers are welcome during all open hours. For research purposes appointments are strongly recommended, and are available by request during the Central Library’s hours. To schedule an appointment call (443) 984-2451 or send an email to spc@prattlibrary.org.
Interested in visiting the Department? Read more about planning a visit and using the collections. The Department also offers photocopying and scanning services.
Online Access
Select items from the DeWayne Collection are available online in Digital Maryland's DeWayne Wickham Digital Collection. You can also use your library card to access free online research databases, such as Maryland newspaper archives.
Digital Maryland
Digital Maryland is a collaborative, statewide program facilitating the digitization, digital preservation, and access to historical and cultural documents, images, audio, and video that record Maryland’s history.
African American Department
The African American Department is an in-depth historical and contemporary collection of fiction and nonfiction resources pertaining to the history and culture of African Americans.