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Organization of Detroit African American business and professional men and women; scattered records of the organization including newsletters, directories, and topical files of some of the group’s presidents.

The record group has been arranged into four series: Background/Informational; President's Files; National Business League, and Wallace Williams File. Included are scattered business and membership directories, newsletters, and annual meeting programs; records of organization presidents Homer D. Waterman, Joseph W. Williams, and Wallace Williams; and files relating to its relations with the National Business League, 1968-1970.

Detroit resident and president of Unit 7, Detroit Housewives' League. Collection includes scattered issues of Detroit-published African American newspapers and other publications and printed ephemera, a scrapbook with articles about African American business in Detroit, and two photographs.

Collection contains Detroit-published printed material related to Detroit African American business, entrepreneurship, and religious life; Beasley's scrapbook with newspaper clippings about successful African American entrepreneurs, scholars, athletes, religious leaders, lawyers, and representatives of other professional and civil circles, as well as a clipping with Beasley's portrait and biographical sketch; and two photographs, including a signed portrait of Coleman A. Young.

Printed ephemera materials include the Detroit Housewives' League programs of events held in honor or in commemoration of Rev. William H. Peck and in honor of Fannie B. Peck, dated between 1941 and 1950; a 1936 Negro Business on Parade program; and the Detroit-Tuskegee Alumni Home Dedication program dated 1945.

Newspaper titles include several scattered issues of "The Voice of Negro Business" dated between 1936 and 1941; and single issues of "The Independent Tribune" (May 5, 1934) and "Trade Week Guide" (November 18, 1942). Of note is a small collection of scattered 1931-1934 issues of "The Pythian Sister Tidings," the official monthly of the Supreme Temple Pythian Sisters, edited by Laura L. Gillette of Ann Arbor, Mich.

The "miscellaneous publications" folder contains two items that were published outside of Michigan, one dedicated to an African American business in Illinois.

Detroit businessman active in numerous minority business affairs and organizations. Williams was director of the Michigan Division of Minority Business Enterprise within the Michigan Department of Commerce, 1959-1978. Biographical information, correspondence, files relating to his activities on behalf of minority business development, especially with the Minority Technology Council of Michigan; also files relating to involvement with Detroit civic and cultural organizations, and photographs.

The Wallace C. Williams Papers document various professional and personal activities and concerns of Wallace C. Williams, most notably those during his career at the Michigan Department of Commerce, Office of Minority Business Enterprise. The collection is comprised of a wide variety of materials documenting Williams' activities in a number of organizations and occupations concerned primarily with minority business affairs. The collection is divided into four series: Biographical/Personal; Correspondence; Michigan Department of Commerce, Office of Economic Expansion, Minority Business Development; and Miscellaneous/Organizations.

Of particular interest is the Michigan Department of Commerce series which documents Williams' activities during his tenure at the Michigan Department of Commerce, Office of Minority Business Enterprise. The material in that series reflects Williams' activities directly associated with his position in that office, and other projects in which Williams was active.