Desegregation

AFT Inventory Part I Records

dgolodner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:07 -0400

Contains Series I, III, IV, VI.

Series I Presidents department, 1920-1964 4W-B-8(1-6), 4W-B-7(9)
Series III Executive Council, 1916-1980 4W-B-7(6-9)
Series IV Defunct Locals, 1916-1958 4W-B-7(3-6)
Series VI Old correspondence with locals, 1914-1940s 4W-B-7(1-2) 4W-B-6(9)

Papers consist of correspondence, ballots, proceedings from meetings, clippings, local finances, per capita reports, charter applications. Subjects include integration, federal works programs, loyalty oaths, academic freedom, federal aid to education, communist issues. read more »

AFT Affiliate St. Louis Teachers Union Local 420 Records

dgolodner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:08 -0400

The St. Louis (Missouri) Teachers Union was organized in 1935 by Paul W. Preisler, as
the Teachers Union of St. Louis and St. Louis County. Its jurisdiction extended over
these separate political entities in order to include members from Washington University.
In 1944 the name of the local was changed to Teacher’s Federation of St. Louis and St.
Louis County. Its 1948 merger with Local 680, St. Louis Vocational Teachers’ Union,
extended Local 420’s jurisdiction to include “all eligible teachers in St. Louis and St.
Louis County including vocational and college teachers.” By 1962 its name had been
shortened to St. Louis Teachers Union. The St. Louis Teachers Union experienced great growth between 1961 and 1963, during which period its membership grew from 81 to 1,417. Membership grew in the 1970s after the AFT became sole bargaining agent for teachers and with the inclusion of paraprofessionals and support staff, but internal disputes and unsuccessful strikes led to many resignations and a decline in membership in 1968 and 1976.

Part I of this collection contains office files of the AFT local representing the teachers of St. Louis, Missouri. Correspondence, clippings, minutes, press releases, and other materials dealing with such topics as tenure, desegregation, educational standards, membership drives, and collective bargaining by teachers. Several of the files consist of the records of Betty Finneran as a vice-president of the AFT.

Part II of this collection contains material created or used by Betty Finneran and reflect her activities as well as activities of the union as a whole. Finneran served as president, secretary, and treasurer of Local 420 and founded the Retiree Chapter. Local 420 subjects include a dispute with the Missouri Federation of Teachers, raiding between Local 420 and the local National Education Association chapter, internal disputes among board members, organizing and elections, and desegregation of St. Louis schools. Outside of Local 420, Finneran was involved with the St. Louis Coalition of Labor Union Women and other women's rights efforts.

AFT Inventory Part II Records

dgolodner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:07 -0400

Contains Series VIII-XIII. read more »

Series VIII State publications, 1950s-1963
Series IX, miscellaneous materials 1935-1964
Series X communications to locals, 1934-1963
Series XI memos and mimeographed materials, 1921-1964
Series XII Locals, 1914-1960s 4W-B-5 (1-3) 4W-B-4(5-9)
Series XIII AFT conventions, 1916-1967

AFT Local 231: Detroit Federation of Teachers Records

dgolodner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:08 -0400

This collection has union newspapers, correspondence, reports, convention material, proceedings, minutes, flyers, brochures and other materials related to the growth of the DFT. Issues in these papers are Bradly v. Milliken, class size, desegregation, collective bargaining, strikes and salaries

Ann Arbor Teachers Association Records

dgolodner — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:55:45 -0500

Ann Arbor Teachers Association was formed in 1911 as a teachers club and later in 1921 affiliated with the National Education Association. The collection contains information that reflect the operation of the association with minute books from the association to its’ participation with the Michigan Education Association. The collection contains interesting information on Michigan legislation, bussing of schoolchildren and the relationships with the parent-teacher organizations.

Charles Cheng Papers

dgolodner — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 11:36:18 -0500

Charles Cheng was an activist for education and the civil rights movement whose life was cut short when he died on May 25, 1979 when American Airlines flight 191 crashed after takeoff from O’Hare Airport. He was 42 years old.

He was born on February 23, 1937 raised on the east side of Detroit. After graduating from Eastern Michigan University, Cheng became a teacher in Pontiac, Michigan. He left teaching to become an organizer for the Michigan Federation of Teachers and soon became the assistant to the president of the Washington Teachers Union Local 6 in Washington DC.

