Title: Jack and Judith L. Ladinsky Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1951-1972 (bulk 1960-1962)

Creators:

• Ladinsky, Jack
• Ladinsky, Judith L.

Call Number: M82-302

Quantity: 0.8 cubic feet (2 archives boxes), 41 photographs, and 13 negatives

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:

Papers, mainly 1960-1962, of Jack and Judith L. Ladinsky, two University of Wisconsin professors in Sociology and Medicine, respectively, chiefly documenting their involvement in the civil rights movement as graduate students at the University of Michigan. The most extensive part of the collection documents the Ann Arbor Direct Action Committee (AADAC) which they helped to organize in 1960 and which later became affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Included are organizational records, minutes, correspondence, planning material, and flyers, publications, testimony, and photographs. The records document actions against discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment, particularly picketing against segregation at Kresge and Woolworth stores in the south. Miscellaneous papers document involvement with other political and social action groups in Ann Arbor such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the VOICE political party and Jack Ladinsky's participation in student cooperatives at the University of Missouri-Columbia and in the Columbia chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-m82302

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

Jack Ladinsky was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 8, 1932. He earned a B.S. (1954) and an M.A. (1957) from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he worked as a research assistant in sociology and rural sociology. While pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan (completed in 1962) Ladinsky worked as a research assistant on a labor-leisure project in 1960. At this time he also became active in the Ann Arbor Direct Action Committee (AADAC) which organized lunch-counter boycotts and pickets.

On July 16, 1961 he married Judith (née Byers) Yesner, with whom he had two children, Morissa and Mark. Judith Ladinsky was born in Los Angeles on June 16, 1938 to Irving and Eva Byers. Little is known about her early life, but pre-1961 materials within the Ladinsky Papers refer to her as Mrs. Robert Yesner.

In 1961 Jack Ladinsky joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served as director for the Center for Law and Behavior Science from 1968-1970. Since 1972 he has been in health care, processes of deviant behavior and sociology and justice, contemporary issues in health care, and he has researched social change, the legal profession, and criminal justice administration, especially the courts. In addition, he has acted as director for both the undergraduate major in Behavioral Science and Law and the Criminal Justice Certificate Program and assistant director for the Institute for Research on Poverty. He has been a member of the Society for the Study of Social Issues, Law and Society Association, Population Association of America, and Industrial Relations Research Association. Most recently he was named chair of the ad hoc Committee on Academic and Social Issues in the Student Environment.

Judith Ladinsky received her B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1960. There she worked as a research associate in the Department of Anatomy and Surgery from 1956 to 1960. At Ann Arbor she was also involved in civil rights activities coordinated by the AADAC for which she served as secretary. Following her 1961 marriage and move to Madison, Wisconsin she earned an M.S. (1964) and a Ph.D in reproductive physiology. She has worked as a project associate in the Department of Gynecology/Obstetrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School (1961 to 1968), an instructor with the Department of Preventive Medicine (1968-1969), and as an assistant professor (1969-1975). Since 1975 she has been an associate professor. Her work in developing rural health systems led her to become health consultant to the U.S. Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam in 1980. In 1984 she became head of the program. Judith Ladinsky's professional affiliations include the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Public Health Policy, the National Council of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, and the American Society of Cell Biology. A founder of the Group Health Cooperative, she acts as director of the UW Medical School's Office of International Health and is currently serving on the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association.

The Ladinsky Papers are an alphabetical subject file documenting their mutual and separate professional and social action activities. The most extensive materials document AADAC-CORE in which both Jack and Judy played prominent roles. Although a relatively small body of documentation, these files add significantly to the information about AADAC in the national CORE records which are also held by the Historical Society. Here correspondence, notes, and committee papers document well the extensive planning required to organize the diverse actions undertaken by the group.

AADAC was formed in March 1960 by University of Michigan students in order to support the southern civil rights movement and to focus attention on the need for change within the local community. The group's first actions consisted of weekly picketing of local Kresge and Woolworth stores in order to protest segregated lunch counters in the south. This continued for nine months at which time attention shifted to discrimination in public accommodations (Newport Beach Club and Dearborn), housing and real estate (Rule 9 of the Michigan Corporate and Securities Commission), and employment (Ann Arbor News). AADAC affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in the fall of 1960. At this time its membership numbered about 200.

AADAC organizational materials include two versions of the constitution, publicity materials, the CORE affiliation applications, clippings, and several official reports. Two folders contain meeting minutes. While some of the meetings are represented by typed minutes, the majority are represented by rough notes or handwritten proceedings. They list members present, actions taken, issues raised, and outcomes produced and also illustrate the division of responsibilities within the group. In addition, a file of general correspondence documents contacts between CORE officials such as Charles Oldham and Marvin Rich with the Ladinskys and Anna Holden, who became the coordinator in 1961. Of particular interest is a threatening “crackpot” letter to Judith that suggests the risk civil rights activists took. The correspondence also represents AADAC's work with Michigan groups like the Human Relations Commission, Michigan Friends of the South, and the Ann Arbor Fair Housing Association. Other general files contain newspaper clippings, publicity, and membership lists.

