Arthur
W. Mitchell papers,
1898-1968, bulk 1934-1942
Descriptive
Inventory for the Collection at Chicago History Museum, Research Center
By
Diane Asseln, August 26, 1995
Please
address questions to:
Chicago
History Museum, Research Center
1601
North Clark Street
Chicago,
IL 60614-6038
Web-site:
http://www.chicagohistory.org/research
©
Copyright 2000, Chicago Historical Society
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Title:Arthur W. Mitchell papers,1898-1968, bulk
1934-1942
Main
entry: Mitchell,
Arthur Wergs, 1883-1968.
Inclusive
dates:1898-1968,
bulk 1934-1942
Size:
30 linear
ft. (73 boxes)
3 oversize
folders.
1
microfilm reel: copy of scrapbook.
Restrictions: Advance
appointment with special permission required to view a small portion of the
collection. Photocopies are available for research use for many of these items.
Provenance
statement: Gift of
Arthur W. Mitchell in 1967 and by his widow Clara Mitchell in 1968 (M1967.0694,
M1968.0749).
Terms
governing use: Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or
their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless
otherwise noted.
Please cite this
collection as: Arthur W. Mitchell papers (Chicago History
Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific
item.
This descriptive
inventory contains the following sections:
Historical/biographical
note,
Summary
description of the collection,
Description
of some material related to the collection,
List
of online catalog headings about the collection,
Arrangement
of the collection,
Detailed
description of topics within the collection,
List
of contents of the collection.
Historical/biographical
note:
Arthur
Wergs Mitchell--teacher, lawyer, Congressman and farmer--was born in Roanoke,
Alabama, on December 22, 1883, to Taylor and Ammar Mitchell. Both of his
parents had been born into slavery, and his father worked as a farmer. From
these modest beginnings, Mitchell became the first African American Democrat
elected to the United States Congress (on November 6, 1934, representing the
First Congressional District in Chicago, Illinois) and remained in office for
four terms. He retired in 1942 and moved to Petersburg, Virginia, to work on
his farm and to advance racial harmony in the South.
Moving
to Washington D.C. in 1919, he read law for three years and founded the Mutual
Housing Company of Washington D. C. to help secure better housing conditions
for African Americans. He moved to Chicago in 1924 and, despite lacking a law
degree, was admitted to practice at the Illinois bar in 1927. After
establishing a law office in Chicago in 1928, he began to work for the
Republican Party. Within a few years he switched to the Democratic Party, which
held positions toward the unemployed and poor more in keeping with his personal
views.
Mitchell
ran for Congress in the 1934 primary election as a candidate for the Democratic
nomination for the Illinois First Congressional District, losing to a white
competitor, Harry Baker. When Baker died soon afterward, however, Mitchell was
named to run against Oscar De Priest. De Priest who was a former Chicago
alderman, militant Republican, and the first African American elected to
Congress since Reconstruction. Mitchell won the race, partly by emphasizing
that his duty was to represent all of his constituents, a position which won
him the support of many whites.
Mitchell
served in Congress less than one month before fulfilling one of his campaign
promises by introducing an anti-lynching bill. He joined the Post Office and
Post Roads Committee soon after his election and remained a member of the
committee throughout his years in Congress. NAACP leaders were dissatisfied
with Mitchell's anti-lynching bill, and the rift between Mitchell and leaders
of the NAACP became even more pronounced when he supported Senator Hugo L. Black
for appointment to the United States Supreme Court despite evidence that Black
had previously been associated with the Ku Klux Klan.
Mitchell
was elected to a third term in Congress in 1938 and almost immediately
introduced a bill to ban discrimination in interstate travel. He also quickly
put forth bills against lynching, to reform the United States Civil Service,
and to create an industrial commission to help African American businesses.
That term, the Gavagan bill passed the House but again died in the Senate.
Following
his election to a fourth and final term, Mitchell again offered bills on civil
service reform, lynching, a commission on "Negro affairs," and
desegregated interstate travel. It was during this term that he also won, in
the Supreme Court, what he considered to be his greatest victory.
The
congressman had begun his legal battle against Jim Crow in 1937, when he sued
the Illinois Central and Rock Island railroads and the Pullman Company under
the Interstate Commerce Act of February 4, 1887, which stated that all
passengers on railroads were to be given equal and fair treatment. He had been
traveling on a train in Arkansas when he was ejected from a first-class seat
and put in a "colored" second-class car. The Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) rejected Mitchell's appeal, ruling that it could not override
Arkansas segregation laws. He vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme
Court and, on March 13, 1941, the high court reversed the ICC ruling. In 1955,
the ICC finally banned segregation in interstate railroad transportation. The
congressman considered his case to be a major step toward the eventual equal
treatment of African Americans in interstate travel.
Frustrated
over the failure of his bills to be passed and faced with the challenge of a
new candidate in his district, Mitchell decided not to run for re-election in
1942. He was succeeded in Congress by Democrat William L. Dawson, who served
until his death in November of 1970. Mitchell retired to his farm in
Petersburg, Virginia, where his wife, Annie, died in 1947. The former
congressman next married Clara Smith, a widowed Danville, Virginia, teacher on
March 20, 1948.
He
continued work on his farm, returning occasionally to Washington D.C. to work
as an advisor to the United States War Department. He also involved himself in
the work of the Southern Regional Council, a biracial group that attempted to
combat racial problems in unobtrusive ways. Continuing some work in politics,
he supported the Adlai E. Stevenson-John J. Sparkman ticket against Dwight D.
Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon in the 1952 presidential race.
In
his eighties, Arthur W. Mitchell died in his home in Petersburg on May 9, 1968.
Summary
descriptions of the collection,
Correspondence,
speeches, newsclippings, and other papers of Mitchell, who served as U.S.
Congressman from the First Congressional District, Chicago (Ill.), 1935-1943.
Mitchell was the first African American Democrat to serve in the U.S. House of
Representatives, and his papers contain many incoming letters from throughout
the country on racial issues. Additional topics include Mitchell's election
campaigns against Oscar DePriest and others, service in Congress and on the
Post Office and Post Roads Committee, anti-lynching legislation, Mitchell's
U.S. Supreme Court case concerning racial discrimination against him as a
railroad passenger, and his work for the Democratic National Campaign Committee
during the 1936 Presidential election. Early materials deal with Armstrong
Agricultural School, Mutual Housing Company, personal and family matters; later
topics include African Americans at U.S. military and naval academies; African
American migration from the South to the North; U.S. Civil Service reform; the
establishment of old age and soldiers' pensions; the government of the Virgin
Islands in the West Indies; Jake Guzik, one of Mitchell's law clients; and the
entry of the United States into World War II. Due to the chronological
arrangement of the collection, materials about particular topics often are intermingled
throughout the collection.
Description of
some material related to the collection:
Related
materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the Arthur W.
Mitchell photograph collection (1980.0144) and the Dennis Nordin interviews
about Arthur W. Mitchell.
List of online
catalog headings about the collection:
The
following headings for this collection were placed in the online catalog:
Subjects:
Mitchell,
Arthur Wergs, 1883-1968--Archives.
De
Priest, Oscar, 1871-1951.
Democratic
Party (Chicago, Ill.)
Democratic
Party (Ill.)
Democratic
Party (U.S.)
United
States. Congress. House.
United
States. Supreme Court.
American
Negro Exposition (1940 : Chicago, Ill.)
African
Americans--20th century.
African
Americans--Employment--20th century.
African
American legislators--United States--20th century.
African
American politicians--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.
Election
districts--United States--1st Congressional District (Ill.)
Great
Migration, ca. 1914-ca. 1970
Lynching--Law
and legislation--United States--20th century.
Political
campaigns--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.
Postal
service employees--United States--20th century.
Presidents--United
States--Election--1936.
Racism--United
States--20th century.
Segregation
in transportation--Southern States.
Chicago
(Ill.)--Politics and government--To 1950.
Form/genre:
Correspondence.
Newspaper
clippings.
Speeches.
Added
entries:
United
States--Illinois--Cook County--Chicago.
Arrangement of the
collection:
Organized
chronologically.
These
topics within the collection are described in more detail on following pages of
this descriptive inventory:
Armstrong
Agricultural School
Mutual
Housing Company
Personal
and family correspondence, Arthur W. Mitchell, Jr.
Personal
and family correspondence, James McLendon
Personal
and family correspondence, Annie Mitchell
Personal
and family correspondence, Ammar Mitchell
Personal
and family correspondence, John Mitchell
Personal
and family correspondence, Other
U.S.
House of Representatives bills
Election
campaigns
Chicago
projects
UnAmerican
activities
Military academies and African Americans in the military
African
American migration
Virgin
Islands and the West Indies
Jack
Guzik (Jake Guzik)
Good
Will Tours
Jim
Crow Railroad Case
Retirement
Other
topics.
Detailed description of topics
within the collection:
Armstrong Agricultural School:
Shortly
after his graduation from Snow Hill Normal and Industrial College, Arthur
Mitchell founded the Armstrong Agricultural School in West Butler, Alabama.
Materials concerning his involvement in the school from 1910-1919 are in
Folders 1 and 2 of Box 1 of the collection. They include mainly correspondence,
newspaper clippings, and publicity brochures ranging in dates from 1910 to
1919.
These
items include general letters of recommendation for Mitchell from Jno. A.
Rogers, who states in them that he donated the land for the Armstrong
Agricultural School. Mitchell's letter to Booker T. Washington about the work
of the school, and newspaper articles about Mitchell's work at the school and
his role is establishing it are of particular interest.
The
other materials relate to a fire at the school that damaged several of the
buildings on the campus. There are newspaper articles about the fire, publicity
brochures describing the damage and appealing for donations money for new
buildings, and newspaper articles about the planning and building of new
buildings.
Finally,
Folder 2 of Box 1 contains a newspaper article about Mitchell's resignation as
principal of the Armstrong Agricultural School. Sparse records detailing some
of his involvement in activities outside of the School during the time he was
principal there (thereby helping to place his work at the School in context
with his age/stage of life) are found in Folders 1 and 2 of Box 1. A
certificate appointing him as a census enumerator (March of 1910), an
invitation to his marriage to Annie H. Harris in 1911, and his draft
registration card are among those items. Handbills announcing events Mitchell
attended during this period of his life (1910-1914) may be found in the Prints
and Photographs Department.
Mutual Housing Company:
Materials
on the Mutual Housing Company, Inc. (founded by Mitchell in Washington, D. C.
to help secure better housing conditions for African Americans) consist of
stock certificates, tax papers, deeds, records involving office rental space,
general financial information, court cases involving the Housing Company,
minutes from meetings of the Board of Directors, and information about
stockholders elections and meetings. These materials are sporadic and
incomplete throughout most of the collection. The largest concentration of them
occur among records before Mitchell's election to Congress (Nov. 1934, Box 1)
and after his retirement from Congress (in 1942, Boxes 64-71).
Much
of this material consists of correspondence between Mitchell and lenders of
funds to purchase buildings and land. A significant amount of the
correspondence also consists of letters between Mitchell and renters of the
Company's property. In both cases, many of the letters discuss remaining
balances and late payments. An exception is a letter from Mitchell to Mrs. L.
W. Sanchez (Box 31, Folder 2) in which he briefly outlines the history of the
Mutual Housing Company and provides his view of the financial state of the
Company at that time (May 26, 1937).
Personal and family correspondence:
Personal
and family correspondence may be found interspersed with other records
throughout the collection, especially after his retirement from Congress in
1942. These materials mainly concern Mitchell's son Wergs, his wife Annie, and
his mother Ammar.
Personal and family correspondence,
Arthur W. Mitchell, Jr.:
A
significant amount of material relates to the commitment of Mitchell's son,
Arthur W. Mitchell, Jr., (nicknamed "Wergs") to Elgin State Hospital
(mental institution) and subsequent care for him. Letters about Wergs begin in
Box 14, Folders 4 and 6, with letters from Congressman Mitchell to members of
the Emergency Relief Commission in which he asks the his son can be appointed
to serve on one of its committees (December 1935). Box 15, Folder 8 contains a
similar letter to Mr. Blaine G. Hoover, Director, Division of Personnel,
W.P.A., asking if Wergs may be employed in his division.
Information
about Wergs' actual commitment to a hospital and life thereafter begins in Box
34, Folder 8, with a newspaper article about his commitment to a psychiatric
ward (The Chicago Defender, November 20, 1937). The article does not
give any label to Wergs' condition but merely states that he was committed
after having an "attack." A letter from Mitchell to Dr. O. B.
Williams (Box 36, Folder 7) states that Mitchell believed one of the causes of
Wergs' mental breakdown to have been "dissipation, gambling, and drinking"
and that he needed to be taken away from the "influences of Chicago"
(February 8, 1938).
Much
of the information regarding Wergs after he was committed to the Elgin State
Hospital is in correspondence between Mitchell and his friend, Chicago Attorney
James McLendon (also referred to as "Mac"); and between Mitchell and
Wergs' aunt, Dr. Wilma Carmody, Director of the Carmody School of Practical
Nursing in San Francisco, California. McLendon and Dr. Carmody apparently spent
much time and effort visiting Wergs and taking him supplies while Mitchell was
busy with his congressional duties. Interspersed throughout the collection are
letters to Congressman Mitchell from McLendon in which he discusses his plans
to visit Wergs, tells of his delivering of supplies (such as clothing and
toiletries) to Wergs, or updating Mitchell on the condition he found Wergs in
on his most recent visit to Elgin.
Letters
from Wilma Carmody are found most heavily in Boxes 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 63.
Her letters in the "40s" boxes involve her efforts to help Wergs by
arranging to take him to San Francisco to live with her and her husband for a
time. Though this trip was made, and she felt that it did Wergs some good, some
of her letters to Congressman Mitchell in Boxes 47 and 48 indicate that the
younger Mitchell eventually decided to return to Chicago in hopes of finding
employment there (see Box 47, Folder 10 and Box 48, Folder 3). After his return
to Chicago, Wergs was recommitted to the Elgin State Hospital, thus explaining
Carmody's letter to Arthur W. Mitchell, Sr., in Box 63, Folder 9 (by then
Commander in Chief of the California Women's Cadet Corps) in which she inquires
about Wergs' condition and whether or not it is thought he can improve enough
to be released (December 12, 1941). Besides the mention of Wergs in this
letter, it is also may be of interest to researchers because of its description
of the work women in the Corps were doing to prepare themselves for the war as
nurses, Red Cross volunteers, ambulance drivers, and first aid workers.
The
up-and-down improvement-and-decline in Wergs' condition is also documented in
letters interspersed throughout the collection from doctors at the Elgin State
Hospital where Wergs was being treated. Most of this correspondence came from
Dr. Charles Read, Managing Officer at Elgin. These letters begin in Box 40,
Folder 3, with a letter from Read stating that Wergs does not wish to be
paroled to his father, and continue throughout much of the collection. Letters
from officials at Elgin, regarding Wergs' condition, may be found in Box 41,
Folder 2; Box 42, Folder 6; Box 50, Folder 3; Box 61, Folder 9; Box 67, Folder
3; Box 68, Folder 2; Box 68, Folder 7; and Box 68, Folder 8 and interspersed
throughout the undated items in the last two boxes of the collection.
Letters
are also interspersed throughout the collection with other materials that show
Mitchell's concern that Wergs was not being taken care of properly and that
show distrust of the reports he and Mac were receiving about Wergs' condition.
These begin with Mitchell's letter to Mac in Box 41, Folder 3, calling for an
investigation as to why his son had not been better watched and, therefore, had
gotten into an altercation with another patient. Also alluding to this mistrust
is a letter from Mitchell to Dr. Read in Box 42, Folder 6, in which Mitchell
asks to be given a statement of his son's condition as compared with his
condition the previous June (February 6, 1939). In a letter to Mac on September
17, 1947 (Box 69, Folder 7), Mitchell states that he believes he and Mac have
been given almost opposite reports of Wergs' condition by Elgin
doctors/officials and that he hopes he can visit the hospital soon to find out
for himself his son's true prognosis.
Several
fairly lengthy letters from Wergs himself may also be found primarily in Box
69, Folders 5 and 7, with another letter located earlier on in the collection
(Box 46, Folder 10). In the letters found in Box 69, Folder 5, Wergs asks to be
visited more frequently by friends and family, and discusses his desire to "make
the grade" to be released so he can live with his father on his farm in
Virginia. The younger Mitchell's letter in Folder 7 mentions a visit his father
recently made to him, expresses to his father that he wishes they could have
had a better conversation during that visit, and writes of the great affect he
noticed Annie Mitchell's death had on the senior Mitchell. The earlier letter
gives some insight into Wergs' daily routine at Elgin, as he experienced it.
Correspondence
pertaining to Wergs and his care ends in Box 71, Folder 10 with a letter from
Mitchell to Mac in which he states that the younger Mitchell is not doing well,
and with correspondence to that effect from officials at the Elgin State
Hospital. The death announcement of Arthur W. Mitchell, Jr. is in this same
folder (July 14, 1965).
