A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of BLACK STUDIES RESEARCH SOURCES Microfilms from Major Archival and Manuscript Collections General Editors: John H. Bracey, Jr., and Sharon Harley Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Foundation Collection Part 3: Subject Files, 19391955 UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of BLACK STUDIES RESEARCH SOURCES Microfilms from Major Archival and Manuscript Collections General Editors: John H. Bracey, Jr., and Sharon Harley Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Foundation Collection Part 3: Subject Files, 19391955 Editorial Adviser Elaine Smith Alabama State University Project Coordinator Randolph H. Boehm Guide compiled by Martin Schipper A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA An Imprint of LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions 4520 East-West Highway Bethesda, MD 20814-3389 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bethune, Mary McLeod, 18751955. Mary McLeod Bethune papers [microform] : the Bethune Foundation collection microfilm reels. : 35 mm. (Black studies research sources) Contents: pt. 1. Writings, diaries, scrapbooks, biographical materials, and files on the National Youth Administration and womens organizations, 19181955. pt. 2. Correspondence Files, 19141955. pt. 3. Subject Files, 19391955. / editorial adviser, Elaine M. Smith: project coordinator, Randolph H. Boehm. Accompanied by printed guide with title: A guide to the microfilm edition of Mary McLeod Bethune papers. ISBN 1-55655-720-5 (pt. 3: microfilm) 1. Bethune, Mary McLeod, 18751955Archives. 2. Afro-American women EducationFloridaHistorySources. 3. United States. National Youth AdministrationHistorySources. 4. National Association of Colored Womens Clubs (U.S.)HistorySources. 5. National Council of Negro Women HistorySources. 6. Bethune-Cookman College (Daytona Beach, Fla.)History Sources. I. Smith, Elaine M. II. Boehm, Randolph. III. Bethune-Cookman College (Daytona Beach, Fla.) IV. Title. V. Title: Guide to the microfilm edition of Mary McLeod Bethune papers. VI. Series. [El85.97.B34] 370'.92dc2l 96-48361 CIP The collection of papers, articles, and documents of Mary McLeod Bethune is the exclusive property of Bethune-Cookman College. Any use of these materials without the written permission of Bethune-Cookman College is strictly prohibited. Copyright © 2002 by Congressional Information Service, Inc. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-720-5. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................................................................................................... v Scope and Content Note ..................................................................................................... xiii Source Note ............................................................................................................................ xvii Editorial Note ........................................................................................................................ xix Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... xxi Reel Index Reel 1 AfricaAmerican Mothers Committee .................................................................... 1 Reel 2 American Red CrossBethune, Mary McLeod ....................................................... 4 Reels 38 Bethune, Mary McLeod cont. ..................................................................................... 5 Reel 9 Bethune, Mary McLeod cont.Englewood, New Jersey, Incident ...................... 12 Reel 10 Englewood, New Jersey, Incident cont.Historically Black Colleges .................. 14 Reel 11 Historically Black Colleges cont.Liberia.................................................................. 16 Reel 12 Liberia cont.Moral Rearmament .............................................................................. 18 Reel 13 Moral Rearmament cont.NAACP ............................................................................ 19 Reel 14 NAACP cont.NCNW ................................................................................................. 20 Reel 15 NCNW cont.National Fund for Medical Education ............................................. 22 Reel 16 National Fund for Medical Education cont.Nationwide Hotel Association ..... 23 iii Reel 17 Negro Actors GuildSouthern Conference Education Fund ................................ 24 Reel 18 Southern Conference for Human WelfareUN ...................................................... 27 Reel 19 UN cont.United Negro College Fund ..................................................................... 28 Reel 20 United Negro College Fund cont.Young Womens Christian Association ...... 29 Reel 21 Photos .............................................................................................................................. 32 Principal Correspondents Index ..................................................................................... 35 Subject Index ......................................................................................................................... 45 iv INTRODUCTION From 1939 Honor List to An Inspiration for All Time What do you think is Americas greatest need? What does the Negro American want today? Are relationships between whites and Negroes improving in America? Robert M. Bartlett posed these questions to Mary McLeod Bethune in They Did Something About It, published in 1939, as the Great Depression tapered. It offered portraits of nine other noble contemporaries, including Czechoslovakian statesman Edvard Bene, Indian nationalist Jawaharlal Nehru, German novelist Thomas Mann, Chinas First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-shek, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. All these individuals were equally determined to create a better world order. The queries to Bethune and her responses suggested that she was a leader of black America. According to her, the countrys greatest need was justice. She believed that the nation had to become alive to giving consideration and representation to the minority groups . Relative to the second question, she declared, The Negro American wants what every other American wantsrespect and justice. I want the opportunity to develop myself, a chance to unfold my abilities, the chance to grow into full womanhood. Regarding improvement in black-white relations, the eternally optimistic Bethune answered that unquestionably relations were improving. There is better understanding and greater respect, she emphasized, before reviewing the dark side of the picture. By virtually any measure, the nations twelve million African Americans suffered gravely in comparison to whites. With poor, segregated, and sometimes nonexistent schools and health services, in tandem with lynching and disfranchisement, came appalling economics. Three million African Americans were essentially dependent tenant farmers; a little more than three million others were domestics generally working long hours for a little pay. Another group, between two and three million, were at the mercy of trade unions, often barred from membership and forced to scab in order to work. And with another large segment of the populace unemployed, only a fraction of the African American labor force held relatively desirable jobs.1 This situation screamed for leaders such as Bethune. Anchored as president of Bethune-Cookman College (BCC) and director of the Negro Division in the National Youth Administration (NYA), a temporary New Deal agency, Bethune, then sixty-three, headed the Baltimore Afro-American 1939 Honor List followed by civil rights activist Adam Clayton Powell, National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) legal counsel Thurgood Marshall, and seven others.2 Bethunes schedule in 1939 demonstrated her activism on behalf of constituents. It required travel. While she visited many cities, New York was a v frequent destination, particularly late in 1939. In September, as the only NYA staffer officially on the NYA National Advisory Committee, she attended the committees annual meeting. The next month, on the seventh, she was on hand at the Worlds Fair for Bethune-Cookman College Day, which consisted of a two- hour program in the Fashion and Arts Theatre. Labor leader A. Philip Randolph headlined a parade of speakers. In November, New York again beckoned Bethune. On the third and fourth, she presided over the annual meeting of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), which she had organized four years earlier. It boasted guests Aubrey Williams of the NYA; Mary Ritter Beard, coauthor of America in Mid-Passage; and New York Domestic Relations Court Judge Jane Bolin, the countrys lone African American woman judge.3 More than two weeks later, as a representative of the Negro race, Bethune sat on a panel of seven at a town hall meeting for Americas Town Meeting of the Air, which the National Broadcasting Company carried nationwide over radio. At a time when communism and fascism blighted Europe and the Nazi blitzkrieg over Poland had launched World War II, the panelists spoke on What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?4 Of the engagements requiring travel in 1939, the nine-hundred-delegate Methodist conclave in Kansas City, Missouri, April 26May 10, was Bethunes most historic. It reunited the mainstream northern and southern branches of Methodism, which had ruptured over slavery before the Civil War. During the proceedings, when the conference secretary uttered the epithet nigger, Bethune, one of