Brenda Ray Moryck Explained

Brenda Ray Moryck
Other Names:Brenda Moryck Francke (after 1930)
Birth Date:13 June 1892
Birth Place:Newark, New Jersey, US
Death Date:[1]
Death Place:Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Occupation:Writer, teacher

Brenda (Estelle) Ray Moryck (1892-1945) was an American writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

Early life and education

Brenda Ray Moryck was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1892,[2] [3] the daughter of John W. Moryck and Sarah Rose Ray Moryck. Her father owned a saloon and her mother was an educator and clubwoman.[4] [5] [6] Though Brenda wrote that her great-grandfather was Charles Bennet Ray, her mother's death record gives Adam Ray and Sarah Closson as Brenda's maternal grandparents.[7] [8] [9] Multiple records for Adam Ray state that his father was Adam Ray Sr., not Charles Ray.[10] [11] [12]

William Ashby wrote, "John Moryck [had] a saloon on Academy Street. He lived on Kearney Street. Moryck had an unusual daughter, Brenda. She graduated from Barringer High School, and won a scholarship at Wellsley College, certainly the first Negro girl from Newark to attend a prestigious white school."

Moryck completed a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 1916, the only black graduate in her class.[13] She earned a master's degree in English literature from Howard University in 1926.[14] Moryck was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and was active in the Tau Omega chapter.

Career

Moryck worked for the Newark Bureau of Charities after college, and taught physical culture at a technical school in Bordentown.[15] [16] She taught English and drama at Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington, D.C. during the 1920s.[17] She wrote essays and stories published in The Crisis, Opportunity, and other national periodicals and newspapers.[18] [19] [20] She was also a drama critic for the New York Age,[21] and wrote at least one play, The Christmas Spirit, performed at Armstrong high school in 1927. She was active in the National Urban League, the Harlem YWCA,[22] and the NAACP in New York. She was also an avid golfer.[23]

Moryck's writings are associated with the Harlem Renaissance[24] [25] and have been included in several recent anthologies, among them The new Negro: Readings on race, representation, and African American culture, 1892-1938 (2007), edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Gene Andrew Garrett,[26] Double-take: A revisionist Harlem Renaissance anthology (2001), edited by Venetria K. Patton and Maureen Honey, Harlem's Glory: Black women writing, 1900-1950 (1996), edited by Lorraine Elena Roses and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph,[27] and Speech & power: The African-American essay and its cultural content, from polemics to pulpit (1992). edited by Gerald Early.[28] She had an unpublished novel in manuscript at the time of her death.

