National Archivist

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Pinkett continued his career of teaching at institutions of higher learning including Livingston College and Florida Normal College.  It was during this tenure when Pinkett wrote his first publication titled, "Report to Annex Santo Domingo to the United States 1866-1871" in the Journal of Negro History in 1941.  

In response, A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and other Black leaders, met with Eleanor Roosevelt and members of the President’s cabinet. Randolph presented a list of grievances regarding the civil rights of African Americans, demanding that an executive order be issued to stop job discrimination in the defense industry. Randolph, with others, threatened "ten, twenty, fifty thousand Negroes on the White House lawn"  if their demands were not met.

In reaction to the fear thousands of African Americans marching on the nation’s capitol, and after consultation with his advisers, President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the Black leaders and issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25th. To investigate “complaints of discrimination in violation of the provisions of this order” Executive Order 8802 established the “Committee on Fair Employment Practice.” 

In a book review written by Pinkett on journalist Carey McWilliams Brothers under the Skin, he praised the book as a "forceful, fearless, and highly in- formative summary of past and present discriminations against colored groups in this country. It teems with facts and refutes many notions which have made these groups victims of race  prejudice. However, perhaps its chief merit lies in the manner in which it shows the relation of the various minority problems to each other."

When Pinkett began working on his doctorate at American University in 1948, he focused on his works on Pinchot and his contributions to the early Conservation Movement in America.  After graduating with his PhD in history and archival administration in 1953, Pinkett published his dissertation, “Gifford Pinchot and the Early Conservation Movement in the United States,” as Gifford Pinchot: Private and Public Forester; it earned the Agricultural History Society’s 1967 book of the year award. 

Pinkett would continue his affinity for forestry and conversation by joining the Agricultural History Society where he served on the Executive Committee (1972-1975) and editorial board (1977-1979).  Pinkett was also active in the Forest History Society where he served on the board of directors from 1971-1991 and organization's president between 1976 and 1978.  

Pinkett would retire from The National Archives in 1979, but continued to make contributions in the archival by helping Howard University establish its University Archives and serve as an archival consultant for several prominent African American organizations such as the NAACP, the National Urban League, and the United Negro College Fund.