Inventory of the Gladys Avery Tillett Papers, 1700s-2000

Collection Number 4385

Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Processed by

SHC Staff

Date Processed

January 2003

Encoded by

Roslyn Holdzkom

Date Encoded

February 2003

Descriptive Summary

Repository

Southern Historical Collection

Creator

Tillett, Gladys Avery, 1891-1984.

Title

Gladys Avery Tillett Papers, 1700s-2000

Call Number

4385

Extent

21,000 items (59.5 linear feet)

Language

English.

Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access

No restrictions.

Provenance

Received from the children of Gladys Avery Tillett (Sara Tillett Thomas, Gladys Tillett Coddington, and Charles W. Tillett, all of Charlotte, N.C.), in 1984 and 1985; from Charles W. Tillett in August 1995 (Acc. 95109); and from Sara Tillett Thomas in July 1995 (Acc. 95078), October 1997 (Acc. 97133), December 1997 (Acc. 97165), August 1998 (Acc. 98193), September 1998 (Acc. 98200), and October 1998 (Acc. 98217).

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Gladys Avery Tillett Papers #4385, Southern Historical Collection, 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.

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Charlotte (N.C.)--Social life and customs.

Democratic Party (N.C.).

Democratic Party (U.S.).

Dewson, Molly, 1884-1947.

Elliott, Harriet, 1886-1980.

Equal rights amendments.

Graham, Frank Porter, 1886- .

Hickok, Lorena A.

North Carolina--Politics and government--1865-1950.

North Carolina--Politics and government--1951- .

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962.

Tillett, Charles Walter, 1888-1952.

Tillett, Gladys Avery, 1891-1984.

United Nations--Commissions.

United States--Politics and government--20th century.

Women in public life--North Carolina--History--20th century.

Women in public life--United States--History--20th century.

Women political activists--North Carolina--History--20th century.

Women political activists--United States--History--20th century.

Young Women's Christian associations.

Related Collections

Avery Family of North Carolina (#33);
Alphonso Calhoun Avery (#3456);
Frank Porter Graham (#1819);
Allard K. Lowenstein (#4340);
Southern Oral History Program (#4007), Interviews G-61 and A-316, Tape 8;
Charles Walter Tillett (#4438).

Biographical Note

Gladys Avery Tillett, daughter of Alphonso Calhoun Averyand Sallie Love Thomas Avery, was born in Morganton, N.C., on 19 March 1891. In 1915, she received a B.A. from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where she majored in political science under Harriet Elliott, who became a friend and life-long influence. She also received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1917. In July 1917, she married Charles Walter Tillett, Jr., a Charlotte lawyer. They had three children: Gladys, Charles, and Sara.

Tillett's interest in politics and her participation in the women's suffrage movement led her to help create the North Carolina state chapter of the League of Women Voters and a Mecklenburg County chapter; she served as president of the latter in 1922-1923, and of the former in 1934.

As a Democrat, one of Tillett's initial accomplishments was to increase the participation of women in North Carolina Democratic Party activities, first by becoming her precinct's vice-chair, and, in 1927, by insuring that party law provided that a man and woman would serve jointly as party chair and vice-chair on precinct, party, and state levels. Tillett herself was the North Carolina Democratic Party's vice-chair from 1934 to 1936. In 1932, 1936, and 1940, she was a North Carolina delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Tillett headed the Speakers' Bureau of the Democratic National Committee in 1936 and 1940, recruiting and scheduling the appearances of speakers for Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1940, she became vice-chair of the Democratic National Convention, and chair of its Women's Division, delivering the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in July 1944. She resigned from those positions in 1950 to co-direct (with Jeff Johnson) the senatorial campaign of Frank Porter Graham, but continued to be active in national Democratic Party affairs, working on both of Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaigns in the 1950s.

Tillett was involved with the United Nations from its inception; she and her husband attended its Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945, and the UNESCO conference in Paris in 1949. From 1954 to 1958, she was co-chair of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Association for the United Nations. President John F. Kennedy, for whom Tillett had actively campaigned in 1960, appointed her to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March 1961. In that capacity, she traveled to such places as Nigeria, South and Central America, Japan, and Mongolia, studying the political, educational, social, and economic rights of women around the world. Reappointed to the Commission in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson, she served until 1968.

Tillett had been a proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment since the 1920s. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, she became increasingly involved with the movement for the ratification of the amendment, serving as president of the North Carolina chapter of E.R.A. United in 1974 and 1975.

Gladys Avery Tillett's health began to decline in the late 1970s, and in 1980, she entered a nursing home. She died on 21 September 1984.

Collection Overview

Most of the collection documents Gladys Avery Tillett's participation in political and reform activities; there are relatively few personal or family-related items. Coverage is especially strong for Tillett's work with the Democratic Party in the 1930s and 1940s, and with the United Nations in the 1960s. Materials include incoming and outgoing correspondence, speeches by Tillett and others, news clippings, phonograph records and tapes, and photographs.

The additions of 1997 and 1998 have been arranged according to the organization scheme of the original deposit. Materials related to other Avery family members have been transferred to the Avery Family of North Carolina Papers (#33) and the Alphonso Calhoun Avery Papers (#3456). For papers regarding Gladys Avery Tillett's involvement in the litigation over lands acquired by her maternal grandfather William Holland Thomas for the Cherokee Indians, please see the Alphonso Calhoun Avery Papers (#3456).

Organization of Collection

1. Democratic National Committee Materials (6,300 items)
1.1. General Subject Files (1,700 items)
1.2. State Files (1,900 items)
1.3. Speakers' Bureau Materials (1,400 items)
1.4. Democratic Women's Day Materials (300 items)
1.5. Other Materials (1,000 items)
2. United Nations Materials (2,500 items)
2.1. General Subject Files (140 items)
2.2. Correspondence (1,160 items)
2.3. Speeches, Addresses, and Essays (1,000 items)
2.4. Other Materials (200 items)
3. Frank Porter Graham Materials (1,700 items)
3.1. Senatorial Campaign Materials (1,500 items)
3.2. Other Materials (200 items)
4. Women's Rights Materials (475 items)
4.1. League of Women Voters Materials (80 items)
4.2. Equal Rights Amendment Materials (220 items)
4.3. Women's Issues (175 items)
5. North Carolina Materials (1,100 items)
5.1. N.C. Democratic Party (450 items)
5.2. University of North Carolina (150 items)
5.3. Other North Carolina Materials (500 items)
6. Personal Materials (300 items)
7. Other Papers (550 items)
8. Volumes (13 items)
9. Audio-Visual Materials (296 items)
9.1. Photographs (260 items)
9.2. Other Materials (36 items)
Additions of 1997 and 1998 (about 450 items)

Items Separated

Items separated include photographs (P-4385 and OP-P-4385), audio disks (D-4385), audiotapes (T-4385), and videotapes (VT-4385).

Detailed Description of the Collection