A
snapshot of Wergs is located in the materials from the collection which are
housed in the Prints and Photographs Department.
Personal and family correspondence,
James McLendon:
A
small number of letters sent to and from Mitchell and Mac also indicate the
changes which occurred in Mac's career as the United States became involved in
World War II, and inform the reader of Mitchell's desire to help his friend do
well in whatever job he chose to pursue. Box 62, Folder 2, for example,
contains a letter from Mitchell to Mac in which he indicates he had received
information that Mac would soon be joining the Army and that he would try to
visit his friend at boot camp (July 29, 1941). Later on, Mac wrote Mitchell to
tell him that he had volunteered to serve the Army for the duration of the war
as a part of its Intelligence Unit (Box 63, Folder 9, December 14, 1941).
Eventually, Mac was appointed as a Judge Advocate for the War Department - a
position Mitchell helped him obtain by sending letters of recommendation
praising Mac (see correspondence in Box 68, Folder 5). A portrait of Mac as Lt.
McLendon of the Army is housed in the Prints and Photographs Department.
Personal and family correspondence,
Annie Mitchell:
Letters
from and regarding Mitchell's wife, Annie, are located throughout much of the
collection. Her letters begin after she had begun experiencing health
complications and moved to a sanitarium in Tennessee to rest while her husband
was away at Congress. She usually wrote Mitchell to let him know she was all
right and to comment or inquire about the condition of Wergs. She also would
tell Mitchell in these letters about what she had read in her local newspapers
about his activities in Congress and opposition or support he was reported to
be receiving from other politicians. Letters to Congressman Mitchell from his
wife, Annie, may be found beginning in Box 46, Folder 10 and in Box 47, Folder
1; Box 47, Folder 7; Box 48, Folder 8; Box 66, Folders 7 and 10; and Box 67,
Folder 2. Additionally, photographs of Annie may be found housed in the Prints
and Photographs Department's holdings from the collection, along with a
portrait of Mitchell signed with a note from Mitchell to his "devoted"
wife.
The
collection contains a small amount of correspondence regarding Annie that was
written to and from Mitchell and others to inform or inquire about her illness.
This correspondence begins as early in the collection as Box 42, Folder 6,
where there is located a letter from Mitchell to a Dr. Curtis Reese. In this
letter, Mitchell apologizes to Reese for having been away from Washington for
two weeks, stating that Mrs. Mitchell had been very sick (February 6, 1939). In
Box 44, Folder 9, a letter from Dr. Wilma Carmody mentions that Mrs. Mitchell
is suffering from high blood pressure (May 4, 1939). A letter from Mitchell's
brother, John, found in Box 68, Folder 9, later mentions that Mrs. Mitchell is
soon to enter a hospital (March 15, 1945). Foreshadowing Annie's imminent death
is a letter in Box 69, Folder 2, from Mitchell to his niece, Louise, in which
he asks her to come at once to Virginia because his wife is so ill that he is
afraid she will die. This letter is followed by a return one from Louise
stating that she cannot come because she must work. News clippings and letters
of sympathy in that same folder and in subsequent folders of the same box show
that Annie died soon after Louise's letter was sent.
Personal and family correspondence,
Ammar Mitchell:
The
illness and death of Mitchell's mother are other topics found in the family
correspondence of the collection, though they are less well-documented than
Wergs' or Annie Mitchell's illness. In Box 16, Folder 9, is correspondence
regarding the condition and care of Mitchell's ill mother (including a letter
from his brother, John, written on February 16, 1936). Another letter from
John, found in Box 21, Folder 1, provides an update on the condition of their
mother as of August 17, 1936. Letters of sympathy to Mitchell for the death of
his mother are located in Box 22, Folder 4.
Personal and family correspondence,
John Mitchell:
Much
of the family correspondence in the collection consists of letters between
Mitchell and his brother, John W. Mitchell, who kept each other apprised of
family events, illnesses, and visits. These are found throughout the
collection, but most heavily from Box 62 on. John often wrote to about the
illnesses of their other siblings and provided updates of the activities of
Mitchell's niece and nephew (Harriette and Tommie).
Personal and family correspondence,
others:
Correspondence
from Mitchell's sister, Tommie Lou Stilt, are found from Box 68, Folder 8
onward, and are mainly chatty letters about family news, much of which repeats
information found in John Mitchell's letters. Amongst the materials in Box 69
onward can also be found similar "newsy" letters from Mitchell's
daughter-in-law, Billie and his grandaughter,
Melinda; and from his niece, Ammar Louise.
Interesting
correspondence showing tension in the family and Mitchell's sterness
with other family members can be found in letters from some of Mitchell's
nephews and nieces and his return letters to them. For example, in Box 27,
Folder 2 is a letter from Mitchell's nephew, Stafford B. Ash asking Mitchell to
please help him pay for his next two years at the Tuskegee Institute (February
4, 1937). This letter is followed, in Folder 4 of the same box, by a somewhat
angry letter from Mitchell in which he tells his nephew he should be ashamed of
himself for asking for aid and telling Stafford that he was much poorer when he
was his age and never asked for help (February 10, 1937). A letter from
Mitchell's niece, Gloria D. Ash, which is very angry and critical of the rest
of the family, is in Box 71, Folder 10 (September 10, 1967).
Finally,
a letter to Mitchell from Archie Motley, Curator of Manuscripts at the Chicago
Historical Society, can be found in Box 71, Folder 10. In it, Archie thanks
Mitchell for donating his scrapbooks and some of his papers to the Historical
Society (August 15, 1967). (Items mentioned in that letter were donated by
Mitchell prior to his death. The remainder of the collection was donated
following Mitchell's death by his surviving wife, Clara.)
U.S. House of Representatives bills:
The
largest bulk of correspondence in the Arthur Mitchell Papers are letters and
telegrams from people living in Chicago asking him to vote in favor of or
against various bills, and Mitchell's responding letters to them. Other papers
regarding House bills are copies of speeches made on the House floor, newspaper
articles regarding struggles over bills, pamphlets and booklets published in
favor of or against bills, and voting records of House members.
Because
of Mitchell's service on the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads for
most of the time he served in Congress, many of the bills his constituents and
others wrote him about involved working conditions and pay for postal
employees. Mail pertaining to a bill to restore federal employees' salaries to
a previous level was being sent to Mitchell as early on in the collection as
January 1st and 2nd, 1935 (Box 3, Folder 10). Additionally, a photograph from
the Mitchell Papers of officers from the National Alliance of Postal Employees
(Chicago Branch, October 4, 1935, is housed in the Prints and Photographs
Department.
Other
correspondence, supporting a Longevity Pay Bill (to add additional pay levels
lower-ranking postal employees could be promoted to), begin in papers dating
from February and March of 1937 (Box 28, Folders 7 and 8) and continue
throughout the materials covering Mitchell's work in office (Mitchell supported
this bill and it eventually passed. See letter to Mitchell from William
Freeman, Chairman, Legislative Committee, Chicago Post Office Clerks' Union No.
1 in Box 62, Folder 2.). Related measures to increase the salaries of postal
employees were introduced as the Rampseck Bill and
Sweeny Salary Increase Bill, and are supported by constituent mail in the
Mitchell Papers (See Box 49, Folder 7 and Box 65, Folders 4 and 6.). Mitchell's
responses to his constituents regarding these bills was usually positive. Many
of his bills affecting postal employees were also bills he introduced to
attempt to enforce more equal treatment of African Americans in the civil
service. Those bills, often referred to as Mitchell's "civil service
reform bills," will be discussed later in this description.
A
large percentage of the materials in the Arthur Mitchell Papers regarding House
bills pertain to the lengthy, ongoing battles which insued
in Congress over the passage of an anti-lynching bill. The earliest
anti-lynching bill represented in this collection is the Costigan-Wagner Bill,
a copy of which may be found in Box 1, Folder 12 (March 28, 1934). Other
anti-lynching bills represented in the collection include: the Lewis Bill [copy
located in Box 9, Folder 10 (May 10, 1935)], the Mitchell Bill (copy from 1935
located in Box 15, Folder 1 and from 1937 in Box 26, Folder 4), the Gavagan
Bill [copy located in Box 26, Folder 3 (January 5, 1937)], and the Wagner-Van
Nuys Bill (article from The Literary Digest about this bill is located
in Box 30, Folder 7).
The
battles between supporters of Mitchell's anti-lynching bill and various other
bills are fairly well-documented in the collection. Materials regarding the may
be found interspersed with other materials throughout the years of Mitchell's
work in Congress (1934-1942), with the exception of Boxes 21-24, which deal
mainly with campaign work. For example, an article about a Mitchell speech
against the Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching bill and about the NAACP's opposition
to Mitchell's position on the anti-lynching bills may be found in Box 14,
Folder 1 of the collection (October 1935). Mitchell's bill is criticized in a
January 16, 1939 article from the Afro-American, located in Box 26,
Folder 7. Materials which help to document Republican moves to defeat the
anti-lynching bills include a press release about the Judiciary Committee
hearings on anti-lynching legislation and a newspaper article regarding the
fears people had that the hearings were set to delay actual voting on any
anti-lynching bill (The Northwest Enterprise; March 26, 1937; Box 29,
Folder 7). Mitchell's offer to support the Gavagan anti-lynching bill (in
return for Gavagan's support for some of Mitchell's civil service bills) is
documented by several papers scattered throughout the collection, one of which
is a press release (Box 29, Folder 10; April 3, 1937) about the offer.
Other
materials regarding the battles over the various anti-lynching bills include:
materials from the NAACP comparing Gavagan's bill to Mitchell's (Box 29, Folder
10), a speech Mitchell presented to the House about his concern that all
anti-lynching bills would be killed (Box 30, Folder 2; April 7, 1937), and an
article about the death of Mitchell's bill and the re-hearing of the Gavagan
Bill (Box 30, Folder 2). Mitchell's letter to Joseph Gavagan in which he states
he will continue to work to pass Gavagan's bill can be found in Box 48, Folder
6 (December 26, 1939). A photograph of Mitchell with other House members
following the passage by the House of the Gavagan Bill may be found with
materials from the collection in the Prints and Photographs Department.
General
information about the practice of lynching are also interfiled with other
materials in the collection. Such items include: an NAACP information packet
from July of 1935 (Box 12, Folder 8, includes picture of a lynching);
statistics on lynchings which occurred from 1889-1935 (Box 12, Folder 12); an
article entitled "Lynchings & Reported Preventions: 1914-1924"
located in Box 25, Folder 7; and an article entitled "The South and
Lynching" (St. Louis Argus; April 30, 1937; Box 30, Folder 7) - to name just
several of the many items on the subject which may be found in the collection.
Materials
in the Mitchell Papers about lynchings and the anti-lynching laws do not
include much information about the tremendous amount of support the
anti-lynching laws received from Eleanor Roosevelt and her efforts to influence
Franklin Roosevelt to devote more energy to ending mob violence.
Other
bills meant to encourage the equal treatment of African Americans to whites are
also represented in this collection. These include two bills regarding the
formation of an Industrial Commission to address the issues of African American
businesses: the Cellars' Industrial Commission Bill and the Mitchell bill for
the formation of an Industrial Commission on Negro Affairs. Copies of the
Cellars bill, which recommended the formation of an interracial Industrial
Commission, may be found in Box 3, Folder 11 and Box 9, Folder 8. Nearby, in
Box 9, Folder 11, may also be found newspaper articles about the Cellars bill.
A
copy of the Mitchell Industrial Commission Bill is located with a press release
about the bill as early in the collection as February 15, 1935 (Box 5, Folder
7), although a later copy of the bill may also be found in Box 26, Folder 4
(January 1937). As with Mitchell's anti-lynching bill, this bill was one he
worked unsuccessfully throughout his Congressional career to get passed, which
means that materials regarding the bill may be found interspersed amongst the
papers dating from 1934-1942. Of particular interest on this topic, however,
are newspaper articles (in Box 15, Folder 3) for and against the Mitchell
proposal; newspaper articles about Franklin Roosevelt's support of the bill (in
Box 12, Folder 10); an account of the hearing before the House on the bill (Box
12, Folder 5; June 18 & 19, 1935); and an article from the Afro-American
criticizing the Mitchell bill (Box 26, Folder 7; January 16, 1937).
Though
the majority of the materials in the Mitchell Papers regarding discrimination
against African Americans in railroad travel relate directly to Mitchell's "Jim
Crow" case with the Illinois and Rock Island Railroad Company (See "Jim
Crow Railroad Case" section later in this description.), there is brief
mention of a bill he introduced to end the segregation of interstate passengers
on account of race, color, or religion. A copy of this bill may be found in Box
26, Folder 3 (January 5, 1937), and letters and news clippings regarding the
bill may be found in Box 36, Folders 2 and 3.
Copies
of Mitchell's bill to end the requirement that applicants for civil service
positions include photographs of themselves with their applications may be
found in Box 15, Folder 9 and Box 26, Folder 4 of the collection (copies of the
bill as it was introduced in different Congressional terms). Newspaper
clippings regarding this bill are located in an issue of The Postal Alliance
(February 1936; Box 17, Folder 2), and a letter
from
Helen E. Chisholm to Mitchell may be found in Box 25, Folder 3 that explains
why she believed the photos attached to applications were not used to
discriminate against African Americans. Other materials regarding this bill are
interspersed with papers from 1934-1942.
The
congressman's bill requiring supervisors to post if they desire a particular
gender of person to fill a position may be found in Box 41, Folder 7 (January
3, 1939). Unlike the other civil service reform bills introduced by Mitchell
very little material about this bill exists in the Mitchell Papers other than
the afore-mentioned copy of the proposal.
Finally,
Mitchell's civil service reform bill to prevent supervisors from passing over
for hiring those with the highest civil service test scores may be found in Box
27, Folder 3, along with letters supporting the measure. Another later copy may
be found in Box 41, Folder 7 (January 3, 1939). While introducing his bill,
Mitchell placed an advertisement in the Washington Tribune (February 6,
1937), asking for stories from individuals who had been passed over on the
list. A copy of this announcement and the responses he received to the
announcement may be found in Box 27, Folders 3 and 4. As with the other civil
service bills he introduced, Mitchell continued to attempt to pass this bill
throughout his work in Congress, so materials about the bill may be found
interfiled amongst the papers dated from 1934-1942.
Mitchell
also involved himself in the passage of bills to benefit veterans and the
elderly. Throughout the papers spanning the time he was working in Congress may
be found correspondence from the elderly and from veterans which ask that
Mitchell support pension programs for them. One controversial proposal for
payments to the elderly, the Townsend Plan, is discussed quite thoroughly in
the Mitchell Papers. Among the items discussing the Townsend plans are a Townsend
Weekly (June 3, 1935) article about the plan (Box 11, Folder 1) and a March
13, 1936 letter from Mitchell to Mr. Nick Gentry, Sr. in which he expresses his
opposition to the plan, calling it a "big fake" and a "racket"
(Box 17, Folder 6). Another significant resource about the plan is a phamplet found in Box 35, Folder 2. These items add to the
numerous letters in the collection of support and opposition for plan.
The
collection is suprisingly short on materials on the
passage of the Social Security Act. It can be assumed Mitchell supported this
program because he supported all of Franklin Roosevelts' assistance programs
and because he was in favor of providing the elderly and handicapped with
needed assistance, but there is almost no correspondence in the Mitchell Papers
in which he directly addresses his views on Social Security. Most of the information
about the program are reports and articles about it, such as articles about
Republican criticisms of Social Security (Chicago Daily Tribune; April
16, 1935; Box 18, Folder 8) and a press release praising the program (Box 25,
Folder 5).
As
early in the collection as Box 4, Folder 1 (January 1935) are located numerous
letters requesting that Mitchell support the establishment of veterans'
compensation. Numerous papers regarding the investigation by Mitchell of cases
where veterans believed they had been inadequately compensated for injuries
they incurred while serving in the armed forces may be found throughout the
collection and indicate that Mitchell was supportive of veterans in
compensation issues. Also, items in the collection show that Mitchell voted for
the Soldiers' Bonus Bill (see newspaper articles in Box 15, Folder 7 and Box
16, Folder 6). General information about the Soldiers' Bonus Bill may be found
in Box 17, Folder 7 - in the article entitled "Brief History of the
Adjusted Compensation (Soldier Bonus) Campaign."
Some
of Franklin Roosevelt's proposals, which were seen by many at the time as
fascist, are discussed at length in the materials found in the Mitchell Papers.
One of these was FDR's proposal to reform the Supreme Court, which included a
measure to prevent men over 70 from serving on the Court and a measure to
increase the size of the court from 9 to 15 justices. These recommendations
were seen by many as an attempt by Roosevelt to pack the Supreme Court with
justices that would support him, a fear revealed in the correspondence that can
be found heavily in Boxes 27 and 28 which ask Mitchell to vote against any
changes to the Supreme Court. A number of articles about the proposals may also
be found in those boxes, including: a newspaper article regarding the proposals
and Mitchell's support for them (Box 17, Folder 4) and an article entitled "Should
the President's Proposals Regarding the Supreme Court Be Adopted?" by
Frederick H. Wood (Constitutional Attorney; article located in Box 27, Folder
5).
