Faith Rich Papers

Faith Rich (1909-1990), née Baldwin, was a white community activist, educator and civil rights advocate. She was born in Vermont in 1909 to a family of farmers. She received a bachelor’s degree from University of Vermont and a doctoral degree in Classics from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania in 1934 but was unable to publish her PhD thesis until 1943. She married fellow Vermont resident, Theodore Freeling Rich, or Ted, in the mid-1930s and joined him in Chicago where he had been completing his graduate work at the University of Chicago.

Upon arriving in Chicago in the 1930s, Rich was hired by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to create a farm journal, but soon found herself organizing laundry workers for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). During this time, she became acquainted with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Rich’s active membership with the NAACP began around 1945 and lasted until her death in 1990. She served in a variety of roles for the local organization, most notably on the Education Committee that she chaired in 1956-1957 at the time that her landmark study, De Facto Segregation in Chicago Public Schools, was released. Additional initiatives included the Textbook Committee’s research and proposed revisions in school textbooks in 1946-1947 to remove bias and better reflect contributions made by African Americans, Catholics, Jews and other groups.

Rich’s mission to achieve racial justice and equality led to her participation with a wide range of other community organizations and projects over the course of her life, especially with regard to issues of education and urban renewal. She served as a member of the George W. Collins High School’s Local School Council, on the board of the Literacy Council of Chicago and worked on education and districting issues with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI). Her papers reflect her research and efforts to improve student reading capabilities through the use of phonics and other teaching innovations. As a white activist in her North Lawndale community on Chicago’s West Side, Rich spent decades advocating for housing and other neighborhood stabilization efforts with the 15th Place Block Club (part of the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission, GLCC). Rich was also interested in how urban renewal affected urban life and socioeconomic opportunity at the city and the community levels. Related to urban development was her lifelong passion for environmental issues and her efforts to transform vacant neighborhood lots into urban gardens.

Throughout her adult life Rich was employed as a temporary office worker, which allowed her flexibility to set her own schedule. She gained a teaching certificate in education, but preferred to work as a substitute teacher or tutor for the same reason. She retired in 1972.

Rich’s husband, Ted, served in Europe during World War II from 1943-1945 where his facility with languages earned him transfer from the Infantry to the Ordnance where he taught German. After the war he worked for the American Medical Association as an editor and writer and also for the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Faith Rich died on March 12, 1990. Ted died in 2009. Faith and Ted Rich had no children.