The records of the National Urban League span the years 1900-1988, with the bulk of material dating from 1930 to 1979. The records chronicle the organization's community-based work to secure for African Americans equal access to employment, education, health services, housing, and social services. The collection includes correspondence, minutes of meetings, speeches, reports, conference material, surveys, statistical data, financial and legal records, scrapbooks, printed material, and other records and is arranged in seven parts. The first three parts document the activities of the national office and its relationship with affiliate leagues. Although each of these parts spans broad chronological periods, the records in Part I are concentrated in the 1930s and 1950s, Part II focuses largely on the period from 1956 to 1966, and Part III centers on the years 1967-1979. Parts IV and V document the activities of the organization's Washington, D.C., office that lobbied for legislation and served as a liaison between the league and federal agencies. Parts VI and VII contain the records of the league's Southern Regional Office. Each part is described in more detail below.

Part I

Part I of the records of the National Urban League spans the years 1908-1964, with the bulk of material dated 1930-1939 and 1948-1960. [1] Although documentation is sparse for the league's first decades, Part I documents much of the organization's early work to provide "survival services," facilitate the migration of blacks from rural to urban areas, implement the training of black social workers to assist in such transitions, and promote interracial cooperation and goodwill. It is arranged in fifteen series: Administration Department , Community Services Department , Housing Activities Department , Industrial Relations Department , Public Relations Department , Research Department , Vocational Services Office , Urban League Fund , Conferences and Conventions , Related Organizations , Minutes of Meetings , Miscellany , Printed Matter , Scrapbooks , and Addition .

1. Arthur I. Waskow states in the preface to his book, From Race Riot to Sit-in (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1966), that league personnel destroyed many files in the mid-1950s when the National Office was moved to a new location.

Records in Part I are arranged largely by department. Each department includes a General Department File that provides data concerning its administration and activities and an Affiliates File that contains correspondence between department directors and branch executives. In addition, each Affiliates File contains memoranda, executive directors' reports, branch reports, statistical material, and community surveys. These surveys, which were prepared from statistical material and notes contained in the Research Department's field research material, detail urban conditions in the black community, focusing especially on overpopulation, crime, juvenile delinquency, inadequate housing and health facilities, and the effectiveness of community agencies in solving these problems.

The Administration Department series contains seven subseries that date largely after 1945 and provide fragmented documentation for the period 1910-1940. The General Department File subseries provides much material on finances, particularly financial aid granted by foundations and private funds, and chronicles difficulties blacks had during the Depression with relief distribution, social security payments, and with equal treatment under Work Projects Administration (WPA) codes. A special report submitted to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the WPA is located in the file entitled "President's memorandum, 1937." The post-1940 material explores such matters as Lester B. Granger's chairmanship of the United States Committee of the International Conference of Social Work, the league's struggle for total integration in employment and housing in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and budgetary problems.

The Internal Departments File and Regional Offices File subseries contain correspondence between the Administration Department and other departments. These files define the relationship between the departments as well as the relationship of the Urban League Fund and the National Office, as well as the financial-sharing agreement between the National Office and the Urban League of Greater New York. Information in the Regional Offices File documents the operation and responsibilities of each office (Southern and Western), the status of the affiliates in their districts, proposed new programs, and the reasons for program alterations.

The Special Projects File records an attempt to enlist the support of organized religious in a file grouping labeled "church and community relations." Here also are the papers relating to the Taconic Foundation Project that publicized many of the league's achievements in a special supplement to the New York Times and in about forty Negro-owned and oriented papers.

A group of personal papers of Lester B. Granger completes this series. These papers are an excellent source for Granger's speeches, articles, editorial comments, radio statements, commentaries on social work, and his unpublished autobiography. The personal correspondence consists mainly of invitations, records of financial contributions, engagements, and other items of personal interest.

The Community Services Department series includes requests for United Community Defense Services' support for program development, project files relating to efforts to generate interest in the league's child-adoption program, and information on the threat posed to the organization by White Citizens' Councils in the 1950s.

The Housing Activities Department series includes an Urban Renewal Institute File that details problems accruing from urban renewal and its impact on inner-city blacks. Moreover, the file reflects a growing concern for adequate federally sponsored urban renewal plans, local relocation support plans, judgments on location of renewal sites, and housing supply for all concerned families. The briefs that form an integral part of the series treat exhaustively the problem of Negro population and housing in urban areas, relocation plans for dispossessed families, and the number of new housing units available.

Some of the earliest material in Part I is located in the Industrial Relations Department and Public Relations Department series. The Industrial Relations Department , founded in 1925, grew out of efforts to raise the living standards of African Americans by increased work opportunities provided through cooperating business firms. The General Department File for this department contains material describing special projects carried on in cooperation with the Workers' Bureau. The Public Relations Department series has information on the organization's growth during the 1920s and also includes biographical information on a variety of individuals, including league personnel.

