Primary Sources Access – Foundation (Plan E): Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century

The focus of the Federal Government Records module is on the political side of the freedom movement, the role of civil rights organizations in pushing for civil rights legislation, and the interaction between African Americans and the federal government in the 20th century. Major collections in this module include the FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.; Centers of the Southern Struggle, an exceptional collection of FBI Files covering five of the most pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis; and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, detailing the interaction between civil rights leaders and organizations and the highest levels of the federal government. This module also contains important documentation that shows the longer arc of the freedom struggle both before and after the highpoint of the post-World War II civil rights movement. These topics include forced labor in the first half of the 20th century (in Peonage Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1901-1945); migration of African Americans to urban areas that began during World War I; East St. Louis riot of 1917; Scottsboro Boys case and campaigns for the passage of anti-lynching legislation; heroic combat record of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II; and President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights.

African Americans in the Military, Part 1: Subject Files of Judge William Hastie, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War, A-C

William Henry Hastie, perhaps best known as the first African American federal trial judge, served the government in many capacities throughout his career. From 1940 to 1943, Judge Hastie served as civilian aide to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, specifically tasked to address any issues arising with African Americans in the military. African Americans in the Military, Part 1: Subject Files of Judge William Hastie, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War, A-C chronicles Hastie's duties and daily interactions with African Americans attempting to overcome the systematic discrimination present in the government. The majority of Hastie's files contain personal correspondence from young African American men and their families seeking the opportunity to serve the government and assist the war effort. With the assistance of Truman K. Gibson and James C. Evans, Judge Hastie sought to provide young African American men with equal access to the military.

African Americans in the Military, Part 2: Subject Files of Judge William Hastie, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War, D-M

The subject files of William H. Hastie, the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War, chronicle the daily struggle faced by African Americans serving in the military during World War II. This collection includes correspondence between the Office of the Civilian Aide and the soldiers, sailors, family members, and other interested parties concerning the ongoing discrimination in the military. As in the first part of this collection the folders are arranged alphabetically. Many of the events, however, occur in the final stages of the war or even after the hostilities ceased. Hastie resigned his position in early 1943 and Truman K. Gibson Jr., his assistant, was promoted to fill the vacancy.

African Americans in the Military, Part 3: subject files of Judge William Hastie, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War, N-Z

The final installment of the files of the civilian aide to the secretary of war offers documentation on race relations on the home front and abroad in the military during World War II and in the immediate postwar years. The files show the frustrations associated with continued racial discrimination and segregation in the 1940s but also provide evidence of a growing movement for civil rights.

Black Workers in the Era of the Great Migration, 1916-1929

During World War I, approximately one-half million black Americans abandoned their southern homes and streamed into northern industrial centers, as the war economy, combined with the virtual cessation of foreign immigration and the mobilization of the armed forces, created new opportunities for black workers in northern industry. Known as the "Great Migration," this exodus continued during the next decade, with the movement doubling in volume. The urbanization and industrialization of black America continued for another half-century. This collection of documents from federal agencies focuses on the first decade of that long-term transformation of black America.

Centers of the Southern Struggle: FBI Files on Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis

Important Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files on the southern civil rights movement essentially come in three major types: lengthy ones on major individual leaders, such as the one on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; extremely lengthy ones on each of the major civil rights organizations that was active across the South (King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference [SCLC], the vibrant Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC], and the Congress of Racial Equality [CORE]); and valuable but so far less-heralded files on each of the cities or towns that was a major movement "hot spot" at one time or another between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s.

Civil Rights during the Bush Administration

This collection documents civil rights legislation and other human rights issues during the George H. W. Bush administration from 1989-1993. The collection is organized according to the White House Office of Records Management filing system. The documents cover the following categories: human rights, equality, education, employment, ethnic origin groups, right to housing, voting rights, women, freedoms, civil disturbances, genocide, and ideologies.

Civil Rights during the Carter Administration, 1977-1981, Part 1: Papers of the Special Assistant for Black Affairs, Section A

This collection brings together a large set of documents on significant civil rights issues, events, and personalities during the 1977-1981 presidency of Jimmy Carter. Reflecting the concern by both administration officials and minority group leaders that economic discrimination had become the most important manifestation of racial prejudice, the collection includes as much material on employment and minority business as on social topics like education and housing.

Civil Rights during the Carter Administration, 1977-1981, Part 1: Papers of the Special Assistant for Black Affairs, Section B

This collection brings together a large set of documents on significant civil rights issues, events, and personalities during the 1977-1981 presidency of Jimmy Carter. The focus of the documents is on both positive and negative aspects: equal opportunity on the one side, entrenched discrimination on the other.

Civil Rights during the Carter Administration, 1977-1981, Part 1: Papers of the Special Assistant for Black Affairs, Section C

This collection brings together a large set of documents on significant civil rights issues, events, and personalities during the 1977-1981 presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Civil Rights during the Carter Administration, 1977-1981, Part 1: Papers of the Special Assistant for Black Affairs, Section D

This collection brings together a large set of documents on significant civil rights issues, events, and personalities during Jimmy Carter's presidency. Reflecting the concern by administration officials and minority group leaders that economic discrimination had become the leading manifestation of racial prejudice, the collection includes as much material on employment and minority business as on social topics like education and housing.

Civil Rights during the Eisenhower Administration, Part 1: White House Central Files, Series A, School Desegregation

This collection brings together a large amount of material on the civil rights issues, events, and personalities that rose to prominence during the 1953-1961 presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a critical period in the history of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Civil Rights during the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part I: The White House Central Files

Materials selected for this collection are from the Civil Rights holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. Selected files are described below.

Civil Rights during the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part II: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Administrative History

Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part II: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Administrative History consists of two sets of files on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library: administrative history files and White House Central Files. The White House Central Files are further broken down into federal correspondence, files of Bill Moyers, and files of George Reedy. The collection contains mainly reports, correspondence, studies, and hearing transcripts.

Civil Rights during the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part III: Oral Histories

The presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson marked the high point of one of America's greatest reform movements--the struggle for racial equality. After decades of filing petitions in the courts and legislatures, a strategy which had brought significant but limited results, civil rights activists stepped up their protests by daring to confront racial discrimination through marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and other forms of civil disobedience. Shortly after Johnson took office following John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, nonviolent demonstrations helped prick the conscience of the nation and forced the federal government to turn its attention toward eliminating racial segregation. Inheriting from his slain predecessor a strong civil rights bill that was meandering through Congress, Johnson in 1964 directed passage of this landmark measure cracking Jim Crow in public accommodations and education. Over the next four years, the Johnson administration added the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Law of 1968 to its remarkable legislative achievements. Indeed, by 1969, the "Second Reconstruction" of the South had reached its peak and had reshaped legal and political relations between the races.