FDR's
proposal to tax undistributed corporate profits was also heavily opposed by
many businessmen who wrote Mitchell, as can be ascertained from mail found in
Box 17. A considerable amount of information about this proposal and the
reasons many people opposed its adoption may be found in a letter to Mitchell
from H. D. Adler, President of the National Acceptance Company (March 6, 1936;
Box 17, Folder 4).
Several
of the bills discussed in the Mitchell papers were bills directly pertaining to
concerns the United States would enter World War II and, once it was engaged in
the war, pertaining to the drafting of young men for the U.S. armed forces.
American neutrality legislation is discussed in the collection's papers as
early on as Box 15, Folder 8 (January 20, 1936), where there can be found a
booklet against the legislation. An article about the passage of neutrality
legislation in the House may also be found in Folder 9 of that same box (Washington
Herald; January 24, 1936). An undated 1936 article regarding U.S.
neutrality is in Box 25, Folder 5, and letters supporting U.S. neutrality are
in Box 27, Folder 2.
Very
few materials about neutrality legislation can then be found in the Mitchell
Papers until a letter from John W. Watzek, Jr. to Mitchell about discussion in
Congress regarding the Neutrality Act (Box 43, Folder 11; April 7, 1939).
Newspaper articles about the Neutrality Act may also be found in Box 47,
Folders 1-3. Letters for and against FDR's proposed changes to the act are
located in Box 47, Folders 4 and 5, and an article from a Ku Klux Klan paper (The
Fiery Cross, September 1939) in support of FDR's plans to change the act
may be found in Box 47, Folder 5. Mitchell's letters to constituents about the
Neutrality Act usually stated that he did not believe any legislation would
keep the U.S. out of the war if it was forced into it by "aggressor
nations" (see Box 47, Folder 1). The act was passed (see letter from
Mitchell to Prof. E. S. Handy, Chambers County School in Box 49, Folder 9),
followed by attempts to repeal it. Numerous letters to Mitchell from
constituents asking that he not vote for any repeal of the act may be found in
Box 57, Folder 8; Box 62, Folders 8 and 9; and Box 63, Folders 2 and 3.
As
the war in Europe escalated, the issue of whether or not the United States
should assist other countries with war materials became a major issue. Most of
the correspondence Mitchell received about the United States trading of war
goods with Japan (during the late 30s and early 40s) indicated that most of his
constituents wanted the practice to end (see Box 42, Folders 3-7 and Box 43,
Folders 1 and 4). A letter from Mitchell to Mr. J. H. Thronley,
President, Western Foundation Company, states that Mitchell was in agreement
with such constituent mail (February 5, 1940; Box 50, Folder 3). Later on,
numerous letters may be found in the collection for and against the lifting of
an arms embargo in place at that time (See Box 47, Folders 4, 5, 7, and 8.),
including letters from Mitchell to various constituents in which he states he
is for lifting of the embargo (See Box 47, Folder 4). Letters supporting U.S.
assistance by to the Allies in the form of planes and munitions may also be
found in large number in Box 53, Folders 2 and 3, and in Box 57, Folder 8.
Later letters began to oppose the Lend-Lease bill for sending war materials to
Britain as people developed fears that aiding other nations would pull the
United States into the war (See Box 57, Folder 9 and Box 62, Folder 8.).
FDR's
War Bill (H.R. 1776) was called the "Dictator Bill" by many because,
though it supported aid to Britain (something many American agreed with), some
felt it also gave the President too much power to declare war. Large numbers of
letters both for and against this bill are located in Boxes 57 and 58 of the collection.
Plans
to draft young men for the armed forces in preparation for a possible U.S.
involvement in the war also became the focus of constituent mail Mitchell
received. Letters both for and against the Burke-Wadsworth Draft Bill can be
found in large numbers, interfiled with other materials, in Boxes 54 through
62. A copy of the Wadsworth Bill for compulsory military training and service
(August 29, 1940) is located in Box 54, Folder 9. Political cartoons against
the bill are located in Box 54, Folder 4, and a letter discussing Mitchell's
support of the measure is located in Box 55, Folder 8 (Letter from Mitchell to
Mr. J. J. Long; October 29, 1940).
Other
House bills addressed in the collection involved workers' rights, including:
the Wagner Labor Relations Act (See copy of act in Box 11, Folder 11); the Wage
and Hour Bill (See boxes in the 30s.); amendments to the Fair Labor Standards
Act (See information about it's 42-hour work week in Box 46, Folder 8 and Box
47, Folders 7 and 9.); and the Smith Bill to amend the National Labor Relations
Act (See Boxes 51-53, and letters about the bill's passage in Box 64, Folder
1.). The Vinson "Anti-Strike" Bill is also discussed in letters and
telegrams found in Box 61, Folders 5 and 6 and Box 65, Folders 5 and 6.
Mitchell responded to much of the correspondence regarding these bills by
stating that he would study the legislation and vote on them in ways he believed
to be best for his constituents.
Information
about bills to regulate housing are also interspersed with other materials in
the collection. For example, discussion of the continuation of the Federal
Housing Act may be found in Box 15, Folders 6 and Box 45, Folder 7. Mitchell's
letters in support of the extension of the Housing Act are located in Box 27,
Folder 2. The Wagner-Ellenbogen Bill to provide low-cost housing also is
mentioned in Box 19. Folder 3 of that box contains letters from Mitchell's
constituents asking that he support the bill, while Folder 6 of the collection
contains letters from Mitchell to his constituents saying he will support it.
Furthermore, discussion about proposals to declare a moratorium on Home Owners'
Loan Corporation loans may be found in Boxes 27 and 28, including letters from
Mitchell stating that no foreclosures on such loans will be pursued in the
borrowers show an honest effort to repay them.
The
papers contain discussion of other bills on a wide variety of issues: the
Wheeler-Rayburn Bill to abolish public utility holding companies (See a copy of
the bill in Box 10, Folder 1, and information about the measure in Box 11,
Folders 9 and 10, and Box 12, Folder 1.); a bill to require the publication of
individual income tax information (See materials in Box 6.); the Hobbs Bill to
prohibit the use of mails by unauthorized insurance companies (See materials in
Box 7.); the Higgins Bill to prohibit the distribution of information on birth
control (See materials in Box 8.); the Guffy Coal Bill (See Box 11, Folder 3
and Box 19, Folder 7.); amendments to the Banking Act of 1935 (See box 9,
Folders 3, 6, and 7.); and the Walsh Bill to put limits on the hours
contractors with the government can work (See Box 13, Folder 1 and Box 15,
Folders 4 and 5.). Also included is information on Mitchell's bill to honor
Matthew Henson (Admiral Peary's African-American assistant in his trip to the
North Pole). A copy of the bill may be found in Box 41, Folder 7, while a copy
of a hearing on the bill is located in Box 19, Folder 5.
Election campaigns:
The
collection includes materials relative to Mitchell's involvement in
presidential and congressional election campaigns between 1936 and 1940. These
include materials beginning in Box 1, Folder 7 with items about the
Presidential campaign in 1932 (Hoover vs. Roosevelt); cover information about
the Mitchell's congressional campaigns in 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1940; cover
Mitchell's involvement in the Democratic Presidential campaigns in 1936 and
1940; and end with information about Mitchell endorsements for candidates in
1942. They are newspaper articles, correspondence, financial records, and
advertisements. The Prints and Photographs Department also contains broadsides
and handbills from both Oscar DePriest's campaign against Mitchell during 1934,
1936, 1938, and 1940 and broadsides and handbills from Mitchell's campaigns
against DePriest during those same years. Numerous portraits taken of Mitchell
while in office, and no doubt used during his campaigns, may also be found in
materials from the collection housed in Prints and Photographs.
Information
about Mitchell's own election campaigns begin in Box 1, Folder 11 with
newspaper articles announcing that Mitchell was nominated to be the 2nd Ward
Democratic Organization's (Chicago) congressional candidate and letters of
congratulations to Mitchell for the nomination. Newspaper articles about
Mitchell's campaign and predictions that he will win the election are in Folder
12 of Box 1.
Materials
in Box 2 involve information about Mitchell's campaign as the Democratic
candidate for Illinois congressman for the 1st Ward in Chicago. Folder 1
contains letters recommending Mitchell for the Democratic nomination as a
candidate and wishing him luck in being nominated, as well as articles regarding
the 1934 election in Chicago in general. Folder 2 contains newspaper clippings
announcing Mitchell's nomination. Miscellaneous papers involving the campaign
(orders for supplies, records of contributions, newspaper articles regarding
the campaign) may be found in Folders 3 and 5. Of particular interest in Folder
5 is a copy of a Mitchell speech regarding the progress of the campaign.
Interspersed with other materials in the remaining folders in Box 2 may be
found letters congratulating Mitchell on his election to Congress. Papers
located in Box 3, Folder 1 complete the materials in the Mitchell Papers about
his first congressional race and consist mainly of letters from Mitchell to
various others thanking them for their help in his campaign.
Mitchell's
preparations for his congressional campaign in 1936 are documented beginning in
Box 16 with responses to letters he sent to constituents and fellow-congressmen
asking them to comment on his work in Congress. It is apparent that he sent
these letters in hopes of getting material for campaign advertisements and
endorsements, since some of them appear in publicity supporting Mitchell found
filed further on in the collection.
Papers
beginning in Box 18 document Mitchell's 1936 congressional campaign, with
miscellaneous correspondence about the campaign and letters from people
offering to help with the work located in Folder 3. That same folder also
contains correspondence regarding the general activities of the Democratic
Party in Illinois at that time (early April 1936). Folders 5 and 6 of the box
contains newspaper articles stating that Mitchell won the primary election and
will face DePriest in the fall election (The Afro-American; April 18,
1936 and The Guardian; April 25, 1936). Box 23, Folder 8 contains a copy
of a letter sent to "Friend" that is for Oscar DePriest and against
Mitchell. Information in the collection about Mitchell's 1936 campaign to
retain his seat in Congress ends with correspondence congratulating Mitchell on
his victory in the campaign (See Box 23, Folder 9 and Box 24.) and a copy of a "Mithcell
Crusaders" ad for Mitchell which includes a political cartoon of Roosevelt
with his arm around Mitchell, with the cartoon FDR telling Mitchell he has done
a good job in Congress (Box 24, Folder 1).
Mitchell's
work in 1936 for the national Democratic campaign, as the manager of the
campaign directed towards African Americans in the Western Division, is
mentioned in the Mitchell Papers beginning in Box 20, Folder 7 with letters of
congratulations to Mitchell for being chosen for the position. A letter from
the congressman to James Farley, Chairman of the National Democratic Committee,
about Mitchell's work in the Western Division and a proposed budget for the
campaign to gain African American voters for Democratic candidates in the
Western Division is in that same folder. Box 21, Folder 5 continues information
about the African American campaign in Mitchell's division with a press release
about Dr. C. B. Powell (publicity director for the Democrat campaign among African
Americans) and his plans to form a Colored Roosevelt Fund to help re-elect the
President (September 5, 1936). It also contains a letter from Dr. Powell to
Mitchell about the work being done for the Democrats among the African Americans,
including the Colored Roosevelt Fund (September 8, 1936). Folder 7 of that same
box includes another update from Powell (September 19, 1936). Correspondence
found throughout Boxes 21-23 involves selection of managers for the African
American campaign in various states, and there is located in these same boxes
some financial information about the cost of the African American campaign.
Concluding materials regarding Mitchell's position as the manager of the
Democrats' Western Division work among African Americans are letters in Box 23,
Folder 9 and Box 24 congratulating Mitchell on his work to bring about the
Democrat victories that occurred.
Other
information about the 1936 Democrat campaign may be found from Boxes 20-24,
beginning in Box 20, Folder 3 with a newspaper article about Roosevelt being
nominated as a presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention (Daily
Times; June 26, 1936) and a copy of the platform adopted by the Convention
for 1936. Much of the continuing information about the national campaign
involves newspaper articles and campaign literature about the emphasis placed
by each party on gaining African American votes. These include: "The Negro
As An Issue In Political Campaigns" (Birmingham News; July 12,
1936; Box 20, Folder 4), newspaper articles about Governor Landon (Republican
presidential candidate) and the role of African Americans in his campaign (Box
20, Folder 6), a phamplet entitled: "Governor
Alfred M. Landon's Message to Colored Citizens" (Box 21, Folder 4), a
newspaper article about Governor Landon's position on lynchings (Chicago Daily
Tribune; October 5, 1936; Box 22, Folder 5), and newspaper articles about the
Jesse Owens' work as a speaker for the Republican campaign (Box 21, Folder 5
and Box 23, Folder 3). More information about Governor Landon's campaign may be
found interfiled with other papers in Box 20, Folders 5 and 6; Box 21, Folder
4; Box 22, Folders 5 and 6; and Box 24, Folder 7. Those materials consist
mainly of newspaper articles and booklets.
Mitchell's
1938 campaign to be re-elected for is covered in Boxes 36, 38, and 40. Box 36
contains letters showing some of Mitchell's preparation for his upcoming
campaign - letters in which he states that he is sending various people packets
of speeches he has made in Congress. Box 38, Folder 1 contains the official
vote for the State of Illinois primary election (April 12, 1938) and letters of
congratulation sent to Mitchell for his renomination (Letters of congratulation
may also be found in Folder 3 of that same box.). Folder 2 of Box 38 continues
information about the campaign with a newspaper article about winners in the
state primary (The Chicago Defender; April 16, 1938) and a copy
of a speech Mitchell delivered on the House floor in which he outlines the work
he has done as a congressman (in Congressional Record for April 27,
1938; Box 38, Folder 4). Correspondence regarding Mitchell's campaign,
including letter he sent to James Farley about the situation for the Democrats
in Illinois for the upcoming election (October 28, 1938), may be found in Box
40, Folders 6 and 7. Folder 7 of that box also contains campaign advertisements
for Mitchell which include political cartoons of the congressman. Materials
about the Mitchell 1938 campaign end in Box 40, Folders 8, 9, and 10, with
letters of congratulations to Mitchell for winning his re-election and
newspaper articles about Democrats winning a majority of the positions in
Illinois and Cook County campaigns.
More
information about the 1940 presidential and local campaigns may be found in the
Mitchell Papers than about any of the other campaigns covered by the
collection, partly due to the fact that the Democratic National Convention was
held in Chicago that year, and partly due to splits and confusions which
occurred that year within the Democratic Party. These materials may be found
chiefly in Boxes 40 and Boxes 51-55, beginning with a newspaper article about
the start of the Democratic race for 1940 from the Chicago Sunday
Herald-American (January 7, 1940; Box 40, Folder 2).
Mitchell's
desire to be involved with the Convention is documented beginning with a letter
located in Box 40 (Folder 7) in which he asks Mayor Edward J. Kelly whether or
not he should become an alternate delegate to the National Convention (February
14, 1940). The congressman's involvement
in the Convention is then not further documented until Box 52, Folder 7, where
there is located a certificate naming Mitchell as one of its delegates.
Materials involving communication between him and Mayor Kelly about plans for
the Convention begin in Folder 9 of Box 52, including: a letter from Mitchell
to Kelly congratulating him on being appointed Host Mayor to the convention
(Box 52, Folder 9); a telegram from Kelly inviting Mitchell to his "dinner
for distinguished guests," to be held at the Convention (Box 52, Folder
10); various correspondence involving Mitchell's preparations for his trip to
Chicago (Box 52, Folder 10); and invitations from Kelly to a dinner for the
Illinois Delegation to the Convention (Box 52, Folder 11). The congressman's
actual work at the convention is documented in Box 52, Folder 11 and Box 54,
Folder 1 - mostly correspondence praising Mitchell for the speech he delivered
at the Convention and newspaper articles about the speech. A copy of his speech
at the Convention may be found in a copy of the Congressional Record from July
16, 1940 in Box 52, Folder 11. (Tickets to the floor of the National Democratic
Convention of 1940 are also a part of this collection, but are located in a
separate folder in the vault.)
Other
information in the Mitchell Papers about the Convention involves controversy
over a meeting of African American leaders with James Farley, Chairman of the
National Democratic Committee. The meeting is first mentioned in a memorandum
located in Box 54, Folder 1, which indicates the meeting was to recommend
leaders for the African American campaign in the Eastern and Western states.
This meeting caused problems for the Democratic Party when people began
interpreting it as a move to segregate participants at the Convention, as is
indicated by a newspaper article located later in that same folder which
discusses rumors that African Americans were "separated into separate
rooms" (the Afro-American; July 20, 1940). Mitchell was apparently
angry about the meeting, complaining that certain people had met with Farley in
a bid to gain control of the Democratic campaign among African Americans (See
Mitchell letter to Farley in Box 54, Folder 2; July 23, 1940). Another letter
about the conference may be found in Box 54, Folder 5, in which Mitchell states
to J. E. Mitchell (Editor of St. Louis Argus) that he has been assured that it
did not have an impact on who would be selected to lead the African American
campaign.