The Research Department series contains interview data and statistical information on many social and cultural aspects of Negro life and urban issues. The Community Relations Project File concerns the league's survey of twelve cities to discover basic solutions to problems contributing to racial unrest. The National Defense Program File deals with the effective use and fair treatment of black labor in war industries. The Early Survey File documents discrimination in employment, education, labor unions, and housing.

The Vocational Services Office series contains the Vocational Opportunity Campaign's scrapbook-reports and reflects the various types of educational campaigns waged by the league. Also documented are field trips, the activities of the Southern Field Division, and referrals of black professionals in the previously all-white job market.

Papers relating to annual conferences are separately arranged and form part of the Conferences and Conventions series. The Annual Conference File , composed of correspondence from various departments, primarily records the procedures for organizing each annual conference and contains conference speeches, reports, statements, and transcripts of remarks.

The Minutes of Meetings series chronicles the activities and discussions of the executive board pertaining to program initiation and development, installation of officers, the budget, and the development of ways to popularize the work of the organization. Audit reports and other types of financial statements are scattered throughout these minutes. The executive secretary's reports, summarizing league accomplishments for the previous year, also appear in the minutes of each annual meeting.

Following the Miscellany series, which is largely composed of material generated by other organizations, are Printed Matter and Scrapbooks series that add significantly to an understanding of the league's operations and accomplishments. The Printed Matter contains affiliate publications, newsletters, and special surveys, many dating from the affiliates' early years. It also contains league publications such as Opportunity for the years 1924-1928 and many volumes of Secretariat and Jottings .

The Scrapbooks contain pamphlets and publications such as bibliographies prepared by the Research Department, announcements, newspaper clippings, photographs, carbon copies of reports, fact sheets, press releases, and correspondence. The scrapbooks are available only on microfilm (shelf no. 20,735).

Correspondents in Part I include Dana C. Creel, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Abram Lincoln Harris, Frank Horne, Charles Hamilton Houston, Henry Kissinger, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., A Philip Randolph, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Elmo Roper, Anson Phelps Stokes, Channing H. Tobias, Harry S. Truman, Robert L. Vann, Forrester B. Washington, Walter Francis White, and Roy Wilkins.

Part II

Part II of the National Urban League Records dates from 1951 to 1968, with the bulk of material concentrated in the period 1956-1966. The records span the last years of Lester B. Granger's twenty-year tenure as executive director, 1941-1961, and the first five years of Whitney M. Young's decade-long directorship, 1961-1971, a time of organizational transition coinciding with broad changes in the civil rights movement. Part II is arranged in eight series: Administration Department File , Community Services Department File , Personnel and Training Department File , Program Department File , Public Relations File , Annual Conference File , General Miscellany File , and Printed Matter .

The Administration Department File series is arranged in five subseries: General Department File , Regional Offices File , Affiliates File , Lester B. Granger Papers , and Whitney M. Young Papers . The General Department File comprises the correspondence of Granger and Young and that of Alexander Joseph Allen, who headed the Administration Department. It documents many aspects of the league's partnerships, affiliations, and outreach with other organizations, institutions, foundations, and the federal government, as well as its fund-raising activities. Featured within the subseries are files relating to the March on Washington in 1963 that trace the evolution of the league's position on the march through correspondence with the event's organizers, most notably A. Philip Randolph. Also included in the General Department File is material relating to the Community Action Assembly that was organized by the league in December 1964 as a three-day conference of civil rights leaders on newly established poverty programs. Records in the Regional Offices File and Affiliates File subseries reflect Young's efforts to strengthen the relationship between affiliates and the national office. As part of a reorganization, the number of regional offices expanded from two to five during this period. Washington Bureau correspondence is filed in the Regional Offices File . A small cache of Lester B. Granger Papers contains correspondence from the year 1960, the last full year of his tenure as executive director. The Whitney M. Young Papers consist largely of correspondence pertaining to his speaking engagements. Texts of his speeches, writings, and interviews can be found in the Public Relations File series.

The Community Services Department File series spans the period from 1958 to 1962. Included are a General Department File and an Affiliate File documenting the league's community services activities, particularly those related to children and youth programs. The department was abolished in 1961 and subsumed under the Program Department.

The Personnel and Training Department File series houses correspondence between the department and regional and affiliate offices concerning training and staffing needs, including staff recruitment, hiring, and reassignments.

The Program Department, created in 1961 as part of a reorganization of the national office, assumed responsibility for many of the league's programs and initiatives. Included in the Program Department File are subseries related to those programs, some of which appear as separate department series in Part I. Program-related subseries include the Education and Youth Incentives File , Health and Welfare File , Housing Activities File , Job Development and Employment File, and a Special Programs file that features material relating to the Urban League Youth Community and Secretarial Training Project . Remaining subseries include an Affiliates File and the papers of Reginald A. Johnson , longtime league director of housing.

The Publicity File series contains material pertaining to many of the league's activities and programs. The General Department File documents the league's sponsorship of conferences and meetings, as well as its media outreach to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. A large press release file chronicles league activities from 1960 to 1967. A Speeches Articles, and Interviews subseries contains speeches and writings of league officials, including Nelson C. Jackson, Mahlon T. Puryear, and Whitney M. Young. A Special File subseries focuses on the organization's photographic America's Many Faces Project and its Voter Education Project, 1964-1965. The final subseries contains material submitted by affiliates and regional offices for the league's annual report.

