Harold T. Pinkett

Harold Thomas Pinkett (April 7, 1914 – March 13, 2001) was an African-American archivist and historian. In 1942, he became the first African-American archivist employed at the National Archives of the United States. He was also the first African-American to become a fellow of the Society of American Archivists and to be editor of the journal The American Archivist. He was an expert in agricultural archives, and served as president of the Agricultural History Society.

Personal life

Ancestry Pinkett's ancestors were free blacks in Maryland as early as 1820, including Pinkett's great-grandfather, Denard Pinkett.

Pinkett wanted to pursue a graduate education in history, but the University of Maryland was still segregated. So in the fall of 1935, Pinkett began his graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania.

As he began work with the Archives, he noticed that he was the only African American doing professional or clerical work: all other black workers were employed as laborers, messengers, custodians and elevator operators. Pinkett was named a Fellow of the Forest History Society in 1975, the Society's highest honor.

He also taught at Howard University from 1970 to 1976 and at American University from 1976 to 1977. He died on March 31, 2001, just shy of his 87th birthday. He left open more doors for his predecessors than he had when he began archival work over 60 years earlier. Archivist Wilda Logan called him "the Martin Luther King, Jr. of archivists," and he is considered the father of African American archivists and archival work.