Many
of the materials in the collection about the 1940 national campaign reveal
confusion over various people's roles in the work for the Democrats. A letter
from Mitchell to Atty. James C. Thomas in Folder 8 of Box 40, in which he
stated that there was puzzlement in the Democratic ranks because no one at that
time knew for sure who would become the Democratic presidential candidate, is
the first letter of this kind found in the collection. He also stated in the
letter that he had not been asked to help with the general campaign and did not
desire to (February 16, 1940). Mitchell's July 22, 1940 letter to Dr. A. C.
Johnson mentions that James Farley would be retiring that August 17th, and that
there is much uncertainty among the Democrats about how the 1940 campaign will
be organized.
The
involvement of Mitchell in this confusion is documented beginning in Box 54,
Folder 9 with a newspaper article about the Democrats' choosing of "race
leaders." The article names Mitchell as having been chosen head of the African
American campaign for the Democrats. In Folder 10 of that same box is another
article which discusses Mitchell's appointment to the position (this one, from
the Pittsburgh Courier, expressing surprise over the reported
appointment). Letters from Mitchell to constituents (Box 54, Folder 12) refute
the newspaper reports. He states in them that he is directing no part of the
Democratic campaign (September 14, 1940).
Splits
which occurred in the local Democratic campaigns in Illinois and, more
specifically, in Cook County during 1940 are also repeatedly mentioned in
papers found in the Mitchell collection. Materials in the collection indicate
that the Democratic Organization for the 2nd Ward in Chicago was split over
whom it would support for Congress. The first letter indicating this split can
be found in Box 40, Folder 2 - a letter from Mitchell to Mr. P. G. Taylor
thanking him for information he sent about the situation in the 2nd Ward and
stating that he is glad to hear that he (Mitchell) is in a good position to be
re-elected to Congress. In a letter Mitchell wrote Atty. J. Gray Lucas (Box 40,
Folder 10; February 26, 1940), he states that there is a split in the State
Democratic Organization and that he is concerned about how it will affect his
bid to remain in Congress. Apparently, disagreements occurring in the 2nd ward,
however, were having little affect on Mitchell's campaign, as is indicated in a
letter from Mitchell to Hon. E. J. MacMillan, Director of the Speakers' Bureau
for the Democratic National Convention, about the situation in Chicago (Box 51,
Folder 7; March 26, 1940). In Box 51, Folder 4, Mitchell writes in a letter to
James Farley about his position on the split which occurred between supporters
of William Dawson and those of Earl Dickerson for Congress for the 2nd Ward;
stating that, though Dawson had recently moved over to the Democratic Party
from the Republican, Mitchell had the utmost faith in his work and believed
that the voters would also support him (Box 51, Folder 4; March 13, 1940).
Another letter of Mitchell's which mentions his support for Dawson may be found
in Box 55, Folder 1 - a letter from Mitchell to Mr. Corneal A. Davis (September
19, 1940). Other disagreements must have been brewing in the Democratic ranks,
as is indicated in a letter from Mitchell to Mr. Joseph Clark, in which he
states that the situation for the Democrats in the 1st Ward of Chicago was
better than in other wards of the State (Box 51, Folder 4; March 20, 1940).
More
general information about the Illinois and national campaigns in 1940 may be
found in Boxes 40 and 51-55 also. Such materials include: a newspaper article
discussing those who applied to run congressional races in Chicago (The
Chicago Sunday Tribune; March 3, 1940; Box 51, Folder 1); an official list
of the candidates for the Illinois primary election (Box 52, Folder 2; April 9,
1940); newspaper articles about the Democratic victories in the state primary
vote for Illinois (Box 52, Folder 2; The Chicago Daily News; April 10,
1940); a speech by Hon. T. V. Smith about "Campaign Issues of 1940"
(Congressional Record; June 13, 1940; Box 52, Folder 3); a newspaper article
about conventions which were broken at the National Democratic Convention
(Chicago Bee; July 28, 1940; Box 54, Folder 4); and a newspaper article about
Mayor Edward Kelly losing a management position in the Democratic Party to U.
S. Senator Scott Lucas (The Pittsburgh Courier; September 7, 1940; Box 54,
Folder 12).
Though
so much information about the Illinois and national campaigns in 1940 may be
found in the Mitchell Papers, very little of it pertains directly to Mitchell's
own campaign at the time to be re-elected to Congress. Outside of the mentions
about Mitchell's campaign in letters discussing the general state of the
Democratic campaigns in Chicago and Illinois (mentioned above in paragraph on
party splits), the only other items regarding his own campaign are a letter
from Edward J. Flynn of the Democratic National Committee congratulating
Mitchell on being renominated for Congress in the 1st District of Illinois (Box
55, Folder 5; October 12, 1940) and letters from Lyndon B. Johnson of the
Democratic National Committee in which he offers to help Mitchell with his
campaign (See Box 55, Folder 7 and Box 55, Folder 9.). Papers involving
Mitchell's re-election to Congress end in Box 55, Folders 9-11 with
correspondence congratulating Mitchell on winning his bid for re-election.
Additionally, the Prints and Photographs Department is holding photographs from
the collection taken at dinners Mitchell attended for the 2nd Ward Democratic
Organization.
Though
Mitchell decided not to run for Congress again in 1942, there are some papers
in the collection regarding his support for other candidates. These are found
in Folder 6 of Box 64 and include a letter requesting people write Mayor Kelly
recommending Alderman Earl B. Dickerson as the Democratic nominee for Congress
and criticizing Mitchell for supporting Committeeman William L. Dawson for
Congress (January 27, 1942). Mitchell's telegrams stating that he endorses
Dawson as his successor are also in this folder.
Chicago projects:
Several
projects and events occurring in Chicago during the years Mitchell was in
office are discussed in the Mitchell Papers. One example is the Democratic
National Convention, already discussed in this description under "Election
Campaigns." Other significant topics, pertaining specifically to Chicago,
include: the planning for and construction of the Ida B. Wells Housing project
in Chicago's South Side; the planning and holding of an Afro-American
Exposition in Chicago (1940); the enlargement of Chicago's Municipal Airport;
and concern that was expressed over the affects curtailment of WPA and NYA
funds would have on projects in Chicago. Also, issues involving the Chicago
postal service are discussed throughout the Mitchell collection.
Information
involving the planning and construction of low-income housing in Chicago
commences in Box 11, Folder 4, with a newspaper article about the planning for
a South Side public housing project in Chicago (Philadelphia Tribune;
June 15, 1935). The next document involving the project does not then appear
until Box 28, Folder 4: a letter from J. Turner Wall of the Citizens' Trust and
Savings Bank, Chicago, to Mitchell about the filling of a position for manager
of the project (February 25, 1937). Other letters involving the planned
buildings - these two between Mitchell and Mr. Nathan Straus, Administrator,
United States Housing Authority - about proposed construction of low-rent
housing in Chicago (May 26, 1938) may be found in Box 38, Folder 4, along with
a copy of a Congressional Record containing a Mitchell speech entitled, "Low-cost
Housing in the First Congressional District of Illinois-Chicago" (May 27,
1938). Interspersed with other papers in Boxes 39-47 are various letters and
newspaper articles involving work being done on the housing project, and about
controversy over the low number of African Americans being hired as architects
and engineers for its construction. Some of these materials mention that the
actions of labor unions were blamed, in part, for hold-ups on the work. Letters
between Mitchell and Elizabeth Wood, Executive Secretary, Chicago Housing
Authority, about the first tenants of the Ida B. wells Homes conclude materials
in the collection about the South Side project (Folder 7 and 8).
Correspondence
involving concerns over housing availability for servicemen during the war
appear in Box 62, Folders 5 and 7, and in Box 64, Folder 6. The United States
government wanted to ensure that, as the U.S. became involved in the war, there
would be a large enough number of reasonably-priced rentals available in
Chicago for servicemen. A copy of a letter sent to Mitchell and other
congressmen from Mayor Kelly states that a ceiling had been proposed
expenditures for the building of housing to accommodate defense personnel, and
that Kelly did not believe the ceiling was high enough (August 19, 1941; Box
62, Folder 5). Another letter in the collection; this one from John K.
Galbraith, Assistant Administrator In Charge of Price Division, Office of Price
Administration and Civilian Supply, to Mr. Herbert B. Jackson (Chicago); states
that the government was concerned about stabilizing rents to help the
servicemen who would be relocating around the country, and that a survey of
rents in the Chicago area was being planned for the near future (September 13,
1941). Finally, telegrams expressing concern over a proposed rent control bill
for Illinois may be found in Box 63, Folder 8.
A
substantial amount of correspondence and a number of newspaper articles
involving the planning for and holding of an American Negro Exposition in
Chicago in 1940 may be found interfiled in the Mitchell Papers with other
materials in Boxes 51-54. The first mention of the Exposition is in Box 51,
Folder 2, in letters from Robert Bishop, Assistant to the Governor, to
Mitchell. Bishop emphasizes that the Exposition will be funded through a
not-for-profit organization set up for that purpose, and that it will be held
in Chicago from July 4th to Labor Day of that year. Folder 3 of that same box
contains a copy of a bill Mitchell introduced in the House to obtain
congressional funding for the Exposition (March 7, 1940). Correspondence
regarding this and a competing bill for a similar exposition in Detroit may be
found in Box 51, Folder 4 through Box 53, Folder 1, along with letters of
assurances to Mitchell that none of those involved in planning the Exposition
would receive money from it. Also related to Mitchell's work to publicize the
need for the Exposition is a speech he gave before the House on "The Negro
Factor in the History of the World" (Congressional Record; February 7,
1940; Box 50, Folder 5). A letter from Franklin Roosevelt stating that he has
appointed Mitchell to head the Commission to oversee the expenditure of the
$75,000 appropriated by Congress for the American Negro Exposition (June 5,
1940; Box 53, Folder 1), and a letter from Marguerita Ward (President of
Marguerita Ward Fine Cosmetics) complaining to Mitchell that adequate plans are
not being made to include African American businesswomen in the American Negro
Exposition (May 29, 1940) are of particular interest.
Newspaper
articles about preparations for the Negro Exposition and about the Exposition
itself are located in Box 53, Folders 9 and 11. These are followed by a letter
in Box 54, Folder 5 from Claude A. Barnett to Mitchell, describing the "full
quota of disappointments" that had surfaced with the Exposition, which he
believed to have been chiefly caused by the activities of union members who
were upset over the Exposition hiring non-union workers to save money. That
same folder also includes a report about the expenses and distribution of funds
for the project.
Though
they do not form a large part of the collection, there are a number of papers
involving the expansion of the Municipal Airport in Chicago. The first mention
in the papers of the Municipal Airport is in a letter in Box 26, Folder 10,
from a member of the Naval Post No. 372 American Legion to Mitchell in support
of the building of a Municipal Airport of Chicago for use by the National Guard
and general public (January 27, 1937). An argument for the expansion of that
same airport was made in a letter from W. J. Finn, Chicago Screw Company, which
mentions a plane crash in Chicago that killed 10 people and asks Mitchell to
support expansion of the size of the landing field at Municipal Airport to
prevent further such accidents (December 11, 1940; Box 56, Folder 6). The
airport is again mentioned in Box 61, Folder 5, in a report praising work that
had been done to expand it and comparing it with the size of airports in other
major U.S. cities (June 26, 1941), and in a letter from Mayor Kelly inviting
Mitchell to the dedication of the newly enlarged airport (June 26, 1941).
Papers
involving the WPA (Works Project Administration) and NYA (National Youth
Administration) are found interspersed with other papers throughout the
majority of the collection. Some of these items are specifically regarding WPA
and NYA funding and projects in Chicago and reflect people's concern over how
the gradual curtailment of funding for the programs would affect Chicago-area
projects. These materials begin in Box 17, Folder 3 with a letter to Mitchell
from H. K. Setzer, Assistant Director for WPA, District No.3 in Chicago, to
Mitchell in which he outlines for the congressman information about
Chicago-area WPA projects that were underway at that time (March 3, 1936). Box
25, Folder 3 contains letters supporting Mitchell's work to appropriate funds
for the continuation of the Federal Adult and Recreation Program in Chicago (a
WPA project). Correspondence regarding Roosevelt's efforts to expand the PWA
(Public Works Act) and efforts by Chicagoans to procure more projects in
Chicago is in Folder 4 of box 38. Apparently, such efforts worked, for in Box
39, Folder 5, is a letter from Charles E. Miner, Administrator for WPA, stating
that more money was available for WPA, and that more eligible applicants would
be hired in Chicago to work on WPA projects. A list of the projects accepted
for Chicago is included in a letter to Mitchell from David K. Niles, Assistant
Administrator, WPA, found in Folder 8 of that same box (August 10, 1938) and a
report about the Chicago projects is also in located later in Box 61, Folder 4
(May 1941). The NYA is mentioned in a letter from Michael Howlett, Chicago Area
Director for the NYA, which describes the NYA Work Experience Center in Chicago
and in which Howlett invites Mitchell on a tour of the facilities (November 28,
1940; Box 56, Folder 4).
Indications
that the danger of reductions in the funding for WPA and NYA were looming begin
to show in papers found in Box 41, Folder 9, with a letter from Mitchell to
Mayor Kelly in which he reassures the mayor that he will do everything he can
to maintain an appropriate WPA allotment for Chicago (January 10, 1939). No
more is mentioned about the WPA in Chicago until Box 51, Folder 3, where there
is a letter from Oscar DuPree to Mitchell about an alleged replacement of African
American employees with whites in the Land Use Survey of Chicago (WPA project;
letter dated March 8, 1940). A newspaper article in Box 54, Folder 2, indicates
that a transfer of funds and people from relief roles to WPA projects in
Chicago was made in July of 1940. Complaints about actual cuts in funding and
fears about how they would affect projects in Chicago are documented beginning
in Box 58, Folder 9 with a letter from the staff at the Ryerson Library, The
Art Institute of Chicago, which object to the curtailment of a WPA project which
had helped the Institute (March 7, 1941). Finally, in Box 66, Folder 5 is a
letter from the Chicago Recreation Library expressing concern that the
reduction of WPA funds will badly affect that institution (June 12, 1942).
Concerns
about jobs and job security in Chicago are also found in papers regarding
positions with the Chicago postal service. Numerous letters to the congressman
from individuals seeking recommendations from him they hoped would get them
jobs with the Chicago postal service are interspersed with other materials
throughout the folders covering Mitchell's time in office (1934-1942). Some of
these were for permanent, full-time positions, and others were for temporary
positions which became available each year with the Christmas rush. Mitchell's
usual responses to such letters was either to send brief recommendations to
supervisors at the appropriate post offices or to send a letter to the person
seeking a job, asking that they first obtain a recommendation from their ward
committeeman before asking him for a letter.
A
portion of the correspondence found in the Mitchell Papers involving the
Chicago postal service have to do with complaints about the working conditions
in the new main Chicago Post Office that was built in 1936. Letters complaining
about the heat in the building begin in Box 26, Folders 8 and 9. Continuing
correspondence between Mitchell and other members of the Post Office and Roads
Committee about the poor working conditions caused by the heat may also be
found in Box 26, Folders 8 and 9 and Box 27, Folder 2.
Finally,
some information about the status of African American workers in the postal
service in Chicago may be found in the collection in Box 49, Folders 6 and 7.
Folder 6 contains a letter outlining an investigation conducted by the Delta
Sigma Theta sorority on African American employment in the Chicago Post Office
(January 22, 1940), and Folder 7 contains a letter to Mitchell which outlines
the history of African American workers in the Chicago Post Office and asks
Mitchell to support the promotion of four African Americans into supervisory
positions.
Numerous
other papers pertaining specifically to Chicago issues may be found throughout
the Mitchell Papers. Among these are: a newspaper article about the National
Negro Congress which was held in Chicago in 1936 (Box 16, Folder 1); statements
of the Sanitary District of Chicago regarding the purchase by the U.S.
Government of canals owned by the Sanitary District of Chicago (Box 4, Folder 4
and Box 14, Folder 3); a letter from Carl D. Thompson, Director of the Public
Ownership League of America, regarding cost of the proposed building of subways
adjacent to the loop and fears that the businesses in that area would have to
pay for much of it (May 25, 1938); and articles about mafia involvement in the
building trades in Chicago (in issue of Lightnin
in Box 44, Folder 10 and the article "Gangsters Don't Build Homes" in
Box 47, Folder 3). Of particular interest regarding the impact of World War II
on Chicago citizens is a statement written by the faculty of Northwestern
University about what the college was doing to prepare the U.S. for possible
entry into the war, and also expressing their opinion the U.S. should do
everything in its power to stay out of the war (Box 57, Folder 2).
Un-American activities:
Papers
involving "un-American activities" (usually anything deemed to be
pro-Communist) in the Mitchell collection fall into three main categories: 1)
papers involving suspicions that Howard University had Communist leanings and
was indoctrinating its students to support Communism, 2) papers involving the
Dies Committee and questions about whether or not it should continue to exist,
and 3) articles and pamphlets about Communism in general.