The Annual Conference File series covers conference years 1961-1965 and includes correspondence and financial records detailing planning events. Typed transcripts are available for many of the conferences, and a speech file contains distribution copies of speeches delivered throughout the conferences. Reports include planning material as well as program reports presented during meetings.

General Miscellany represents a catch-all series of miscellaneous league material including manuals, scrapbooks, and financial records. Lists of affiliates, board members, and fund-raising activities are included.

Like the Publicity File , the Printed Matter series provides an overview of league activities on national, local, and regional levels. Included are affiliate publications such as annual reports, newsletters, program pamphlets and booklets, meeting and conference programs, manuals, and studies. National office publications feature annual reports, department publications, conference material, programs, manuals, and reprints of speeches and articles. Also included in the series is printed matter produced by other civil rights and social welfare organizations and by federal and state governments. Much of this material was used by the league as background research, including a large body of printed matter utilized by the National Health Survey. Completing the series is a news clipping file comprising brief news references to the organization as well as in-depth coverage of affiliate and national league activities and national conferences.

Part III

The third installment of records of the National Urban League span the years 1918-1986, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1967-1979. These records primarily document the latter years of Whitney M. Young's tenure as executive director, 1961-1971, and nearly all of the administration of Vernon E. Jordan, 1972-1981. Included are correspondence, office memoranda, proposals, reports, speeches, press releases, contracts, financial records, organizational charts, directories, manuals, publications and other printed matter, minutes of meetings, awards, mailing lists, drawings, radio transcripts, and other original and secondary materials.

At the 1968 annual meeting in New Orleans, Young unveiled his New Thrust initiative. A departure from the league's traditional strategy of removing individual barriers, New Thrust sought to build the internal strength and power of the black ghetto and accelerate the process of racial integration. This new direction emphasized social change rather than social service. This installment of league records documents the objectives, proposals, successes, and failures of the New Thrust movement proposed by Young in 1968, yet left mostly to his successor, Vernon E. Jordan, to implement over the following decade.

Like most older, well-established organizations involved in social change and civil rights activism during that period, the league underwent a near-constant evolution in both its programming and administration. During the twelve-year period covered by the records of Part III, it experienced several administrative reorganizations. In meeting the new directions and expanded obligations of New Thrust, some existing programs and offices remained intact while others were periodically merged, abolished, shifted, and sometimes split. For the purpose of assimilating these accessions into a coherent collection, however, the records were arranged into series generally following the organizational chart issued by the league's executive director in May 1975 (see Container 282, folder 5) . The records are organized into series that reflect their provenance based on the administrative departments and divisions that created them. There are five series of National Urban League administrative files, one series of personal papers, and one series of records stemming from a private, unaffiliated organization.

Existing documentation for league offices and programs in Part III is somewhat uneven. While the records transferred from some offices appear to be substantial, documentation for other offices or programs is either nonexistent or meager. During processing by Library staff, those files that could not be associated with an appropriate office or program were added to those of the Administrative Division of the Executive Office.

The Administrative and Public Affairs Department consists of the Communications and Personnel Departments . Files of the Communications Department focus on the years 1968-1980 and are primarily publicity records, such as press releases, speeches, and materials documenting the league's annual conferences, called Delegate Assemblies. James D. Williams was director of the Communications Department. Records of the Personnel Department relate to staff salaries, training, and retirement benefits and span the years 1961-1983. Manuel A. Romero was director of personnel.

Seven offices were under the administrative umbrella of the Community Development Department. The Administration of Justice office was responsible for prison reform, corrections officer training, and various projects funded by the United States Department of Justice to increase recruitment and hiring of minorities in law enforcement. Initially called Law and Consumer Affairs, the Administration of Justice was under the direction of Robert L. Woodson. The Administrative Division records, 1968-1977, encompass the general office files of the Community Development Department , including records of its director, Betti Scott Whaley. Records of the Family Planning Project cover the period 1965-1975. The project began in 1968 with a grant to improve the delivery of family planning services in Albany, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; and San Diego, California. John C. Randolph was the project director.

The Health Division files , 1968-1974, are subdivided programmatically. The enrichment of community health programs provided technical assistance to neighborhood health centers funded by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The evaluation of consumer health programs office monitored programs in several affiliate cities. The national consumer health section provided training and educational support for advisory personnel of local health planning boards. Ruth Aikens was director of the Health Division. Records of the Housing Division were created primarily between 1970 and 1977 and document minority housing and transportation programs, but they also include some topical reports produced between 1947 and 1954. Also included are records of urban renewal demonstration projects in several affiliate cities. Glenn A. Claytor served as director.

