Creator: North Carolina Council on Human Relations records, 1940s-1980s (bulk 1954-1969).
Collection number: 4880
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Abstract: The North Carolina Council on Human Relations (NCCHR) was one of twelve state organizations affiliated with the Southern Regional Council (SRC). An interracial organization, it sought, from 1954 until 1969, to solve racial problems in North Carolina through research and communication. NCCHR records include correspondence, reports, proposals, financial records, newsletters, speeches, and other materials relating to the NCCHR and to its local affiliates. There are reports and correspondence of executive directors Harry S. Jones, Helen Adams Furman, and Will C. Allred, Jr.Also included are small numbers of records of the Southern Regional Council and human relations councils in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Topics include social and economic conditions of African Americans in North Carolina and the South, civil rights, education, employment, integration of public schools and higher education, labor relations, labor unions, private and public housing, and race relations.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Correspondence, reports, proposals, financial records, newsletters, and other records of the North Carolina Council on Human Relations (NCCHR) and its local affiliates, chiefly dealing with race relations in North Carolina. The collection also includes small numbers of records of the Southern Regional Council and human relations councils in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Correspondence in Series 1 includes a letter (14 January 1958) from Jones to Martin Luther King, Jr., inviting King to visit Charlotte, N.C., the day after a scheduled speaking engagement in Raleigh. There is also a copy of a personal letter from Leslie Dunbar to Coretta Scott King (21 October 1964) expressing pride in her and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Series 3 (Local Councils and Affiliates) contains a sermon preached by the Reverend James Douglas Riddle on 3 December 1967, examining the issue of public housing in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Folder 252). In addition, there are letters from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Council on Human Relations pertaining to the controversy that surrounded the proposed development of two junior colleges (one for whites and another for blacks) during the early 1960s.
Series 4 (Southern Regional Council) contains a letter from George S. Mitchell to Charlotte Hawkins Brown, founder of Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, N.C.,dated 3 December 1953, expressing his gratitude to Brown for her financial support of the Southern Regional Council. (Folder 296) There is also correspondence between Mitchell and Quintin Whyte, director of the South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a letter dated 5 November 1954, Whyte discussed race-related problems affecting his country and made a request for materials dealing with racial discrimination in crime reports and newspaper headlines (Folder 296-297).
Series 5 also contains many records related to the Human Relations councils of many other Southern states.