A number of the files relate to specific actions undertaken by the organization such as the nine months of picketing in 1960 at local Kresge's and Woolworth stores in support of lunch counter sit-ins in the south, and additional picketing done at the national Kresge's headquarters in Detroit in 1961. This activity is represented by affidavits of AADAC members, including both Jack and Judy, who were arrested in April 1960 for violation of a city ordinance, planning materials, instructions on picketing behavior, flyers and The Picketeer newsletter, and photographs. These records include substantial correspondence to Kresge officials, including an open letter to President Harry Cunningham and some responses. The papers also include copies of two calls to action as well as correspondence aimed at gaining support for these demonstrations. Of particular interest is a copy of a flyer with comment by the Kresge manager who posted it in his store's window and attached notes refuting its claims. Efforts to desegregate the Newport Beach Club in 1960 are documented by minutes of negotiating sessions with the club owner, statements of members who participated in the stand-in at the beach, and photographs. Other files document the Dearborn Freedom Ride, which was an effort to test the segregation policies of an all-white suburb near Detroit; a blood drive conducted in support of blacks in Fayette County, Tennessee who were harassed for registering to vote; publicity in support of Rule 9 of the Michigan Corporation and Securities Commission which outlawed discrimination in real estate sales; and correspondence concerning discriminatory advertising by the Ann Arbor News. Materials relating to the Dearborn Freedom Ride include a confidential report listing nearly 40 restaurants tested for segregation policies and the level of service provided. The Pat Stevens Night file refers to publicity AADAC provided for a Florida A&M student jailed for sit-in protests at a Tallahassee Woolworth lunch counter.

VOICE was an Ann Arbor political party in which the Ladinskys were active. Included are the party platform, candidate flyers, newsletters, minutes, correspondence indicating cooperation with liberal campus groups (including AADAC), and some financial records. News clippings outline the party's activities such as a food drive conducted for Southern sharecroppers in Fayette County.

The Ladinskys' other activities in Ann Arbor are documented by mimeographed papers on SDS conferences in Ann Arbor and small files on local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Democratic Party, and the Socialist Party/Social Democratic Federation (SP/SDF). In the file entitled “Ann Arbor Miscellany” is a student paper on black leadership in Ann Arbor.

Jack's years at the University of Missouri are represented by small files on Brotherhood Week, Columbia-CORE, and campus cooperatives. The co-op material relates to Crest House Cooperative, of which Jack served as president; in addition there is correspondence, draft by-laws, conference materials, and newsletters of the Central League of Campus Cooperatives (in which he was also active), and proceedings of a North American Student Cooperative League (NASCL) conference at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Although Ladinsky served as secretary and coordinator of the Columbia chapter of CORE there is little unique documentation here except for a few copies of the chapter newsletter.

The fragmentary University of Wisconsin materials include proposals and policy decisions of the 1970 Wisconsin Committee to Stop the War, which, in correspondence, addresses the issue of a professor who did not meet with classes to protest the war. The Center for Social Organization research materials include a letter of planning for Jack as part of a panel on “the Negro in the North.”

Acquisition Information

Presented by Jack Ladinsky, Madison, Wisconsin, 1975-1982. No deed of gift on file. Accession Number: M75-129, M76-119, M82-302

Processing Information

Processed by Analisa Lee (1997 archives intern).

M82-302	Ann Arbor Direct Action Committee (AADAC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Box   1 Folder   1	Organizational materials
	Minutes
Box   1 Folder   2	General meeting minutes, 1960-1961
Box   1 Folder   3	Steering Committee minutes, 1960-1961
Box   1 Folder   4	Correspondence, 1960-1961
Box   1 Folder   5	Dearborn Freedom Ride, 1961
Box   1 Folder   6	Detroit Kresge demonstrations, 1961
Box   1 Folder   7	Fayette County, Tennessee, blood drive, 1960
Box   1 Folder   8	Leaflet distribution testimony, 1960
Box   1 Folder   9	Membership lists, 1960
Box   1 Folder   10	Newport Beach, 1960
Box   1 Folder   11	News clippings, 1960-1961
Box   1 Folder   12	Picketing Committee, undated
Box   1 Folder   13	Picketing correspondence and notes, 1960-1961
Box   1 Folder   14	Picketing flyers, undated
Box   1 Folder   15	Picketing lists, 1960
Box   1 Folder   16	Picketing news clippings, 1960-1961
Box   1 Folder   17	Picketeer, 1960-1961
Box   1 Folder   18	Rule 9, 1960
Box   1 Folder   19	Stevens, Patricia
Box   1 Folder   20	American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)-Michigan, 1960-1962
Box   1 Folder   21	Ann Arbor miscellaneous
Box   1 Folder   22	Brotherhood Week, Columbia, Missouri
Box   2 Folder   1	Cooperative materials, Columbia, Missouri, 1951-1953
Box   2 Folder   2	CORE, Columbia, Missouri, 1952-1954
Box   2 Folder   3	Correspondence, 1962
Box   2 Folder   4	Democratic Party, Ann Arbor, 1959-1962
Box   2 Folder   5	Miscellaneous
	Notes
Box   2 Folder   6	Defense spending, 1960
Box   2 Folder   7	Federal aid to education, 1960
Box   2 Folder   8	Housing, 1960
Box   2 Folder   9	Medical aid to the aged, 1960
Box   2 Folder   10	Minimum wage, 1960
PH Box   16	Photographs
Box   2 Folder   11	Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), 1960-1962
Box   2 Folder   12	Socialist Party (SP)/Social Democratic Federation (SDF), 1959-1960
Box   2 Folder   13	Social Organization Research, Center for, 1970
Box   2 Folder   14	University of Wisconsin, 1962-1970
Box   2 Folder   15	Urban Affairs, Department of, Speech material, 1960
	VOICE Party
Box   2 Folder   16	Organizational materials, 1960-1961
Box   2 Folder   17	News clippings, 1960-1961
Box   2 Folder   18	Wisconsin Committee to Stop the War, 1970