Title: Vanguard League Records
Inclusive Dates: 1941-1972

Creator:

• Vanguard League (Columbus, Ohio)

Call Number: Mss 40; Micro 570

Quantity: 0.4 c.f. (1 archives box) and 3 reels of microfilm (35mm)

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 Vanguard League, a watchdog organization composed almost entirely of Afro-Americans and devoted to eliminating racial discrimination in the Columbus, Ohio, area. In 1950, it affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The collection is composed of correspondence, minutes of the central organization and several committees, affidavits of black workers, leaque publications, and reports relating to race relations, housing, and labor.

Note:

There is a restriction on use of this material; see the Administrative/Restriction Information portion of this finding aid for details.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00040

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The Vanguard League, Inc. was, until its dissolution about 1950, an organization composed almost entirely of African-Americans and devoted to eliminating discrimination in the Columbus, Ohio, area. Its stationery carried the following statements: “The Vanguard League has one purpose--to eliminate all racial discrimination; the Vanguard League has one method--inter-racial direct non-violent action.” It expected to become a parent organization based in Columbus, to which local groups in the area would look for leadership. The Vanguard League soon became affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); served as the host group for CORE's third annual national convention in 1945; and by 1950 seems to have become a chapter in the national organization, which was, itself, a federation of local inter-racial groups.

The Vanguard League was founded in Columbus in 1940 by attorney Frank C. Shearer, who became its president, and Mrs. Isabelle Lottier Myrick, who served as secretary through the decade of the 1940's. According to the organization's leaflets there were no membership restrictions; the general membership fee was one dollar.

The Vanguard League records are available on microfilm with most of the records also available in paper form. Correspondence in the records demonstrates the league's chief concern--the protest of discrimination in the Columbus area. There are many letters exchanged with manufacturers, businessmen, and other employers. There are letters to the War Manpower Commission, to prospective speakers for the frequent Negro meetings arranged by the League, and to school administrators concerning the integration of teachers in the Columbus school system. The League made a study of the school system in 1943-1944, and published a pamphlet, Which September?, under the direction of its Education Committee.

In the early 1940's, in the period before other organizations such as CORE became so influential, the Vanguard League served as an area “watchdog” of African-American rights. An item in the correspondence indicates the struggle the little group had; in 1964 they evidently held a “reunion” and at that time received the following telegram from Jeanne Nichols in Alaska: “To Izzy, Frank and Vanguard Leaguers. Wish I could be with you. We can glow with pride in the knowledge that it was our generation unsung and unpublicized that made the holes in the dykes through which are rushing the mighty torrents of Freedom Now.”

In addition to the correspondence, the papers contain the constitution of both the League and the Junior group; minutes from 1941 to 1950 and minutes of various committees; affidavits of African-American workers; and publications distributed by the Vanguard League, such as cards, circulars, broadsides, and handouts. Three miscellaneous items are described in the contents list below.

The contents list below describes first the materials received in 1967, then additions received in 1972, then additions received in 1975.

Use Restrictions

Literary rights to the items on Reel 3 are retained by Constance Curtis Nichols, Columbus, Ohio.

Acquisition Information

Primarily presented by Frank C. Shearer, Columbus, Ohio, April 5, 1967. Box 1, Folder 12 presented by Barbee William Durham, Columbus, Ohio, September 14, 1972. Xeroxed copies of the items on Reel 3 were loaned for microfilming by Mrs. Constance Curtis Nichols, Columbus, Ohio, December 10, 1975. After filming, this material was sent to the Ohio Historical Society for its collection. Accession Number: M72-358, M75-596

Processing Information

Processed by archives students, summer 1968, and Margaret Hafstad, February 28, 1969; by Karen Baumann, April 23, 1974; and by Eleanor McKay, December 30, 1975.

	Correspondence
Box-Folder   1-1 Reel   1	1941-1943
Box-Folder   1-2 Reel   1	1944-1945
Box-Folder   1-3 Reel   1	1946
Box-Folder   1-4 Reel   1	1947
Box-Folder   1-5 Reel   1	1948-1949, 1964
Box-Folder   1-6 Reel   1	Constitution, undated; Revision, , 1943; Constitution of Junior Vanguard League
Box-Folder   1-7 Reel   1	Minutes, Aug. 19, 1941 - March 20, 1950
Box-Folder   1-8 Reel   2	Minutes of committees
Box-Folder   1-9 Reel   2	Affidavits of African-American workers
Box-Folder   1-10 Reel   2	Publications of the Vanguard League: cards, circulars, broadsides, handouts
	Miscellaneous
Box-Folder   1-11 Reel   2	Greater Cleveland Committee on Employment of Negroes in Defense Industries (Report)
Box-Folder   1-11 Reel   2	“Splitting the Atom in Race Relations,” speech by P. L. Prattis
Box-Folder   1-11 Reel   2	Anti-discrimination bill introduced into Ohio General Assembly, 1949-1950 Session
Box-Folder   1-12 Reel   2	Additional records received in 1972 from Barbee William Durham Scope and Content Note: Durham was a founder of the League and later national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality. These are Xeroxed copies of the League's official bulletin, 1941-1946; correspondence; and reports. The correspondence includes a 1972 letter describing Durham's files, a 1959 letter enclosing two “letters to the editor” which were influential in the formation of the League, and three 1941 letters on early League activities. The reports are titled (1) “Report on Violations of the Civil Rights Law of Ohio in Columbus,” covering 1940-1941, (2) “Defense Housing,” 1942, June, (3) “A Report on Violations of the Ohio Civil Rights Law by Columbus Restaurants,” 1942, summer, and (4) “Some Activities of the Vanguard League in the Field of Labor, 1941 & 42.”
	Additional records received in 1975 from Constance Curtis Nichols Note: These are Xeroxed copies available in the Archives on microfilm only.
Reel   3	Minutes, 1940-1942
Reel   3	Chronological file, 1940-1947
Reel   3	Membership, 1941-1947
Reel   3	Publications, 1944-1969
Reel   3	Broadsides, 1944, 1946, undated
Reel   3	Clippings, 1941-1947