Summary Information
Congress of Racial Equality. Milwaukee Chapter: Records
1963-1964
- Congress of Racial Equality. Milwaukee Chapter
Milwaukee Mss 27
0.2 c.f. (1 archives box)
UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)
Records of the Milwaukee chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), mainly relating to the activities of
secretary Richard McLeod in the education committee's campaign to end de facto segregation
in the city school system. McLeod's papers include correspondence, curricula and teaching
materials used in the 1964 Freedom Day program, reports, placards, petitions, and research
material on similar campaigns in other cities. The remainder of the collection consists of a
constitution and by-laws, programs, minutes, the education committee's report to the 1964
national convention, and material relating to civil rights activities in
Mississippi.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00027 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The Milwaukee chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) protested in 1963-1964
against the degenerating quality of education in Milwaukee's Inner Core schools, at which
most of the students were black. Milwaukee CORE accused the city's Board of School
Directors, who had inaugurated a program of busing students out of the ghetto schools, of
doing little to end the de facto segregation of the public school system. This segregation,
Milwaukee CORE maintained, resulted in such a deterioration of curricula in ghetto schools
that ghetto students were receiving both inadequate counselling and college preparatory
courses; these students were the victims of cultural deprivation. Richard McLeod, Secretary
of Milwaukee CORE and Chairman of its Education Committee, led the non-violent action to end
this de facto segregation in the city's public schools. The action taken included
presentations before the Board and its Special Committee on Equal Opportunity; picketings
and marches; and a Freedom Day. On Freedom Day, held on May 18, 1964, all black students
were to boycott their public school classes and to attend special Freedom Schools, whose
curricula were designed to make the civil rights movement relevant to these ghetto
students.
This discussion of the history of Milwaukee CORE has necessarily focused on this one aspect
of the chapter's activities, since inadequate source material prevented a more comprehensive
treatment.
Scope and Content Note
The Milwaukee CORE collection consists of a subject file, four folders of which relate to
the 1963-1964 protest against the Milwaukee public schools. These four files include
correspondence; curricula and other materials used in the Freedom Day program; reports,
placards, and petitions; and research materials which indicate how the Philadelphia and New
York City chapters of CORE handled similar problems.
The remainder of the collection lacks such a central theme, although it covers the same
time span. It includes a copy of the Constitution and By-Laws of the chapter and the rules
by which demonstrations sponsored by the chapter were to be conducted; programs, minutes of
meetings, and the Education Committee report at the National CORE convention held in July,
1964; and material relating to the civil rights programs in Mississippi, a placard
announcing a protest march against Alabama Governor George Wallace, and the program of
CORE's Wisconsin State Conference in 1964.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Richard McLeod, Secretary of the Congress of Racial Equality, Milwaukee
chapter, in four installments from March 25, 1964 to July 27, 1964.
Processed by Eleanor Niermann, March 1970.
Contents List
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Milwaukee Mss 27
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Segregation of Milwaukee Public Schools
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Box
1
Folder
6
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Box
1
Folder
7
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