The
papers involving accusations that Howard University was pro-Communist may be
found in Boxes 10 and 11 of the collection, beginning in Folder 7 of Box 10
with a letter from Kelly Miller to Mordecai W. Johnson complaining of what
Miller saw as the University's communist leanings (May 24, 1935). Other
correspondence denouncing Mordecai Johnson and Howard U. continue with another
letter in Folder 7 and letters in Folder 8. Newspaper clippings regarding the
University's alleged involvement in teaching Communism and clippings about
Mitchell's call for a congressional investigation of the school are in Box 11,
Folder 1.
No
further discussion of un-American activities appears in the Mitchell Papers
until Box 41, Folder 7, where letters begin appearing regarding the Dies
Unamerican Committee and its perceived effectiveness. That folder contains a
letter from Mitchell to Mr. O. E. Quinton in which he stated that he was
against Communism, Nazism, and Fascism, but also against the Un-American
Committee in Congress because he believed they were not doing anything
worthwhile (January 3, 1939). Folder 8 of that same box contains a letter from
the School of Livable Christianity requesting Mitchell support investigations
of the Un-American Activities Committee (January 10, 1939); and a January 12,
1936 letter from Mitchell to Mr. Marvin B. Pool in which he states that he
helped to vote for the creation of the Dies Committee on Un-American
Activities, but feels the Committee was poorly run is in Folder 9.
Correspondence regarding the Committee continue in Box 42 and in Boxes 47-52,
with Mitchell changing his mind a couple of times over whether or not he would
support the Committee's continuation. Those boxes also contain newspaper
clippings, usually supportive of Mitchell's votes to end the Dies Committee and
of other congressmen who had voted against its continuation.
Among
the correspondence of particular interest regarding the opinions of Chicago
groups and officials toward the activities of the Committee are: a letter from
Oscar G. Mayer, Office of the President of the Chicago Association of Commerce,
requesting Mitchell's support for the Committee (January 17, 1939; Box 42,
Folder 1); telegrams from committeeman Earl B. Dickerson (2nd Ward) accusing
the Dies Committee of being "prejudiced and disgraceful" and asking
Mitchell to vote against bill giving it further appropriations (February 3,
1939; Box 42, Folder 5); letters from Ira Latimer, Executive Secretary of the
Chicago Civil Liberties Committee, against the Dies Committee (October 5, 1939;
Box 47, Folder 6 and Box 48, Folder 4); and a letter from the Cook County
Council of the American Legion stating they have confidence in the Dies
Committee and condemn those voting against its continuation (March 11, 1940;
Box 51, Folder 5). One item of interest to those studying the views of African
American leaders toward the Dies Committee is a form letter from W. E. B.
DuBois in which he condemned the practice of labeling anyone Communist that had
ideas running counter to those holding power and defending himself from
accusations that he was a Communist (February 5, 1952; Box 71, Folder 1).
More
general information in the collection about Communism and the attitudes of some
Americans toward communist ideas may be found starting in Box 52, Folder 10
with a copy of remarks made by Mitchell to the House in a speech about the
Communist Party and its relationship to African Americans in the United States
(May 14, 1940). A pamphlet by the Afra-American Council of Good Will, Inc.
against "all isms except true Americanism" may be found in Box 48,
Folder 8. An article (author?) entitled "Communists" in Box 57,
Folder 4 continues documentation about Communism, as does an article with the
same title located in Box 72, Folder 4.
Military academies and African
Americans in the military:
A
significant number of documents in the Mitchell Papers are regarding Mitchell's
appointments to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy
at Annapolis. Most of his appointments were of young African American men, and
other papers in the collection show his interest in general in the status of African
Americans in the U.S. military.
The
cases of three appointees to military academies are particularly outlined in
the collection: 1) that of Felix J. Kirkpatrick, a African American man who had
been appointed to West Point by Oscar DePriest, was expelled from the academy,
and later sought help from Mitchell to get reinstated; 2) that of Mithcell's
appointee to the Naval Academy, James Lee Johnson, Jr., (first African American
admitted to Annapolis since 1879) who was forced to resign from the Academy
because he had collected too many demerits; 3) that of another Mitchell
appointee to West Point, James D. Fowler, who claimed that he had resigned from
the Naval Academy after being discriminated against by other cadets. Other
individuals discussed in connection with Mitchell's work to appoint young men
to the academies at West Point and Annapolis are: James Gatewood, Jr., a white
man who sought Mitchell's help to get appointed to West Point and whom Mitchell
agreed to appoint because he believed such an appointment would advance race
relations; Mitchell's appointee to the Naval Academy, Midshipman Trivers, who
resigned after only three weeks at the Academy and who Mitchell concluded did
not have the necessary character needed to make a good Naval officer; and Touissaint Gadsden, Jr., a man Mitchell appointed to
Annapolis and who was the first African American man appointed to the Naval
Academy whom Mitchell did not have to seek out (Gadsden wrote him and asked to
be appointed.). Besides documents involving the above-mentioned men, numerous
letters and forms may be found throughout the Mitchell collection from men who
sought appointment to one of the military academies, and regarding the testing
and admittance or rejection of men Mitchell appointed to the academies. A
significant amount of correspondence exists in the collection which also shows
that Mitchell appointed a number of cadets to West Point and Annapolis as
favors to Mayor Edward J. Kelly.
Information
about the case of Felix Kirkpatrick begins in the collection as early on as Box
4, Folder 2, with a newspaper article about Kirkpatrick seeking help from
Mitchell to be reinstated at West Point. The next documents involving the case
do not then appear until Box 15, Folders 6 and 7 of the collection, where there
are located articles about Kirkpatrick's release from West Point and his
attempt to be reinstated through the help of Mitchell (dated January 11, 1936
and January 17, 1936). A similar article may also be found in Box 20, Folder 2.
The final document in the collection regarding the former cadet is a letter
from Kirkpatrick to Mitchell in which he expresses sympathy for Midshipman
Johnson and his fight to remain at Annapolis, and asking the congressman if he
would send him Johnson's address so he may correspond with the Naval cadet
(March 7, 1937).
The
fight of Midshipman Johnson to remain at the Naval Academy is much more
thoroughly documented in the Mitchell Papers than are either the cases of
Kirkpatrick or James Fowler. Though Johnson is mentioned earlier on in the
collection (in newspaper articles about Mitchell's appointees to West Point and
Annapolis), information about the controversy surrounding his resignation does
not begin until Box 26, Folder 10, where there are two letters from Mitchell to
officers at the Naval Academy about his concerns that Midshipman Johnson will
be forced to resign from the Academy due to demerits unfairly given to him by
other cadets. A letter regarding a trip Mitchell made to Annapolis on Johnson's
behalf is in Box 27, Folder 2, and a letter from Johnson to Mitchell,
explaining the circumstances of his resignation, may be found in Folder 4 of
that same box. Documents regarding Mitchell's attempts to obtain a House
investigation into the matter of Johnson's ousting begin in Box 27, Folder 5
and continue through Box 29, Folder 1. Also found in these same boxes and
folders are letters from Johnson's parents to Mitchell, newspaper articles
about Johnson's case, and correspondence to Mitchell from some of his
constituents thanking him for his work to help Johnson remain at Annapolis.
Additional information about Johnson and his appointment is found in a news
release among the undated items in Box 72, Folder 4, and in a newspaper article
among the undated items in Box 73, Folder 5. Finally, an article and report
about the ousting of Midshipman Johnson is located, separated from the bulk of
the folders holding other materials on his case, in Box 35, Folder 2 of the
collection. [For a portrait of Johnson (not in uniform), see the materials held
in Prints and Photographs.]
The
case of James D. Fowler is better documented in the collection than that of
Kirkpatrick, but not as well documented as Johnson's case. Information in the
Mitchell Papers about Fowler's case begins in Box 39, Folder 3, with a letter
Mitchell sent to Brigadier General Jay L. Benedict, Superintendent, Military
Academy at West Point, N.Y., about Fowler and reports Mitchell had been hearing
that other cadets were trying to make it impossible for the African American
cadet to remain at the Academy (June 18, 1938). A letter from Mitchell to
Franklin Roosevelt, in which he requests an interview with the President about
the alleged harassment of Cadet Fowler, may be found in Folder 4 of Box 39. In
Folder 7 of that same box is located a return letter from Brigadier General
Benedict to Mitchell stating he has investigated the matter and that he does
not believe Fowler has been discriminated against, but rather, shown favor at
the Academy (July 15, 1938). The concluding paper in the collection about the
Fowler case is located in that same folder. It is a letter from Mitchell to
Fowler, in which the congressman scolds him for blaming his dismissal from West
Point on discrimination and states that he believes Fowler's own conduct caused
him problems at the Academy (July 20, 1938). A portrait of Fowler in his Army
uniform may be found located in items from the collection that are housed in
the Prints and Photographs Department.
Correspondence
regarding Mitchell's consideration of appointing James Gatewood, Jr. to West
Point may be found beginning in Box 39, Folder 6, where there is located a
letter from Gatewood to Mitchell (along with a photograph of himself) in which
he aks the congressman for assistance in getting him
appointed to the military academy. Mitchell's responding letter in Folder 7 of
that same box indicates his interest in appointing Gatewood (July 20, 1938).
Letters regarding Mitchell's continuing efforts to have Gatewood appointed may
then be found interspersed with other documents in Box 39, Folder 8 through Box
44, Folder 8. Much of the correspondence involves Mitchell's plans to visit
Gatewood's home town, and the younger man's work to make arrangements for the
congressman's visit. In a letter located in Box 44, Folder 3, from Mitchell to
a fellow congressman, Mitchell states that he thinks such an appointment of him
by a white man would help to further better race relations (April 17, 1939).
Apparently, however, Mitchell tired of receiving letters from Gatewood
inquiring about Mitchell's work to get him appointed and the congressman
eventually withdrew his help for the young man (See letter from Mitchell to
Gatewood in Box 44, Folder 8.).
Information
about the case of Midshipman Trivers begins in Box 31, Folder 8, in a letter
(from Mitchell? to ?) which states that Trivers resigned from the Naval Academy
after only three weeks there. Newspaper articles about the resignation are
located in Folder 9 of that same box and in Box 32, Folder 1, some of them
quoting Trivers as saying he had quit Annapolis because of health problems he
had which were brought on by harassment he received from white students at the
Academy. A letter from Mitchell to P. B. Young, Editor, Journal and Guide,
in which he states that he regretted having ever appointed Trivers and that he
will appoint another African American man in his place is in Box 31, Folder 9.
Concluding information in the collection about Triver's
case are copies of letters Mitchell sent various people, in which he states
that he believes he made a mistake in appointing Trivers and does not believe
Trivers to be fit for the Navy, are located in Box 32, Folder 6 of the
collection.
The
first correspondence involving the appointment by Mitchell of Touissaint Gadsden, Jr. to the Naval Academy at Annapolis
is located in Box 57, Folder 8 in the form of a letter from Gadsden to Mitchell
in which he asks Mitchell to please appoint him to the Academy (January 15,
1941). Correspondence about Gadsden continues in Folder 9 of that same box with
a letter from Mitchell to a Reverend William S. Bradden, in which Mitchell
writes Bradden that Gadsden is the first African American man that Mitchell had
not had to "hunt down" to appoint to Annapolis; that Gadsden had
written him and asked to be appointed. Facts about Gadsden and an announcement
about his appointment by Mitchell to Annapolis are located in Box 58, Folder 3,
along with a letter from Mitchell to Bradden in which he states he has
definitely decided to appoint the young man. Finally, correspondence about
Gadsden's examinations for entrance into the Academy and his rejection from
Annapolis because of his failure to pass a mental examination may be found in
Box 58, Folder 4 and Box 59, Folder 60.
Appointments
made to the military and naval academies at West Point and Annapolis as favors
to Mayor Kelly are documented through correspondence found in the collection
beginning with a letter from Mitchell to Mr. John Franklin Davis, in which
Mitchell informs Davis he has appointed him to the Naval Academy at Annapolis
as a favor to Mayor Kelly and that he is "very happy always to do anything"
he can do for Kelly (December 1, 1939). Other correspondence regarding such
appointments may be found located in Box 56, Folders 4 and 5; Box 60, Folder 5;
Box 62, Folder 1; and Box 65, Folders 6 and 7.
In
addition to documents about Mitchell's appointments to West Point and Annapolis
the Mitchell Papers reveal Mitchell's interest in obtaining better positions
for African Americans in the U.S. military. These are seen in letters and
correspondence involving the establishment by the War Department of an aviation
school at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Information about the
establishment of the school begins with Mitchell's letter to President F. D.
Patterson of the Tuskegee Institute, in which he states that he will ask for
Tuskegee to be one of the schools selected by the War Department as a location
for the training of aviation pilots and aviation mechanics (January 9, 1939;
Box 41, Folder 9). Another letter located in that same folder (from Mitchell to
J.E. Mitchell, Editor, St. Louis Argus) expresses Mitchell's belief that
an aviation school should be established at Tuskegee and that he wishes to work
toward that end (January 9, 1939). Continuing correspondence about creating an
aviation school at Tuskegee may be found in Box 42, Folders 2 and 4. Folder 5
of that same box contains a phamplet entitled "Wings
Above Tuskegee" about the resulting school.
Documents
showing Mitchell's concern that African Americans in the United States Navy
were not being treated fairly are also found in several places in the Mitchell
Papers. One example of such an item may be found in Box 40, Folder 11 of the
collection in the form of letter to Mitchell from "Colored Sailors, U.S.
Navy" in which the writers express their thanks to Mitchell for all he has
done for African Americans in the services and discuss some of the
discrimination they have received in the Navy (November 1938). Another related
letter to Mitchell from Edgar Bordley, Intelligence Officer, Neptune Club (a
club for African American ex-Navymen in
Philadelphia), may be found in Box 59, Folder 4. In this letter, Bordley asks
Mitchell if any plans have been made for African Americans in the Navy to hold
positions other than in the culinary branch (March 22, 1941). An NAACP phamplet about discrimination in the Navy against African
Americans may be found in Box 63, Folder 7. Letters between Frank Knox,
Secretary of the Navy, and Mitchell, and between FDR and Mitchell about the
treatment of African Americans in the Navy may also be found in Box 66, Folders
10 and 11 and Box 57, Folder 1.
Mitchell's
concern over the treatment of African Americans in the other services is also
covered in documents located in various places in the collection. Those
regarding the Army begin as early in the Mitchell Papers as Box 3, Folder 6,
with a copy of a report by E. Reynolds, Captain, U.S. Army, Retired, entitled Colored
Soldiers and the Regular Army (December 10, 1934). A letter from a Major
General of the War Department (signature illegible) informing him of the "colored
troops" in the U.S. Army and where they were stationed (March 4, 1936) is
also found in Box 17, Folder 1. A newspaper article quoting Mitchell as saying
that the Army was not planning on creating a separate African American division
is found in Box 54, Folder 12 (The Washington Afro-American; September
7, 1940). Other documents in the Mitchell Papers about the status of African
Americans in the U.S. Army include: a newspaper article claiming Jim Crow was "rampant"
in the U.S. Army (Box 56, Folder 5; The Dayton Forum; December 6, 1940);
a newspaper article about the reactivation of a African American Army division
that was active in World War I (Box 64, Folder 9; February 14, 1942); a copy of
Mitchell's remarks before the House about the discrimination of African
American soldiers in the U.S. Army (February 18, 1942); and the report "Negro
Soldiers Discriminated Against" (Box 67, Folder 10).
Mitchell's
concerns over the proper treatment of trainees in both Army and Navy training
camps is also a significant topic among the papers in the collection regarding
his work with the military. These papers include a history of African Americans
in the military academies (The Pittsburgh Courier; February 27, 1937;
Box 28, Folder 6); correspondence regarding the work of Mitchell's brother,
John, to establish training camps in Alabama for African American servicemen
and the opposition of Frank M. Dixon, Governor of Alabama, to such a plan (Box
66, Folder 2); and correspondence regarding attempts by some to establish
special officer candidate schools and the debate over whether or not they
should be separate from white officer candidate schools (Box 66, Folder 3).
General
information about discrimination against African Americans in all of the
services may also be found in several places in the Mitchell Papers. These
include: a letter from the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier outlining
the status of African Americans in the U.S. armed forces and asking Mitchell
for his views of their place in the military (Box 37, Folder 1; March 2, 1938);
an article entitled "Discrimination Against Negroes" by Robert L.
Plummer about the discrimination against African Americans in the U.S. armed
forces (Box 57, Folder 8); a Congressional Record containing Mitchell's
comments, "The Negro Discriminated Against In Our National Defense Program"
(Box 62, Folder 1; July 24, 1941); and a magazine article entitled "Negroes
At War" (contains numerous photos, in oversize folder).
