Wendell L. Wray

Wendell L. Wray (January 30, 1926 – August 24, 2003) was an American librarian and educator who was dedicated to preserving African-American history through oral history. He was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh from 1973 to 1988, with a break from 1981 to 1983 while he served as the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Early life and education Wendell Leonard Wray was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 30, 1926. He grew up in the Beltzhoover neighborhood of Pittsburgh and attended South Hills High School. He served in the U.S. Army and received an honorable discharge in 1946. He directed the NYPL North Manhattan Library Project when it began in 1965 until 1973; the program provided financial support for additional staff and programming to better serve disadvantaged communities.

Alex Haley, author of Roots, encouraged and financially supported Wray to study at the Columbia University's new oral history course in the summer of 1973. Wray was criticized for hiring Robert C. Morris to be the head of the Center's rare books, manuscripts and archives; activists protested the hiring of a white man to be the head archivist. He resigned in March 1983. He lived in Oakland until his death on August 24, 2003, in San Francisco.