African American Civil Rights Movement: Primary Sources: Archives & Records

Barbara Bearman Papers
Contains correspondence, minutes, legal papers, printed materials, notes, clippings, and other papers relating to Bearman's involvement in school integration activities in Minneapolis, especially through the Committee for Integrated Education. The records center on a suit brought by private individuals against the Minneapolis Board of Education to compel it to implement a judicial order to integrate the public school system.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Bloomington Human Relations Council Records
Consists of minutes of two meetings, membership list, fact sheet, and related materials of a community organization formed in 1964 by citizens of the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington to work against racial discrimination, especially with regard to local housing, schools, and employment.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Denzil A. Carty Papers
Consists of biographical information, correspondence, minutes, newspaper clippings, reports, and printed materials documenting activities of Black Episcopal priest Denzil Carty in the Protestant Episcopal Church and in many racial, interracial, and interdenominational organizations in St. Paul. Civil and human rights organizations and activities, especially in St. Paul and Minneapolis, are well documented in the papers, as are evidences of discrimination in schooling, housing, and employment. Carty took an active role in civil rights organizations and worked closely with civic, religious, and political leaders on the local, state, and national levels.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Hubert H. Humphrey Papers, Vice Presidential Files
These files (1964-1968) are concerned with activities, agencies, and programs with which the Vice President was officially connected or in which he had a personal or official interest. They are especially full for such programs as civil rights (through the President's Council on Equal Opportunity).
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Minnesota Civil Liberties Union (MCLU)

• Newsletters
  The newsletter includes an annual supplement that reports on the Union's activities.
  MNHS call number: 
  1953-1961: Newsletter: Microfilm 1507
  1962-present: Civil Liberties News: Microfilm 1507 r.2
   
• Minnesota Civil Liberties Union Records
  Consists of organizational files, subject files, and case files documenting the 1952 formation and subsequent activities of the Minnesota state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and subsequent operational, educational, legislative advocacy, and litigious activities in the fields of civil rights and civil liberties.
  Restriction: Access to records less than 25 years old requires written permission. Also, quotation or publication, beyond the fair use provision of the copyright law, from records less than 25 years old requires written permission. 
  MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Minnesota Council on Religion and Race Records
The Council was organized in 1963 and disbanded around 1971. The collection includes minutes of meetings; correspondence files; financial records; newspaper clippings; news releases; printed materials, and a number of subject files containing materials on organizations such as: Project Equality; the Governor's Human Rights Commission; the Jewish Community Relations Council; Fair Employment Practices Commission; Twin Cities Opportunities Industrialization Center; Interfaith Housing Corporation; and the National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Minnesota Office of the Attorney General, Human Rights Department/Governor's Human Rights Commission/State Commission Against Discrimination

• Annual and Biennial Reports
  Reports (1956-present) of the Human Rights Department.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid. (Human Rights Department).
   
• Commissioner's Correspondence
  These files (1971-1977) document all aspects of the department's interests and activities, including legislation, discrimination cases, legal suits and rulings, appointments, affirmative action, the Women's Advisory Committee, and speaking engagements.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid. (Human Rights Department).
   
• Commission Minutes [State Commission Against Discrimination]
  The minutes (1955-1967) deal with discrimination complaints, commissioners' speaking engagements, local commissions against discrimination, personnel matters, budgets, and other administrative concerns. An index for 1955-1964 is filed at the beginning of the minutes. Accompanying case files cover the discrimination complaints investigated by the commission.
  MNHS call number: View listing in online catalog. (Human Rights Department, State Commission Against Discrimination).
   
• Commission Minutes [Governor's Human Rights Commission]
  The minutes (1943-1967) deal with the commission's research projects, conferences attended by commissioners, specific problems and complaints concerning minority groups, and routine administrative matters.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing (Human Rights Department, Governor's Human Rights Commission).
   