African American Migration:
Mitchell's
study of the causes of increased African American migration from the South to
the North, and his efforts to encourage African American Southerners to stay
where they were are documented in papers located in Boxes 42-51 of the Mitchell
Papers. Some of the earliest papers in the collection regarding the African
American migration are a letter from Mitchell to Dr. Kelly Miller of Howard
University discussing the need for African Americans to receive aid to
establish themselves as farmers (Box 1, Folder 8); a report ("The Farm,
The Negro's Best Hope"; Box 42, Folder 3) by Miller; and a letter from
Mitchell to Dr. Miller discussing the migration (February 7, 1939; Box 42,
Folder 7). Though it is recorded in some of the biographical sketches published
about Mitchell's life that he corresponded much with Miller about the subject
and that Miller was influential in shaping Mitchell's belief that African
Americans should stay where they were, Dr. Miller is not mentioned again in the
Mitchell Papers until Box 49, Folder 4, where there is located a page from a Congressional
Record containing a speech Mitchell gave before the House praising Miller
following the Howard instructor's death (January 18, 1940).
Two
of Mitchell's speeches about the causes and cures of the African American
migration are documented in the collection. In Box 42, Folder 7, contains notes
for Mitchell's speech, "The Cause Of Negro Migration From The South, The
Effect, And The Remedy." Letters of congratulation to Mitchell for this
speech may be found in Box 43, Folder 3. The second speech was a Founder's Day
speech Mitchell delivered at Tuskegee Institute in which he discouraged African
Americans from migrating from the South to the congested cities in the North,
and emphasized the need of whites in the South to be fair to African Americans.
Mitchell's letter to Mr. H. W. Faron, Associated Press, in which he outlines
the speech, are in Box 43, Folder 9, along with an April 2, 1939 copy of the
speech. A version of it he gave before the House may be found in Folder 10 of
that same box ("Overcoming Difficulties Under Adverse Conditions";
April 5, 1939). Letters congratulating Mitchell on the Founder's Day address
are found in Box 43, Folder 11, and a newspaper article about the speech is
filed in Box 46, Folder 11.
Papers
involving Mitchell's work to encourage African Americans to stay in the South
and develop farms there is a major theme in the papers of the collection
involving the African American migration. Mitchell's research into African
American farming in the South is documented beginning in Box 45, Folder 4,
where there is filed a May 29, 1939 press release about WPA statistics showing
the extent of the poverty of farm tenants and sharecroppers in the South.
Information about confusion over Mitchell's efforts to support resettlement
farm projects may also be found in the collection. The press began reporting
that Mitchell had introduced a bill in the House that would relocate poor urban
African Americans to farmlands in the South. A letter from Mitchell to Mr. W.
E. Holden (Box 45, Folder 5; June 9, 1939) refuted these reports, but a
newspaper article against the alleged legislation is found in Box 46, Folder 11
(September 1939).
It
is clear that Mitchell felt improved farming in the South could greatly help African
Americans. Correspondence between the then Secretary of the Department of
Agriculture, H. A. Wallace, and Mitchell in Box 47, Folders 1 and 2; Box 50
Folder 11; and Box 51, Folder 5 document Mitchell's belief that an extension of
agricultural opportunities and development in the South was the "only hope
for African Americans" who had been "crowded out of the manufacturing
industry" (quotes from letter from Mitchell to Wallace; Box 50, Folder 11;
February 27, 1940). A report supporting this view, "The South's Way to
Wealth" by T. M. Campbell, Field Agent, U.S. Department of Agriculture
(April 1, 1940) may also be found in Box 51, Folder 10.
Other
items in the collection about Mitchell's study of the African American
migration include: a letter from Ernest Eugene Akins about his views on the
causes and solutions of the African American migration (Box 42, Folder 10;
February 16, 1939) and a newspaper article about the interest professors in
Bangor, Maine took in Mitchell's reports on the state of African Americans in
the South (Box 44, Folder 8; Bangor Daily Commercial; May 3, 1939).
Virgin Islands and the West Indies:
Information
about a tour Mitchell took early in his career to the Virgin Islands and the
West Indies, his interest in having a African American man appointed to the
Judgeship of the Virgin Islands, and his support of self-rule by the people of
the Virgin Islands and West Indies is found in Boxes 13-25, Boxes 42-45, and
Boxes 56-59.
Documents
regarding preparations for Mitchell's trip are in Boxes 13 and 14. Along with
correspondence involving planning for the trip, Box 13, Folder 2 contains
newspaper articles about Mitchell's talk to the Norfolk and Western Railway
Veterans' Association in which he stated, among other things, that he was
seeking the appointment of a African American judge for the Virgin Islands.
This interest in the Judgeship for the Virgin Islands appears later on in the
collection, beginning with a letter from Casper Holstein, President of the
Virgin Islands Congressional Council, in which he asks Mitchell to use his
influence with the Attorney General and President to get a man appointed to a
judgeship in the Virgin Islands (Box 42, Folder 11; February 21, 1939). Continuing
correspondence regarding the replacement of the Judge for the Virgin Islands
may be found in Box 43, Folder 1, including a letter from Mitchell to Holstein
in which he states he will support the election of a Mr. Bough to the position
(February 27, 1939; Box 43, Folder 1). Other letters to Mitchell from those
seeking to fill the Judgeship may be found in Box 44, Folder 1 and Box 42,
Folder 2.
Both
Box 13, Folder 12 and Box 14, Folders 1 and 2 contain correspondence from
Mitchell's constituents which was sent to him while he was on the tour and
return letters to them from his secretary, Claude Holman, indicating that
Mitchell was out of the country on a trip to the Virgin Islands and West
Indies. Mitchell's responses to correspondence he received while on the trip
are found in Box 15, Folder 4. . Box 25, Folder 10 also contains a newspaper
article about Mitchell's return from the Virgin Islands and West Indies. These
items help to further pinpoint the dates he was away from the country
Reports
and correspondence about the proposed Organic Act and Bill of Rights then being
proposed for the Virgin Islands form a substantial percentage of the materials
in the Mitchell Papers about the Virgin Islands. These items include: a copy of
the draft of the Bill of Rights for the Virgin Islands (Box 14, Folder 1); a
statement of the Federation of the American Virgin Islands Societies about the
Organic Act of the Virgin Islands (Box 15, Folder 4; December 12, 1935); a
circular about the proposed Bill of Rights for the Virgin Islands (Box 15,
Folder 4; December 14, 1935); and a letter from Lionel Robert, Chairman of the
Colonial Council for St. Thomas and St. John, Virgin Islands, stating he is
sending Mitchell a copy of the Organic Act for the Islands and would like
Mitchell's support in having it pass the House (Box 16, Folder 1). Continuing
documents in the collection about legislation involving the governing of the
Virgin Islands are chiefly comprised of: a letter from the Secretary of the
Interior to Hon. Millard E. Tydings, Chairman, Committee on Territories and
Insular Affairs, about a bill to clarify the powers and duties of the various
branches of government of the Virgin Islands (Box 17, Folder 5; March 9, 1936);
a letter from Lawrence W. Cramer, Governor of the Virgin Islands, to Hon. Henry
A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, asking Wallace to continue on the
Advisory council for the Virgin Islands and discussing issues of importance to
the establishment of a permanent government for the Virgin Islands (March 13,
1936; Box 17, Folder 6); a letter from Lawrence W. Cramer to Mitchell regarding
the status of legislation for the Virgin Islands and "matters that require
attention and action" (March 23, 1936; Box 17, Folder 9); and a letter
from the Federation of American Virgin Islands Societies asking Mitchell to
help their delegate to the hearings for the Organic Act prepare for the
meetings (March 28, 1936; Box 17, Folder 11). Other documents in the collection
involving such issues include: a copy of the hearings before the Committee on
Insular Affairs, House of Representatives, on H. R. 11751 (a bill to provide a
civil government for the Virgin Islands; April 3, 1936; Box 18, Folder 2) and
letters regarding the work still needed at the time to set up a permanent
government in the Virgin Islands, some suggesting that Mitchell continue to
support the work as a boost to his campaign to be re-elected to Congress (Box
20, Folder 8; August 8-13, 1936).
Items
specific to the impact on the West Indies of the construction of United States
air and naval bases on the Islands begin to appear in the Mitchell collection
in Box 56. In Folder 6 of that box, for example, may be found a letter from
Mitchell to Mr. Ellis A. Williams of the Hampton Institute (Virginia) about a
trip Williams plans to make to the West Indies. Mitchell mentions in the letter
his own previous trip to the Virgin Islands and West Indies and states that he
is glad Williams is going on his "goodwill" trip (December 9, 1940).
Newspaper articles about Williams' trip are located in Box 58, Folder 2. Box
57, Folder 1 also contains a letter from W. A. Domingo, President, West Indies
National Council, expressing concern that, with the building of U.S. naval and
air bases in the Islands, and the accompanying influx of whites, racism and jim-crowism will be transferred to the islands (December
26, 1940). Continuing correspondence between officials in the West Indies and
officials in the United States about the planned bases are in Box 58, Folder 6.
Those letters contain mentions of the apprehensions inhabitants of the West
Indies had about the construction and operation of the bases and the promises
made by U.S. officials to the West Indians about their operation. A final
letter about the West Indies is located in Box 59, Folder 4 of the collection,
from W. A. Domingo, about pressure that was then being applied on the United
States by the British to try to force the U.S. to segregate its forces at American
naval and air bases in the Islands.
Jack Guzik (Jake Guzik):
Materials
regarding Mob-connected businessman, Jack Guzik are found in Box 48, Folder 10
and represent the only major group of papers in the collection not interfiled
chronologically with other documents. They consist chiefly of items containing
information Mitchell used in attempting to reach a compromise for Guzik with
the Internal Revenue Service in a case involving Guzik's alleged tax evasions.
Documents in the collection regarding the case include: notices of levy and tax
liens against Guzik's property; a letter to Guzik from Attorney Richard L.
Tedrow in which he acknowledges his withdrawal by Guzik from the case and asks
for the name and address of the businessman's new counsel so he can send him
information about the case (June 13, 1939); Statements of Financial Condition
and Other Information (IRS Form 433) filed on Guzik's behalf; petitions from
the case; notes by the defense for the case (probably Mitchell's notes);
letters from Mitchell to Guzik regarding attempts by him to reach a compromise
with the IRS; briefs before the Commission of Internal Revenue regarding the
case; and offers in compromise (filed with the IRS on Guzik's behalf). The
folder also provides February and September 1956 newspaper articles regarding
Guzik's death and his connections with Al Capone.
Good Will Tours:
Two
"good will tours" Mitchell took of southern states to promote racial
good will are documented in the Mitchell Papers, one he took during his second
term in Congress and one he took shortly after his retirement from Congress.
The first tour is much more thoroughly documented in the collection than the
second.
Information
about the first tour may be found beginning in Box 32, Folder 9 with a letter
from Mitchell to the mayor of Roanoke, Alabama, about Mitchell's upcoming "racial
good will tour," in which he states he is interested in speaking to groups
of African American leaders while on the trip (September 7, 1937). Attached to
the letter is an outline of the route Mitchell planned to take on the tour.
Letters from people wanting Mitchell to speak in their home towns on his trip
may be found in Box 32, Folder 9 and Box 33, Folder 1. Newspaper articles about
the excursion may also be found in Box 33, Folder 1 and Box 33, Folders 3 and 4
- with the articles in Box 33 describing some of the speeches he gave while on
the tour. In one speech, described in an article about Mitchell's stop in
Oklahoma, Mitchell mentions his plans to work toward purchasing the birthplace
of B. T. Washington and building a shrine on the property in honor of African
American progress (Box 33, Folder 4; The Oklahoma Eagle; October 16,
1937). (Documents involving Mitchell's continuing work to establish a shrine at
the birthplace of Booker T. Washington continue interspersed with other papers
throughout the remainder of the collection.)
A
couple of interesting letters between Booker T. Washington, Jr. and Mitchell
mention the tour. In Box 33, Folder 3 is a letter from Washington to Mitchell
in which he expresses regret that he could not see the congressman on his visit
to Alabama and refers to favors he believes he and Mitchell have done for each
other. Mitchell's return letter to Washington in Folder 4 of that same box is
very biting, stating that he does not believe Washington has done anything for
him and expressing his belief that the younger man has "misspent what
might have been a most valuable life" (October 19, 1937).
The
congressman's second good will tour of the South is documented in Box 68,
Folders 2, 3, and 4. These begin in Folder 2, with a letter from Mitchell to
Governor Colgate W. Darden of Virginia in which Mitchell outlines the work he
hopes to do in the South following his retirement from Congress and states that
he hopes to tour each of the Southern states in the near future (January 18,
1943). The remainder of documents regarding this tour are letters (in Box 68,
Folders 2, 3, and 4) from presidents of technical schools and colleges in the
South thanking Mitchell for sending them copies of his speeches, congratulating
him on his retirement, and asking him to stop at their institutions on his
tour.
Jim Crow Railroad Case:
Numerous
documents in the Mitchell Papers provide information regarding court cases
Mitchell fought over his ousting from a first class railroad car in Arkansas.
The initial case was one he brought before the Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC) against the Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company. Following that
initial case, which ended in a ruling against Mitchell, the congressman
requested a rehearing of the case by the ICC. This request was denied and
Mitchell filed the case with a Circuit Court. While his case in the Circuit
Court (which asked for damages from the railroad of $50,000) was pending,
Mitchell filed his case before the Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor. His
attempt to gain a payment of damages in the Circuit Court case continued following
the Supreme Court decision. The process of preparing for the various cases and
the hearing of the cases is well-documented in collection. In addition,
photographs of Mitchell with his lawyer for the case, Richard Westbrooks, may
be found housed in the Prints and Photographs Department.
Papers
involving his initial case before the ICC begin in Box 30, Folder 8, where
there is a copy of the argument first filed on Mitchell's behalf (May 10,
1937). Items regarding this first hearing of the Jim Crow case continue through
Box 38, Folder 8, where there is a newspaper article which states that the ICC
threw out the case and that Mitchell had decided to take it to higher courts (The
Chicago Defender; May 7, 1938). Other items regarding the initial hearing
before the ICC in Boxes 30-38 include: letters wishing Mitchell luck in the
case; newspaper articles regarding the case; a letter from Mitchell to Attorney
Patrick B. Prescott, Jr., which mentions the case and states he will take the
matter before the Supreme Court if necessary (Box 31, Folder 1; May 21, 1937);
statements filed in the court case and responses from the other participating
parties; notes about the conditions of a second class railroad car such as the
one Mitchell was forced to ride (Box 35, Folder 5); correspondence regarding the
scheduling of hearing dates and times; and stenographer's minutes of the
hearing before the ICC (Box 37, Folder 3; March 7, 1938). Stenographer's
minutes of the oral argument before the ICC may also be found in Box 39, Folder
5 (July 6, 1938), and a report on the hearing is located in Folder 9 of that
same box (August 31, 1938). Continuing information about this hearing before
the ICC and the Commission's final decision may be found through Box 41, Folder
1, where there is located an article entitled "The ICC Wrong" (The
Gazette, Cleveland, Ohio; December 10, 1938).
Mention
of the attempt to gain a rehearing of the case is first located in Box 41,
Folder 9 of the collection, where there is filed a newspaper article about
Mitchell's request for such a hearing (January 9, 1939). In Box 42, Folder 2,
may also be found "Petition of Arthur W. Mitchell, Complainant, For
Rehearing And Reargument" (January 21, 1939).
Continuing correspondence and newspaper articles regarding this effort may be
found interfiled with other items from Box 41, Folder 9 through Box 43, Folder
3, where there is a notice from W. P. Bartel, Secretary of the ICC, stating
that Mitchell's petition for a rehearing of the case was denied (March 6,
1939). A final item of interest about this attempt to gain a rehearing is found
in Box 43, Folder 7, where there is located a letter from Mitchell to Richard
Westbrooks in which he states that he is glad the ICC refused his request
because it opened the way for him to move the case on to the Supreme Court
(March 23, 1939)
Information
regarding Mitchell's filing of the case with a District Circuit Court begins in
Box 38, Folder 9 with newspaper articles about the filing. A letter to Mitchell
from Westbrooks, about the procedures they must follow to bring his case before
the District Court may be found in Box 43, Folder 10. From that item, little in
the collection mentions the Circuit Court case specifically until papers filed
following the documents stating that the Supreme Court ruled in Mitchell's
favor. In Box 66, Folder 9, continue documents about the District Court case,
with a letter from Mitchell to Attorney James Harte Levenson (July 15, 1942),
in which Mitchell states that he will push the civil suit to a conclusion, but
that his primary objective had always been to have the law regarding
segregation of railroad cars reversed (not to be compensated monetarily).
Correspondence between Mitchell and Westbrooks in Box 68, Folder 10, about the
case for damages completes documents regarding the Circuit Court case.
Correspondence
regarding the scheduling of a hearing before the Supreme Court in the case of
Mitchell vs. the United States, et. al., may be found as early as Box 44,
Folder 1. Continuing papers about the case before the Supreme Court and the
Court's decision may be found interfiled with other papers in Boxes 44-66.
