African Americans -- Politics and government.

Abstract

A lifelong Chicagoan, Brenetta Howell Barrett was a leader and political activist in West Side community organizations. She served in the mayoral administrations of Harold Washington and Eugene Sawyer. Active in housing, environmental and civil liberties issues, she was also involved in community protests in the 1960s and 1970s. Her papers include correspondence, office files, programs, clippings, photographs and memorabilia.

Abstract Dewey Roscoe Jones was a Chicago-based journalist for the Chicago Defender. He rose to the role of Managing Editor while writing feature articles, book reviews, and columns. Jones left the Defender in 1932 to work as the Associate Advisor on Negro Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. He returned to Chicago in 1938 to serve as the Assistant Director of Hull-House, Jane Addam’s progressive settlement just southwest of the city’s Loop. The collection contains...

Abstract

Chandler Owen was a writer, editor and labor activist who co-founded the radical socialist journal The Messenger with A. Philip Randolph. He later worked as managing editor of the Chicago Bee newspaper. This small group of papers includes original typescripts of several of Owen’s speeches and essays.

Abstract

People for Community Recovery (PCR) is a community organization located in the Chicago Housing Authority’s Altgeld Gardens project on Chicago’s far Southeast Side. Founded in 1979 by Altgeld Gardens resident Hazel Johnson, PCR demanded cleanup of toxic waste surrounding the community and pressed for repair work. The organization also coined the term “environmental racism.” The archives include correspondence, organization files, programs and newspaper clippings.

Abstract

In 1983 Harold Washington became Chicago's first African American mayor. His mayoral campaign is documented in detail in this collection.