Search

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.

Organization of employers founded in 1916 as the Detroit Employment Managers' Club and concerned initially with issues of wage rates, hiring practices, working hours, and unionization, and after World War II with problems of affirmative action, arbitration, and labor-related legislation. The name of the organization was changed in 1955 to the Detroit Personnel Management Association. In 1988, it merged with the Industrial Relations Association of Greater Detroit to form the Human Resources Association of Greater Detroit. History, minutes, announcements, correspondence, membership material, and newsletters.

The records of the Human Resources Association of Greater Detroit have been arranged into one Organizational Records series. A History folder includes the constitution and bylaws of the Detroit Employment Managers' Club, a brief history of the early years, and several pamphlets explaining the purpose of the organization. The Minutes are probably the most interesting part of the record group. The minutes for the early period, 1918 to 1923, are fascinating. Although frequently rather cryptic (they mention only the general topics of discussion), the minutes still reveal the concerns of management. Researchers should note the occasional practice of having each member report on the situation in his plant (all members were male at this time) - how many people had been laid off, what wages were paid and what were the policies respecting African Americans, women, and aliens. There is not, unfortunately, a great deal of this kind of material. Minutes from subsequent years are less valuable, but they still clearly show the growing professionalization of a managerial class. From 1960 to the late 1990s, the issues of importance to the organization can only be gleaned from the lecture topics as the minutes reflect a new concern for organizational, rather than labor management, issues.