These items include: newspaper articles about the case; correspondence between
Mitchell and Westbrooks regarding preparation for the case and the expense of
the case; briefs and dockets from the case; correspondence regarding Mitchell's
application to argue the facts of his own case before the Court; letters from
various wishing Mitchell luck in the case; a copy of the opinions of the
Supreme Court Justices in the case (Box 60, Folder 3); and correspondence
regarding Mitchell's and Westbrook's efforts to gain Mitchell financial
compensation for the costs involved in the court case.
Also
included in the Mitchell collection is a copy of a Congressional Record
containing a speech by Mitchell entitled: "My Fight Before the Interstate
Commerce Commission and the Courts of the Country for Equal Accommodations for
Negro Passengers Traveling Interstate; A Brief History of the Case" (Box
62, Folder 8; September 17, 1941). A newspaper about this speech follows in
Folder 9 of that same box.
Finally,
information about the changes made to the ICC regulations as a result of the
Supreme Court decision in the Mitchell case may be found beginning in Box 62,
Folder 2, with an order withdrawing the previous decision made by the ICC in
Mitchell's case (July 31, 1941). Documents regarding the intentions of the ICC
to change its regulations to conform to the Supreme Court ruling are interfiled
with other documents in Boxes 62-64. Box 64, Folder 1 contains a copy of the
changes made to the ICC regulations as a result of Mitchell's case.
Other
documents, interfiled in the same folders and boxes as documents relating to
Mitchell's Jim Crow railroad cases, provide more general information about
segregation on the railroads in the South. These items include: an article
regarding Jim Crow practices (Box 35, Folder 2); an article about the poor
treatment of a African American reporter on a railroad car in Georgia (Journal
and Guide, June 11, 1938; Box 39, Folder 2); a letter from Mitchell to Mr.
Walter F. Anderson, Kentucky State College, stating he believes all African
Americans discriminated against in transportation should file court cases (Box
64, Folder 5; January 20, 1942); a letter from J. B. Hill, President, L & N
Railroad Company, to Mr. Frank B. Adair, regarding discrimination against Mr.
Adair on one of the L & N cars (Box 66, Folder 4; June 3, 1941); a letter
from Miss Aminta McGrew to Mr. H. O. Wagner, Superintendent of the Santa Fe
Railway Company, about discrimination she faced on one of the company's lines
(Box 67, Folder 1; August 10, 1942); and proceedings of the Henderson vs. U.S.
Supreme Court case regarding unequal dining car accommodations provided African
Americans and whites on the trains of the Southern Railway Company (Box 70,
Folder 3; June 5, 1950). (See "House Bills" earlier in this
description for information regarding Mitchell's bill to end segregation in
interstate travel.)
Retirement:
Documents
in the collection regarding Mitchell's retirement from Congress and his
activities following his retirement may be found chiefly in Boxes 64-71.
Besides papers concerning the good will tour he took following his retirement
from Congress, family correspondence he received during and after his
retirement, and documents regarding the Mutual Housing Company (all of which
are discussed previously in this description), these boxes also contain
information about his work as a consultant to the War Department, his speaking
engagements during and following his retirement, his home and farm in Virginia,
his involvement in political campaigns following his retirement, his work for
the Southern Regional Council, his interest in the repeal of poll taxes and the
desegregation of schools, and the sale of some of his real estate. In addition,
photographs showing Mitchell's home and farm in Virginia may be found in
materials from the collection housed in the Prints and Photographs Department.
Papers
discussing his upcoming retirement and involving his retirement from Congress
may be found in Box 64, Folders 8 and 9, and Box 67, Folders 6-10. The first of
these items are newspaper articles (in Box 64, Folder 8) regarding Mitchell's
plans to retire. One interesting item; a letter from Mitchell to Harry M. Englestein and Co.; attests to Mitchell's original plans to
possibly settle in Chicago for a while and practice law there following his
retirement. However, continuing correspondence and newspaper articles in Box
67, Folders 6-10, show that Mitchell later made plans to move to his farm in
Virginia and spend the rest of his life there farming and working for better
race relations.
Mitchell's
work as a consultant for the War Department is mentioned in papers in Box 68,
Folders 6 and 7. The first folder contains a study Mitchell conducted while
working as a consultant: "The Treatment of the Negro Trainee." Other
papers in the two folders regarding his work for the War Department include:
newspaper clippings announcing his appointment as a consultant and regarding a
tour he took to study areas with nearby Army and Navy bases; copies of the
paperwork used to appoint Mitchell a consultant; orders for Mitchell from the
War Department; and correspondence regarding a conference at which Mitchell
planned to report the findings he recorded while on his tour for the War
Department.
Several
newspaper clippings in the collection provide photographs and information about
Mitchell's home and farm in Virginia. These begin in Box 67, Folder 6 with the
first of a series of articles from the Pittsburgh Courier about Mitchell's
life and work. The series continues interfiled with other papers throughout the
boxes containing documents about Mitchell's retirement. Box 69, Folder 2
contains other clippings (with numerous pictures) about Mitchell's home in
Virginia and his life there.
Mitchell's
continuing support of various campaigns is also touched upon in the collection.
In Box 70, for example, may be found documents pertaining to Mitchell's work
for Remmie L. Arnold, a candidate for Governor of Virginia in 1949. These
papers include newspaper articles, campaign literature, and correspondence
between Arnold and Mitchell. Box 71, Folder 2 also contains a copy of the text
of the Democratic Party's 1952 platform (Richmond Times-Dispatch; July
25, 1952) and correspondence regarding an offer by Mitchell to serve as a
speaker that year in support of the Democrats.
Additionally,
the former congressman's work for the Southern Regional Council, a biracial
group that attempted to combat racism in unobtrusive ways (through publishing a
newsletter, informing the public about legislation affecting African Americans,
sponsoring speakers at various events, etc.), is covered in the collection.
Papers related to this work begins in Box 69, Folder 2, and continue interfiled
with other papers through Box 71. These include summaries of proceedings of
annual meetings, correspondence, and membership records and copies of the
organization's newsletter. Of particular interest regarding the group are an
article in an issue of New South about Mitchell agreeing to head the Council
(Box 69, Folder 5) and a phamplet in Folder 5 of Box
70 entitled "Southern Regional Council."
Information
about attempts to repeal the poll tax and about the battle over the
desegregation of schools may also be found among the papers from Mitchell's
retirement years. Papers pertaining to the efforts to repeal the poll tax may
be found in Box 70, Folders 2 and 4 in the form of newspaper clippings about
the struggle. Clippings regarding the desegregation of schools are much more
numerous and may be found in Folders 4 and 8 of Box 72. They include articles
about the Supreme Court's decision that the segregation of schools was
unconstitutional, about the plans of various communities to adjust to the new
law that schools must be desegregated, and the reactions of people in those
communities to the Supreme Court ruling.
A
very small amount of documentation may be found in Box 71, Folder 8 regarding
the sale of some of Mitchell's real estate. These papers include advertisements
and descriptions of the "Mitchellville Subdivision."
Finally,
a couple of items of interest in Boxes 68 and 69 regarding national history
are: a letter from Mitchell to Mr. William G. Nunn, Managing Editor of the Pittsburgh
Courier, in which he expresses his sadness over the death of President
Roosevelt (Box 68, Folder 9; April 15, 1945) and a newspaper article regarding
the decision of the United Nations Organization not to locate its headquarters
in Virginia because of the Jim Crow laws in place there (Box 69, Folder 1; Richmond
Times-Dispatch; January 6, 1946).
Other Topics:
Small
amounts of documentation may also be found in the Mitchell Papers regarding:
the invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini and the reactions of Americans to such
actions; the push to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine; the movement by
some American African Americans to obtain congressional funding to return to
Africa; general information about the Tuskegee Institute; the case of the
Scottsboro Boys; and Mitchell's tour of Havana, Cuba. Throughout the collection
may also be found numerous copies of speeches by James Farley, Chairman of the
National Democratic Committee during the years Mitchell was in Congress.
List of items stored in vault:
Originals
of selected letters are stored in a vault (letters signed by Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Helen Keller, etc.). Photocopies are filed in their
original chronological positions in the collection files. These items include:
1.
Chicago Cubs ticket (1939), signed by Philip K. Wrigley, President of the
Chicago National League Ball Club
2.
Tickets to the floor of the Democratic National Convention (July 1940)
3.
Ticket to the President's Platform (January 20, 1941) for the 1941 inauguration
ceremonies for President and Vice President of the United States and
accompanying programs to ceremonies and dinner
4.
Letter to Mitchell signed by Walt Disney (on Pinocchio letterhead; dated March
21, 1940).
5.
Telegram sent to Mitchell from Edna R. Abbot (February 29, 1940) announcing the
death of her husband, Robert S. Abbot, Founder, Editor and Publisher of the Chicago
Defender and Mitchell's reply telegram of sympathy to her (dated same day).
6.
A postcard and two letters signed by Jack Guzik regarding payment to Mitchell
for his work on Guzik's tax evasion case and outlining directions to Mitchell
regarding the case (September 8, 1941;October 10, 1941; and November 10, 1941).
7.
Hand-signed letter from Helen Keller in which she asks Mitchell for financial
support for her Committee on the Deaf-blind of America (Department of the
Foundation for the Blind; letter dated January 23, 1946).
8.
Hand-written and signed letter (October 4, 1937) to Mitchell from Booker T.
Washington, Jr. in which he refers to a loan Mitchell made to him and different
ways they've helped each other (which Mitchell later denied - see detailed
description under "Personal and Family Correspondence").
9.
Letter signed by Thurgood Marshall, Special Counsel to the NAACP (October 17,
1941) in which he refers to his desire to meet with Mitchell.
10.
Telegram to Mitchell from Arthur M. Carter, Sports Editor for the Afro-American
(May 20, 1940), in which he asks Mitchell to throw the season-opening pitch
for the newly-organized Interstate Baseball League for Virginia and Maryland.
11.
A letter to Mitchell (June 13, 1940), signed by Ivan T. Florsheim, President of
The Florsheim Corporation, in which he asks the congressman to help defeat the
LaFollette "Oppressive Labor Practices" Bill; and a letter signed by
Ivan P. Florsheim, Jr., asking Mitchell for the same (June 13, 1940).
12.
Four signed letters to Mitchell from President Franklin Deleano
Roosevelt. In one letter, he states he has appointed Mitchell to the committee
to oversee the expenditure of federal funds set aside for the American Negro
Exposition in Chicago (June 5, 1940) and in another, he responds to Mitchell's
suggestion that the Navy may be discriminating against African American sailors
(August 4, 1942). A fourth letter contains Roosevelt's expressions of
appreciation to Mitchell for a letter the congressman sent the President in
which he complimented him on his work (November 18, 1942), and the fifth letter
contains Roosevelt's plans for continuing talks with Britain regarding the
establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine (Undated).
13.
Two letters signed by John Edgar Hoover while he was still serving as Director
of the United States Department of Justice. One letter is to Mr. J. G. Lemon,
Jr., Southside Hospital Service Plan, Inc., in which he informs Mr. Lemon that
his application to work for the FBI has been rejected because of low test
scores (July 8, 1941). The other letter is to Mr. Troy V. Hudson of Chicago, in
which Hoover tells Mr. Hudson he is sending him details of positions open in
the FBI (December 8, 1941).
14.
Five letters (September 9, 1939-March 22, 1940) to Mitchell, signed by Henry A.
Wallace, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture under the Roosevelt
Administration. In these letters, he discusses with Mitchell the establishment
of an Agricultural Advisory Council and assures the congressman that the African
American farmer will be considered in the Department of Agriculture's budget
plans.
15.
Letter to Mitchell, signed by Senator Richard J. Daley (March 19, 1940) in
which Daley asks Mitchell to help him in obtaining a W. P. A. position for one
of his constituents.
List of contents
of the collection:
Box 1
Folders:
1 November
11, 1898 - January 12, 1913
2 1914 -
September 5, 1919
3 July
1920 - July 27, 1926
4 February
24, 1927 - 1929
5 May 1930
- June 1931
6 July
1931 - December 1931
7 February
1932 - December 1932
8 School
Census Report (1930), February 3 - March 27, 1933
9 April
1933 - October 1933
10
November 1933 - December 1933
11 January
1934 - February 1934
12 March
1934 - April 1934
Box 2
1 May 1934
- July 1934
2 August
1934
3
September 1934
4 October
1934
5 October
1934
6 November
1-7, 1934
7 November
8, 1934
8 November
9-10, 1934
9 November
11-13, 1934
10
November 14-19, 1934
11
November 20-22, 1934
Box 3
1 November
23-26, 1934
2 November
27-30, 1934
3 December
1-5, 1934
4 December
6-8, 1934
5 December
9-15, 1934
6 December
16-26, 1934
7 December
27-31, 1934
8 Undated
1934
9 Undated
1934
10 January
1-2, 1935
11 January
3-4, 1935
Box 4
1 January
5-8, 1935
2 January
9-10, 1935
3 January
11-12, 1935
4 January
13-15, 1935
5 January
16-17, 1935
6 January
18-20, 1935
7 January
21-22, 1935
8 January
23-24, 1935
9 January
25-27, 1935
10 January
28, 1935
Box 5
1 January
19-30, 1935
2 January
31, 1935
3 February
1-2, 1935
4 February
3-4, 1935
5 February
5, 1935
6 February
6-9, 1935
7 February
15-16, 1935
8 February
17-18, 1935
9 February
19, 1935
10
February 20,1935
Box 6
1 February
21-22, 1935
2 February
23-25, 1935
3 February
26-27, 1935
4 February
28, 1935
5 March
1-2, 1935
6 March
3-4, 1935
7 March 5,
1935
8 March 6,
1935
9 March
7-8, 1935
Box 7
1 March
9-11, 1935
2 March
12-13, 1935
3 March
14-15, 1935
4 March
17, 1935
5 March
18-20, 1935
6 March
21-22, 1935
7 March
23, 1935
8 March
23, 1935
9 March
23, 1935
10 March
24-25, 1935
11 March
26, 1935
Box 8
1 March
26-28, 1935
2 March
29-31, 1935
3 April
1-2, 1935
4 April 3,
1935
5 April
4-5, 1935
6 April
6-7, 1935
7 April
8-9, 1935
8 April
10-11, 1935
9 April
12, 1935
10 April
13, 1935
11 April
14-16, 1935
12 April
17, 1935
Box 9
1 April
18-20, 1935
2 April
21-22, 1935
3 April
23-24, 1935
4 April
25-27, 1935
5 April
28-29, 1935
6 April 30
and Undated April, 1935
7 May 1-3,
1935
8 May 4-6,
1935
9 May 7-8,
1935
10 May
9-10, 1935
11 May 11,
1935
12 May
12-13, 1935
Box 10
1 May
14-15, 1935
2 May
16-17, 1935
3 May
18-19, 1935
4 May 20,
1935
5 May 21,
1935
6 May
22-23, 1935
7 May 24,
1935
8 May
25-27, 1935
9 May 28,
1935
10 May
29-30, 1935
11 May 31
and Undated May, 1935
Box 11
1 June
1-5, 1935
2 June
6-8, 1935
3 June
9-11, 1935
4 June
12-15, 1935
5 June
16-19, 1935
6 June
20-23, 1935
7 June 24,
1935
8 June 24,
1935
9 June 25,
1935
10 June
25, 1935
11 June
26-27, 1935
12 June
28-30, 1935
Box 12
1 July
1-3, 1935
2 July
4-8, 1935
3 July 9,
1935
4 July 9,
1935
5 July 9,
1935
6 July
10-14,1935
7 July
15-17, 1935
8 July
18-20, 1935
9 July
21-23, 1935
10 July
24-26, 1935
11 July
27-29, 1935
12 July
30-31, 1935
Box 13
1 August
1-3, 1935
2 August
5-11, 1935
3 August
12-15, 1935
4 August
16-20, 1935
5 August
21-25, 1935
6 August
26-31, 1935
7
September 1-11, 1935
8
September 12-18, 1935
9
September 19-23, 1935
10
September 24-30, 1935
11 October
1-7, 1935
12 October
8-17, 1935
Box 14
1 October
18-31, 1935
2 November
1-13, 1935
3 November
14-30, 1935
4 December
1-7, 1935
5 December
8-15, 1935
6 December
16-21, 1935
7 December
23-31, 1935
8 1935
Undated
9 1935
Undated
Box 15
1 1935
Undated
2 1935
Undated
3 January
1-4, 1936
4 January
5-7, 1936
5 January
8-9, 1936
6 January
10-14, 1936
7 January
15-18, 1936
8 January
19-21, 1936
9 January
22-24, 1936
Box 16
1 January
25-26, 1936
2 January
27-29, 1936
3 January
30-31, 1936
4 January
1936
5 February
1-3, 1936
6 February
4-5, 1936
7 February
6-10, 1936
8 February
11-13, 1936
9 February
14-17, 1936
10
February 18-20, 1936
11
February 21-24, 1936
Box 17
1 February
25-27, 1936
2 February
28-March 2, 1936
3 March
3-5, 1936
4 March
5-8, 1936
5 March
9-11, 1936
6 March
12-13, 1936
7 March
14-16, 1936
8 March
17-19, 1936
9 March
20-24, 1936
10 March
25-27, 1936
11 March
28-29, 1936
Box 18
1 March
30-31, 1936
2 April
1-3, 1936
3 April
4-8, 1936
4 April
9-14, 1936
5 April
15-18, 1936
6 April
19-22, 1936
7 April
23, 1936
8 April
24, 1936
9 April
25-27, 1936
10 April
28-30, 1936
11 May
1-4, 1936
Box 19
1 May 5-7,
1936
2 May
8-12, 1936
3 May
13-17, 1936
4 May
18-20, 1936
5 May
21-22, 1936
6 May
23-26, 1936
7 May
27-June 3, 1936
8 June
4-8, 1936
Box 20
1 June
9-17, 1936
2 June
18-23, 1936
3 June
25-30, 1936
4 July
1-19, 1936
5 July
20-30, 1936
6 July
31-August 3, 1936
7 August
4-7, 1936
8 August
8-13, 1936
Box 21
1 August
14-22, 1936
2 August
24-26, 1936
3 August
27-31, 1936
4
September 1-3, 1936
5
September 4-8, 1936
6
September 9-11, 1936
7
September 12-15, 1936
8
September 16-20, 1936
Box 22
1
September 21-23, 1936
2
September 24-26, 1936
3
September 27-31, 1936
4 October
1-2, 1936
5 October
3-5, 1936
6 October
6-7, 1936
7 October
8-9, 1936
8 October
10-12, 1936
Box 23
1 October
13-15, 1936
2 October
15-16, 1936
3 October
17-19, 1936
4 October
20-21, 1936
5 October
22-23, 1936
6 October
24-26, 1936
7 October
27-29, 1936
8 October
30-31, 1936
9 November
1-3, 1936
Box 24
1 November
4-5, 1936
2 November
6-8, 1936
3 November
9-11, 1936
4 November
12-14, 1936
5 November
15-21, 1936
6 November
23-27, 1936
7 November
28-30, 1936
8 December
1-4, 1936
Box 25
1 December
5-11, 1936
2 December
12-18, 1936
3 December
19-31, 1936
4 Undated
1936
5 Undated
1936
6 Undated
1936
7 Undated
1936
8 Undated
1936
9 Undated
1936
10 1936?