• [Commission] Miscellaneous Records
  Although these files (1949-1963) contain some correspondence and memos, they are primarily collected background information material, including reports, budgets, conference materials, and newsletters. Topics include Brotherhood Week and Citizenship Day; Bureau of Indian Affairs; discrimination in cemeteries, housing, and resorts; Indians in Albert Lea; travel and communication statements; and youth.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid. (Human Rights Department, Governor's Human Rights Commission).

• Community Human Rights Groups Files
  Primarily correspondence (1947-1967) between the Governor's Human Rights Commission and various local human rights organizations.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing. (Human Rights Department, Governor's Human Rights Commission).

• Newspaper Clippings [Governor's Human Rights Commission]
  Clippings (1949-1965) organized into the following subject areas: civil rights, fair housing, Indian Student Project, Blacks, and commission activities. Within each subject area, the clippings are arranged chronologically.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid. (Human Rights Department, Governor's Human Rights Commission).

• Newspaper Clippings [Human Rights Department]
  Clippings scrapbooks (arranged chronologically, 1955-1978) and loose clippings (arranged by subject, 1964-1980) cover the activities of the Human Rights Department. Topics include abortion, Indians, Blacks (African Americans), civil rights, Mexican Americans, migrant workers, school desegregation and busing, welfare programs, and women's rights.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid. (Human Rights Department).

City of Minneapolis

• Civil Rights Department Case Files
  Files (1967-1977)-consisting of complaint reports, correspondence, legal papers, exhibits, and summaries-relate to complaints of discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation, and public services.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing (Hennepin County, Minneapolis, Civil Rights Department).
   
• Fair Employment Practice Commission, Files of Amos S. Deinard
  Contains minutes and agenda materials from commission meetings; and Deinard's files as commission chairman, including correspondence, memos, reports, news releases, and newspaper clippings.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing (Hennepin County, Minneapolis, Fair Employment Practice Commission).

City of Saint Paul

• City Attorney Closed General Files
  Includes correspondence, reports, grant proposals, agreements and contracts, legal opinions, hearing transcripts, and in many instances minutes of city departments, commissions, and committees. There is considerable information on civil and human rights.
  MNHS call number: See finding aid in the library (Ramsey County, St. Paul, City Attorney).
   
• City Council, Files of Council Member William Wilson
  Consists of press releases and affirmative action files of city council member and president William Wilson. The affirmative action materials include general correspondence files, ordinances/resolutions, particularly involving civil service, news clippings, and materials from Wilson's service on the Council's Finance, Management and Personnel Committee.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing (Ramsey County, St. Paul, City Council).

Human Rights Department

• Affirmative Action Records
  Includes recommendations to city departments on affirmative action hiring, evaluation remarks on candidate hires necessary to attain affirmative action goals, appointment reports (1987 only), lists of candidates for positions, requisitions to fill positions, and related correspondence.
  Restriction: Many files contain data classified private under Minnesota Statute 13.43. Ask a librarian for help.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing (Ramsey County, St. Paul, Human Rights Department). 
   
• Case Files
  Includes summary complaints, investigation reports, interview transcripts, information on disposition of cases, and tape recordings.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing (Ramsey County, St. Paul, Human Rights Department).
   
• Correspondence
  Consists of correspondence of Donald Lewis, deputy director (1968-1972) and director (1972-1980), and Judy Goodman, assistant director (1974-1975). The files cover such topics as affirmative action, the City of St. Paul Civil and Human Rights Ordinance, testimony before the state legislature, attendance at the national convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), seminars given for city employees, and discrimination involving women, homosexuals, the handicapped, the aged, housing, and the city's police and fire departments.
  MNHS call number: See online finding aid or view online catalog listing (Ramsey County, St. Paul, Human Rights Department).

Manuscripts

Government Records

Gale Family Library
Minnesota Historical Society Library

Located on the Second Floor of the Minnesota History Center
345 West Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55102

Library Hours:
Thursday to Saturday: 10am to 4pm
Sunday to Wednesday: Closed
 

More Information on Visiting the Library

Contact Us:

651-259-3300

Email Us

Visit our Main Website