Charles attended Antioch Graduate School of Education earning his masters degree in Education, then he attended Harvard Graduate School for Education to receive his Ed.D in 1975. While in Boston, Mr. Cheng was a research associate at the Center for Urban Studies at Harvard as well as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University Joint Center for Urban Studies. Mr. Cheng ended up at the University of California, Los Angeles as an assistant professor in the Department of Education where he became a leading authority on community participation in collective bargaining in public education.

Cheng wrote and spoke constantly about the idea that the community should be involved with the collective bargaining in public education. Cheng was very active as well with desegregation, starting in the 1960s when he attempted to desegregate the Pontiac, MI public schools, he was on a task force in Boston, consulted in Pasadena and was a citizen member for the Los Angeles Unified School District Desegregation Plan. Cheng’s interests also included racial justice, the teaching of the history of Asian-American and Native-Americans.

Robert E. DeMascio Papers

srafferty — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 09:04:46 -0500

Robert E. DeMascio, a Detroit lawyer, was appointed to the U.S. District Court Eastern Michigan District in 1971. He served as a U.S. District Judge from this time, until his death in 1999. During his tenure as a Judge he worked with bankruptcy law, including serving multiple committees relating to bankruptcy legislation and the Judicial Conference's Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System. Notably, Judge DeMascio was assigned the Bradley v. Milliken case on school desegregation in Detroit Public Schools. DeMascio worked on this case from 1975 until 1980, creating court ordered improvements to the school system. He also established the Monitoring Commission, to audit the implementation of court ordered changes to the schools.

Merle Henrickson Papers

drice — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:22:40 -0400

Merle Henrickson served as president of United Public Workers Local 275 of Detroit in the late 1940's. From the 1940s through the 1980s, he was involved
with the neighborhood and community councils of Detroit, particularly the Brightmoor
District Council. He was a major figure in the citizen movement to improve public
schools in Detroit and as such, he was deeply involved in school desegregation in the 1970s. His wife, Wilma worked for 15 years in Detroit Public Schools and was active in the same city and community associations as her husband. She was a prolific writer, her works including Detroit Perspectives, a compendium of Detroit history that she edited.

Part 1 of Henrickson's papers include material on the United Public Workers, United Office and Professional Workers, Michigan CIO Council, CIO Political Action Committee, and the Greater Detroit and Wayne County Industrial Union councils.

Parts 2 and 3 reflect both Merle and Wilma's work and activities in Detroit schools and communities.

Damon J. Keith Papers

drice — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:20:02 -0400

Judge Damon Keith served in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Keith delivered several landmark rulings in civil rights and civil liberties cases and played an active role in various civic, cultural and educational associations, including the Detroit YMCA, the United Negro College Fund, and the Detroit National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He is the recipient of the NAACP’s Springarn Medal, the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award, the Edward J. Devitt Award for Distinguished Service to Justice, and over thirty honorary degrees. Judge Keith’s papers document important milestones in his career, his precedent-setting judicial decisions, his role in ensuring equal justice for all Americans, and the many honors and awards bestowed upon him for his dedication to civil rights and to the City of Detroit.

Wade H. McCree, Jr. Papers

drice — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 13:55:18 -0500

Wade Hampton McCree, Jr. began his career as a lawyer in the Detroit law firm of Harold E. Bledsoe and Hobart Taylor. He later served on the state’s Workmen’s Compensation Commission and as a judge in the county and U.S. court system. During his tenure on the bench, McCree took part in a number of school desegregation cases iand as the government’s lawyer, he argued a number of significant cases before the Supreme Court. He resigned in 1977 to accept appointment as U.S. Solicitor General in the Carter administration. In the last few years of his life, McCree taught law at the University of Michigan, and consulted on various cases and served as Special Master for the U.S. Supreme Court in cases in which it exercised original jurisdiction. Judge McCree’s professional, educational, civic and charitable activities were many and he was the recipient of numerous honors and awards.

His papers contain his personal and professional correspondence, speeches and writings, voluminous case files, including his notes and opinions, meeting minutes, publications and other material relating to his service on the bench and as the federal government’s chief lawyer as well as his work on professional committees and his involvement with a wide range of civic, fraternal and charitable organizations.

