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Roy Wilkins
A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress
Prepared by Allan Teichroew and Paul Ledvina
Revised by Allan Teichroew
1997
Manuscript Division
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents for Roy Wilkins
Collection Summary
Selected Search Terms
* Names:
* Subjects:
* Occupations:
Administrative Information
* Provenance:
* Processing History:
* Transfers:
* Copyright Status:
* Preferred Citation:
Biographical Note
Scope and Content Note
Description of Series
* Correspondence, 1939- 1979, n.d.
* NAACP Files, 1921- 1979, n.d.
* Speeches and Writings, 1943- 1978, n.d.
* Miscellany, 1915- 1977, n.d.
* Addition, 1901- 1980, n.d.
Container List
* CORRESPONDENCE, 1939- 1979, n.d.
* NAACP FILE, 1921- 1979, n.d.
* SPEECHES AND WRITINGS, 1943- 1978, n.d.
* MISCELLANY, 1915- 1977, n.d.
* ADDITION, 1901- 1980, n.d.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Collection Summary
Creator: Wilkins, Roy, 1901-
Title: Papers of Roy Wilkins 1901-1980 (bulk 1932-1980)
Size: 28,200 items; 76 containers; 30.7 linear feet
Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Abstract: Civil rights leader and journalist. Correspondence, memoranda,
diary, manuscripts of speeches, newspaper columns, and articles, subject
files, reports, minutes, committee, board, and administrative material,
printed material, and other papers relating primarily to Wilkins's career
with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
in various positions between 1931 and 1977, especially his service as
executive director (1965-1977).
Selected Search Terms
Names:
Carter, Robert L., 1917- --Correspondence
Current, Gloster B. (Gloster Bryant), 1913- --Correspondence
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963
Evers, Charles, 1922- --Correspondence
Farmer, James, 1920- --Correspondence
Franklin, Chester Arthur, 1880-1955--Correspondence
Hastie, William, 1904-1976--Correspondence
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973--Correspondence
Lampkin, Daisy E. (Daisy Elizabeth), 1882-1965--Correspondence
Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993--Correspondence
Matthews, Charles H.--Correspondence
Mitchell, Clarence M. (Clarence Maurice), 1911-1984--Correspondence
Moon, Henry Lee, 1901- --Correspondence
Morsell, John A.--Correspondence
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913- --Correspondence
Spingarn, Arthur B. (Arthur Barnett), 1878-1971--Correspondence
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972--Correspondence
White, Walter Francis, 1893-1955--Correspondence
Wilkins, Aminda Badeau--Correspondence
Wilkins, Roger W., 1932- --Correspondence
Wright, Herbert L.--Correspondence
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Subjects:
African American newspapers--Sections, columns, etc.
African Americans--Civil rights
African Americans--Education
Newspapers--Sections, columns, etc.
Segregation
Occupations:
Civil rights leaders
Journalists
Administrative Information
Provenance:
The papers of Roy Wilkins (1901-1981), civil rights leader and journalist,
were given to the Library of Congress by Wilkins and his wife, Aminda
Badeau Wilkins, from 1980 to 1988. Additional items were given by Mildred
Bond Roxborough in 1981 and by James E. Nicholson in 1992.
Processing History:
The papers of Roy Wilkins were first arranged and described in 1989.
Additional material received in 1992 was incorporated into the collection
in 1997. A description of the Wilkins Papers appears in Library of Congress
Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1980, pp. 14-19.
Transfers:
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial
divisions of the Library. A sound recording and tape have been transferred
to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.
Photographs and other illustrated items have been transferred to the Prints
and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions
as part of the Wilkins Papers.
Copyright Status:
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Roy Wilkins is
governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
Preferred Citation:
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following
information: container number, Roy Wilkins Papers, Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Biographical Note
Date Event
1901 , Aug.
30 Born, St. Louis, Mo.
1906 Moved to St. Paul, Minn.
1923 A.B., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
1923 - 1932 Journalist and managing editor, Kansas City Call
1929 Married Aminda Badeau
1931 - 1949 Assistant to secretary, NAACP
1934 - 1949 Editor, Crisis
1949 Acting executive secretary, NAACP
1950 - 1955 Administrator, NAACP
1955 - 1965 Executive secretary, NAACP
1965 - 1977 Executive director, NAACP
1969 Awarded Medal of Freedom
1977 Retired
1981 , Sept.