The Minority Aged Services Training Institute (MASTI) was established in 1975 as the successor to the minority aged project. Funded with a grant from the federal Administration on Aging, the purpose of the institute was to offer technical assistance in carrying out the provisions of Titles III and VII of amendments to the Older Americans Act of 1965. Barbara A. Cowan was director of MASTI. Records of the Youth Development Division span the years 1964-1973 and primarily concern the student summer program and other affiliate programs that encouraged youth involvement in league governance. The division, originally called the youth program, was headed by Ronald Harmon Brown and primarily focused on arranging summer internships. The youth program was replaced by the black student summer program, with Leroy C. Richie as its director.

The Economic Development Department encompassed six offices or programs. The Black Executives Exchange Program , founded with financial support from the Ford Foundation in 1969, arranged visiting professorships for black executives to lecture minority students in colleges and universities. The exchange program, directed by Nancy L. Lane, is documented only with correspondence for the years 1970-1972. The Citizenship Education Program , directed by Weldon J. Rougeau and funded by private grants, sought to encourage voter registration and to increase minority participation in local community governance, especially in small and medium-sized cities outside of the South. The records cover the period 1970-1975. The Labor Education Advancement Program was funded by contracts with the Department of Labor to recruit minority youth and prepare them for apprenticeship positions in the construction industry. Napoleon B. Johnson was director of the program. The records span the years 1961-1976.

The on-the-job training program was developed by the league and funded by the Department of Labor to seek out and train unemployed minorities. Kenneth K. Lein was coordinator from its beginning in 1964 until it ended in 1973. When the program was replaced by projects funded by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, the name was changed to Manpower Development and Training Office . Emory N. Jackson and George P. Dawson were directors. The records document programs for the period 1965-1977. The Military and Veterans Affairs Division was begun in 1967 with grants from private foundations to assist minority servicemen and veterans having problems with employment, housing, education, and health and welfare benefits. Directors were Lewis C. Olive, Jr., and William H. Edward. The school and industry project is documented from its inception in 1970 through 1975. Its purpose was to prepare inner-city high school students for careers that did not require college degrees. The project was under the direction of Curtiss Jackson.

Nearly half the records in Part III were maintained by the nine offices or programs of the Executive Office . Files of the Administrative Division , comprising about a quarter of the part, span the years 1934-1986 and contain information on nearly all offices and programs of all divisions within the national office. Information on family planning, for example, can be found in files of the Administrative Division of the Executive Office, as well as in records of the family planning project of the Community Development Department .

By 1979 the National Urban League operated affiliate offices in 116 cities throughout the United States. The Affiliate files focus on the period 1970-1982, but also include reports produced by the New York City affiliate office in the 1930s and 1940s. Additional information on affiliate operations can be found in the records of the vice presidents for field operations, Adolph Holmes, Clarence D. Coleman, and Clarence N. Wood.

Records of the Contract Administration Division include legal and financial material from 1961 to 1978. Elizabeth LeC. Stubbs, contract administrator, was responsible for monitoring and maintaining contracts made by the organization with private foundations, corporations, and government agencies.

The annual conferences of the league's membership, the Delegate Assemblies , are documented for the years 1961-1977. The conferences were held in major cities and featured workshops, meetings, and keynote addresses by the group's president and prominent civil rights leaders. The assemblies were organized by the Conferences Department, headed by Howard F. Mills.

The National Urban League Development Foundation was founded in 1970 as a private, nonprofit corporation to assist local affiliates in providing housing for minorities. It was managed by a board of directors drawn from the membership of the housing committee of the league's board of directors. William A. Ross, executive vice president, served as director of the foundation until it was dissolved in October 1975.

Records of the General Counsel relate to the legality and financial viability of National Urban League contracts and proposals generated between 1952 and 1975. Counsels represented in these records include Arthur Q. Funn, Ronald Harmon Brown, and Donald M. Thomas.

The Presidential Files include records of executive directors and presidents who served from 1962 to 1981, Whitney M. Young, Harold R. Sims, Vernon E. Jordan, and Donald Henry McGannon, chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1974 to 1978. In 1977 the Board of Trustees changed the title of executive director to president and that of president to chairman of the board.

The National Urban League operated five regional offices (Eastern, Mideastern, Midwestern, Southern, and Western) and a bureau in Washington, D.C. In 1975 the Mideastern and Midwestern regions were merged into a single regional office in Chicago known as the Central Regional Office. The Washington Bureau was renamed the Department of Government Affairs in 1972. Cernoria D. Johnson was its director. In a 1979 reorganization the Department of Government Affairs and the Research Department, also located in Washington, D.C., were consolidated in a single unit called Washington Operations and the director, Ronald Harmon Brown, was elevated to vice president. Brown was succeeded by Maudine Rice Cooper in 1980.

To Be Equal columns were subscription articles written by the executive directors on social, economic, and civil rights issues in which the league had an interest. Columns for the years 1965-1982 and a list of titles are included.