Richard McGhee Papers

drice — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:36:31 -0500

Richard McGhee worked for various Detroit, Michigan, and national cultural, civil rights and political organizations. His papers largely reflect his active participation in groups fostering integration of Detroit's schools and neighborhoods through cultural programs and policy-community relations.

Fay O'Hare Papers

srafferty — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 09:20:44 -0500

Fay O'Hare was a Detroit attorney who was heavily involved in Detroit education from the late 1960s through the 1980s. Her involvement included work with the High School Study Commission, Coalition for Peaceful Integration, Detroit Education Task Force, and Coleman Young's Mayor-elect Task Force. In addition to this, she worked on the Monitoring Commission, established to audit the court ordered changes and improvements to Detroit Public Schools as a result of the Bradley v Milliken case. These papers contain meeting agendas, notes, reference materials and publications relevant O'Hare's work, as well as a small amount of material on women's issues and equality.

UAW Recreation Department Records

drice — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:28:42 -0500

The UAW Recreation Department originated as a program of the Education Department which it separated from at the 1939 Convention. Their records reflect the activities of the department in achieving desegregation of the National Bowling Congress, operating camps for Union members' children, encouraging local programs, and managing the Deprived Areas Recreation Team (DART).

African Americans and the UAW

mosmith — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:53:30 -0500

The Reuther Library celebrates African American History Month with a brief review of the important role that African Americans have played in the formation and growth of the United Automobile Workers of America (UAW), one of the most powerful unions in American history, and the influence of black UAW members within the polity of Detroit. read more »

Bradley v Milliken Desegregation Collections

srafferty — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 12:50:19 -0500

This fall we have processed two new collections that add to the history of desegregation efforts in Detroit schools. These collections highlight the disparate perspectives represented in archives, where pieces of evidence can be assessed together to gain a deeper understanding of events in the past.

Attempts to desegregate Detroit Public Schools, particularly the court case Bradley v Milliken during the 1970s and 1980s, were very controversial endeavors. read more »

Collection Spotlight: Wade McCree's contribution to Detroit and the nation

ljones — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:37:16 -0500

The Walter P. Reuther Library continues to celebrate Black History Month by highlighting the life of Wade McCree and his papers.

In his work as a judge, appointed official, and educator coupled with his sense of civic responsibility, Wade Hampton McCree, Jr. made a unique contribution to the Detroit metropolitan area and beyond. His success in these areas are noteworthy by themselves, but even more so given the barriers to success experienced by African Americans read more »

Detroit's Walk to Freedom

eclemens — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 22:48:12 -0400

This Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we recall Detroit's Walk to Freedom, described by Dr. King as “one of the most wonderful things that has happened in America." Dr. King led the march and shed light on the status of African Americans in northern industrial cities. Organized by the Detroit Council on Human Rights (DCHR), the Walk to Freedom was the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation’s history. Its purpose was to speak out against segregation and the brutality that met civil rights activists in the South while at the same time addressing concerns of African Americans in the urban North: inequality in hiring practices, wages, education, and housing. The date of the march, June 23, 1963, was chosen to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1943 Detroit Riots in which 34 people, the majority of them African American, were killed. read more »

Records of Jewish Community Council Reveal Mid-Century Concerns and Actions on Social and Racial Justice

aergas — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 09:30:45 -0500

A lesser-known, and maybe surprising, source for historians and researchers looking at 20th-century race relations in Detroit are the Jewish Community Council Records, part of the Jewish Community Archives at the Reuther Library.

This large collection documents grassroots discussions and actions in Detroit’s Jewish community and the wider urban community particularly from the 1940s to the 1970s. read more »

(37293) U.S. District Court Monitoring Commission assessment schematic

srafferty — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 11:40:43 -0500

A flowchart created by the U.S. District Court Monitoring Commission to determine the process of assessing Detroit schools delivery of court-ordered programs

[Podcast] Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World

teller — Thu, 22 May 2025 08:35:39 -0400

Dr. Matt Kautz explores how evolving school disciplinary practices, changes in crime reporting, and political pressure in the decades following school desegregation led to the rise of student suspensions, expulsions, dropouts, and the school-to-prison pipeline in Detroit and other cities. read more »