Civil Rights during the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part IV. Papers of the White House Conference on Civil Rights

The White House Conference on Civil Rights occurred at a crossroads for the civil rights movement and the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. Originally conceived in mid-1965 by the president and his advisers at the height of cooperation between civil rights workers and the federal government, the conference was held a year later during deteriorating relations between activists and Washington. Paradoxically, much of the tension grew out of the very successes of the freedom movement. The struggle for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, placed a strain on relations between black protesters and white liberals and drove a wedge between former allies. The rift widened during the year in which planning for the White House Conference took shape. Members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) questioned such traditional civil rights goals and tactics as integration and nonviolence and condemned President Johnson's conduct of the war in Vietnam. At the same time, the Johnson administration was being criticized by some whites for its aggressive stance on civil rights.

Civil Rights during the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part V: Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission)

Records of the National Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) includes transcripts and background material of Commission meetings and Commission and staff subject [office] files. The addenda includes a copy of the Final Report, copies of Army After Action Reports, and previously restricted material from the Office of Investigations--City Files on Detroit. The materials reproduced here are classified by series numbers and series titles assigned by the Commission. Listed below are descriptions of the records reproduced. Unless otherwise noted, each series is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963, Part 1: The White House Central Files and Staff Files and the President's Office Files

Part 1 of Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration is drawn from three major record groups found at the John F. Kennedy Library: the White House Central Files (in particular, the Subject File), the White House Staff Files, and the President's Office Files.

Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963, Part 2: The Papers of Burke Marshall, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

This collection contains all of the Burke Marshall Papers held by the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts, except for invitations, copyrighted publications, exact duplicates, and the materials deriving from the period after Marshall left office. It includes the Assistant Attorney General's working papers, which constitute an ongoing record of the civil rights struggle as seen from within the Kennedy Justice Department. More specifically, this collection includes the following files: Chronological Correspondence File (February 1961-January 1965), Alphabetical Correspondence File and General Correspondence File (January 1961-December 1964), Special Correspondence File (July 1961-September 1964), Telephone Logs (February 1961-May 1965), Civil Rights Division Reports (1961-1964), Alabama File (1962-1964), Mississippi File (1962-1964), School File (1961-1964), Case Documents File, Civil Rights Act of 1964 File, and Subject File.

Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963, Part 3: The Civil Rights Files of Lee C. White

The three parts of Civil Rights During the Kennedy Administration gather, from among the millions of pages of documents stored in the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts, the most important archival materials bearing on the role of the federal government on the issue of civil rights in the early 1960s. The many archival records that are being published for the first time in this series document a broad range of key topics and events: specific federal civil rights programs and activities; meetings between White House officials and grassroots civil rights leaders; confrontations between state government officials and federal troops; the crises of the Freedom Rides, the University of Mississippi, the University of Alabama, and Birmingham; and the 1963 March on Washington. The series also documents White House initiatives on such issues as fair housing, school desegregation, equal opportunity employment, and voter registration, including the development of the legislative program that would culminate in the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Civil Rights during the Nixon Administration, 1969-1974, Part 1: The White House Central Files

The Nixon Presidency and Civil Rights Unlike the Kennedy-Johnson era, with its rich legacy of domestic social programs, the Nixon presidency has received little attention from historians and students of social policy. The long shadow of Watergate and presidential impeachment have dominated public attention for the Nixon years.

Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government, Records of the Interstate Commerce Commission on Discrimination in Transportation, 1961-1970

This collection includes more than 300 case files of informal complaints that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) investigated and in many cases sought to remedy through the Commission's Bureau of Enforcement. Most case files date from 1961-1970, with scattered instances as early as 1957 and as late as 1973. With a few exceptions, nearly all of the 325 folders in the collection are specific to a single informal complaint, or to a group of similar complaints against a particular bus or railroad company's services and facilities at a particular location or route. Investigations were assigned case numbers (RD-1 through RD-310 for specific cases, EC- and RG-series for more general files), with varied and sometimes contradictory systems of case number assignments seen internally within folders. While the collection includes 325 folders, and 318 numbered case files, the actual number of cases is somewhat higher due to some cases being grouped by location.

Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government: Records of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, 1958-1973

This collection highlights attempts by the federal government to combat civil rights infringements and violations from 1958 to 1973, with some files dating back to 1918. The files specifically document actions by the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, which was established in December 1957 by Attorney General William P. Rogers. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ) 1955 annual report, the Civil Rights Section (later to become the Civil Rights Division), "supervises and assists in the enforcement of various statutes employed to protect the federally secured civil rights and liberties of persons" (102683-006-0740). The collection comprises the files of six different officials in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division: W. Wilson White (assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division, 1958-1959), Joseph M. F. Ryan Jr. (acting assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, 1958-1960), Burke Marshall (assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, 1961-1964), St. John Barrett (deputy assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, 1965-1967), John Doar (assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, 1960-1967), and David L. Norman (acting assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, 1969-1973). Within each section, the material is organized by subject, and consists of letters, legislation, reports, and newspaper clippings.

Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government: Records of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Police-Community Relations in Urban Areas, 1954-1966

The landmark moments of the civil rights movement were marked by conflict between citizens and law enforcement, from the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 to the police clash with protesters in Selma, Alabama in 1965 known as Bloody Sunday. The Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government: Records of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Police-Community Relations in Urban Areas, 1954-1966 reveals that strained relationships between police and the communities they served was a nation-wide issue. The collection includes reports on police brutality, false arrests, police inaction, race relations, and police training programs in cities including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and St. Louis. Organizations represented in the documents include the Congress of Racial Equality, NAACP, and American Civil Liberties Union. Some of the materials were written or received by Roy Littlejohn, staff attorney for the Commission on Civil Rights, but most were issued by local commissions, organizations, and police departments. The collection includes a series of materials in loose alphabetical order, organizing city files from Detroit to Washington, D.C. The collection concludes with materials on Cleveland, Ohio.

Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government: Records of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, School Desegregation in the South, 1965-1966

This collection brings together a large number of documents on the implementation of "freedom of choice" school desegregation plans in the South and bordering states. Under this type of desegregation plan, black students who hitherto had attended all-black schools could elect to attend a previously all-white school.

Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government: Records of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Special Projects, 1960-1970

This collection brings together a large set of Commission on Civil Rights documents on significant civil rights issues mainly during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. The focus of the documents is on both positive and negative aspects: equal opportunity on the one side, entrenched discrimination on the other; and they highlight early attempts by the commission to address racial discrimination in the United States. Documents primarily relate to discrimination against African Americans, but there are also documents pertaining to Mexican Americans. The material is not organized in a specific manner, and switches back and forth between state advisory committee files and regular commission files. Commission employees constitute the largest portion of correspondents, but other federal officials and private citizens also correspond. Documents in the collection include extensive correspondence and reports from state advisory committees; commission meeting and activities reports, and staff director and field office correspondence; federal correspondence and reports, including presidential correspondence; private organization correspondence; and various articles, newspaper clippings, and private correspondence sent to the commission.