Records documenting the National Committee on Household Employment (NCHE) from 1970 to 1979 form a separate series. The NCHE was founded in 1965 to organize household workers and to promote enforcement of federal minimum wage laws on their behalf. In 1977, with the assistance of a Ford Foundation grant, the National Urban League affiliated with the NCHE to establish the household employment project. Anita Bellamy Shelton, executive director of the NCHE, became executive director of the joint project. Records of the NCHE include files of the national office, regional offices, and local affiliates.

The papers of longtime employee Ann Tanneyhill that came with league records have been incorporated into the collection as a separate series. Beginning in 1930 until her retirement in 1981, Tanneyhill served as director of vocational guidance, assistant director for public relations, and director of conferences. Included in her papers are writings, awards, and biographical information. Also included are pen and ink drawings by Oliver W. Harrington and transcripts of radio broadcasts made between 1941 and 1945 by Langston Hughes and other prominent African Americans to encourage minorities to support the war effort.

The Research Department , based in Washington, D.C., was responsible for conducting research on social and economic issues affecting racial minorities to provide background information for congressional testimonies, speeches, position papers, and publications. Its records cover the period 1918-1972, with the bulk of the material produced between 1950 and 1966. Like the Administrative Division of the Executive Office, the Research Department collected material from offices throughout all divisions of the organization. Of particular importance are annual reports, 1922-1950, and records of annual conferences from 1935 to 1972. As noted previously, the Research Department was consolidated in 1979 with the Washington Bureau to form a single unit under the direction of Ronald Harmon Brown, vice president for Washington Operations.

Part IV

Part IV of the records of the National Urban League consists of records of the league's Washington Bureau. Although Part IV dates from 1961 to 1967, only the years 1961-1966 are thoroughly represented. Included are letters received and carbons of letters sent supplemented with copies of letters and memoranda, the originals of which were retained by the national office, plus memoranda, reports, personnel data forms, lists, charts, bulletins, news releases, articles, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and photographs.

The National Urban League opened the Washington Bureau in December 1961. Prior to this date, the bureau's functions were handled by the staff of the league's Washington affiliate.

Under the directorship of Cernoria D. Johnson, a former executive director of the league's Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, affiliate, the bureau provided the league with current information on legislation pending in Congress, lobbied government agencies, arranged meetings with government administrators and members of Congress, and supplied government personnel with league literature. Among other essential duties, the Washington Bureau acted as a clearinghouse for jobs available in government agencies, arranged travel reservations and accommodations for league officials, and served as a consultant to the national office on government statistical data.

Correspondence with the national office staff comprises nearly half of the General Office File . Correspondence with federal administrators and members of Congress indicates a continuing interest by the league in promoting programs designed to stimulate equal employment opportunities.

The Correspondence File series consists of carbons of letters sent, copies of which are also included in the General Office File. Job descriptions and applications used primarily to fill available government positions are housed in the Personnel Referral File series. League press releases, including Whitney Young's column, To Be Equal, make up a small Publicity File series. The Resource and Information File contains reference literature on government programs, league projects, meetings, conferences, staff meetings, and special workshops attended by the bureau's staff.

Prominent figures represented in Part IV include Charles C. Diggs, Paul H. Douglas, Philip A. Hart, Edward M. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, A. S. Mike Monroney, Adam Clayton Powell (1908-1972), and Harrison Williams.

Part V

Part V of the records of the National Urban League consists of records of the organization's Washington Bureau (later the Office of Washington Operations) and spans the years 1963-1985, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1974-1985. These records primarily document the tenures of Ronald Harmon Brown, 1973-1979, and Maudine Rice Cooper, 1980-1983, as director of the Washington Bureau and vice president for Washington Operations. Included are correspondence, office memoranda, proposals, reports, speeches, press releases, photographs, contracts, financial records, organizational charts, directories, manuals, league publications and other printed matter, minutes of meetings, awards, mailing lists, and other original and secondary materials.

The records of Part V reflect the reorganization of the National Urban League in 1979 that had been authorized by the Board of Trustees the previous year. The Research Department and the Washington Bureau were brought together administratively under the newly created office of vice president for Washington Operations. The Research Department and Washington Bureau retained their respective names, however, and maintained separate offices five blocks apart in downtown Washington, D.C. Robert B. Hill continued to serve as director of the Research Department. The vice president for Washington Operations, Ronald Harmon Brown, also served as director of the Washington Bureau.

In 1972, the name of the Washington Bureau had officially been changed to Department of Government Affairs, although the office continued to be referred to unofficially as the Washington Bureau. After the 1979 reorganization, the Washington Bureau became the Policy Unit of the Office of Washington Operations on a par with the Research Department. Even then, the name Washington Bureau continued to be used by some. Eventually, the Policy Unit name was dropped as the name Washington Operations took hold and became synonymous with the old Washington Bureau. In the records of Part V, the name Washington Operations was sometimes used in reference to the original Washington Bureau, exclusive of the Research Department, and at other times to refer to the office of the vice president for Washington Operations, including the Research Department.

Although the records in Part V are those of Washington Operations, they comprise only the records of the former Washington Bureau. Records of the Research Department can be found among the records of the national office of the league.

