Scope and Content Note
The papers of Frederick Douglass Patterson (1901-1988) span the years 1861-1988, with the largest group of materials dating from the period after 1965. The collection is composed of the personal papers of Patterson, third president of Tuskegee Institute and founder of the United Negro College Fund. They largely reflect his career following his retirement from Tuskegee in 1953 and highlight his efforts to preserve and develop historically Black institutions of higher learning. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, reports, organizational records, printed materials, writings and speeches, notes, clippings, memorabilia, and other miscellaneous items.
The Correspondence series of the Patterson Papers contains separate groupings of personal and general correspondence. Included in the personal correspondence are felicitations regarding Patterson's election to the presidency of Tuskegee Institute in 1935, his White House Private Sector Initiative Commendation in 1982, and his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan in 1987. A few family letters from the early 1930s are also contained in this portion of the file. Items in the general correspondence include communications with organizations and individuals concerned with education, educational administration, business, fund-raising, and government.
The greatest concentration of materials in the Patterson Papers is found in the Subject File. The papers in this series cluster chiefly around Patterson's association with the Robert Russa Moton Memorial Institute and the College Endowment Funding Plan. Established by Patterson in the late 1950s in memory of his father-in-law and second president of Tuskegee Institute, the Robert Russa Moton Memorial Institute provided financial planning and training for historically Black colleges. Operating under the auspices of the institute was the College Endowment Funding Plan, devised by Patterson to endow small, poorly financed Black colleges, thereby securing their long-term stability. The file pertaining to the College Endowment Funding Plan traces the development of this program throughout the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the passage of legislation that established federal matching grants for Black colleges. The materials document Patterson's work with educational administrators, financial officers, and government officials. Prominent correspondents include Caspar W. Weinberger, Willa B. Player of the United States Office of Education, and Congressman, later Senator, Paul Simon.
Other papers in the Subject File relate to the latter years of Patterson's tenure as president of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, a foundation devoted to improving housing and educational opportunities for African Americans and other disadvantaged people. Franklin H. Williams, Patterson's successor, is a prominent correspondent in the papers relating to the fund. A key file pertains to education in Africa, including a handwritten journal of Patterson's travels through Nigeria in 1953-1954 inspecting educational resources on behalf of the International Bank Commission. Materials relating to Tuskegee Institute in the Subject File reflect Patterson's continued interest in the school and include extensive correspondence with his successor as president, Luther H. Foster. Also present are brief items relating to aviation and low-cost housing at Tuskegee, as well as a sizable file concerning the institute's veterinary medicine school. Patterson's interest in Robert Russa Moton and botanist George Washington Carver is also exhibited in the Subject File. A typescript draft of a biography of Moton is among various biographical materials found in the file. Patterson served as executor of Carver's estate and participated in various memorials recognizing his achievements. The file contains copies of Patterson's speeches honoring Carver. Also included are transcripts of oral history interviews with Patterson conducted in 1980 and 1981 for the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the United Negro College Fund.
The Clippings File consists of newspaper clippings and magazine articles from the late 1930s through the 1970s, which Patterson annotated and organized according to a detailed classification system. Topics treated include civil rights, desegregation, regional education, the South, higher education, philanthropy, and other related issues. Also included are a significant group of draft and printed copies of Patterson's writings and speeches, as well as notes relating to various topics. Other writings and speeches not included in this classification scheme are located in the Miscellany series.
The Miscellany series holds, among other materials, a collection of personal clippings relating to Patterson's career and his work with the College Endowment Funding Plan. Included also are draft and print copies of speeches and writings by Patterson, as well as a small group of his published articles among the printed matter. Other materials include certificates, biographical data, telegrams, and memorabilia.
Prominent or frequent correspondents include Robert L. Clayton, Nathaniel Sextus Colley, E. Roland Harriman, Patricia Harris, Matthew Jenkins, Maida Springer Kemp, Benjamin E. Mays, Henry Lee Moon, Ponchitta Anne Pierce, Hollis F. Price, and Robert Ogden Purves.