8 Died, New York, N.Y.
Scope and Content Note
The papers of Roy Wilkins span the years 1901-1980, with the bulk of the
items concentrated in the period 1932-1980. Included are a diary,
correspondence, memoranda, appointment books, minutes, reports and other
administrative records, speeches and writings, printed matter, and
miscellaneous material. Although the papers reflect several aspects of
Wilkins's career as a journalist and civil rights leader, their focus is
largely on his role as an administrator in the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he began as assistant to the
secretary in 1931 and served as acting secretary, administrator, executive
secretary, and executive director between 1949 and 1977.
Family letters in the Correspondence series in the collection consist
largely of letters between Roy Wilkins and his wife, Aminda Badeau Wilkins,
and with their nephew, Roger Wilkins. General correspondence spans the
years 1939-1979 and covers many of the principal activities and issues in
which Wilkins was engaged from the onset of World War II to the presidency
of Jimmy Carter. Featured are the inner workings and operations of the
NAACP, Wilkins's relationship to other leaders in the organization,
particularly Walter Francis White, and the broadening movement among
African Americans after 1945 for equal rights in every sphere of American
life. In addition to White, prominent or frequent correspondents include
Robert L. Carter, Gloster B. Current, Charles Evers, James Farmer, C. A.
Franklin, William Hastie, Lyndon B. Johnson, Daisy E. Lampkin, Thurgood
Marshall, Charles H. Matthews, Clarence M. Mitchell, Henry Lee Moon, John
A. Morsell, Richard M. Nixon, Arthur Barnett Spingarn, Harry S. Truman, and
Herbert L. Wright.
The NAACP File contains topical and administrative files as well as
personal material relating to Wilkins's association with the organization.
Among the subjects documented are the civil rights mobilization drive of
1950, an interview Wilkins conducted with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952,
copies of Wilkins's Federal Bureau of Investigation file obtained by him
through a freedom of information request, and controversy surrounding an
unflattering portrayal of Wilkins and the NAACP by Lewis Steel in a New
York Times Magazine of 1968. Significant also are items pertaining to the
relationship of W. E. B. DuBois to the organization, as reflected in
Wilkins's response to an article by DuBois in 1948, and numerous files
pertaining to the NAACP's role in the desegregation and civil rights
efforts of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to state and local matters
within the organization, the NAACP's involvement in improving education for
African Americans nationwide is recorded in various files relating to
schools in Arkansas, California, New York, and other jurisdictions.
The Speeches and Writings series includes drafts and published copies of
articles and newspaper columns by Wilkins, especially "The Roy Wilkins
Column" released nationally by the Register and Tribune Syndicate and
columns he wrote for the New Amsterdam News. Also in the series is an
extensive file of speeches Wilkins delivered around the country in the
cause of equal rights between 1946 and 1978.
Contained in a small addition to the collection are a few items of
correspondence, a diary Wilkins kept in January and February 1935, the
handwritten text of a speech he delivered to the Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., on 28 January 1969, and additional
writings.
Description of Series
Box Series
BOX Correspondence, 1939 - 1979 , n.d.
1-11
Letters sent and received by Wilkins with enclosures.
Divided between family and general correspondence. Family letters
are arranged alphabetically by person and chronologically
therein. General correspondence includes letters of both a
personal and official nature and is organized chronologically by
year and alphabetically therein. Daily mail sheets which register
the writer and purpose of incoming letters are included for some
years of the general correspondence.
BOX NAACP Files, 1921 - 1979 , n.d.
12-35
Correspondence, minutes, and reports; committee, board, and
administrative material; financial records, itineraries, and
travel expense sheets; office notes and messages; procedural
memoranda, statistical data, subject files, and other material
pertaining to the NAACP and related organizations.
Arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material.
BOX Speeches and Writings, 1943 - 1978 , n.d.
35-63
Notes, outlines, drafts, and near-print and printed copies of
Wilkins's speeches, talks, statements, newspaper columns, and
articles with related matter such as correspondence and
background data. Also includes an incomplete bibliography, a
speech and engagement calendar, and a television script by
Wilkins.
Organized alphabetically by type of presentation and therein
chronologically.
