Scope and Content Note
The papers of Charl Ormond Williams (1885-1969) span the years 1924 to 1959, with the bulk of the materials concentrated in the period 1935-1945. The collection consists of letters sent and received, memoranda, lists, telegrams, pamphlets, newspaper items, magazine articles, notes, charts, reports, and printed material. The papers are organized into eight series: Democratic Souvenir File, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt Memorial Library, Harry S. Truman, White House Conference on Rural Education (1944), White Conference on How Women May Share in Post-War Policy-Making (1944), and Miscellany.
Williams sought to strengthen public education and increase opportunities for women, and these subjects constitute the principal themes in her papers. There are materials on welfare legislation, rural education, proposals for a federal department of education, school segregation, effects of the Depression on education, and related issues. Additional subjects include the separation of church and state, employment of the handicapped, Native Americans, the 1937 Supreme Court packing plan controversy, and the plight of displaced persons resulting from World War II.
Correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt constitutes a major portion of the collection. Other prominent correspondents include Alben William Barkley, Mary Ritter Beard, Mary McLeod Bethune, Hugo LaFayette Black, James F. Byrnes, Tom Connally, James Forrestal, William A. Hastings, Cordell Hull, Herman Kahn, Virginia Kletzer, Clare Boothe Luce, Henry Morgenthau (1891-1967), Henry Lester Smith, Margaret Chase Smith, Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), Bess Wallace Truman, Henry A. Wallace, Caroline S. Woodruff, and other members of the Roosevelt family.