Back to TopDescriptive Summary
- Repository
-
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
- Creator
-
North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation.
- Title
- North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation Records, 1922-1949
- Call Number
- 3823
- Language of Materials
- Materials in
English
- Extent
-
- Items: About 2100
- Linear Feet: 3.5
Abstract
The North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation was established in 1921 as a state affiliate of the Commission on
Interracial Cooperation to work toward improved race relations in the state. Like its parent organization, the NCCIC, sought
both to alleviate injustices and to change prejudiced racial attitudes. Its efforts included meetings with individuals, correspondence,
press releases, radio programs, pamphlets, local meetings, and state-wide conferences. After closing its offices in 1949,
the NCCIC became an affiliate of the Southern Regional Council in 1951 and, in 1955, changed its name to the North Carolina
Council on Human Relations.
The collection consists of correspondence and financial, legal, and other materials. Correspondence is primarily that of the
directors of the North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation concerning daily operations of the NCCIC and its county
and city affiliates, investigations of instances of injustice and violence towards African Americans, and financial matters.
Included are letters from officers and organizations including the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Regional Council, and the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company. There
are also financial and legal materials, 1928-1949, including a 1946 agreement of affiliation between the Southern Regional
Council and the NCCIC; a study concerning a Hamlet, N.C., murder in 1928; and an investigation of a Pender County, N.C., lynching
in 1933. Other materials include pamphlets and other printed materials, speeches, radio program materials, reports, and other
writings on topics such as race relations, education, religion, crime, discrimination, and civic involvement; responses to
a 1948 survey of North Carolina public libraries about their holdings on minorities; conference materials; meeting minutes;
and constitutions, by-laws, and resolutions.
Back to TopAdministrative Information
- Restrictions to Access
- No restrictions.
- Acquisitions Information
- Sometime after the closing of the NCCIC offices in 1949, these papers came into the possession of Guy B. Johnson, professor
of sociology and anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Johnson transferred them to the Southern
Historical Collection in September 1969.
- Processing Information
- Processed by: SHC Staff, 1983, and Jessica Sedgwick, August 2008
- Encoded by: Jessica Sedgwick, August 2008
- Preferred Citation
- [Identification of item], in the North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation Records #3823, Southern Historical Collection,
The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Copyright Notice
- Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright
law.
Back to TopOnline Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
- African Americans--Education--North Carolina.
- African Americans--North Carolina--Economic conditions.
- African Americans--North Carolina--Religion.
- African Americans--North Carolina--Social conditions.
- African Americans--North Carolina.
- Commission on Interracial Cooperation.
- Hamlet (N.C.)--History.
- Libraries and minorities--United States.
- Lynching--North Carolina.
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
- North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation.
- North Carolina Council on Human Relations--History.
- North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company.
- North Carolina--Race relations.
- Pender County (N.C.)--History.
- Race relations--Societies, etc.
- Southern Regional Council.
Back to TopRelated Collections
See also Gordon Gray papers (#3824), Howard Washington Odum papers (#3167), North Carolina Council on Human Relations records
(#3823), Guy B. Johnson interview (B-0006/1) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An audio recording and transcripts for the interview is available
through Documenting the American South's Oral Histories of the American South (http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/B-0006/menu.html).
Back to TopHistorical Note
Following World War I, a group of southern churchmen established the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, based in Atlanta,
Ga., to work toward improved race relations in the South. In 1921, a group of North Carolinians founded the North Carolina
Commission on Interracial Cooperation as a state affiliate of the CIC. With the governor as honorary chair, the group had
quasi-official status. The NCCIC's first chair was William Louis Poteat, president of Wake Forest College, and its first director
was L. R. Reynolds. Reynold's office was in Richmond, Va.; he was director of both the NCCIC and the Virginia CIC from 1920
to 1942.
The NCCIC, like its parent organization, sought both to alleviate injustices and to change prejudiced racial attitudes. Its
efforts included meetings with individuals, correspondence, press releases, radio programs, pamphlets, local meetings, and
state-wide conferences. It also encouraged the development of affiliated local committees, and by 1935, 50 such organizations
were operating. The NCCIC was initially made up of a small group of prominent individuals, both African American and white,
and mostly ministers and educators. The membership grew to 2,500 at its height, with representatives from every county and
major town in the state. Chairs in the 1930s and 1940s included Professor Howard Odum and Episcopal Bishop Edwin Pennick.