Department of Justice Classified Subject Files on Civil Rights, 1914-1949

In October 1943, Ileane Warde of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, composed a four-page letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite the war raging throughout the world, she had more pressing issues to discuss. "Please," she asked, "won't you do something about the niggers?" Explaining that she was a member of the "poorer class," she revealed the source of her concern: "the coons are getting unbearable," she explained, and "it isn't safe fore [sic] a white person to go out any more. Coons go after white girls, molest [and] try to flirt with them; others grab white women, take [them] up dark alleys beat them unmercifully, criminally attack them, tear their clothes off their back and leave them half dead." Expressing a fear shared by many white citizens, she foretold the overthrow of the white population, warning that before long the "neggers will far outnumber us, and therefor take advantage of us. After [a] while they'll rule this country then good bye us; for they're in the same class as Jap; the lower class are just as uncivilized as Japs [sic]."

East St. Louis Riot of 1917

World War I and the immediate postwar era were marked by a number of bloody racial confrontations in which black Americans were victims of white hostility and aggression. While most of these riots took place in 1919, one of the most important and the one with the highest death toll of any interracial conflict in twentieth-century America occurred at East St. Louis, Illinois, on July 2, 1917. It is an excellent example of the pogrom-like persecutions that characterized nearly all of the interracial riots in the country during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

FBI Files on Black Extremist Organizations, Part 1: COINTELPRO Files on Black Hate Groups and Investigation of the Deacons for Defense and Justice

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was very concerned about the organizing potential, influence, and strength of black power and black nationalist organizations. In an attempt to limit the power of these groups, the FBI implemented a surveillance program of so-called black nationalist hate groups. This COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) was launched in August 1967 on direct orders from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. This collection consists of the COINTELPRO black nationalist hate groups files, as well as a separate series of materials from the FBI investigation of the Deacons for Defense and Justice.

FBI Files on Black Extremist Organizations, Part 2: Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panther Party

"If there is not going to be freedom for the black people in this country, there will be no freedom for anybody. If the black people are going to be destroyed, let everybody be destroyed" (101788-001-0183 page 72). The fact that Eldridge Cleaver made this comment to the Daily Californian in an article about his run for president of the United States on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket says much about the sentiments of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.

Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917-1925): The First World War, the Red Scare, and the Garvey Movement

The First World War and the subsequent Red Scare years establish two benchmarks in American civil liberties. At no other time in the nation's history, before or after, was the Bill of Rights so freely transgressed. Second, these years mark the birth of modern political surveillance in the United States.

Martin Luther King Jr. FBI File, Part 1

The 17,000-page file on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., compiled by headquarters officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, details the heavy surveillance and painful harassment that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI directed against America's foremost civil rights leader throughout the 1960s. Most of this file has never been published until now, and it should not be confused with other less comprehensive collections of FBI material on King. This file contains hundreds of substantive documents and is an essential source for the study of Dr. King and his role in the civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King Jr. FBI File, Part 2: The King-Levison File

Part 2 of The Martin Luther King, Jr., FBI File, entitled The King-Levison File, consists of verbatim transcripts and detailed summaries of telephone conversations between King and one of his most trusted confidants, Stanley D. Levison, a New York lawyer and businessman with whom the civil rights leader spoke on an almost daily basis for more than six years. Since Levison was one of the few individuals to whom King could truly speak his mind--as well as voice occasional doubts and despair over the progress of the civil rights movement--these files shed light not only on King's many civil rights activities and his involvement in related causes, but on his personal feelings toward and reactions to the events that marked the last six years of his life.

New Deal Agencies and Black America

In the 1930s, President Roosevelt and his administration spearheaded a series of reforms and recovery programs in an effort to bring the nation out of a debilitating depression. The New Deal set a new tone for the relationship between the federal government and black communities across the country. Although not primarily a set of racially-focused policies, the New Deal deeply changed the culture of Black America in terms of race relations, politics, and economics.

Peonage Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1901-1945

The U.S. Department of Justice records on the practice of peonage, located at the National Archives, are scattered over several file series of Record Group 60. These file series include Year Files, the Straight Numerical File, Enclosures to the Straight Numerical File, the Classified Subject File, Enclosures to the Classified Subject File, and Previously Restricted material from the Classified Subject File. This collection was compiled after a systematic survey of each series.

President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights

President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights spans the period from late 1946, leading up to President Truman's creation of the President's Committee on Civil Rights, established by Executive Order 9808 of December 6, 1946, through completion of the Committee's final report, "To Secure These Rights," in late 1947. The committee was given a broad charge "to inquire into and to determine whether and in what respect current law-enforcement measures and the authority and means possessed by Federal, State, and local governments may be strengthened and improved to safeguard the civil rights of the people."

Records of the Committee on Fair Employment Practices, Part 1: Racial Tension File, 1943-1945

This collection consists generally of newspaper clippings, statistical reports, memoranda, and correspondence. Materials mostly date from 1943 to 1946 with some documents going back to 1935.

Records of the Tuskegee Airmen, Part 1: Records of the Army Air Forces

During World War II, African Americans served the U.S. Army in segregated units. The Army Air Forces established a segregated flying school on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, to train African American pilots. The graduates of this school were known as the Tuskegee Airmen. During combat duty in Europe from April 1943 until the end of World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen compiled an excellent record of military service. This collection of Records of the Tuskegee Airmen reveals the heroic combat record of the Tuskegee Airmen as well as the discrimination and segregation faced by these same soldiers in the United States. The collection consists of combat reports, correspondence, and reports on discrimination faced by African American military personnel and conditions at the Tuskegee Army Air Field. The materials date from 1941 to 1947 and are organized into six sections.

This module supplements the original module of Federal Government records by adding civil rights records from the Ford and Reagan presidencies. The Ford administration records in this module consist of the subject files of J. Stanley Pottinger, who was the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, which enforced civil rights laws, and the subject files of Anne R. Clarke, who was a special assistant in the Research Unit of the Civil Rights Division's Sex Discrimination Program. The files of Pottinger and Clarke detail the implementation of federal civil rights law from 1973 through 1977 and thus are an important complement to the other Black Freedom modules that focus on the campaigns that led to the passage of landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights of 1965. Records from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library consist of the White House Office of Records Management Subject File on Human Rights and seven collections released as a result of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The seven FOIA collections cover affirmative action; Bob Jones University; busing and school desegregation; civil rights; fair housing; Martin Luther King Jr. Day; and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, Grove City College, and the Voting Rights Act of 1982.

Civil Rights during the Ford Administration: Subject Files of Assistant Attorney General J. Stanley Pottinger (1973-1977) and Special Assistant Anne Clarke (1974-1977)

Civil Rights during the Ford Administration: Subject Files of Assistant Attorney General J. Stanley Pottinger (1973-1977) and Special Assistant Anne Clarke (1974-1977) covers civil rights legislation and its enforcement from late in the administration of Richard M. Nixon (1973-1974) through the administration of Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977). The collection also contains select civil rights documents from earlier administrations, such as executive orders of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson relating to the status of women.

