Rev. Martin L. Deppe Papers
Scope and Contents
Rev. Martin L. Deppe’s papers offer a window into the life of a Chicago minister and an interfaith social justice advocate, the bulk of which dates from 1966 to 2010. The collection contains a wide range of materials related to the planning, implementation and documentation of civic actions including correspondence, flyers, manuscripts, meeting minutes, news clippings, photographs, posters, programs, protest buttons and signs, reports, sermons, slide shows, speeches, and such audiovisual formats as cassette, LP and film.
Dates
- Creation: 1932 - 2019
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1966 - 2010
Creator
- Deppe, Martin L., Rev., 1935- (Person)
- Freund, Ronald (Person)
- Hogan, William, Rev. (Person)
- Massoni, Gary, Rev. (Person)
- Pierce, Edith Lovejoy, 1904- (Person)
- SCLC Operation Breadbasket Orchestra (Organization)
- Simpson, Dick W. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Please consult staff to determine ability to reuse materials from collection.
Biographical / Historical
As a young child in WWII the Rev. Martin L. Deppe (1935-) fell in love with history through stamp collecting, following his uncles in the war on maps and vigorous table conversation. He followed his love into college studies, then taking a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany and being named a Woodrow Wilson Scholar. Reformation history led him into the Church as a pastor serving six congregations over 39 years in Chicago and suburbs.
Early on, Deppe saw the church to be an instrument of social justice, particularly in civil rights and in peace efforts. He was soon involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) Operation Breadbasket, brought to Chicago by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Deppe was a founding and then active Steering Committee participant for the Chicago-based economic justice project. Deppe became active in the Chicago chapter of Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC) (about the war in Vietnam), which he soon chaired, as well as serving on the National Steering Committee; Chicago’s Alliance to End Repression (AER), which he also chaired, and other “Movement” groups. He was active at all levels of the United Methodist Church authoring dozens of social justice resolutions from the Northern Illinois Conference area to the general church.Below is timeline of Deppe’s ministry:
1961-1964 Mandell Methodist Church, 5000 W. Congress Parkway, Chicago
1964-1970 Gresham Methodist Church, 8700 S. Emerald Avenue, Chicago
1970-1975 First United Methodist Church, 516 Church Street, Evanston, IL
1975-1984 Morgan Park United Methodist Church, 11030 S. Longwood Drive, Chicago
1984-1990 Hinsdale United Methodist Church, Hinsdale, IL
1991-1999 Irving Park Methodist Church, 3801 N. Keeler Avenue, Chicago
In retirement Deppe wrote numerous letters to the editor on current justice issues, his “wider pulpit” as his wife put it, with well over a hundred published, especially in the post 9-11 years. In his twilight years he returned to his love of history upon discovering a gap in the civil rights literature. When he found the amazing story of Operation Breadbasket untold, he turned historian and wrote a seminal account, from the inside, both academic and personal, both history and memoir. He feels his life has come full circle, from the history classrooms in high school and college during the 1940s and 1950s to our own time, telling the Breadbasket narrative in Chicago area schools, colleges, libraries and churches.
Written by Rev. Martin L. Deppe, 2019
Extent
22 Linear Feet (in 38 boxes (1 oversize folder, 6 artifacts, 257 buttons, 737 photographs, 145 digital photographs, 4 16mm films, 41 cassette tapes, 3 DVDs, 6 LPs, 16 reel-to-reel tapes, 3 VHS tapes))
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Rev. Martin L. Deppe created and collected the materials in this collection during his time working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) Operation Breadbasket program, Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC), the Alliance to End Repression (AER) and the United Farm Workers (UFW). The collection is comprised of meeting materials, memos, flyers, photographs, posters, publications, reports, speeches, buttons and artifacts that reflect the activities of Chicago’s Civil Rights, anti-war and social justice movements. Projects and actions include confronting the economic discrimination in Chicago’s African American communities, the nuclear freeze movements, anti-apartheid campaigns and Vietnam War opposition.
Arrangement
The Rev. Martin L. Deppe Papers are arranged by organization and by material type into the following 7 series:
Series 1: Biographical, 1957-2018
Series 2: Operation Breadbasket, 1958-2019
Series 3: Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC), 1965-1998
Series 4: Alliance to End Repression (AER), 1949-1995
Series 5: Other Civic Actions, circa 1954-2016
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1965-2017
Series 7: Buttons, 1932-2015
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Access to some audiovisual material may not be possible due to available replay equipment or to state of physical media. Tapes have not been checked to ensure content or playability. Titles and other descriptive information is as transcribed from packages.
The paging of artifacts depends upon the size and condition of the object.
Please contact the archives before your visit.
Physical Location
Buttons and artifacts are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please request these materials at least 24-hours prior to your research visit to coordinate access.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe between 2017 and 2020.
Separated Materials
34 books included with Rev. Martin L. Deppe’s papers have been cataloged and are available for use in the Special Collections Reading Room.
