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Rev. Martin L. Deppe Papers

 Collection
Identifier: spe-c00075

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

  • 1932 - 2019
  • Majority of material found within 1966 - 2010

Creator

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.

Related Materials

Rev. Clay Evans Archive

Collections on Rev. Clay Evans

Harold Washington Archives & Collections. Mayoral Records. Press Office Photographs

Harold Washington Archives & Collections. Mayoral Records. Community Services Sub-cabinet Records

Eugene Sawyer Mayoral Records

Steve Askin Papers

The General Commission on Archives and History for the United Methodist Church (GCAH) at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey holds church records created by Rev. Martin L. Deppe over the course of his ministerial career.

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

Deppe, Rev. Martin L. Operation Breadbasket: The Untold Story of Civil Rights in Chicago, 1966-1971, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2017

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.

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

Contact:
Harold Washington Library Center, 9th Floor
Chicago Public Library
400 S. State Street
Chicago IL 60605 United States
(312) 747-4875