Personal life

Moryck married twice. Her first husband was Lucius Lee Jordan; they married in 1917 and he died before their first anniversary. She married Robert Beale Francke in 1930. She had a daughter, Elizabeth (Betty) Osborne Francke,[29] and a foster daughter, Julia Wormley.[30] [31] She died in 1945, in Massachusetts.[32] [33] [34] She had been scheduled to meet up with her daughter who was in boarding school in Albany, New York.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Jan 24, 1942 . Mrs. John W Moryck Dies Here In 80th Year; Of Old Family . New York Age .
  2. Web site: New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980 . FamilySearch.
  3. Web site: Williams. Noelle Lorraine. 2020-09-14. The Incredible Legacy of Newark's Black Women Activists. live. 2021-03-01. Zócalo Public Square. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20200922051400/https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/09/14/black-women-activists-artists-leadership-newark-new-jersey-archival-records/ideas/essay/ . 2020-09-22 .
  4. Book: Ashby, William M. (William Mobile) . Reflections on the Life of Negroes in Newark . 1972-02-16.
  5. News: 1942-01-24. Mrs. John W. Moryck Dies Here in 80th Year; Of Old Family. 4. The New York Age. 2021-03-01. Newspapers.com.
  6. June 1926. Our Prize Winners and What they Say of Themselves. Opportunity. 4. 189.
  7. Web site: "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", database, FamilySearch . .
  8. Web site: D-M-1942-0001580 . Historical Vital Records The New York City Municipal Archives.
  9. Book: Roses . Lorraine Elena . Harlem : renaissance and beyond : literary biographies of 100 black women writers, 1900-1945 . Randolph . Ruth Elizabeth . 1990 . Boston, Mass. . G.K. Hall . 978-0-8161-8926-7.
  10. Web site: Adam Ray Jr. . New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949.
  11. Web site: New Jersey, Marriages, 1670-1980 . FamilySearch.
  12. Web site: New Jersey Marriages, 1678-1985 . FamilySearch.
  13. July 1916. Our Graduates. The Crisis. 121.
  14. Web site: February 28, 2020. Wellesley Celebrates the Legacy of Some of Its Earliest Black Students During Black History Month. live. 2021-03-01. Wellesley College. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20200926083650/https://www.wellesley.edu/news/2020/stories/node/173916 . 2020-09-26 .
  15. News: 1917-06-07. Bordentown Industrial. 7. The New York Age. 2021-03-01. Newspapers.com.
  16. News: 1917-06-01. 12 Graduate from Industrial School. 7. Trenton Evening Times. 2021-03-02. Newspapers.com.
  17. News: 1927-03-15. School Orators Reach Semi-Finals. 45. Evening Star. 2021-03-01. Newspapers.com.
  18. Book: "Girl, colored" and other stories : a complete short fiction anthology of African American women writers in the Crisis magazine, 1910-2010. 2011. McFarland & Co. Judith Musser. 978-0-7864-4606-3. Jefferson, N.C.. 630498177.
  19. Book: Opportunity reader : stories, poetry, and essays from the Urban League's Opportunity magazine. 1999. Modern Library. Sondra K. Wilson, National Urban League. 0-375-75379-6. New York. 41889049.
  20. Austin. Addell P.. 1988. The "Opportunity" and "Crisis" Literary Contests, 1924-27. CLA Journal. 32. 2. 235–246. 44322018. 0007-8549.
  21. News: 1931-05-02. Harlem Experimental Theatre Gives 3 Plays. 6. The New York Age. 2021-03-02. Newspapers.com.
  22. News: 1929-03-16. Rabbi Lyons to Speak at Brooklyn Y.W.C.A.. 2. The New York Age. 2021-03-01. Newspapers.com.
  23. Book: McDaniel, Pete. Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story of African-Americans in Golf. 2000. American Golfer. 978-1-888531-36-7. 50. en.
  24. Book: Black women of the Harlem Renaissance era. 2014. Lean'tin L. Bracks, Jessie Carney Smith. 978-0-8108-8543-1. Lanham. 894554745.
  25. Caughie. Pamela L.. September 2012. "The best people": The Making of the Black Bourgeoisie in Writings of the Negro Renaissance. Modernism/Modernity. 20. 3. 519–537. 10.1353/mod.2013.0064. 144761198 .
  26. Book: Gates. Henry Louis. The new Negro: readings on race, representation, and African American culture, 1892-1938. Jarrett. Gene Andrew. 2007. Princeton University Press. Princeton, N.J.. English. 608490813.
  27. Book: Roses. Lorraine Elena. Harlem's glory : Black women writing, 1900-1950. Randolph. Ruth Elizabeth. 1996. Cambridge, Mass. . Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-37269-6.
  28. Book: Speech & power : the African-American essay and its cultural content, from polemics to pulpit. 1992. Hopewell, NJ . Ecco Press. 978-0-88001-264-5.
  29. https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b094-i417 Letter from Brenda Moryck Francke to W. E. B. Du Bois
  30. News: 1930-04-12. C. C. S. Girls Meet in Staten Island. 2. The New York Age. 2021-03-02. Newspapers.com.
  31. Web site: United States Census, 1930 . FamilySearch.
  32. News: 1945-12-12 . Summer Resident of Stockbridge Dies in Hospital . 24 . The Berkshire County Eagle . 2023-09-23.
  33. Web site: 2020-03-28 . Records of Evergreen Cemetery (by email correspondence to Noelle Lorraine Williams) . 2023-09-23 . Evergreen Cemetery Hillside, New Jersey 07205 . en-US.
  34. News: December 15, 1945 . Brenda M. Francke Noted School Teacher Dies From Pneumonia . 4 . New York Age .

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