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Affirmative Action

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Affirmative Action consists of documents released as of May 2011 through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This collection covers controversial proposals of the Reagan administration to revise Lyndon B. Johnson's Executive Order 11246, which established equal opportunity in federal employment and required federal contractors and subcontractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." The collection also covers reauthorization of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which President Johnson tasked in his executive order with providing "prompt, fair, and impartial consideration of all complaints of discrimination in Federal employment."

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Bob Jones University

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Bob Jones University contains materials released under the Freedom of Information Act from the series "White House Staff and Office Files" related to Supreme Court litigation in the consolidated cases of Bob Jones University v. U.S. and Goldsboro Christian Schools v. U.S. At issue in these cases was racial discrimination by and tax exemption for religious schools in their admissions and related policies. In response, the Department of Treasury established a new policy of tax exemption.

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Busing and School Desegregation

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Busing and School Desegregation consists of White House office records and correspondence relating to school busing and desegregation, papers written by White House staff and others, and court cases alleging school segregation against school districts, all of which have been released as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Civil Rights

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Civil Rights contains materials released under the Freedom of Information Act from "White House Office of Records Management" (WHORM) and "White House Staff and Office Files" related to civil rights issues and particularly the Reagan administration's defense of its enforcement and interpretation of civil rights laws.

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Fair Housing

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Fair Housing contains material released under the Freedom of Information Act related to the Fair Housing Act, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, federal aid programs for housing, public housing projects, and political appointments to related posts. Recurring issues include annual changes to fair housing legislation and discussion of the political and policy experience of potential appointees to cabinet posts.

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on Martin Luther King Jr. Day contains all related documents, except copyrighted material, released as of May 2011 through a Freedom of Information Act request at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. The collection consists of letters, memoranda, newspaper articles, petitions, reports, mailgrams, telegrams, class assignments, drawings of Dr. King, poems about Dr. King, and government forms, such as correspondence tracking worksheets, records management forms, review pending slips, and withdrawal sheets.

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, Grove City College and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1982

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: FOIA Released Records on the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, Grove City College and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1982 contains briefing materials, congressional debates and testimony, executive orders, judicial opinions, legislation, letters, memoranda, newspaper clippings, articles, petitions, position papers, press releases, reports, resolutions, speeches, and telephone memoranda. These materials were released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and original documents are held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California.

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: Subject File of the White House Office of Records Management, 1981-1989

Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration: Subject File of the White House Office of Records Management, 1981-1989 contains material on the Reagan administration's enforcement of and policies regarding human and civil rights both in the United State and abroad. The large majority of the collection is made up of White House correspondence with various individuals and organizations covering a range of human and civil rights matters, including racial, age, and sex discrimination in employment, discrimination against people with disabilities, citizenship applications for political and religious refugees, discrimination in public housing, and LGBT rights.

The Organizational Records and Personal Papers bring a new perspective to the Black Freedom Struggle via the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle. The three major civil rights organizations are the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Papers of civil rights leaders included in this module are those of the civil rights and labor leader A. Philip Randolph; the long-time civil rights activist and organizer of the March on Washington, Bayard Rustin, and the papers of the pioneering educator Mary McLeod Bethune. Through records of Claude A. Barnett's Associated Negro Press, this module also branches out to cover other aspects of African American life in the 20th century, like religion, sports, education, fraternal organizations, and even the field of entertainment.

Bayard Rustin Papers

As an organizer, strategist, and pioneer in the use of Gandhian tactics, Bayard Rustin (1910-1987) was one of the most influential black protest leaders of the twentieth century. Although he deliberately maintained a low profile throughout his fifty years of social activism, his skill at conceiving and planning protest demonstrations and his perceptive analysis of movement trends earned him the respect of wide sectors of the civil rights (and pacifist) movements. Moreover, his role as a behind-the-scenes adviser to both A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King Jr., allowed him to help shape the course of the post-World War II civil rights struggle.

Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Foundation Collection, Part 1: Writings, Diaries, Scrapbooks, Biographical Materials, and Files on the National Youth Administration and Women's Organizations, 1918-1955

The Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation: Origins, Vicissitudes, and Prospects. Mary McLeod Bethune's two-story, white frame residence, a cross between a bungalow and a colonial, appears modest for a popular national leader of color, or at least when compared to Booker T. Washington's "The Oaks" in Tuskegee or Frederick Douglass's "Cedar Hill" in Washington, D.C. Adjacent to Bethune-Cookman College (BCC), "The Retreat," Mrs. Bethune's homestead property built in 1914, was nevertheless materially significant.1 The house with its contents and grounds carried an appraisal value of $40,000 in 1953. The heavy formal furniture in the dining room, master bedroom, and guest bedroom particularly invited attention. These and all other furnishings, personal items, the house, and lawns were given to the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation by the snowy-haired Bethune at age 77.

Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Foundation Collection, Part 2: Correspondence Files, 1914-1955

Mary McLeod Bethune and "So Many Varied Correspondents" During four decades of the twentieth century, the short, stoutish, raven-colored Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) was "exhibit No. 1 for all who have faith in America and the democratic process." She occupied a dominant position in significant developments impacting the common welfare at the community, state, regional, and national levels. These included the evolution of the black college, the community social services of voluntary women's associations, the anguished passage of ebony women to visibility in national affairs, the regeneration of a black political presence in the federal government, and interracialism. This multiple front activist once described herself as "a woman who has so many varied correspondents."1 Part 2 of the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation Collection features her in relation to these individuals primarily from the beginning of her Washington career in the mid-1930s to the end of her life. It reveals both her responses and initiatives to them via the mail. Had the correspondence been organized thematically, most would have fallen under three categories: leader at large of black America, leader of women, and educator, especially with regard to her school, Bethune-Cookman College (BCC). Such a schema would have been an impossibility, however, because Bethune's major roles were so closely interfaced that they melded together and supported one another. Sometimes, she assumed all of them in a single letter!

Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Foundation Collection, Part 3: Subject Files, 1939-1955

The files in this collection are subject files that Mary McLeod Bethune kept in her Daytona Beach, Florida, home office. They date from 1939 and continue to her death in 1955. They document the wide variety of Bethune's interests and commitments during the last twenty-six years of her life, including many important but little-known aspects of her career. The arrangement of the subject files is alphabetical. Listed below are some of the broad areas documented by the subject files.

Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Foundation Collection, Part 4: Administration of Bethune-Cookman College and the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation, 1915-1955

Considering Race in Developing A School. More than anything else in the public imagination, Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) is associated with education. After establishing what became Bethune-Cookman College (BCC) in 1904, Bethune enhanced her reputation as an educator when she became president of the Florida State Teachers Association in 1919. In 1923 and 1924, she garnered national attention for her service as president of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools and reached the pinnacle of her career during the New Deal and World War II, presiding over educational, training, and placement services for African American youth through the National Youth Administration. In the 1950s, Bethune became one of the best-known spokespersons for the United Negro College Fund, a cooperative financial campaign benefiting black colleges.

Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Foundation Collection, Supplement to Part 4: Administration of Bethune-Cookman College, 1924-1946

This portion of the Bethune Foundation Collection consists of four series pertaining to the administration of Bethune-Cookman College (BCC). These files, like the other parts of the Mary McLeod Bethune Papers, reveal Bethune to have been a very active and involved president, taking part in all aspects of running BCC, from the hiring of teachers, to fundraising, to making decisions about courses, and meeting with the board of trustees. The first series consists of Bethune's correspondence regarding administrative matters. The second series is correspondence with the Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which advised and assisted in managing the college, after the merger with the Cookman Institute in 1923. A series of correspondence with donors again reflects the importance of fundraising in maintaining a small, private college. The collection concludes with several miscellaneous documents covering BCC graduates, fundraising, and student loans.

Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune-Cookman College Collection, 1922-1955

This collection contains the administrative records of Mary McLeod Bethune as president of Bethune-Cookman College. Although Bethune founded the college as an elementary school in 1904 and served as its resident head until the late 1930s, the earliest records in the collection date from 1923. The bulk of the collection begins in the early 1930s, although there are substantial materials from the 1920s. More material covering the 1920s is deposited in the archive of the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation at Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida. A companion edition of foundation records is envisioned for the future. The very earliest records documenting the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute are found among the archive of the General Education Board at the Rockefeller Archives, Pocantico Hills, New York.

Papers of A. Philip Randolph

The A. Philip Randolph Collection consists of the following series: Family Papers, 1942- 1963; General Correspondence, 1925-1978; Subject Files, 1909-1978; Speeches and Writings File, 1941-1978; Biographical File, 1945-1979; and Miscellany, 1920-1978.

Records of the American Committee on Africa, Part 1: ACOA Executive Committee Minutes and National Office Memoranda, 1952-1975

Part 1 of The Records of the American Committee on Africa provides a comprehensive overview of the committee's establishment, growth, and development from 1953 into the mid-1970s. The minutes of board of directors meetings (archived as Executive Committee Minutes) provide summary documentation on the American Committee on Africa's programs, fundraising, lobbying, staffing, and relations with other groups. The minutes also provide summaries of ACOA's extensive research work on African problems as well as on political events in Africa and events in America affecting Africa. The minutes of ACOA standing committees, especially those of the Steering Committee, with the Interoffice Memoranda provide a deeper level of detail on most of the issues covered in the minutes of the board. Because they are parallel and complementary sources, researchers are advised to use each of the three separate series--Interoffice Memoranda, Executive Committee Minutes, and standing committee minutes, especially Steering Committee Minutes, interdependently.

Records of the American Committee on Africa, Part 2: Correspondence and Subject Files on South Africa, 1952-1985

American Committee on Africa: Historical Background. The American Committee on Africa (ACOA) was founded in 1953 by American sympathizers of the antiapartheid movement in South Africa. ACOA grew out of a predecessor organization, Americans for South African Resistance, which was formed in 1952 as a result of correspondence between George Houser, then head of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Walter Sisulu, secretary general of the African National Congress and a leader of the antiapartheid "Defiance Campaign" in South Africa. Prominent members of Americans for South African Resistance were Roger N. Baldwin of the American Civil Liberties Union, Bayard Rustin of the War Resisters League, A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and prominent clergymen such as Homer Jack and Houser himself. A major interest of the founding members was to promote nonviolent passive resistance tactics against the apartheid system in southern Africa. The African National Congress embraced the strategy of passive resistance, and the American group enjoyed cordial relations with Sisulu and many other African National Congress leaders, such as Z. K. Matthews.

Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Series A, Holdings of the Chicago Historical Society, Part 1: Records of the BSCP, 1925-1969

Experienced scholars and beginning researchers alike will find much to rejoice about with the release of the Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925-1969. The Records, organized in three parts and composed mainly of documents housed in the Chicago Historical Society but supplemented by material from the Newberry Library, provide extraordinary documentation that scholars might use to help us understand further the significant history of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and the men who built it into the first national union of black workers officially affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and later with the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The Records are, as well, a revealing source on the activities of the Ladies Auxiliary of the BSCP and its colorful president, Helena Wilson. Moreover, we can learn much from this collection about the wartime March on Washington Movement and the resultant Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), the postwar antecedents of the civil rights movement, and the relationships between black workers and the general organized labor movement. In Part 3, there is also documentation of the relationship between the BSCP and the Pullman Company, especially for the period during which the Brotherhood formally represented the porters in negotiations with the company.

Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Series A, Holdings of the Chicago Historical Society, Part 2: Records of the Ladies Auxiliary of the BSCP, 1931-1968

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Care Porters (BSCP) collection at the Chicago Historical Society consists of over 160 cartons of manuscript material. Part 1 of the BSCP series reproduces the BSCP central correspondence file, the Milton P. Webster Fair Employment Practices Committee file, and selections from BSCP subject files. Part 2 of the series reproduces the records of the BSCP Ladies Auxiliary. Part 3, Records of the BSCP Relations with the Pullman Company includes the BSCP file on contract negotiations with the Pullman Company as well as the Pullman Company files on its relations with the BSCP. The Pullman Company records in Part 3 have been drawn from the Pullman Company collection at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Series A, Holdings of the Chicago Historical Society, Part 3: Records of the BSCP Relations with the Pullman Company, 1925-1968

This collection contains records relative to the employment of sleeping car porters by the Pullman Company. The records concern the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), which was recognized in 1937 as the legitimate bargaining agent of the Pullman Company's sleeping car porters. These records run from 1937 to 1969. They contain voluminous files on many aspects of labor relations in the Pullman Company, including work rules, occupational hazards, discriminatory employment practices, membership records for BSCP locals, records of local elections, records of strike votes and instructions to striking locals, records of arbitration proceedings before such agencies as the President's Emergency Board (1963), and information on wage rates, cost of living changes, and pay raises for Pullman porters. The first set of records is reproduced from the "Railroads" series of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters collection at the Chicago Historical Society. Similar types of records can be found in the original collection for many other railroads. The Pullman Company was by far the largest employer of sleeping car porters, however, and no other company was as significant in BSCP history.

Records of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 1895-1992, Part 1: Minutes of National Conventions, Publications, and President's Office Correspondence

The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. (NACWC) is the oldest African American secular organization in existence today. The NACWC series provides researchers access for the first time to the records of this crucial social movement. This collection documents the founding of the organization and the role that it has played in the political, economic, and social development of the modern African American community, as well as its involvement in national and international reform movements. During this era when policymakers deny the existence of self-help programs within African America and place so much emphasis on the need for their creation, the NACWC stands in stark contrast to their faulty allegations and as testimony to the longstanding commitment on the part of black women to addressing their communities' needs, regardless of the changing political climate.