BOX Miscellany, 1915 - 1977 , n.d.
63-71
Personal subject files, financial records, certificates and
citations, and printed and near-print matter pertaining to
Wilkins and his association with the NAACP, and related
organizations.
Arranged alphabetically by type or subject of material.
BOX Addition, 1901 - 1980 , n.d.
72-76
Appointment books, a diary, correspondence interviews, research
notes, writings, and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
Container List
Box Container
CORRESPONDENCE, 1939 - 1979 , n.d.
BOX 1 Family
Wilkins, Aminda Badeau (wife), 1943-1973
Wilkins, Nellie G. (stepmother), 1952-1963
Wilkins, Roger (nephew), 1947-1976, n.d.
Wilkins, William D. and Mayfield (parents),
1944-1955
General
Daily mail sheets
1957
1974-1978
(4 folders)
BOX 2 1939, 1943-1949
(8 folders)
BOX 3 1950-1952
(5 folders)
BOX 4 1953-1956
(5 folders)
1957
A-L
(2 folders)
BOX 5 M-Z
1958-1959
(2 folders)
1960
A-G
(2 folders)
BOX 6 H-Z
(3 folders)
1961-1962
(3 folders)
BOX 7 1963-1966
(5 folders)
BOX 8 1967-1971
(5 folders)
BOX 9 1972-1974
(3 folders)
1975
A-L
BOX 10 M-Z
1976
(2 folders)
1977
A-G
BOX 11 H-Z
(4 folders)
1978-1979, n.d.
(3 folders)
NAACP FILE, 1921 - 1979 , n.d.
BOX 12 Affiliations and honorary membership lists, n.d.
Alabama, 1957-1965
American Council on African Education, 1949-1960
American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa, 1968-1971
Annual conventions, 1967-1977
Annual reports
1974
(2 folders)
1976
(1 folder)
BOX 13
(1 folder)
1978
Arkansas
Clippings re Little Rock, 1957
Faubus, Orval, 1958
General, 1957
Sharecroppers, 1921
Atlanta Compromise School Plan, Atlanta, Ga.
(3 folders)
BOX 14 Baxter, Julia, report on black history, 1963
Biographical data on Wilkins, 1928-1970, n.d.
Black Expo '71, 1971
Bluefield, W. Va., 1960
Board of Directors
Attendance reports, 1953-1971
Elections
1965-1969
(6 folders)
BOX 15 1970-1971
(2 folders)
1974
General
1944-1962
(5 folders)
BOX 16 1963-1967
(5 folders)
BOX 17 1967-1970
(6 folders)
BOX 18 1970-1977
(6 folders)
BOX 19 Membership list, 1966
Boston, Mass., branch, 1960
Budget Committee
1950-1962
(10 folders)
BOX 20 1972-1976
(5 folders)
Busing, 1972
(2 folders)
California school conditions, 1965
(1 folder)
BOX 21
(1 folder)
Christmas seals, 1960
Civil rights bills, 1957-1959, 1964
(3 folders)
Civil rights mobilization, 1950
Council of Federated Organizations, 1964
Committee on Branches and Youth Work, 1972
Committee on Campus Unrest, 1971
Committee on Pension Survey, 1973
Committee on Tenure
1970-1971
(2 folders)
BOX 22 1972
Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco, Calif.,
1957
Communism, 1950
Constitution of the NAACP, proposed, 1945
Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, 1963-1964
Crisis magazine and NAACP finances, 1932
Desegregation
Armed forces, 1948
Education, 1964-1966
DuBois, W. E. B., "My Relations with the NAACP," response
to, 1948
Edwards, Isadore, resignation from board, 1973
BOX 23 Eisenhower, Dwight D., interview, 1952
Employment applications, 1974-1975
Employment statistics
European tour, 1965
Federal Bureau of Investigation file, freedom of
information data on Wilkins
File A, 1945-1957
(2 folders)
BOX 24 File B, 1958-1974
(2 folders)
File C, 1963-1969
Fair Employment Practice Committee, 1946-1950
(2 folders)
Financial statements
1957-1958
BOX 25 1959-1972
(6 folders)
Ford Foundation, 1972
Freedom Candy Project, 1959-1960
Freedom House Award, 1967
Friends of the LBJ Library, 1971-1976
(2 folders)
Housing discrimination, 1968-1971
Itineraries, Wilkins
1964-1970
BOX 26 1971-1977
Kellar, Doris, dismissal case, 1938
Kilpatrick, James J., 1962-1969
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 1952, 1975
(2 folders)
Legal Committee, 1963
"The Legal Strategy of the NAACP in the Area of
Education," by Gertrude Schwartz Ress, 1957
Lewis, Cyrus, Jr., 1959-1960
Magnolia, Miss., rape case, 1957
Membership fee change, ballots, 1970
Memoranda, reports, and miscellaneous organizational
records
1955-1962
(4 folders)
BOX 27 1963-1978, n.d.