Box 26
1 1936?
2 January
2-5, 1937
3 January
6-8, 1937
4 January
9-12, 1937
5 January
13-15, 1937
6 January
16-19, 1937
7 January
20-23, 1937
8 January
24-26, 1937
9 January
27-29, 1937
Box 27
1 January
30-February 2, 1937
2 February
3-5, 1937
3 February
6-9, 1937
4 February
10-11, 1937
5 February
12-13, 1937
6 February
14-15, 1937
7 February
16-17, 1937
8 February
17-18, 1937
Box 28
1 February
19-20, 1937
2 February
20, 1937
3 February
21-23, 1937
4 February
24-25, 1937
5 February
26, 1937
6 February
27, 1937
7 February
Undated-March 1, 1937
8 March
2-3, 1937
9 March
4-5, 1937
Box 29
1 March
6-8, 1937
2 March
9-10, 1937
3 March
11-12, 1937
4 March
13-15, 1937
5 March
16-18, 1937
6 March
19-23, 1937
7 March
24-28, 1937
8 March
29-30, 1937
9 March
31-April 1, 1937
10 April
2-4, 1937
Box 30
1 April
5-6, 1937
2 April
7-10, 1937
3 April
11-14, 1937
4 April
15-18, 1937
5 April
19-20, 1937
6 April
21-27, 1937
7 April
28-May 2, 1937
8 May
3-11, 1937
9 May
12-14, 1937
10 May
15-18, 1937
Box 31
1 May
19-25, 1937
2 May
26-31, 1937
3 June
1-6, 1937
4 June
7-13, 1937
5 June
14-18, 1937
6 June
19-25, 1937
7 June
26-30, 1937
8 July
1-8, 1937
9 July
9-13, 1937
10 July
14-15, 1937
Box 32
1 July
16-17, 1937
2 July
19-22, 1937
3 July
23-27, 1937
4 July
28-31, 1937
5 August
2-9, 1937
6 August
10-14, 1937
7 August
16-21, 1937
8 August
22-31, 1937
9
September 1-11, 1937
Box 33
1
September 12-18, 1937
2
September 19-30, 1937
3 October
1-9, 1937
4 October
10-19, 1937
5 October
20-27, 1937
6 October
28-November 2, 1937
7 November
3-9, 1937
8 November
10, 1937
9 November
11-16, 1937
Box 34
1 November
17-20, 1937
2 November
21-24, 1937
3 November
25-30, 1937
4 December
1-3, 1937
5 December
4-9, 1937
6 December
10-14, 1937
7 December
15-17, 1937
8 December
18-28, 1937
Box 35
1 December
29-31, 1937
2 Undated
1937
3 Undated
1937
4 Undated
1937
5 Undated
1937
6 January
1-7, 1938
Box 36
1 January
8-10, 1938
2 January
11-14, 1938
3 January
15-18, 1938
4 January
19-25, 1938
5 January
26-31, 1938
6 February
1-5, 1938
7 February
6-10, 1938
8 February
11-16, 1938
9 February
17-21, 1938
10
February 22-24, 1938
11
February 25, 1938
Box 37
1 March
1-4, 1938
2 March
5-7, 1938
3 March 7,
1938
4 March 7,
1938
5 March
8-12, 1938
6 March
13-17, 1938
7 March
18-20, 1938
8 March
21-24, 1938
9 March
25-29, 1938
10 March
30, 1938
11 March
31 & Undated 1938
12 April
1, 1938
13 April
2-10, 1938
Box 38
1 April
11-15, 1938
2 April
16-19, 1938
3 April
20-22, 1938
4 April
23-27, 1938
5 April
28-30, 1938
6 First
Quarter 1938
7 May 1-5,
1938
8 May 6-9,
1938
9 May
10-16, 1938
10 May
17-19, 1938
11 May
20-24, 1938
12 May
25-30, 1938
Box 39
1 June
1-7, 1938
2 June
8-13, 1938
3 June
14-18, 1938
4 June
19-28, 1938
5 June
29-July 6, 1938
6 July
7-17, 1938
7 July
18-30, 1938
8 August
1-11, 1938
9 August
12-September 6, 1938
10
September 10-14, 1938
11
September 15-22, 1938
12
September 23-27, 1938
Box 40
1
September 28-October 5, 1938
2 October
6-11, 1938
3 October
12-17, 1938
4 October
17, 1938
5 October
18-23, 1938
6 October
24-30 & Undated October 1938
7 November
1-8, 1938
8 November
9-10, 1938
9 November
11-16, 1938
10
November 17-23, 1938
11
November 24-December 4, 1938
Box 41
1 December
5-10, 1938
2 December
11-20, 1938
3 December
21-28, 1938
4 December
29-31, 1938
5 Undated
December 1938 & Undated 1938
6 Undated
1938
7 January
1-3, 1938
8 January
4-7, 1938
9 January
8-11, 1938
10 January
12-13, 1938
Box 42
1 January
14-17, 1938
2 January
18-21, 1938
3 January
22-26, 1938
4 January
27-31, 1939 & Undated January 1939
5 February
1-4, 1939
6 February
5-6, 1939
7 February
7-9, 1939
8 February
10-12, 1939
9 February
13, 1939
10
February 14-17, 1939
11
February 17-22, 1939
Box 43
1 February
23-28, 1939
2 March
1-2, 1939
3 March
3-6, 1939
4 March
7-12, 1939
5 March
13-18, 1939
6 March
19-21, 1939
7 March
22-25, 1939
8 March
26-29, 1939
9 March
30-April 2, 1939
10 April
3-6, 1939
11 April
7-10, 1939
Box 44
1 April
11-12, 1939
2 April
13-14, 1939
3 April
15-17, 1939
4 April
18-21, 1939
5 April
22-24, 1939
6 April
25-27, 1939
7 April
28-30, 1939
8 May 1-3,
1939
9 May 4-6,
1939
10 May
7-10, 1939
Box 45
1 May
11-15, 1939
2 May
16-20, 1939
3 May
21-24, 1939
4 May
25-29, 1939
5 May
30-June 3, 1939
6 June
4-7, 1939
7 June
8-9, 1939
8 June
10-12, 1939
9 June
13-15, 1939
10 June
16-19, 1939
Box 46
1 June
20-24, 1939
2 June
25-27, 1939
3 June
28-July 3, 1939
4 July
4-10, 1939
5 July
11-15, 1939
6 July
17-20, 1939
7 July
21-25, 1939
8 July
26-August 2, 1939
9 August
3-15, 1939
10 August
16-29, 1939
11 August
30-September 8, 1939
Box 47
1
September 9-18, 1939
2
September 19-20, 1939
3
September 21-24, 1939
4
September 25-27, 1939
5
September 28-30, 1939
6 October
1-8, 1939
7 October
9-12, 1939
8 October
14-19, 1939
9 October
20-26, 1939
10 October
27-31, 1939
Box 48
1 November
1-4, 1939
2 November
5-15, 1939
3 November
16-26, 1939
4 November
27-December 7, 1939
5 December
8-15, 1939
6 December
16-27, 1939
7 December
28-21, 1939 & Undated 1939
8 Undated
1939
9 Undated
1939
10
1939-1941 (Jack Guzick Items)
Box 49
1 January
1-6, 1940
2 January
7-10, 1940
3 January
11-15, 1940
4 January
16-18, 1940
5 January
19-20, 1940
6 January
21-24, 1940
7 January
25-26, 1940
8 January
27-30, 1940
9 January
31, 1940 & Undated January 1940
Box 50
1 February
1-2, 1940
2 February
2-3, 1940
3 February
4-5, 1940
4 February
6-7, 1940
5 February
8-9, 1940
6 February
10-13, 1940
7 February
14-15, 1940
8 February
16-19, 1940
9 February
20-22, 1940
10
February 23-26, 1940
11
February 27-28, 1940
Box 51
1 February
29-March 3, 1940
2 March
4-5, 1940
3 March
6-10, 1940
4 March
11-13, 1940
5 March
14-18, 1940
6 March
19-21, 1940
7 March
22-26, 1940
8 March
27-28, 1940
9 March
29-31, 1940
10 April
1-3, 1940
Box 52
1 April
4-8, 1940
2 April
9-11, 1940
3 April
12-15, 1940
4 April
16-18, 1940
5 April
19-22, 1940
6 April
23-25, 1940
7 April
26-30, 1940
8 May 1-6,
1940
9 May
7-13, 1940
10 May
14-17, 1940
11 May
18-23, 1940
12 May
24-31, 1940
Box 53
1 June
1-5, 1940
2 June
6-10, 1940
3 June
11-13, 1940
4 June
14-16, 1940
5 June
17-19, 1940
6 June
20-22, 1940
7 June
23-30, 1940
8 July
1-2, 1940
9 July
3-6, 1940
10 July
9-12, 1940
11 July
13-16, 1940
Box 54
1 July
17-21, 1940
2 July
22-25, 1940
3 July
26-30, 1940
4 July
31-August 5, 1940
5 August
6-9, 1940
6 August
10-14, 1940
7 August
15-20, 1940
8 August
21-26, 1940
9 August
27-30, 1940
10 August
31-September 3, 1940
11
September 4-6, 1940
12
September 7-10, 1940
13
September 11-15, 1940
Box 55
1
September 16-20, 1940
2
September 23-27, 1940
3
September 28-October 2, 1940
4 October
3-7, 1940
5 October
8-12, 1940
6 October
13-18, 1940
7 October
18-24, 1940
8 October
25-31, 1940
9 November
1-7, 1940
10
November 8-12, 1940
11
November 13-16, 1940
12
November 18-19, 1940
Box 56
1 November
18, 1940
2 November
18, 1940
3 November
20-25, 1940
4 November
26-30 & Undated November
5 December
1-6, 1940
6 December
7-11, 1940
7 December
12-16, 1940
8 December
17-20, 1940
Box 57
1 December
20-31, 1940
2 Undated
1940
3 Undated
1940
4 Undated
1940
5 January
1-6, 1941
6 January
7-10, 1941
7 January
11-14, 1941
8 January
15-16, 1941
9 January
17-20, 1941
Box 58
1 January
21-26, 1941
2 January
27-31, 1941
3 February
1-4, 1941
4 February
5-10, 1941
5 February
11-14, 1941
6 February
15-21, 1941
7 February
22-28, 1941
8 March
1-5, 1941
9 March
6-10, 1941
Box 59
1 March
11-13, 1941
2 March
14-17, 1941
3 March
18-19, 1941
4 March
20-22, 1941
5 March
23-25, 1941
6 March
26-28, 1941
7 March
29-31 & Undated March, 1941
8 April
1-5, 1941
9 April
6-14, 1941
Box
60
1
Papers: April 15-18, 1941
2
Papers: April 19-24, 1941
3
Papers: April 25-29, 1941
4
Papers: April 30; June 1-
6, 1941
5
Papers: June 7-13, 1941
6
Papers: June 14-June 20, 1941; May
1, 1941
7
Papers: May 2-5, 1941
8
Papers: May 6-9, 1941
Box 61
1 May
10-15, 1941
2 May
16-21, 1941
3 May
22-26, 1941
4 May
27-31, 1941
5 June
21-29, 1941
6 June
30-July 2, 1941
7 July
2-9, 1941
8 July
10-16, 1941
9 July
18-21, 1941
Box 62
1 July
22-28, 1941
2 July
29-August 3, 1941
3 August
4-12, 1941
4 August
13-18, 1941
5 August
19-24, 1941
6 August
25-31 & Undated August, 1941
7
September 2-16, 1941
8
September 17-26, 1941
9
September 27-October 6, 1941
10 October
7-14, 1941
11 October
15-26, 1941
Box 63
1 October
27-November 1, 1941
2 November
2-9, 1941
3 November
10, 1941
4 November
11-17, 1941
5 November
18-25, 1941
6 November
26-30, 1941
7 Undated
November-December 4, 1941
8 December
5-10, 1941
9 December
11-15, 1941
Box 64
1 December
16-31, 1941 & Undated December 1941
2 Undated
1941
3 Undated
1941
4 January
1-12, 1942
5 January
13-17, 1942
6 January
21-28, 1942
7 January
29-February 3, 1942
8 February
4-10, 1942
9 February
11-20, 1942
Box 65
1 February
21-26, 1942
2 February
27-March 4, 1942
3 March
9-17, 1942
4 March
18-25, 1942
5 March
26-31, 1942
6 April
1-10, 1942
7 April
11-20, 1942
8 April
21-30, 1942
9 April
1942
Box 66
1 May 1-9,
1942
2 May
10-19, 1942
3 May
20-31, 1942
4 June
1-10, 1942
5 June
11-13, 1942
6 June
14-19, 1942
7 June
20-30, 1942
8 July
1-10, 1942
9 July
11-15, 1942
10 July
16-24, 1942
11 July
25-31, 1942
Box 67
1 August
1-16, 1942
2 August
17-September 9, 1942
3
September 10-October 6, 1942
4 October
7-15, 1942
5 October
16-25, 1942
6 October
26-November 14, 1942
7 November
16-20, 1942
8 November
21-December 5, 1942
9 December
5-31, 1942
10
December 1942 & Undated 1942
11 Undated
1942
Box 68
1 Undated
1942
2 January
1-February 1, 1942
3 February
2-27, 1943
4 March
1-May 31, 1943
5 June
3-November 24, 1943
6 November
26, 1943-January 31, 1944
7 February
2-August 10, 1944
8 August
12, 1944-February 24, 1945
9 March
16-September 17, 1945
10
September 22-December 18, 1945 & Undated 1945
Box 69
1 January
2-June 27, 1946
2 July
20-December 30, 1946
3 January
7-March 23, 1947
4 March
24-27, 1947 & Undated
5 April
2-July 31, 1947
6 March
1931-March 1947 (Check stubs)
7
September 7, 1947-February 1948
8
March-October 1948
Box 70
1 November
1, 1948-March 31, 1949
2 April
1-September 24, 1949
3 July
1-October 18, 1949
4
October-December, 1949 & Undated 1949
5 Undated
1949
6 January
1-July 13, 1950
7 July
17-December 11, 1950
8 December
13, 1950-January 10, 1951
9 January
12-April 14, 1951
10 April
16-July 19, 1951
11
December 7, 1951 & Undated 1951
Box 71
1 January
12-July 20, 1952
2 July
21-March 30, 1952
3
January-December 1953
4 Undated
1953-May 30, 1954
5 July
1954-January 1955
6 January
12, 1955 (transcript of hearing of court case)
7 January
5, 1954-December 28, 1955
8 Undated
1955 & January 9-July 17, 1956
9 June 1,
1957-May 28, 1965
10 June
15, 1965-May 10, 1968
Box
72
Undated
Items
Box
73
Undated
Items