Anderson, Alan B. and George W. Pickering. Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1986 (note on front flyleaf; bookmarked on pp. 76, 96-97; and annotations by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Ansbro, John J. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Making of a Mind, New York: Orbis Books, 1986 (handwritten note on front flyleaf and annotations by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Austin, Andy. Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, and Murderers in an American Courtroom, 1st ed., Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 2008 (bookmarked on pp. 274-275)
Bishop, Jim. The Days of Martin Luther King, Jr., New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971 (handwritten notes on inside dust jacket and p. 321 by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Black, Jr., Timuel D. Bridges of Memory: Chicago’s First Wave of Black Migration, Evanston, IL and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and DuSable Museum of African American History, 2003
Black Power at Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry, edited by David Goldberg and Trevor Griffey, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010
Branch, Taylor. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1954-63, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006 (notes on inside dust jacket; bookmarked on pp. 692-693, 718-719; and annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Branch, Taylor. >Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989 (bookmarked on pp. 830-831)
Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1954-63, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998 (news clipping about the author laid in)
Fager, Charles. Uncertain Resurrection: The Poor People’s Campaign, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969 (annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Frazier, E. Franklin and C. Eric Lincoln. The Negro Church in America/The Black Church Since Frazier, New York: Schocken Books, 1974 (inscribed to Rev. Martin L. Deppe and family by Dorothy)
Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, New York: Vintage Books, 1988 (handwritten note on front flyleaf and annotations by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Haas, Jeffrey. The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther, Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010 (event flyer laid in)
Hampton, Henry and Steve Fayer. Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, New York: Bantam Books, 1990 (handwritten note on front flyleaf; bookmarked pp. 458-459; and annotation by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Hough, Jr., Joseph C. Black Power and White Protestants: A Christian Response to the New Negro Pluralism, New York: Oxford University Press, 1968
King, Coretta Scott. My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1st ed., New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969 (inscribed to “Mom Deppe” by Rev. Martin and Peg Deppe; handwritten notes on inside dust jacket by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
King, Jr., Martin Luther. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by James M. Washington, San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1991 (handwritten notes by Rev. Martin Deppe and bookmark laid in, pp. 244-245; bookmarked, p. 299)
King, Jr., Martin Luther. Strength to Love, 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1963 (inscribed to Rev. Martin L. Deppe by his wife Peg; handwritten note on inside dust jacket and annotations by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
King, Jr., Martin Luther. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1967 (note on inside flyleaf and annotations by Rev. Deppe)
King, Jr., Martin Luther. Why We Can’t Wait, New York: Signet, 1968
Lewis, John and Michael D’Orso. Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1999
Marsh, Charles. God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999 (bookmarked pp. 131-132)
Niebuhr, Reinhold. An Interpretation of Christian Ethics, New York: Meridian Books, 1958 (signed Martin Deppe; annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Niebuhr, Reinhold. Moral Man and Immoral Society, New York: Charles Scribner Sons, 1960 (signed [Rev.] Gerald Forshey; Forshey written on top edge; highlighted and annotated; Rev. Deppe’s handwritten notes on scrap paper laid in, p.254-255)
Oates, Stephen B. Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr., New York: Mentor Books, 1985 (bookmarked on pp.248-249 and 354-355; annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
O’Connor, Len. Clout: Mayor Daley and His City, New York: Avon, 1976 (annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Peake, Thomas R. Keeping the Dream Alive: A History of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from King to the Nineteen-Eighties, New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1987
Ralph, Jr., James R. Northern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993 (handwritten note on inside dust jacket and annotations by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Reed, Jr., Adolph L. The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986
Reynolds, Barbara A., Jesse Jackson: The Man, the Movement, the Myth, Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1975 (signed Thelma Brown; Thelma “Ma” Brown written on the fore-edge; annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand, Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1977(annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe on page v)
Street, Dr. Paul. Still Separate, Unequal: Race, Place, Policy and the State of Black Chicago, Chicago: Chicago Urban League, 2005 (handwritten notes laid in, pp.22-23 and annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
Tillich, Paul. Love, Power and Justice: Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications, New York: Oxford University Press, 1960 (annotated by Rev. Martin L. Deppe)
X, Malcolm and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1st paperback ed., New York: Grove Press, 1966
Bibliography
Processing Information
Rev. Deppe’s Peace Album was scanned and returned to him in 2019. The photographs from this album have been itemized and are available for viewing in the Special Collections Reading Room. They use the prefix “album” to note their origin.
Source
- Deppe, Martin L., Rev., 1935- (Person)
Subject
- Alliance to End Repression (Organization)
- Anti-racism Institute (Organization)
- Barrow, Willie T. (Willie Taplin), Rev., 1924-2015 (Person)
- Benedict, Don, 1917-2008 (Person)
- Chicago (Ill.). Police Department. (Organization)
- Church Federation of Greater Chicago (Organization)
- Clergy and Laity Concerned (U.S.). Chicago Branch (Organization)
- Clergy and Laity Concerned (U.S.) (Organization)
- Coordinating Council of Community Organizations. CCCO (Organization)
- Evans, Clay, Rev., 1925-2019 (Person)
- Stroy, Freeman, Rev. (Person)
- Friendshipment (Campaign) (Organization)
- Honeywell Inc. Defense Systems Division (Organization)
- Jackson, Jesse, 1941- (Person)
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968 (Person)
- Lefever, Ernest W. (Person)
- Nonviolent Training and Action Center (Organization)
- Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (Organization)
- Operation Breadbasket (U.S.) (Organization)
- Rainbow/PUSH Coalition (Organization)
- Sawyer, Eugene (Person)
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Organization)
- United Methodist Church (U.S.). Northern Illinois Conference (Organization)
- Washington, Harold, 1922-1987 (Person)
- Witness for Peace (Organization) (Organization)
- Young, Andrew, 1932- (Person)
- Young, Trudi Schutz (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Rev. Martin L. Deppe Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Michelle McCoy
- Date
- 2019, 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English
Revision Statements
- 2021: Updated and ingested into ArchivesSpace by Michelle McCoy
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections Unit at Harold Washington Library Center Repository
Harold Washington Library Center, 9th Floor
Chicago Public Library
400 S. State Street
Chicago IL 60605 United States
(312) 747-4875
specoll@chipublib.org