Records of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 1895-1992, Part 2: President's Office Files, 1958-1968

This edition includes the President's Office Files of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) under the administrations of Rosa Slade Gragg (1958-1964) and Mamie B. Reese (1964-1968). The President's Office Files previous to 1958 have been included with NACWC Convention Proceedings and Publications Part 1 of the Records of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.

Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970, Part 1: Records of the President's Office

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as president of the SCLC from its founding in 1957 until his assassination in April 1968. This edition consists of the President's Office records during Dr. King's tenure as well as a small number of public statements made by him between 1954 and 1957. The President's Office File consists of two series of records: Series I, Correspondence, 1958-1968 and Series II, Manuscripts and Appointment Calendars, 1954-1969. A third series exists in the original collection, consisting of tape recordings of speeches made by Dr. King and other civil rights leaders. These have not been transcribed and hence are not a part of this edition.

Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970, Part 2: Records of the Executive Director and Treasurer

Between 1957 and 1970 the SCLC had five executive directors. The records of four of these are preserved in the SCLC collection: John L. Tilley (1957-1959), Ella J. Baker (1958-1960), Wyatt T. Walker (1960-1964), and Andrew Young (1965-1967). The records of the fifth SCLC director, William A. Rutherford, are not included in the collection.

Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970, Part 3: Records of the Public Relations Department

The files of the Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970, Part 3: Records of the Public Relations Department provide a good overview of the entire SCLC history from about 1960 when the department was established to disseminate information on Dr. King and the organization. Regular press releases and newsletters document all of the major episodes of the SCLC up through 1966. The records also provide much pertinent biographical material on King, including documentation of the mass media's growing interest in the SCLC leader. In addition, the Public Relations Department files hold an incomplete set of records of SCLC annual conventions and board of directors meetings dating from 1959.

Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970, Part 4: Records of the Program Department

The files of the Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970, Part 4: Records of the Program Department offer some of the most outstanding research opportunities in the SCLC collection. They include a wealth of primary material from the front lines of the civil rights movement, including field reports, survey materials, and correspondence. Many of the programs documented in Part 4 are discussed in correspondence and memoranda found in Part 1: Records of the President's Office and in Part 2: Records of the Executive Director and Treasurer. In addition, the press releases and publicity materials found in Part 3: Records of the Public Relations Department may also cover events that are detailed in the Program Department files.

The Black Power Movement: Papers of the Revolutionary Action Movement, 1962-1996

This collection of Papers of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) consists of the personal files of RAM founder and National Field Chairman Muhammad Ahmad and of RAM members John H. Bracey Jr. and Ernie Allen Jr. RAM was organized in 1962 by Muhammad Ahmad (known as Max Stanford until 1970). As a student at Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio, Ahmad studied black nationalism and got involved in black radical politics. In the fall of 1962, after discussions with several African American radicals, including the personal encouragement of Malcolm X, Ahmad formed the first RAM cadre. RAM's first major action came in 1963 when the RAM group in Philadelphia, along with the local NAACP branch, demonstrated against discrimination by building trades unions. Following these demonstrations, Ahmad began to organize RAM groups in urban areas and on several college campuses. By 1966 and 1967, RAM included students and intellectual activists and had developed a following among urban residents. RAM militants were accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of participating in several of the urban riots that spread across the United States in the mid- and late 1960s. In June 1967, Ahmad and other RAM members were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate civil rights leaders Roy Wilkins and Whitney M. Young Jr. After an altercation with prison guards, Ahmad was charged with assault of a corrections officer. After posting bail in May 1968, Ahmad then jumped bail and went underground, but he continued his political activism. In the summer of 1968, he disbanded RAM and played a lead role in the founding of the African People's Party. He also became involved in other Black Power organizations, such as the Republic of New Africa and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, and continued to write about the black freedom movement. He continued his revolutionary political activity until September 1972, when police arrested him at a meeting of the Congress of African People.

The Black Power Movement: The League of Revolutionary Black Workers, 1965-1976

This collection of records of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW) consists of the personal files collected by General Gordon Baker Jr., one of the founding members of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) in 1968 and the LRBW in 1969. Baker's involvement in radical politics dated from the early 1960s. He had been a member of UHURU, a Detroit black power group, and the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), an organization that advocated a philosophy of revolutionary black nationalism combining armed self-defense, Pan-Africanism, self-determination, and Marxism. Following the Detroit riot of July 1967, an event known to some as the Great Rebellion, General Baker and his fellow radicals sensed an opportunity for new organizing efforts. In September 1967, Baker, John Watson, Mike Hamlin, and Luke Tripp started a newspaper called the Inner City Voice. The paper focused on issues of concern to Detroit's black population, including working conditions, housing, health care, welfare programs, and schools, all from a Marxist perspective. In addition to publishing the Inner City Voice, Baker, Hamlin, and other Inner City Voice staff members formed a study group to discuss how to implement revolutionary political change.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 1: Associated Negro Press News Releases, 1928-1964, Series A: 1928-1944

Historical sketch: Claude A. Barnett. Claude A. Barnett founded the Associated Negro Press (ANP) in March 1919 and remained its director through nearly half a century of enormous social change. The ANP was the largest and longest-lived news service to supply black newspapers in the United States with news of interest to black citizens, opinion columns, reviews of books, movies, and records, and occasionally poetry, cartoons, and photographs. The ANP provided its member newspapers with professionally written, detailed coverage of activities within black communities across the country and the latest news about national trends and events. It thereby helped create a national black culture and increased black awareness of national news. It also provided a national forum for black leaders, helped set professional standards of news writing for the black press, aided many small black newspapers to survive, and enabled black journalists to gain reporting experience.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 1: Associated Negro Press News Releases, 1928-1964, Series B: 1945-1955

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part One: Associated Negro Press News Releases, 1928-1964, Series B: 1945-1955 presents a chronological grouping of the Associated Negro Press (ANP) news releases during 1945-1955. The ANP, founded by Barnett in 1919, supplied black newspapers in the United States with news of interest to black citizens, detailing activities within black communities and providing the latest news about national trends and events.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 1: Associated Negro Press News Releases, 1928-1964, Series C: 1956-1964

Claude A. Barnett founded the Associated Negro Press (ANP) in March 1919 and remained its director through nearly half a century of enormous social change. The ANP was the largest and longest-lived news service to supply black newspapers in the United States with news of interest to black citizens, opinion columns, reviews of books, movies, and records, and occasionally poetry, cartoons and photographs. It thereby helped create a national black culture and increased black awareness of national news. It also provided a national forum for black leaders, helped set professional standards of news writing for the black press, aided many small black newspapers to survive, and enabled black journalists to gain reporting experience.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 2: Associated Negro Press Organizational Files, 1920-1966