The Washington Operations office served as the primary public policy advocate for the league. Founded in December 1961, Washington Operations monitored and analyzed federal legislation, administrative guidelines, and public policy decisions, and also sought to influence decision-makers on behalf of the poor and other minorities. Another function of the office was the gathering and sharing of information among affiliates and regional offices and among public and private organizations. The office maintained close relationships with such groups as the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Black Media Coalition, Congressional Black Caucus, National Housing Conference, and the National Center for Consumers of Legal Services.

The Correspondence File contains incoming and outgoing letters and office memoranda and attachments primarily with directors Ronald Harmon Brown and Maudine Rice Cooper. Much of the correspondence is with the national office, particularly with its executive director, Vernon E. Jordan, and concerns administrative and personnel matters, speaking engagements, and testimony before Congress and other government bodies.

The General Office File includes incoming and outgoing correspondence, office memoranda, conference materials, minutes of meetings, notes, proposals, reports, photographs, and printed matter. Much of this material concerns monitoring and analyzing proposed congressional legislation, the regulatory activities of federal agencies, and the funding and administration of federal grant programs. Also in this series are records concerning the development of cooperative strategies with other lobbying organizations. A particularly well-documented issue was a proposal by the Office of Management and Budget to limit the influence of organizations that lobby Congress. Also in the General Office File are administrative housekeeping records, such as mission statements, annual reports, financial records, and personnel material.

The Publicity File contains incoming and outgoing correspondence, office memoranda, press releases, testimony, printed matter, reports, and newsletters. Most of the records in this series are booklets, pamphlets, and unpublished papers prepared by staff of the Office of Washington Operations and other league offices on a variety of social and political topics, including the federal budget, poverty, racism, housing, employment, welfare, education, parenthood, and civil rights. The Washington Operations office issued several newsletters and various press material to disseminate information to its constituents and to legislators. Among these were Legislative Alert , News from the Washington Bureau , Point/Counterpoint , Congressional Digest , Press Release and Discussion Paper . Also in this series are publicity material issued by the national office, such as News from the National Urban League and News from the National Urban League Conference .

Part VI

Part VI of the records of the National Urban League consists entirely of records from the Southern Regional Office (SRO) and spans the years 1912-1979. It includes letters sent and received, telegrams, memoranda, notes, articles, and speeches. Also included are two collections of papers of former directors that contain segments of their working files and other papers prior to the time they came to work for the organization. The records in Part VI are most numerous for the years 1943-1961; none have been received for the years 1965-1970. The relatively few records for the years 1919-1941 may reflect the small staff of those years and the embryonic state of the administrative structure, which consisted only of a director and a secretary.

The records of the SRO are broad in scope and reflect in varying degrees the growth and development of local affiliates in such cities as Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Richmond, Tampa, and Winston-Salem; the response of local affiliates to the needs of the African American community; difficulties in staffing affiliates with qualified personnel; the relationship of administrative and other departmental personnel in the national office to the staff of the SRO; the evolution and value of industrial and vocational programs planned by the national office; employment trends among blacks in the South; budgetary considerations concerned primarily with financing national programs; the Atlanta School of Social Work; and documentation of various programs and projects in community and economic development generated during the 1970s.

The SRO records for the early years show the concern of the national office over the continuing migration to the North of African Americans, exacerbating the already overcrowded housing and the high rate of unemployment in urban areas; the initiation of advisory committees to investigate conditions in black communities in the South and to formulate programs to reduce racial tension; and the involvement of the SRO with Emergency Advisory Councils that helped African Americans qualify for relief during the Depression.

For the period 1919-1943 the records of the SRO relate mainly to the activities of Jesse O. Thomas, whose primary concern was setting up and staffing local affiliates in the South. Relying mainly on his contacts with established African American organizations, Thomas traveled throughout the region to convince their leaders of the advantages of affiliating with the league. One such benefit was financial support from local Community Chests. The extent to which the SRO influenced the southern white community to accept the objectives of the league, namely, raising the living standards of African Americans by improving their health, education, and employment opportunities, is not well documented for this period, but financial operations are reported in detail. As a member of the Tuskegee Association, Thomas was able to influence its members to promote programs that nominally came under his control. On the other hand, his part-time activities on behalf of the Tuskegee Association were criticized by the Atlanta branch in 1925.

After World War II began, the SRO, in conjunction with the national office, confined its activities to research. Plans to investigate adverse working conditions of black Americans in defense plants and other research and investigation projects designed to disclose conditions of racial unrest in communities where large numbers of African American veterans would be returning were given priority at this time.

In 1946 Nelson C. Jackson, a specialist in community organization, accepted the position as director, succeeding Franklin O. Nichols and William Y. Bell, successors of Jesse O. Thomas. With Jackson as director, efforts were made to enlarge the SRO staff and increase the activity of the office in preparing programs designed to promote community organization, education, and job opportunities for blacks in the South.