Directors who followed Reynolds were Reverend Ernest Arnold and Cyrus M. Johnson.
After World War II, various problems, perhaps most importantly internal disagreement over desegregation, led to the closing
of the NCCIC offices in 1949. The organization continued to exist skeletally, and in 1951 technically became an affiliate
of the Southern Regional Council. In the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954, the NCCIC
was reorganized. In 1955, its name was changed to the North Carolina Council on Human Relations.
For additional information see material in folder 84 of this collection and "Critical Years: The North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation, 1942-1949," by Elizabeth Earnhardt, M.A. Thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1971.
Back to TopCollection Overview
 |
Illustration, probably for a NCCIC pamphlet, [1948]. Series 3. Other materials, folder 63 |
Correspondence is primarily that of the directors of the North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation concerning daily
operations of the NCCIC and its county and city affiliates, investigations of instances of injustice and violence towards
African Americans, and financial matters. Included are letters from officers and organizations including the Commission on
Interracial Cooperation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Regional Council, and
the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company.
Financial and legal materials include financial statements, 1942-1949, budget sheets, income tax returns, an audit report,
and two NCCIC account books. Legal items include the agreement of affiliation between the Southern Regional Council and the
North Carolina Commission On Interracial Cooperation, 1946; and "Act To Create The North Carolina Commission On Interracial Cooperation," 1949; a study concerning a Hamlet, N.C., murder in 1928; and an investigation of a Pender County, N.C., lynching in 1933.
Other materials include pamphlets and other printed materials, speeches, radio program materials, reports, and other writings
on topics such as race relations, education, religion, crime, discrimination, and civic involvement; responses to a 1948 survey
of North Carolina public libraries about their holdings on minorities; conference materials; meeting minutes; and constitutions,
by-laws, and resolutions.
Back to TopArrangement of Collection
1. Correspondence
1.1. Correspondence, 1922-1941
1.2. Correspondence, 1942-1946
1.3. Correspondence, 1946-1949
2. Financial and legal materials
3. Other materials
Back to TopItems Separated
Oversize paper (OP-3823/1)
Detailed Description of the Collection
1. Correspondence, 1922-1949.
About 990 items.
Arrangement: chronological by NCCIC director.
Correspondence is primarily that of the directors of the North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation concerning daily
operations of the NCCIC and its county and city affiliates, investigations of instances of injustice and violence towards
African Americans, and financial matters. Included are letters from officers and organizations including the Commission on
Interracial Cooperation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Regional Council, and
the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company.
Back to Top
1.1. Correspondence, 1922-1941.
Correspondence created during the directorship of L. R. Reynolds
Folder
1
Correspondence, 1922-1929
Topics include racial conditions in New Bern, N.C.; an NAACP appeal for state support in a case involving the fatal shooting
of Claude Robinson, an African-American man, by Will Berry, a white policeman in Hamlet, N.C.; and an incident in Virginia
concerning segregated toilet facilities on the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad.
Folder
2
Correspondence, 1931-1937
Topics include studies of opportunities for African Americans in secondary and higher education, African-American voter registration,
an incident concerning an African American student's application to the graduate school of the University of Virginia, and
a lynching in Franklin County, N.C., circa 1935.
Folder
3
Correspondence, 1938-1939
Includes discussion of employment of African Americans.
Folder
4
Correspondence, 1940
Folder
5-6
Correspondence, 1941
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1.2. Correspondence, 1942-1946.
Correspondence created during the directorship of Ernest J. Arnold
Folder
7-8
Correspondence, 1942
Includes discussion of operations of the NCCIC, including an enclosure giving the history of interracial work in North Carolina.
Folder
9
Correspondence, 1943
Includes discussion of transportation of African Americans.
Folder
10-12
Correspondence, 1944-May 1946
Includes responses from various North Carolina counties to Arnold's request for information on racial conditions in each county.
Back to Top
1.3. Correspondence, 1946-1949.
Correspondence created during the directorship of Cyrus M. Johnson
Folder
13-15
Correspondence, August-December 1946
Folder
16-26
Correspondence, 1947-1948
Topics include employment of African Americans as policemen, doctors, and extension workers; jury duty for African Americans;
and the outlook of higher education for African Americans, especially in western North Carolina. Other topics concern ministerial
involvement in interracial work, and the formation of a college interracial committee.