The organizational files included in this collection contain records of the Chicago headquarters office of the Associated Negro Press (ANP), including carbon copies of outgoing letters written by Claude A. Barnett or other ANP staff members; incoming letters from ANP reporters and other business associates; memos, notes, and lists; clippings from newspapers and from ANP news releases; and a few pamphlets and magazines. The records are arranged into six subseries: 1. Administration, 2. Advertising (for the black American market), 3. Staff, 4. White Newspapers and Magazines, 5. Black Press, and 6. Member Newspapers.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series A, Agriculture, 1923-1966

This collection documents efforts to improve the lives of the black, rural, primarily southern population. It includes Claude A. Barnett's letters from his service as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture (1942-52), his correspondence with black and white officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Extension Service, and various other federal agencies in Washington, D.C., and in local offices throughout the United States who dealt with this constituency. It also contains Barnett's correspondence with officials at Negro Land Grant Colleges.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series B: Colleges and Universities, 1918-1966

The Claude A. Barnett Papers subject files on colleges and universities contain correspondence and news clippings relating to educational institutions with significant black programs, primarily historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The collection also includes material on general education topics and on the United Negro College Fund.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series C: Economic Conditions, 1918-1966

Materials in Series C relate to companies, business organizations, labor unions, federal and state governments, and American economic conditions in general. Correspondence discusses newsgathering for the ANP, black business development, and jobs and training for black workers. Large groups of materials relate to beauty products companies, insurance companies, the National Negro Business League (NNBL), railroad companies and workers, unions, and U.S. government offices, particularly the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series D: Entertainers, Artists, and Authors, 1928-1965

The Claude A. Barnett papers of the Associated Negro Press (ANP) represent a rich collection related to black artists, authors, and entertainers. Consisting of correspondence, newspaper articles and clippings, and printed materials, the collection sheds light on the struggles and contributions of black men and women to American life and the arts during the years 1928 to 1965.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series E: Medicine, 1927-1965

Introductory Material from the Microfilm Edition. Series E: Medicine, 1927-1965. Series E concerns the medical professions, hospitals, and health care in general, the U.S. Public Health Service, and foundations for the research and treatment of disease. Two large groups of materials relate to Provident Hospital (Chicago) and to the Red Cross. Provident Hospital correspondence from the period when Barnett served as a member (1931-42) and president (1939-41) of its board of trustees concerns the quality of health care, accreditation of the hospital, staff training, segregation of hospital services in Chicago, insurance, fundraising, and the budget. The Red Cross general correspondence and Chicago Branch correspondence concern various committees on which Barnett served as well as routine newsgathering for the ANP. Extensive materials on the Flood Relief Advisory Committee detail the committee's investigation of charges of racial discrimination in the distribution of aid to victims of the great Mississippi River flood of 1927. Barnett's correspondence with Jesse O. Thomas relates to his work with the Urban League, the Red Cross, and the U.S. Treasury Department. Additional material on physicians, nurses, and hospitals is located in Series B, especially under the category "Hospitals of Tuskegee Inst., Veterans Administration, and other U.S. government hospitals."

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series F: Military, 1925-1965

Series F of the Claude A. Barnett papers of the Associated Negro Press (ANP) includes correspondence, newspaper articles and clippings, and printed materials related to the changing role of black Americans in the military in the years 1925 to 1965, with an emphasis on the World War II period. Included are issues of segregation and Jim Crow policies affecting military personnel; discrimination in recruitment and promotional opportunities; discrimination in facilities and benefits; the home front and civil-military relations during World War II; draft resistance; the role of women in the armed forces; and the particular roles of the Navy and the Air Force, the latter especially related to the Tuskegee Airmen.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series G: Philanthropic and Social Organizations, 1925-1966

This collection from the Claude A. Barnett papers is comprised of personal correspondence and press clippings related to Barnett's philanthropic and social organizations from 1918 to his death in 1967. Barnett, who involved himself in several diverse organizations throughout his life, left behind a large correspondence with the members of these organizations. Those organizations included the Elks, the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the Harmon Foundation, the Rosenwald Foundation, the Knights of Pythias, the National Association of Negro Women, the National Council of Negro Women, and the YMCA/YWCA. In addition, Barnett acted as a publicity adviser for several national fraternities and sororities, including Barnett's own fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series H: Politics and Law, 1920-1966

Series H of the Claude A. Barnett papers of the Associated Negro Press (ANP) includes correspondence and office files related to political campaigns at national, state, and local levels and also to the political (more so than the policy) activities of elected officials and government appointees. The series of eighty-three folders are arranged topically and somewhat chronologically within the Barnett--Associated Negro Press papers, centered on elections and political activities that are variously of local, state, and national scope. A smaller segment of the papers concerns the role of black lawyers and federal judges from the 1930s, and the role of courts and prominent court cases such as those of the Scottsboro Boys.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series I: Race Relations, 1923-1965

This collections contains material relating to racial concepts and interracial problems. Whereas other series of the Barnett papers contain files on particular race relations issues affecting such institutions as the Methodist Church or Provident Hospital, this series deals with broader subjects--segregation, the study of black history, civil rights--and with race relations organizations.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series J: Religion, 1924-1966

Series J contains correspondence and other material with and about religious leaders and church members. Subjects discussed in Series J range from routine ANP coverage of church activities to policy statements on segregation and struggles for leadership within black churches. The series also contains most of the Barnett papers relating to foreign missionaries, in Africa and elsewhere. Most of the material is filed by denomination, arranged alphabetically. Two short sections containing interdenominational organizations and non-denominational (evangelical) churches and ministers precede the materials filed by denomination.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press, 1918-1967, Part 3: Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967, Series K: Claude A. Barnett, Personal and Financial, 1920-1967

This collection includes Claude Barnett's personal correspondence with family and friends; drafts of many speeches, non-ANP articles, and reports that he wrote on various topics; and his unfinished autobiography and other biographical notes and news clippings. Much of Barnett's correspondence with and about his many aunts, uncles, and cousins is located here, although additional materials are scattered throughout the Barnett papers. His correspondence with his wife is located in the Etta Moten Barnett papers.

This Black Freedom module is highlighted by the records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett, and the Robert F. Williams Papers. SNCC, formed by student activists in 1960 after the explosion of the sit-in movement, was one of the three most important civil rights organizations of the 1960s, alongside SCLC and the NAACP. CORE was formed in 1941 and organized the pioneering Journey of Reconciliation in the 1940s and the Freedom Rides in the early 1960s; both events are documented in the CORE records in this module. With the addition of SNCC and CORE records, History Vault now includes SNCC, SCLC, CORE, and NAACP records. Rounding out this module are the papers of Chicago Congressman Arthur W. Mitchell, the Chicago chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, and records pertaining to the Mississippi Freedom Summer.

