Title: Panel of Americans Records
Inclusive Dates: 1941-1962

Creator:

• Panel of Americans, Inc.

Call Number: Mss 179

Quantity: 1.3 c.f. (4 archives boxes)

Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

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

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Records of a national organization founded in 1942 by university students of varied backgrounds to promote racial and religious harmony. The relationship of the national office in New York City to the two dozen local panels during the 1950s is most heavily documented. Also present is information on personnel, fund raising, the organization of the national council in 1953, and special support received from the American Jewish Committee. Types of documentation in the collection include correspondence, press releases, working papers of the national office, and files on the organization and activity of local panels, fund-raising programs, and training conferences.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00179

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

Panel of Americans, Inc., is an organization designed to improve human relations through frank and open discussion of racial and religious differences. As launched at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1942 by the University Religious Conference, each panel consisted of five or six volunteer students who each represented a different faith, race, or cultural group. They candidly discussed and answered audience questions concerning their differences with the aim of increasing understanding and promoting brotherhood.

Their usual audiences were campus or community organizations but occasionally they spoke to more volatile groups. One instance of this was an appearance at a correction farm for delinquent boys. “Trouble was brewing when prisoners banded together in racial and national groups and began ganging up on one another. Fearing an outbreak of bloody rioting, the warden sent for the Panel of Americans...They put on a panel program for the prisoners. A few days later the warden was able to report: 'Nothing to worry about.'”

In 1947 the U.C.L.A. Panel made a national demonstration tour. The result was such a great demand for help in organizing similar panels that the University Religious Conference established a Panel Extension Service. It soon became clear however that a national program needed a national supporting body. In June, 1953, the National Council for the Panel of Americans was formed to provide the support of concerned citizens. In the same year, the Panel of Americans, Inc., was established as a tax-exempt educational corporation. Headquartered in New York City, it employed a full-time staff who worked at fund-raising, assisting local panels with both advice and finances, conducting training conferences for panelists, and organizing new panels. With this backing, the program spread to over two dozen campuses located throughout the United States.

In the autumn of 1958, the national office for the Panel of Americans was requested by the New York City Commission on Intergroup Relations to prepare panels for assignment in tension situations. This request ultimately led to a decision to concentrate staff attention on the New York area, and by the early 1960s, this change of emphasis was reflected in the national program.

The materials in this collection come from the national office files of the Panel of Americans, Inc. Included is correspondence, field reports, “annual” reports, articles and clippings about Panel activities, copies of student speeches, conference programs, press releases, and miscellaneous other items. Though dated from 1941 to 1962, materials are most complete for the early 1950s. The most thoroughly documented activities are those of the national office in their relationship to local panels. Also present is information on personnel, fund-raising, the organization of the National Council, and special support received from the American Jewish Committee.

The Papers are organized in four groups: (1) Descriptive Statements and Articles, 1941-1961, (2) Bylaws, Minutes, and “Annual” Reports, 1950-1961, (3) Correspondence, Memoranda, Reports, and Working Papers, 1943-1962, and (4) Local Panels, 1945-1962. The Descriptive Statements and Articles total just one folder and provide the reader with additional background information on the Panel. The Bylaws, Minutes, and “Annual” Reports give more detailed information on the Panel's development. The Bylaws, dated April 9, 1957, explain the structure of the Panel and the National Council. The minutes present are those of the Panel Advisory Board of the University Religious Conference, 1950-1952. The term “annual reports” refers to summaries of development, cumulative reports, and reports by the chairman which, though not prepared on a yearly basis, serve the same functions as annual reports.

Group three, Correspondence, Memoranda, Reports, and Working Papers, contains information on all aspects of the Panel. Correspondents for the Panel include Executive Directors Dwight W. Culver and Dorothy Baumann and Assistant Director Marian Hargrave. They write to private organizations requesting support or arranging programs, to people involved in local panel activities, to viewers of panel presentations who write “fan letters,” and others. Press releases, occasional financial reports, training conference materials, and other types of documents are included here. Arranged chronologically at the beginning are four folders containing materials of a general nature. Following this are several folders concerning specific subjects; these are listed in the container list which follows this narrative.

