Title: Congress of Racial Equality. Washington Interracial Workshop: Records
Inclusive Dates: 1942-1956

Creator:

• Congress of Racial Equality. Washington Interracial Workshop

Call Number: Mss 223

Quantity: 1.0 c.f. (3 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the Washington Interracial Workshop, the Washington, D.C., CORE affiliate (1949-1955), consisting of operational files and information on various desegregation campaigns. Of these, the year-long effort to integrate the Rosedale Playground is best represented, in one box of correspondence, minutes, lists, reports, research and legal material, publicity, and clippings. Within the operational files, correspondence, a constitution, minutes, reports to national headquarters, and publications provide an overview of the workshop's role in civil rights activities generally. The latter section also includes information about related civil rights activities of chairman Albert Mindlin, 1953-1955.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00223

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The Washington Interracial Workshop, which affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1949, began in 1947 as a summer workshop sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). The summer program attracted a dozen persons from the District of Columbia and other states throughout the United States. Local participants considered the Workshop so successful that they formed a separate, permanent organization dedicated to abolishing segregation in the nation's capital. Both this organization and the summer workshops, which CORE and FOR continued to sponsor every year, operated by the CORE principles of interracial membership, direct action, and non-violent tactics. Membership fluctuated between ten and twenty people.

Under the chairmanship of Lynn Seiter from 1947 to 1948, the Workshop picketed and leafleted patrons of segregated facilities at the Y.M.C.A., the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and public swimming pools in the nation's capital. When Don Coan took over the chairmanship in April 1949, the Workshop began a lengthy struggle to integrate D.C. movie theatres that only ended in April 1951; Coan also moved to make eating places and recreational facilities available to people of all races. In the spring of 1951 Albert Mindlin succeeded Coan and spearheaded efforts to integrate Washington's playgrounds. The Rosedale Playground campaign, which is the best documented in these papers, became a city-wide issue after a black child drowned while swimming in the playground pool after hours on June 22, 1952. The playground was not opened to blacks until October 28 of that year.

The Workshop gradually became inactive after 1953, and Mindlin became more absorbed in national CORE disputes. Following ineffective attempts to integrate the Metropolitan Police Boys Club, the Workshop disbanded on March 13, 1955. In the mid-1960's, the Washington CORE chapter was reactivated.

The records of the Washington Interracial Workshop, 1942-1956 (primarily 1948-1956), include information on its general structure and operations as well as on specific activities, especially the Rosedale Playground campaign.

The general operations records include a constitution, minutes, general correspondence, correspondence and reports to national CORE, publications, and lists of attendance at meetings and of potential donors. These give a very sketchy overview of the Workshop's role in civil rights work in the period 1948-1956. The papers for 1953-1956 give more information about Albert Mindlin's civil rights activities than those of the Workshop.

The records of specific activities include information on the Council for Civil Rights in the Nation's Capital, on campaigns to integrate Washington's Fire Department, hotels, the Metropolitan Police Boys Club, and playgrounds. The year-long struggle to open the Rosedale Playground is the most fully documented aspect of the Workshop's activities and includes incoming and outgoing correspondence, minutes and attendance lists of meetings, reports, research and legal material, publicity information, and clippings.

Additional information on the Washington Interracial Workshop can be found in the records of national CORE (Mss 14), series 3, box 9, folder 1 and box 13, folders 5-7.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Albert Mindlin, Bethesda, Maryland, in January, February, and March of 1972. Accession Number: M72-9, M72-31, M72-95

Processing Information

Processed by Fred Miller, August 1, 1972.

	Series: General Operations
Box   1 Folder   1	Constitution, 1949, Feb. 17-1950, April 16
Box   1 Folder   2	Minutes, 1948, March 2-1951, July 26; 1954, June 7-Dec. 6
	Correspondence, General
Box   1 Folder   3	1947, July 18-1948, June 21
Box   1 Folder   4	1949, Jan. 5-Dec. 15
Box   1 Folder   5	1950, Jan. 5-Aug. 4
Box   1 Folder   6	1951, Oct. 23-1955, Oct. 31
Box   1 Folder   7	Correspondence and Reports to National CORE, 1950, March 8-1954, Oct. 6
Box   1 Folder   8	Newsletter, 1947, Aug. 13-1955, March 26
Box   1 Folder   9	Miscellaneous Publications, 1947-1954, March
Box   1 Folder   10	Attendance Lists, 1950, Nov. 16-1953, Jan. 6
Box   1 Folder   11	Lists of Potential Donors, 1950, Sept. 1; undated
	Series: Activities	⇧
Box   1 Folder   12	Council for Civil Rights in the Nation's Capital, 1947, Aug.-1948, April 29
Box   1 Folder   13	Fire Department, 1951, Nov. 26-1952, Aug. 11
Box   1 Folder   14	Hotels, 1953, Sept. 22-1955, Feb.
Box   1 Folder   15	Metropolitan Police Boys Club, 1952-1956, April 14
	Rosedale Playground
	Correspondence
Box   2 Folder   1	1951, June 15; 1952, Jan. 28-April 30
Box   2 Folder   2	1952, May 1-Sept. 26
Box   2 Folder   3	1952, Oct. 3-Dec. 5
	Meetings
Box   2 Folder   4	Minutes, 1951, March 22-1953, June 2
Box   2 Folder   5	Attendance, 1952, April 9-June 18; undated
	Reports
Box   2 Folder   6	Pilgrimage, 1951, Oct.-1952, July
Box   2 Folder   7	Miscellaneous, 1951, Oct. 22-1953, Jan. 25
	Research Material
Box   2 Folder   8	1942-1951
Box   2 Folder   9	1952; undated
Box   2 Folder   10	Legal Material, 1952, Jan. 28-1953, Oct. 7; undated
Box   2 Folder   11	Publicity, 1952, June 22-July 14; undated
Box   2 Folder   12	Clippings, unsorted, undated
Box   3 Folder   1	Clippings, unsorted, undated, continued
Box   3 Folder   2	Schools, 1952, Oct. 12-1955
	Theatres
Box   3 Folder   3	Trans Lux, 1949, June 5-Dec. 3
Box   3 Folder   4	General, 1948, May 5-1951, May 16