[2] Denard worked as a free laborer on a slaveowner's farm in Somerset County and later married one of his slaves, Mary, with whom he had twelve children.
Harold's father, Levin Wilson Pinkett, lacked a formal education and worked as a custodian and gardener.
As a boy, Pinkett was a newsboy for the Afro-American and also distributed issues of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People's The Crisis.
[2] He was able to garner a Maryland state scholarship to pay for his tuition and he waited tables each summer to cover his rent.
While at Morgan, he pledged to Omega Psi Phi, Zeta Sigma Pi and Alpha Kappa Mu.
[2] He lived with family nearby to save money and also worked for the New Deal's National Youth Administration as a social investigator in the Public Defender's Office.
From 1940 to 1941, he was a faculty member at Florida Normal and Technical Institute in St. Augustine and taught history, government and geography.
His dissertation was entitled “Gifford Pinchot and the Early Conservation Movement in the United States," which went on to be published by the University of Illinois Press and won the Agricultural History Society's book of the year award in 1968.
"[2] Only Dwight Hillis Wilson and Roland C. McConnell followed Pinkett into professional careers at the Archives, and they were both only there temporarily due to the war.
He was inducted on December 9 and served in Maryland, Massachusetts, France, Belgium, and Japan in teaching and administration positions.
"[2] He also continued to write while in service, for both academia and popular consumption, on topics such as race, war, the media's portrayal of African Americans, segregation and history.
[2] He also completed six inventories for the National Archives and continued to advocate for the research uses of oral history and film.
In his tenure at the Archives, he assisted scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Merle Curti, Samuel P. Hays, Donald C. Swain, Roderick Nash, and James Harvey Young.
From 1970 to 1972, Pinkett also served as a member on the editorial board of the new Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, as well as contributing articles.
[2] In 1970, he served as co-director of the National Archives Conference on Research in the Administration of Public Policy to encourage the collaboration of archivists and historians.
The Civil Rights Movement continued to grow and Pinkett shared the goals of younger advocates, but with different means.
In addition to his participation in the Civil Rights Movement, he was also deeply involved with the Society of American Archivists.
As Alex H. Poole explains, "many younger members viewed SAA as sexist, elitist and homogenous: they lobbied for diversity in the profession as well as in collections.
[2] At the end of the 1970s, Pinkett saw a decrease in professionalism and scholarly investment at the National Archives and chose to retire.
[2] Pinkett later said he was "not bitter" about his lack of progression at the Archives, although he worked harder than non-black employees who received recognition and promotion.
As fellow archivist Wilda Logan said, Pinkett “probably had to walk on water twice” to achieve his professional positions.
In 1980, he helped Howard University establish its University Archives and worked as an archival consultant for African American organizations such as the National Business League (1981, 1983), the United Negro College Fund (1982, 1984), the National Urban League (1982), The Links, Inc. (1986), and the NAACP (1986–1987).