James T. Haley

James T. Haley was an American writer, editor, and publisher. His Afro-American Encyclopaedia is an encyclopedia for and about African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was among the first works documenting African American history in encyclopedic form.

Afro-American Encyclopaedia


Haley's Afro-American Encyclopaedia is now regarded as a "classic historical encyclopedia". Illustrated throughout, the encyclopedia was first published in Nashville, Tennessee by Haley & Florida. The encyclopedia included images of Sissieretta Jones, Mary Rice Phelps, and Clarissa Thompson, as well as buildings such as Dr. Robert Fulton Boyd's residence in Nashville and Preston Taylor's residence. Booker T. Washington and Rev. George Washington Dupree, a preacher, also appear in the encyclopedia.

Other works
His other works include Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading, a compendium of talks and essays. The book "emphasize[d] a sense of community through point-counterpoints on language used by the African American community and editorials describing successful African Americans."

Haley later set up his own publishing company, J. T. Haley Publishing Co., and self-published his work thereafter. The publication of Sparkling Gems may have been arranged to coincide with the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition.

Mary A. McCurdy contributed an introduction and essays to Haley's works. Sparkling Gems includes an image of restaurateur and hotelier Georgia Gordon Taylor. Haley published William Councill's illustrated cultural history book Lamp of Wisdom; or Race History Illustrated in 1898.