Folder
27-29
Correspondence, 1949
Back to Top
2. Financial and Legal Materials, 1928-1949.
About 400 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Materials are almost entirely financial statements, 1942-1949, listing contributions to North Carolina Commission on Interracial
Cooperation from NCCIC members, various organizations in North Carolina, and a few other sources. Other financial material
includes budget sheets, 1942-1949; state and federal income tax returns, 1946; an audit report, 1947; and two NCCIC account
books, 1944-1949. Legal items include the agreement of affiliation between the Southern Regional Council and the North Carolina
Commission On Interracial Cooperation, 1946; and "Act To Create The North Carolina Commission On Interracial Cooperation," 1949; a study concerning a Hamlet, N.C. murder, 1928; and an investigation of a Pender County, N.C., lynching in 1933.
Folder
30
Financial and legal materials, 1928-1945
Includes investigation of a Pender County, N.C., lynching in 1933.
Folder
31
Financial and legal materials, 1946
Includes agreement of affiliation between the Southern Regional Council and the North Carolina Commission On Interracial Cooperation
and state and federal income tax returns.
Folder
32-39
Financial and legal materials, 1947
Includes an audit report.
Folder
40-44
Financial and legal materials, 1948
Folder
45-47
Financial and legal materials, 1949
Includes an "Act To Create The North Carolina Commission On Interracial Cooperation"
Back to Top
3. Other Materials, 1922-1949.
About 738 items.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Includes printed materials, speeches, radio program materials, reports, and other writings on topics such as race relations,
education, religion, crime, discrimination, and civic involvement; responses to a 1948 survey of North Carolina public libraries
about their holdings on minorities; conference materials; meeting minutes; and constitutions, by-laws, and resolutions.
Folder
48-50
Conference material, 1933-1949 and undated
Primarily consists of Race Relations Sunday Observance material, 1948, but also includes items relating to regional conferences,
workshops and institutes, and the annual NCCIC conference.
Folder
51
Constitutions, by-laws, and resolutions, 1922-1948 and undated
Includes the constitutions of the NCCIC, the Charlotte and Salisbury Interracial Councils, and the proposed constitution of
The Committee for North Carolina; by-laws of the NCCIC, the Southern Regional Council, Inc., and the Florida Division of the
Southern Regional Council; and resolutions by such groups as the citizens of New Bern, N.C., the Georgia CIC, and the Fellowship
of Southern Churchmen.
Folder
52
Library survey material, 1948
Responses from North Carolina public libraries to an NCCIC inquiry about their holdings on minorities in the United States,
with emphasis on African Americans.
Folder
53-60
Membership and other lists, 1938-1949 and undated
Includes a 1942 booklet listing NCCIC members and a set of 1949 membership cards, as well as other lists of members and committee
members.
Folder
61-62
Minutes, 1936-1949
Minutes primarily pertain to the NCCIC Executive Committee but also included are minutes from the North Carolina Conference
for Social Service, the Raleigh Interracial Committee, the Durham Interracial Council, and a meeting of the Southern Regional
Council state representatives.
Folder
63
Printed material: NCCIC, 1938-1949 and undated
Newspaper articles, brochures, and news releases concerning activities of the group.
Folder
64-65
Printed material: CIC, 1926-1942 and undated
Consists almost entirely of reprints of Commission on Interracial Cooperation-related articles concerning such topics as the
progress of interracial work, crime, economics, education, and the media.
Folder
66
Printed material: Southern Regional Council, 1945-1946 and undated
Primarily concerns the training of African American veterans throughout the Southeast that was supported by the SRC.
Folder
67-72
Miscellaneous printed material
Magazine articles, news releases, newsletters, clippings, and pamphlets about subjects such as racial attitudes, interracial
work, education, crime, and discrimination. Included is an oversize poster for National Brotherhood Week, February, 1943 (OP-3823/1).
Folder
73
Radio program material, 1946-1948 and undated
Concerns an NCCIC-sponsored series of radio programs intended to create public awareness of contributions by minorities.
Folder
74
"Source Book of Information," 1928-1942
Lists NCCIC budgetary information, names of contributors, objectives and achievements, and immediate challenges.
Folder
75-86
Speeches, reports, and other writings, 1922, 1935-1949, 1974 and undated
Primarily consists of speeches given at NCCIC conferences by officers of the group or members of other groups interested in
interracial cooperation. Topics include religion, the media, justice, health, education, social welfare, agriculture, and
civic involvement.
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