Arthur W. Mitchell Papers, 1898-1968

The Arthur W. Mitchell Papers, 1898-1968 comprise a collection of some 73,000 pages within ProQuest History Vault's module Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2. Held by the Chicago History Museum Research Center of the Chicago Historical Society, the correspondence and collected professional papers span a period of 70 years, with particular emphasis on the period 1935-1943 during which Mitchell was the first Black American elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Congress. The collection documents the activities and insights of the Congressman who was a keen chronicler of the changing role of Black Americans in society and on a handful of key civil rights issues, among them: anti-lynching legislation, abolishment of Jim Crow laws that permitted racial segregation in interstate transportation, and increased employment opportunities for Black Americans tied to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and the entry of the U.S. into World War II.

Black Power Movement, Part 2: The Papers of Robert F. Williams

The Black Power Movement, Part 2: The Papers of Robert F. Williams contains a large amount of material on an influential African American radical leader who advocated armed resistance to racial segregation during the late 1950s and the 1960s. The collection covers Williams's career from his leadership of the Union County, North Carolina, NAACP branch in the 1950s and early 1960s, through his life in exile in Cuba and China between 1961 and 1969, to his return to the United States in 1969, and his continuing activism from the mid-1970s until his death in 1996.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, 1941-1967

Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967 contains significant material on the activities of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to oppose racial discrimination and segregation, as well as to educate and organize blacks into a formidable political force.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Addendum, 1944-1968

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Addendum, 1944-1968 chronicles the development of CORE from the time of its founding until the 1960s when the organization underwent a transition from a commitment to nonviolent action to a militant philosophy of Black Power. The papers span the years from 1944 through 1968, with the largest portion covering the period between 1961 and 1968. The papers include material on the administration of Floyd McKissick--CORE National Director from 1966 until 1968--and extensive documentation of CORE's desperate financial situation, which brought the organization to the brink of collapse in 1965 and 1966. The papers are arranged into seven subgroups, in accordance with the offices and departments by which they were designated. The files in each subgroup and series are generally arranged alphabetically by subject category. Items within each subject file are arranged chronologically by year, month, and day, with undated materials placed at the end of all dated materials.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Chicago Chapter, 1946-1966

Congress of Racial Equality, Chicago Chapter, is a small collection of approximately 4,000 pages within ProQuest History Vault's module Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2. Assembled by the Chicago chapter of CORE, these largely administrative and organizational records span the years 1946 to 1966 with emphasis on the 1960s and the Chicago area; however with Chicago as the birthplace of CORE, and with the sharing of information among its far-flung chapters, the geographic scope extends beyond that city and especially to the American South, as well as the Midwestern and Northeastern States and to African nations. The collection documents the activities of the founding chapter of one of the preeminent American civil rights organizations of the 20th century, from early in its history through the critical period of the mid-1960s.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 1: Western Regional Office, 1962-1965

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 1: Western Regional Office, 1962-1965 provides material on the administration of the Congress of Racial Equality's (CORE) Western Regional office, as well as on CORE efforts in the three critical areas of equal education, employment, and housing opportunity. In 1962, CORE established its Western Regional office in San Francisco to direct into nonviolent channels the burgeoning civil rights activities on the West Coast. By 1965 this office was directing the activities of about 40 local CORE chapters in the Western states and two in Canada (in CORE'S first extension outside the United States).

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 2: Southern Regional Office, 1959-1966

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 2: Southern Regional Office, 1959-1966 presents records of CORE'S Southern Regional Office, spanning the period 1959 to 1966, with most of the material covering the years 1963 to 1965. In 1963, the national office of CORE launched a summer project to promote voter registration and desegregation. The Southern Regional Office was created to oversee this project and to coordinate the work of local CORE chapters in 14 southern states and the District of Columbia. In addition, the Southern Regional Office spearheaded self-help economic projects, community centers, and "Freedom Schools," and played a major role in Head Start Project programs for preschool children.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 3: Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, 1960-1976, Series A: Administrative Files

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 3: Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, 1960-1976, Series A: Administrative Files contains the papers of the executive director of the Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality (SEDFRE), Marvin Rich, in addition to documents from the tenure of Rich's successor, Ronnie Moore. SEDFRE was a fundraising and legal defense arm of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that was also involved in providing scholarships to minority students, organizing black communities, and training black leaders.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 3: Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, 1960-1976, Series B: Leadership Development Files

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 3: Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, 1960-1976, Series B: Leadership Development Files includes the papers of successive executive directors of the Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality (SEDFRE), Marvin Rich and Ronnie Moore. SEDFRE was a fundraising and legal defense arm of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that was also involved in providing scholarships to minority students, organizing black communities, and training black leaders. The focus of this collection of approximately 10,000 pages is the development of a new generation of Black American leaders in civil rights, in community organizations, and in all levels and reaches of American public life and society.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 3: Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, 1960-1976, Series C: Legal Department Files

Congress of Racial Equality Papers, Part 3: Scholarship, Educational and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, 1960-1976, Series C: Legal Department Files contains the papers of CORE general counsel Carl Rachlin. Rachlin's advocacy led to the June 1961 overturn of the convictions of six Freedom Riders who had entered a whites-only waiting room in a Louisiana bus terminal. In addition, Rachlin handled many other cases in which he defended Freedom Riders and other civil rights activists during the 1960s. This collection is notable for its inclusion of a large number of these legal case files.

Midwest Academy (Chicago, Illinois) Records, Heather Booth's Personal Files, 1964 and 1984

Midwest Academy (Chicago, Illinois) Records, Heather Booth's Personal Files, 1964 and 1984 is a small collection of approximately 1,000 pages within ProQuest History Vault's module Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2. The papers were assembled by Heather Tobis Booth, co-founder of the Midwest Academy in Chicago, Illinois and concern in large measure the Mississippi Freedom Summer project of 1964. Documents date to 1964, with a few documents from 1963 and one newspaper retrospective supplement on the Freedom Summer from 1984.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972 contains significant material on the development, activities, and changing focuses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), as well as the civil rights movement as a whole during the 1960s, and the relationships between SNCC and other organizations. The papers provide detailed documentation of the founding of SNCC, the internal workings of the organization, local conditions throughout the South, white resistance to civil rights workers, and SNCC's increasing awareness of international affairs. Most of the papers date from between 1960 and 1968, the period of SNCC's active involvement in the civil rights movement.

The Claude A. Barnett Papers, 1918-1967, Series 2: Africa and Other Foreign Interests, 1925-1966

The Claude A. Barnett Papers, 1918-1967, Series 2: Africa and Other Foreign Interests, 1925-1966 contains approximately 46,000 pages of material on Africa through the perspective of American editor Claude Barnett, the founder of the Associated Negro Press (ANP). The focus of most of the collection material is on political, social, and economic developments in Africa, with an emphasis on the newly gained independence of countries that were former European colonies.