Papers of the Naacp
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A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of BLACK STUDIES RESEARCH SOURCES Microfilms from Major Archival and Manuscript Collections General Editors: John H. Bracey, Jr., Sharon Harley, and August Meier PAPERS OF THE NAACP Supplement to Part 1, 1966–1970 Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and Special Reports 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., Sharon Harley, and August Meier PAPERS OF THE NAACP Supplement to Part 1, 1966–1970 Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and Special Reports Edited by John H. Bracey, Jr. and Sharon Harley Project Coordinator Randolph Boehm Guide compiled by Daniel Lewis 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 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Papers of the NAACP. Supplement to Part 1, 1966–1970 [microform] Accompanied by printed reel guides. Contents: Supplement to Part 1, 1951–1955. Supplement to Part 1, 1956–1960. Supplement to Part 1, 1961–1965. Supplement to Part 1, 1966–1970. 1. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—Archives. 2. Afro-Americans—Civil Rights—History—20th century—Sources. 3. Afro- Americans—History—1877–1964—Sources. 4. United States—Race relations—Sources. I. Meier, August, 1923– . II. Boehm, Randolph. III. Title. E185.61 [Microfilm] 973′.0496073 87-10644 ISBN 1-55655-850-3 (microfilm: supplement to Part 1, 1966–1970) Copyright © 2001 by University Publications of America. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-850-3. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Scope and Content Note .......................................................................................................... v Source Note.............................................................................................................................. xi Editorial Note ........................................................................................................................... xi Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... xiii Reel Index Reel 1 Group IV, Series A, Administrative File Board of Directors Group IV, Box A-12 Meetings, Minutes, 1966–1967 ....................................................................................... 1 Group VI, Series A, Administrative File Board of Directors Group VI, Box A-14 Meetings, Minutes, 1966–1975 [1968–1970] ................................................................... 1 Group VI, Box A-18 Executive Director’s Reports, [1966] .............................................................................. 1 Group IV, Series A, Adminstrative File Board of Directors Group IV, Box A-10 Executive Director’s Reports, 1966–1967 ....................................................................... 2 Group VI, Series A, Administrative File Board of Directors Group VI, Box A-18 Executive Director’s Reports, 1965–1968 [1968] ............................................................ 2 Executive Director’s Reports, 1970–1971 [1970] ............................................................ 2 Group IV, Series A, Administrative File General Office File Group IV, Box A-15 Annual Meetings, 1966–1967 .......................................................................................... 2 Group VI, Series A, Administrative File Board of Directors Group VI, Box A-11 Annual Meeting, 1968 ..................................................................................................... 3 Group IV, Series A, Administrative File General Office File Group IV, Box A-15 Annual Meeting, 1969 ..................................................................................................... 3 iii Group VI, Series A, Administrative File Board of Directors Group VI, Box A-11 Annual Meeting, 1970 ..................................................................................................... 3 Reels 2–9 Group IV, Series A, Administrative File Annual Conventions Group IV, Boxes A-1–A-10 Annual Conventions, 1966–1969 ..................................................................................... 3 Reels 10–12 Group VI, Series A, Administrative File Annual Conventions Group VI, Boxes A-1–A-3 Annual Convention, 1970 ................................................................................................ 16 Principal Correspondents Index ............................................................................................. 21 Subject Index ........................................................................................................................... 33 iv SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE This supplement to Part 1 of Papers of the NAACP documents the main contours of NAACP activity between 1966 and 1970. During this period, the NAACP reaffirmed its commitment to ending racial discrimination in all aspects of American life. Having achieved spectacular successes in the courtroom and the passage of civil rights legislation, particularly the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, beginning in 1966 the NAACP moved to ensure the implementation and enforcement of this crucial legislation. The association was particularly concerned with school desegregation and discrimination by employers and by labor unions. The NAACP also worked for the enactment of legislation in areas not covered by the laws passed in 1964 and 1965. NAACP initiatives against housing discrimination culminated in the inclusion of an open housing provision in the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In addition to its traditional concerns, between 1966 and 1970 the NAACP also faced new challenges. The association struggled to respond to the growing anti–Vietnam War movement, the upstart black power movement, the problems facing African Americans living in urban ghettos, and Nixon administration policies on civil rights and school desegregation. Minutes of Board of Directors Meetings The board of directors was the highest policy-making body in the NAACP, and its meeting minutes constitute the central record of activities of the organization. The meetings usually included reports from the executive director, assistant executive director, treasurer, general counsel, branch director, public relations director, Washington bureau director, and the Crisis editor. The board took the meeting as a time to question and assess NAACP policy as well as to make decisions about the future course of the association. For example, at the January 3, 1966, meeting, executive director Roy Wilkins reported that a letter had recently been sent to AFL- CIO president George Meany requesting that another African American member be added to the AFL-CIO’s executive council. At that time, A. Philip Randolph was the only African American member of the AFL-CIO’s executive council. At the same meeting, the board voted that NAACP branch presidents should resign their branch positions if they were elected to hold political office. At the April 10, 1967, meeting, the association took time to respond to Martin Luther King’s April 4, 1967, speech at New York City’s Riverside Church in which he criticized U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam. The NAACP’s statement sought to separate the peace movement and the civil rights movement. The statement read, in part: “To attempt to merge the civil rights movement with the peace movement, or to assume that one is dependent on the other, is, in our judgment, a serious tactical mistake.” The board of directors also handled a number of important administrative duties, including fund-raising, the certification of new branches, and the adjudication of disputes within branches. v Executive Director’s Reports The reports of the NAACP executive director, Roy Wilkins, were submitted to the board of directors for consideration at the board meetings. The executive director reported on major events affecting the NAACP and the larger black freedom movement. He also reported on his own activities and those of other NAACP officials. The reports are very detailed and reveal the executive director trying to carry out NAACP policies and his involvement in many of the most important events and campaigns of this period. A sampling of some of the topics covered in these reports gives an indication of Wilkins’s activities. For example, in January 1966, Wilkins reported that he had attended the funeral of murdered Mississippi civil rights worker Vernon Dahmer, protested the exclusion of Julian Bond from the Georgia legislature, and contacted U.S. senators regarding civil rights legislation and the repeal of section 14-B—the so called “right-to-work” provision—of the Taft-Hartley Act. In April 1966, Wilkins attended a planning meeting for the White House Conference on Civil Rights; spoke at a branch meeting in Troy, New York; contacted Sargent Shriver regarding a community action program run by James Farmer; and wired members of Congress to express his views about rent subsidies. In the summer of 1966, Wilkins was on Capitol Hill testifying before Congress about civil rights legislation. The July/August 1967 report notes that Wilkins had been appointed to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. This same report includes the text of