Materials in the final group, Local Panels, are filed geographically by state and then campus. Included are field reports, memoranda, clippings, and correspondence concerning the organization and operation of the local units. Papers in this group and in group three overlap considerably and the researcher interested in any particular panel should examine both groups.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Gladys Harburger, Director, Panel of Americans, New York, New York, August 9, 1966. Accession Number: M66-271

Processing Information

Processed by Karen Baumann and archives students, August 2, 1971.

Box   1 Folder   1	Descriptive Statements and Articles, 1941-1961
Box   1 Folder   2	Bylaws, Minutes, and “Annual” Reports, 1950-1961
	Correspondence, Memoranda, Reports, and Working Papers, 1943-1962
	General
Box   1 Folder   3	1943-1951
Box   1 Folder   4	1952-1955
Box   1 Folder   5	1956-1959, June
Box   1 Folder   6	1959, July-1962, undated
Box   1 Folder   7	Africa Trip, 1958
Box   1 Folder   8	Conference on Inter-American Exchange of Persons, 1958, October
Box   1 Folder   9	Demonstration for National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 1959, June
Box   1 Folder   10	Publicity, 1959, undated
Box   1 Folder   11	Purdue Opinion Poll, 1957-1958
Box   2 Folder   1	Sample Questions, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	Speech Evaluation, 1955, undated
	Training Conferences
Box   2 Folder   3	1957, March 15-16, First National
Box   2 Folder   4	1958, March 7-8, Second National
Box   2 Folder   5	1959, March 6-7, Third National
Box   2 Folder   6	1959, September 26, Eastern Area
Box   2 Folder   7	1960, Feb. 26-28, Midwestern
Box   2 Folder   8	1960, March 19-20, West Coast Regional
Box   2 Folder   9	1960, Oct. 28-30, New York Area
Box   2 Folder   10	1961, March 3-5, Midwest Regional
Box   2 Folder   11	1961, Dec. 8-10, Midwest Regional
	Local Panels, 1945-1962
Box   3 Folder   1	All Panels, 1955, undated
Box   3 Folder   2	Arizona: State University, 1958; 1960
Box   3 Folder   3	Arkansas: State Teachers College, Conway, 1954
Box   3 Folder   4	California: Berkeley, Occidental, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco State, Stanford, U.C.L.A., 1945-1960
Box   3 Folder   5	Colorado: Denver University, 1953
Box   3 Folder   6	District of Columbia, 1959
Box   3 Folder   7	Indiana: Purdue, University of Indiana, 1950-1960
Box   3 Folder   8	Massachusetts: Boston University, 1950-1952
Box   3 Folder   9	Michigan: Wayne State University, 1950-1961
Box   3 Folder   10	Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1955; 1958-1962
Box   3 Folder   11	Missouri: Kansas City University, Washington University, 1950-1959
Box   3 Folder   12	Nebraska: University of Omaha, 1952-1956
Box   3 Folder   13	New Jersey: Paterson, N.J., Rutgers University, 1950-1952; 1962
Box   4 Folder   1	New York: Barnard College, Brooklyn College, City College of New York, Columbia University, Cornell University, Hunter College, New York City-General, New York University, Rockland County, Sarah Lawrence College, Syracuse University, 1950-1962
Box   4 Folder   2	Ohio: Case Institute of Technology, Kent State University, Ohio State University, University of Cincinnati, Western Reserve University, 1949-1958
Box   4 Folder   3	Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma, 1951
Box   4 Folder   4	Pennsylvania: Carnegie Institute of Technology, Temple University, University of Pittsburgh, 1951-1959
Box   4 Folder   5	Virginia: in Lynchburg, Richmond, and Blacksburg, 1958-1960
Box   4 Folder   6	Washington: Eastern Washington College of Education, University of Washington, 1950-1956; 1959
Box   4 Folder   7	Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1954-1959