(4 folders)
Minority businesses, 1975
Minority hiring plans, 1969-1972
Mississippi, 1957
Moore, Henry T., 1952
Movies and television, 1942-1958
National Black Political Convention, 1972
BOX 28 National Urban Coalition, 1970-1974
Negro newspapers, lists, 1957
Negro troops, World War II, 1948, n.d.
New England Mutual Life Insurance Co., 1958
New York
Governor's Judicial Nominating Committee, 1975
State Commission on Education, 1962
State Committee on Judicial Conduct, 1974
(3 folders)
Nonprofit housing program, 1968-1969
BOX 29 Office notes, messages, and miscellaneous calling cards
and fragments, 1952-1977, n.d.
(3 folders)
Organizational and Procedural Survey, Lennon/Rose Co.,
1963-1965
(2 folders)
Publicity, 1959-1976
Reorganization plan, 1955
Reparations to black Americans, 1969-1970
Republican convention and Richard M. Nixon, 1960
Retirement
Official correspondence, 1976-1977
Public response
1976
BOX 30 1977
(2 folders)
Riverdale Children's Association, New York, N.Y.,
1948-1953
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1949-1950
Savage, Phillip, 1971
Senate filibuster rule, ca. 1956-1960
(2 folders)
BOX 31 South African visit, 1972
(2 folders)
Special Contribution Fund, 1964, 1975-1978
(2 folders)
Special greetings
Illness, 1976
Seventieth birthday, 1971
Seventy-fifth birthday, 1976
Steel, Lewis, dismissal, 1968
(3 folders)
BOX 32 Stevenson, Adlai E. (1900-1965), 1952
Taconic Foundation, Assessment Project, 1963
(2 folders)
Task Force Committee on Economic Advancement and Civil
Rights, 1964
Testimony re nomination of labor secretary Peter Brennan,
1976
Travel expenses, Wilkins
1958-1969
(4 folders)
BOX 33 1970-1977
(3 folders)
Union negotiations, 1946-1966
(3 folders)
BOX 34 Virginia laws, 1954-1957
White, Walter F.
Return to duty, 1949-1950
Syndicated column
1946-1951
(6 folders)
BOX 35 1952-1954
(3 folders)
Zale Award, 1973
SPEECHES AND WRITINGS, 1943 - 1978 , n.d.
BOX 35 Bibliography (incomplete), 1956-1969
Articles and essays
America, 1951
American Magazine, 1951-1952
Association Press, 1943
Atlantic Monthly, 1958
Bankers Magazine, 1969
Cardinal, 1964
Catholic Inter-Racial Review, n.d.
Congress Bi-Weekly, n.d.
Controversy Magazine, 1969
Crisis, n.d.
Debate and Understanding, 1975
BOX 36 Democratic National Committee handbook (Rex
Stout), 1944
Ebony, 1970
Freedomways, 1964-1965
Harvard Law Review, 1974
Instructor, 1952
Interracial Review, 1947
Journal of Negro Education, 1945
Kansas City Star, 1948
Look, 1969
McCall's, 1964
NAACP, 1945, 1972, n.d.
Negro Digest, 1946, 1964
New Amsterdam News, 1950
New York Herald Tribune, 1945-1954
New York Times, 1943-1972
Newsweek, n.d.
100 Years of Emancipation, by Robert A. Goldstein,
1963
Picture Magazine, 1944
Saturday Review, 1964
Scholastic Magazine, 1965
Seventeen, 1965-1969
Articles and essays
United States Information Service, 1969
What the Negro Wants, by Rayford Logan, 1944
Womans Press, 1946
Yale Political Review, 1963
Unidentified, 1943-1971, n.d.
