Joan Bacchus Maynard (née Cooper; August 29, 1928 − January 22, 2006) was an American artist, author, community organizer, and preservationist. She was one of the founding members of a late 1960s grassroots group to preserve the legacy of Weeksville, a pre-Civil War

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

community in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

Early life

Maynard was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. She attended Bishop McDonnell Memorial High. Her father was John W. Cooper, a

ventriloquist Ventriloquism or ventriloquy is an act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) speaks in such a way that it seems like their voice is coming from a different location, usually through a puppet known as a "dummy". The act of ventrilo ...

. Her mother, Julia St. Bernard, was from the Caribbean island of

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

. She received a scholarship to attend the Art Career School in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. She graduated from

Empire State College Empire State University (SUNY Empire) is a public university headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Empire State University is a multi-site institution offering associate degre ...

. She was a Revson Fellow at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Career

Maynard was a cover artist for ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly M ...

'' magazine, the official magazine of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

Bank Street College of Education Bank Street College of Education is a private school and graduate school in New York City. It consists of a graduate-only teacher training college and an independent nursery-through-8th-grade school. In 2020 the graduate school had about 65 ful ...

. In 1966, Maynard (as Joan Bacchus) was a writer and artist for the '' Golden Legacy'' comic series started by Bertram Fitzgerald. She worked with

Tom Feelings Tom Feelings (May 19, 1933 – August 25, 2003) was an artist, cartoonist, children's book illustrator, author, teacher, and activist. He focused on the African-American experience in his work. His most famous book is ''The Middle Passage: White S ...

on the ''Saga of Harriet Tubman'' volume. She also wrote and pencilled issues about

Matthew Henson Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years. They spent a total of 18 years on expeditions together.

Joseph Cinqué Sengbe Pieh (), also known as Joseph Cinqué or Cinquez and sometimes referred to mononymously as Cinqué, was a West African man of the Mende people who led a revolt of many Africans on the Spanish slave ship '' La Amistad'' in July 1839. After ...

, and ''

La Amistad ''La Amistad'' (; Spanish for ''The Friendship'') was a 19th-century two-masted schooner owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives who had been captured and sold to European slav ...

'' mutiny.

Weeksville

Weeksville was a community of escaped slaves and free blacks which was founded in the 1830s. The free blacks owned property, which made black males eligible to vote. The community lasted for nearly a century. Members of the founding grassroots preservation group were Maynard, James Hurley, Dewey Harley, Dolores McCullough, and Patricia Johnson. Maynard later became the director of the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford Stuyvesant. It later became

Weeksville Heritage Center The Weeksville Heritage Center is a historic site on Buffalo Avenue between St. Marks Avenue and Bergen Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. It is dedicated to the preservation of Weeksville, one of America's first free black commun ...

. She was involved in the preservation of Weeksville for over 25 years, to restore the legacy which was missing from maps of the area. Maynard and Gwen Cottman co-authored and published ''Weeksville, Then & Now: The Search to Discover, the Effort to Preserve, Memories of Self in Brooklyn, New York''. From 1972 to 1974, Maynard was President of the Society of the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford Stuyvesant. From 1974 to 1999, she was Executive Director of the Weeksville Heritage Society. In October 2017, Brooklyn City Councilman

Robert Cornegy Robert E. Cornegy Jr. (born September 24, 1965) is an American politician. He is a former New York City Council Member for the 36th district, representing Bedford-Stuyvesant and northern Crown Heights in Brooklyn. A Democrat, he was an unsucc ...

and Weeksville trustees named a block of Buffalo Avenue in honor the legacy of Maynard.

Awards

Maynard received a Louise DuPont Crowninshield Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Bank Street College of Education.

References

External links

African American Legends: Joan Maynard, Society for the Preservation of WeeksvilleAfrican American Legends, High Lights Joan Maynard/Weeksville SocietyA Day in Weeksville: Brooklyn's Historic, Free Black Town
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard, Joan 1928 births 2006 deaths People from Brooklyn American education activists American community activists African Americans in New York City Community organizing Empire State University alumni American female comics artists African-American comics artists 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people African-American women activists American women activists