For the period 1946-1961, correspondence and reports filed by Harry L. Alston, Clarence D. Coleman, George L. Edwards, Nelson C. Jackson, and Mahlon T. Puryear detail the discrimination in employment in the Atomic Energy Commission plants at Paducah, Kentucky, and Pike County, Ohio, and the SRO's effort to secure more employment at these installations for African Americans with blue collar and white collar skills. The records for the postwar period also attest to the league's efforts to upgrade employment among the young through a vocational guidance program— Tomorrow's Scientists and Technicians" (created to channel youth into the sciences)— and through active solicitations of industrial corporations to participate in "Career Day," a recruitment program for black colleges. Statistics on African American employment, housing, and welfare benefits, based on community grants, are in the records as well.

There is some documentation of the adverse effects on league affiliates of the propaganda by White Citizens' Councils and similar groups throughout the 1950s. Correspondence and printed matter illustrate the methods used by these groups. A favorite strategy, that of linking the local affiliate with Communist-front organizations, usually influenced a segment of the community to endorse proposals denying the affiliate full participation in the Community Chest. Although this tactic frequently failed, a number of local affiliates were forced by the unfavorable publicity to curtail programs designed primarily to generate and increase employment opportunities for blacks.

The General Office File series identifies other matters with which the SRO was concerned in the postwar period. These include studies to interest middle- and upper-income black families in adopting less fortunate African American children; a joint undertaking by the league and the United States Navy to recruit blacks; active support of Southern Advisory Committees (groups that advised local governments of the needs of the African American community); support of efforts to boycott retail merchants who discriminated against African Americans; and affiliation with the Atlanta Committee for Cooperative Action, a group of black business and professional men dedicated to civic progress and integration in Atlanta.

The Projects and Programs File contains correspondence, proposals, contracts, reports, and miscellaneous material relating to the SRO and its local affiliates' involvement in the economic development programs of the 1970s. Most of these records, which cover the years 1973-1979, concern the Minority Highway Construction Contractors Project, specifically in the states of Florida, Georgia, and Texas; and the programs emanating from the Office of Manpower Development and Training/Office of Program Development and Training. Other projects and programs treated in this series include Black Executive Exchange Program, Labor Education Advancement Program, Minority Business Opportunity project (see especially the files on the Greene County Alabama Urban League), the Regional Forum project, and the Women in Non-Traditional Jobs program.

The remaining series in Part VI largely supplement the subject content in the General Office File . The Speech and Article File , consisting of articles by Jesse O. Thomas, William Y. Bell, and Nelson C. Jackson, contains much information about black communities throughout the South from the 1920s to the 1950s. The material includes dramatic personal illustrations of the effects of segregation, such as the disparity between the quality of education in white and black institutions, lynchings, unfair treatment of African Americans in courts, and other matters of concern to the minority community. Emphasis shifts from the regional to the national level after 1950, for the files consist largely of copies of articles and speeches by Lester B. Granger, the league's executive secretary, and other members of the national office staff.

The Financial File provides information about the operating expenses of the SRO. Included are bank and other statements relating to the budget as well as travel and other expenses incurred by the staff.

The Printed Matter file and Miscellany round out what are considered to be the administrative papers of the organization. The Printed Matter file, in the subsection entitled "National Urban League," contains annual reports of the league, bulletins and reports from local affiliates, and a large number of publications generated by the national office and affiliates.

The final series consists of small but significant personal papers of former SRO directors Jesse O. Thomas and Nelson C. Jackson prior to their affiliation with the league. The Thomas Papers cover the period 1916-1918, when Thomas was principal of the Voorhees Normal and Industrial Institute in Denmark, South Carolina, and the years 1918-1919, while he was employed under George Edmund Haynes in the New York Office of the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Negro Economic Affairs. There is no material from 1912-1916, when Thomas was field secretary for Tuskegee Institute.

Thomas's correspondence in the Principal's Office file deals primarily with the problems of running a small African American institution in the South, especially those related to staffing, curriculum, financing, and discipline. The Office File of the Labor Departments' Bureau of Negro Economic Affairs, which covers his years as a state supervisor and examiner in charge of the New York City Employment Service, consists almost wholly of correspondence. The communications show how Thomas tried to resolve complaints made not only by black wage earners, but also by white employers about racial friction. Thomas's skill in organizing interracial committees to help crystalize community sentiment in favor of upgrading African Americans in the labor force—and consequently lending more support to the war effort— s also reflected in this file.

The personal papers of Nelson C. Jackson contain correspondence, reports, studies, memoranda, surveys, and miscellaneous material. They concern his work with the New Jersey Relief Administration, the creation of a syllabus on community organizations for the Atlanta School of Social Work, and his World War II work for the Social Protection Division of the Federal Security Agency.

