Japanese Americans

Maryann Mahaffey Papers

srafferty — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 09:34:02 -0500

Maryann Mahaffey was born on January 18, 1925 in Burlington, Iowa to Kent and Margaret ‘Nell’ [Widener] Mahaffey. Mahaffey’s older brother was also named Kent. While she was attending Cornell College, she decided to spend the summer of 1945 working as a Recreation Director at Poston Internment Camp in Arizona. This work had a profound effect on Mahaffey in regard to fighting against discrimination and helping people in need.
After obtaining masters degrees in social work from the University of Southern California, Mahaffey and her husband moved briefly in Indianapolis before moving to Detroit. Mahaffey worked with organizations like Young Woman's Christian Association (YWCA), Girl Scouts of America, Merrill Palmer Institute, and Brightmoor Community Center before becoming involved in local politics.
After working as a consultant to the Mayor of Detroit on parks, recreation, and social services, Mahaffey initiated and chaired the Mayor's Task Force on Malnutrition and Hunger before running for Wayne County Commissioner in 1970. Though she did not win the election for this position, she did win a Michigan Supreme Court case setting a legal precedent for married women running for public office with their maiden name. In 1973, Mahaffey ran for Detroit City Council and won, she served on the city council until 2005.
Active outside of her council work, Mahaffey also taught as a Professor at Wayne State University School of Social Work as well as participating in many social work and positive social force organizations. She played important roles in the Michigan Social Work Council, National Association of Social Workers (NASW) including being their first elected female President, and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW). Mahaffey also focused heavily on organization promoting peace, women in politics, health, and equality.
Mahaffey was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2005 and passed away on July 27, 2006 due to health complications.

This collection contains materials with a heavy emphasis on the city of Detroit, as well as social work and social service organizations.
From Mahaffey's numerous decades on the Detroit City Council, there are detailed notes, correspondence, and reports relating to the daily work was involved in including city budget, casinos, an anti-surveillance ordinance, housing, and many other subjects of focus. This collection also contains materials related to her teaching at Wayne State University including detailed information on social service organizations in Metro Detroit. Other important elements of this collection relate to her experience working at Poston, the many organizations Mahaffey played an active role in running and organizing, and the speeches, testimony, and writing she did covering the broad range of her experience and interests.

Wayne University Admissions Office and Acting Registrar Records

cwesterman — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 16:14:50 -0400

The Admissions Office and Acting Registrar Records consist of documents concerning incoming veteran students. Enrollment listings, correspondence, reports, statistics, admission interviews, and studies comprise the majority of the records. Two folders relate to the admission and enrollment of relocated Japanese-American ("Nisei," meaning "second-generation") students at Wayne State during World War II.

After the passage of the G.I. Bill in 1944, Wayne University received an influx of incoming veteran students. Dr. Leslie L. Hanawalt was the Acting Registrar and Director of Admissions of Wayne University at this time. In his 1968 book A Place of Light: The History of Wayne State University, he writes about the veteran period: “The body of veteran students that enrolled in American colleges after World War II has often been written about. At Wayne University several generalizations are remembered: the veterans were too numerous and came upon the campus too rapidly; everyone felt an interest in them and desired to help them with counsel and special programs, if necessary; a good many of them were married; they were on the whole patient and easy to deal with; and they performed well as students, on the average probably better than if their formal education had not been interrupted by the war. For the most important fact about them was that they were two or three years older than the average student; they were often clearer about what they wanted, more serious, more used to working, more strongly motivated. These characteristics combined to make the veteran period a bright spot in academic history.”

Nisei students were relocated to Detroit with the aid of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council and enrolled beginning with the fall 1943 semester. In the summer of 1943 there were five non-evacuee Japanese American students at Wayne State, by the fall of 1943 there were thirteen enrolled Nisei students, and by the winter 1944 semester there were thirty-five relocated Nisei students enrolled.

The Relocation of Japanese American Students to Wayne University during World War II

Public Relations Team — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 14:49:15 -0400

The following is a guest post by Devin Erlandson, recipient of the Ronald Raven Annual Award and the Summer 2014 intern for the Wayne State University Archives.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which excluded all people of Japanese ancestry from living on the Pacific coast. Of the 127,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast, 112,000 were sent to internment camps. 2,000 Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans with American citizenship) were uprooted from colleges and universities—their academic future was suddenly very uncertain.

The National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, worked to relocate and resettle Nisei students at Midwestern and East Coast colleges and universities. One such institution was Wayne University. read more »

(28282) Ethnic Communities, Japanese, Detroit, 1956

eclemens — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:12:14 -0400

A group of Japanese-American students are taught modern dance during a class at the International Institute.

(28283) Ethnic Communities, Japanese, Detroit, 1946

eclemens — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:13:51 -0400

Two young women, names unknown, are identified as “Nisei” - a term used to identify children born to Japanese people in a country other than Japan.

Podcast: "She Never Gave Up on This City:" Remembering Firebrand Detroit City Councilwoman Maryann Mahaffey

teller — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 10:36:35 -0500

Labor and Urban Affairs archivist Shae Rafferty shares how Maryann Mahaffey's college summer job as recreation director at the Poston Japanese internment camp in Arizona in 1945 strengthened her resolve to fight against discrimination and help those in need later in her career in social work. read more »