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Social Service organization serving the Detroit African American community, affiliate of the National Urban League; includes minutes of the Board of Directors, correspondence and topical files of Executive Directors and Presidents, budgets and financial records, and papers concerning National Urban League conferences and Green Pastures Camp; also departmental files relating to community services, housing, vocational services, health and welfare, job development and employment, and education and youth incentives; and photographs.

The records of the Detroit Urban League include minutes of the Board of Directors, correspondence and topical files of Executive Directors and Presidents, budgets and financial records, and papers concerning National Urban League conferences and Green Pastures Camp; also departmental files relating to community services, housing, vocational services, health and welfare, job development and employment, and education and youth incentives. The records also include photographs of chapter activities, meetings, and ceremonies; photos of buildings and staff (notably executive directors, John Dancy and Francis Kornegay); also films.

Executive director of the Detroit Urban League, 1960-1978; general chronological files, topical files, correspondence, speeches, personal, Detroit Urban League materials, and other organizational activities files.

The papers of Francis A. Kornegay document four decades of service with the Detroit Urban League. These files which Kornegay categorized as personal and thus kept separate from the records of the Detroit Urban League which are also housed at the Bentley Library are a mixture of Urban League and non-Urban League related materials. The researcher interested in either Kornegay or the history of the Detroit Urban League during the Kornegay years (1944-1978) will need to examine both collections for relevant materials.

The Kornegay papers came to the library in two major accessions both of which required extensive processing. The two accessions were not interfiled, thus there are some files that might properly be placed elsewhere within the collection. The files received in 1977 (boxes 13-18) consisted primarily of materials which were generated after the initial papers were received and files which were active at the time of the initial deposit of material in 1969. The series received in 1969 were titled General Chronological and Topical Files. The materials received in 1977 were processed into five series: Correspondence, Speeches, Personal, Detroit Urban League, and Organizational Affiliations. On its surface, these appear to be six distinct series. On examination, however, there are some materials that could have been grouped together if the two accessions had been interfiled. The Correspondence series could have been interfiled with the General Chronological, for example; or the Detroit Urban League files to be found within the Topical Files series could have been placed with the Detroit Urban League series. The finding aid is small enough that the researcher should be able to locate similar files within the six series.

Board meeting minutes, correspondence, newsletters, position statements on various statements, and pamphlets and other publications; also visual materials; subjects covered by files include environmental quality, education, and women's rights issues.

The records of the Detroit League of Women Voters cover the years 1930 to 1988, although its primary coverage is 1960 through 1980. The record group measures four linear feet in size and is arranged alphabetically by subject. Included are minutes from board meetings, correspondence, newsletters, League positions on various bills, pamphlets and other publications. Minutes from annual meetings are included in the board meetings file. One file contains correspondence from the Wayne County League of Women Voters dating back to 1930.

The largest files in the record group concerns environmental quality, education (busing, desegregation, and teacher certification), housing, human resources and women's issues (abortion, ERA and mortgage credit). The extensive environmental files cover air pollution, land use, phosphates and clean water.

Samuel Miller Brownell was an educator and school administrator who served as U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1953-1956 and as Superintendent of Detroit Public Schools from 1956 to 1966. He was married to Esther Delzell Brownell, who taught high school history before their 1927 marriage. This collection documents the Brownells’ family life, and to a lesser extent, Samuel M. Brownell’s career. Materials include a large collection of correspondence between Samuel and Esther Brownell, personal papers reflecting the family’s social and cultural activities and daily life, and a series of scrapbooks, dating from 1900 to 1988, containing photographs, clippings, newsletters, correspondence, and ephemera. The older scrapbooks provide information about the early lives of both of the Brownells, and later scrapbooks document the family’s vacations and Samuel Brownell’s career as an educator, administrator, and political appointee.

The Samuel Miller Brownell and Esther Delzell Brownell collection documents the family life of two individuals from their courtship through their old age. To a lesser extent, the career of Samuel Brownell as educator is also documented. The papers are arranged roughly chronologically into three series, beginning with the lives of each of the Brownells before their marriage, and then following them as they moved from Nebraska to Michigan, to Connecticut, to Washington, D.C., to Michigan again, and finally to back to Connecticut.