Prominent correspondents in the collection include Harry L. Alston, Claude Barnett, Blanche A. Beatty, William Y. Bell, Mary McLeod Bethune, Clarence D. Coleman, George L. Edwards, Lester B. Granger, George Edmund Haynes, T. Arnold Hill, Albon Holsey, John Hope, C. B. Hosmer, Nelson C. Jackson, Eugene Kinckle Jones, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., J. R. E. Lee, Benjamin E. Mays, Robert Russa Moton, A. J. Neely, Franklin O. Nichols, Guichard Parris, Mahlon T. Puryear, C. C. Spaulding, Ann Tanneyhill, Jesse O. Thomas, Forrester B. Washington, L. Hollingsworth Wood, Monroe Nathan Work, and Whitney M. Young.

Part VII

Part VII of the records of the National Urban League also consists of material from the Southern Regional Office. It spans the years 1900-1988, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1970-1978, and documents primarily the last four years of Clarence D. Coleman's tenure as regional director, 1970-1974, and the first four years of his successor, Clarence E. Thomas. Included are correspondence, office memoranda, proposals, reports, speeches, press releases, photographs, contracts, financial records, organizational charts, directories, manuals, league publications and other printed matter, minutes of meetings, awards, mailing lists, and other original and secondary materials.

Part VII is broad in scope, reflecting the overall mission of the regional office to provide technical assistance and support services to local affiliates, to organize new affiliates, and to influence public and private policies on issues of concern to its constituents. Through correspondence, memoranda, and reports, the records of Part VII also document the implementation of an organizational plan for regional offices that was recommended by the national office in a 1969 management study. For the most part, the records of Part VII illustrate the variety and expanse of special projects undertaken by the affiliate offices of the southern region. They are organized into an Affiliates File and a General Office File .

The Affiliates File includes incoming and outgoing correspondence, office memoranda, reports, financial records, printed matter, contracts, and other records of the twenty-seven affiliate offices of the southern region as well as records received from some affiliates in other regions. The files generally contain copies of publications issued by the affiliate, financial audit records created by the national office, and records of on-site evaluations made by the regional office staff. Also in the Affiliates File are contract maintenance records of local projects funded by grants from the labor education advancement program and Comprehensive Employment Training Act. Programming done by the affiliate offices and represented in these files covers housing, voter education, nutrition, career training, crime prevention, and other areas of social concern.

The General Office File contains incoming and outgoing correspondence, office memoranda, reports, minutes of meetings, notes, statistical data, photographs, and printed matter. Included are subject files on social, economic, and political issues monitored by the regional office, such as health education, employment training, minority contracting, disaster relief, voter education, and community empowerment. There are considerable records on the labor education advancement program and the women in nontraditional jobs project. Also in the General Office File are administrative housekeeping records, such as mission statements, annual reports, financial records, and some personnel material.

Photographs in the collection document programs sponsored by the regional office and affiliate offices, including conferences, workshops, new building dedications, alumni reunions, Equal Opportunity Day dinners, black elected officials, and disaster relief work. Also included are portrait photographs of officials and staff of the Southern Regional Office, the national office, and some affiliates.

By 1972, during the latter years of Clarence D. Coleman's directorship, the supervisory roles and functions of the Southern Regional Office staff partly reflected the organizational concept for regional offices that had been recommended by the national office. Three functional areas had been identified: administration, program, and project management.

The administration area encompassed general matters relating to management of regional office personnel, budgets, conference arrangements, office management, contracts, and public relations. Most of the administrative functions of the Southern Regional Office were the responsibility of Kenneth Bronstorph M. Crooks, deputy director. Diana A. Ellison was responsible for public relations and fund-raising. C. Mumford was in charge of research, and Harvey J. Kerns was responsible for new affiliate development.

Providing programs that met the needs of local affiliates by promoting community organization, education, and job opportunities was the very core of the regional office's mission and its most visible function. Under Coleman, the overall direction of programming at the Southern Regional Office was supervised by four assistant directors who reported to the deputy regional director. R. Lyle was responsible for economic development and employment. Health and welfare programs were directed by Felton S. Alexander. Education programming was coordinated by the deputy director, Kenneth Bronstorph M. Crooks. The assistant director responsible for housing programs was B. Gruber.

Project management encompassed special projects, mostly grant-funded, that were managed by the regional office and usually subcontracted to local affiliates for implementation. These included the minority officers' enrollment assistance project, Education Policy Information Center, allied health project, Rural Development Center, minority business opportunities project, Project Employ, and the labor education advancement program, among others.

In October 1974, after having served twelve years as regional director, Coleman was selected to be deputy executive director for field operations in the national office in New York City. Clarence E. Thomas was appointed to be Coleman's successor as the new southern regional director by league executive director Vernon E. Jordan. Thomas had been director of the Midwest Regional Office in St. Louis since 1971, and prior to that deputy director since 1965. Records of Thomas's tenure as regional director reflect several functional changes and personnel reassignments to bring the regional office further into compliance with the organizational plan that had been recommended by the national office in 1969. Kenneth Bronstorph M. Crooks continued as deputy director. Reporting to him were four assistant regional directors: Felton S. Alexander, for health and social welfare programs; Harold E. Barrett, for economic development and employment programs; Diana A. Ellison, for research and communications; and Heman Marion Sweatt, for housing programs. Crooks was responsible for education programs.