The Rose Parker Kleinman papers are almost entirely those from her years in Detroit and are limited in quantity (2 linear feet). They can be used by the researcher interested in compiling a short biographical study of the last twenty years of her life, or in the activities of one of the many white liberals in Detroit in the 1960s who promoted racial equality. They provide an introduction to the cooperative movement as a whole and in the state of Michigan in the 1960s and 1970s, and to the activities of one of the leaders in the field. Finally, the papers on low-income, open housing organizations in Detroit in the 1960s and 1970s can provide a limited supplement to those found in other libraries, such as the Mayor's Papers in the Burton Library in Detroit. There is very little in the collection, however, on Kleinman's efforts to have established the Michigan State Housing Authority. The researcher should approach the collection with the understanding that no one area or organization can be studied in depth, but that the character, ideas, and personality of Rose Kleinman are evident throughout the collection.
The Kleinman papers are arranged in five series: Personal; Correspondence; Cooperatives; Housing; and Miscellaneous.
Rose Parker Kleinman, social activist and reformer, was born in 1914 in Des Moines, Iowa, of Russian immigrant parents. She attended public schools in Cleveland, and went to Bryn Mawr College where she was enrolled in the Workers Education Project.
While attending high school and college, Kleinman became active in the youth division of the Socialist Party. During later activities for the party, she met and married Robert Parker. The couple worked actively for the Socialist cause in both Cleveland and New York, and were important participants in the presidential campaign efforts of Norman Thomas. In 1945, several years after they moved to Pennsylvania, Robert Parker died unexpectedly. Rose and her one-year old daughter, Janet Ilene, moved to Boston to be near Rose's mother. Rose resumed her work for the Socialist Party, was involved in the trade union movement and wrote a column for the local CIO paper (CIO News), and served as executive director (19471950) of the Boston office of the Jewish Labor Committee for which she undertook investigations into racial discrimination.
In 1950, Rose met and married Dr. Shmarya Kleinman, a Socialist and Jewish leader in Detroit. She moved there, where her son, Joseph Mandell, was born in 1952, and continued her involvement in social causes. Her interest in eliminating discrimination led to her involvement in the Fair Housing Listing Service which assisted Blacks to move into previously all white areas. She worked with organizations and cooperatives that sponsored low-income, open housing, such as the Michigan Housing Associates, Equal Housing Opportunities, and Housing Opportunities Made Equal Services. She served as housing consultant to the Washington-based Foundation for Cooperative Housing (FCH), and midwest field secretary for the National Association of Housing Cooperatives. Much of her work in the field of housing culminated in her successful fight for the passage of the legislation that established the Michigan State Housing Authority. She drew on her extensive experience and interest in cooperatives of all types to teach classes at area universities and colleges. As she neared the end of her life, she became quite interested in the concept of workers' cooperatives. She died at her daughter's home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on July 22, 1977.