BOX 37 Miscellaneous printed copies, 1943-1974, n.d.
Book file
"Search and Destroy," 1971-1972
(2 folders)
Newspaper columns
New Amsterdam News
Chronological index of columns, 1963-1967
Clippings, 1962-1969
Column re Adam Clayton Powell (1908-1972),
1966-1970
Correspondence, 1962-1971
Drafts
1962-1963
(2 folders)
BOX 38 1964-1969
(6 folders)
BOX 39 1970-1971
(2 folders)
Pay statements, 1962-1966
Register and Tribune Syndicate
Clippings
1964-1968
(3 folders)
BOX 40 1969-1971
(2 folders)
Correspondence
Business, 1964-1978
(3 folders)
Public mail
With replies, 1965-1976
Without replies
1965
BOX 41 1966-1969
(6 folders)
BOX 42 1970-1977
(6 folders)
Drafts
Jan. 1964-June 1965
(2 folders)
BOX 43 July 1965-Mar. 1967
(6 folders)
BOX 44 Apr. 1967-Sept. 1968
(6 folders)
BOX 45 Oct. 1968-June 1970
(7 folders)
BOX 46 July 1970-Sept. 1971
(5 folders)
BOX 47 Oct. 1971-Mar. 1973
(6 folders)
BOX 48 Apr. 1973-Mar. 1975
(6 folders)
BOX 49 Apr. 1975-June 1976
(5 folders)
BOX 50 July 1976-Dec. 1978
(5 folders)
Reprinted selections
"The Watchtower"
Clippings, 1947-1949
Correspondence, 1943-1948
Drafts, 1944-1947
BOX 51 Speeches and statements
Speech calendar and other engagements, 1955-1967,
1975
(2 folders)
Invitations to speak, declined
Jan. 1965-Aug. 1967
(4 folders)
BOX 52 Sept. 1967-Dec. 1976
(8 folders)
BOX 53 Drafts
1946-1956
(6 folders)
BOX 54 1957-1959
(6 folders)
BOX 55 1960-1962
(6 folders)
BOX 56 1963-1964
(4 folders)
BOX 57 Jan. 1965-Mar. 1966
(6 folders)
BOX 58 Apr. 1966-Apr. 1968
(6 folders)
BOX 59 May 1968-May 1971
(6 folders)
BOX 60 June 1971-Jan. 1973
(7 folders)
BOX 61 Feb. 1973-Dec. 1974
(8 folders)
BOX 62 Jan. 1975-June 1976
(7 folders)
BOX 63 July 1976-Dec. 1978
(4 folders)
Television script, 1974
Undated, unidentified, and fragmentary, ca. 1950-1977,
n.d.
MISCELLANY, 1915 - 1977 , n.d.
BOX 63 409 Edgemont Avenue group, New York, N.Y., 1948-1951
Awards and citations, ca. 1950-1977, n.d.
BOX 64 Bank statements, 1957-1964
(2 folders)
Calendar, reunion program of class of 1915, and draft
cards, 1915, 1942-1943, 1949
Half Moon Hotel and Cottage Colony, Jamaica, 1970-1971
Insurance and other financial papers, 1946-1977
Near-print reports, 1947-1969
Printed matter, ca. 1940-1975
(2 folders)
BOX 65
(5 folders)
BOX 66
(5 folders)
BOX 67
(4 folders)
BOX 68
(4 folders)
BOX 69
(6 folders)
BOX 70
(3 folders)
BOX 71
(2 folders)
ADDITION, 1901 - 1980 , n.d.
BOX 72 Appointment books
1959-1963
(5 folders)
BOX 73 1964-1968
(5 folders)
BOX 74 1969-1973
(5 folders)
BOX 75 1974-1976
(3 folders)
Awards, certificates, citations, and tributes, 1901-1978,
n.d.
BOX 76 Correspondence, 1946-1980, n.d.
(2 folders)
Diary, 1 Jan.-5 Feb. 1935
Interviews, writings, research notes, 1918-1969, n.d.
Printed matter
Clippings and press releases, 1960-1978
Conference and speech programs, 1952-1978
Speech, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Washington,
D.C., 1969
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