Creator: Stone, Olive M. (Olive Matthews), 1897-1977.
Collection number: 4107
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Abstract: Olive Matthews Stone was a sociologist involved in social welfare and race relations. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Carolina in 1939 and was later associated with the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina. She was associate professor in the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Los Angeles, 1949-1964. Papers reflect Stone’s interests in social welfare, race relations, southern farmers, the training of social workers, and her own family history. Included are materials pertaining to a study of various aspects of the lives of African Americans in Gee’s Bend, Wilcox County, Ala.; observations on group relations and tensions in India, China, and Japan from a trip she took under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1931-1932; anti-lynching efforts; and Stone’s involvement in the Southern Committee for People’s Rights (originally called the Southern League for People’s Rights), the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and several biracial conferences on race relations, including the Institute of Race Relations held at Swarthmore College and the Shaw University conference, both in 1934. Prominent correspondents include Howard Kester, Joseph S. Gelders, George Stoney, Josephus Daniels, various officers of the American Friends Service Committee regarding the Institute of Race Relations, Katharine D. Lumpkin, Sam H. Franklin Jr. of the Delta Cooperative Farm; Virginia Durr; C. Vann Woodward; Clyde Johnson; and Arthur Raper. Also included are correspondence about other matters, financial and legal materials, writings, clippings, certificates, some nineteenth-century family items, genealogical materials, printed items, and photographs.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Correspondence includes information on Stone’s involvement in the Southern Committee for People’s Rights, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, and the Southern Negro Youth Congress (See Folders 27-30).
Much of the correspondence (from 1934-1973) discusses such topics as anti-lynching efforts, as well as two interracial conferences on race relations (the Institute of Race Relations held at Swarthmore College in July of 1934, and the Negro-White Conference at Shaw University in fall of 1934). Materials in this series have been digitized and are available online. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digital content.
Folders 23-24 contain information on various aspects of the lives of African Americans in Gee’s Bend, Wilcox County, Alabama (1962, 1977).
Folder 34 contains a copy of Stone’s published article, “”Present Position of the Negro Farm Population” (1936).