Skip to main content

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Records: Committee on Race Relations and its predecessors (1919-1970)

 Collection — othertype: SW/Phy/800
Identifier: QM-Phy-800

Scope and Contents

Contains Minutes, Correspondence, and Financial Records of the Committee as well as records documenting its involvement in various projects and publications it produced and collected.

  1. Series 1: Predecessor Committees, 1921-1929
  2. Series 2: Administrative Papers, 1929-1969
  3. Series 3: Finances and Personnel, 1935-1969
  4. Series 4: Correspondence, 1929-1969
  5. Series 5: Projects, 1929-1969
  6. Series 6: Publications, 1929-1969
  7. Series 7: Miscellaneous, n.d.

Subjects of interest in the collection include the Beliefs Into Action conference, the Green Circle educational program, fair employment, integration, fair housing, interracial marriage, the Institute of Race Relations, and lynching.

Dates

  • Creation: 1921-1969

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Access may be provided via digital or microfilm copy, per repository policy.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright has not been assigned to the Repositories. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the individual Meeting or its successor. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Repositories as the holder(s) of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by reader.

Biographical / Historical

In 1919, Esther Morton Smith of the Arch Street (Orthodox) Meeting of Philadelphia brought forth a concern on the lynching of African Americans. After voicing her concern to the Women’s Meeting, she took it to the Men’s Yearly Meeting, and a body named the Committee on Lynching was formed to study the problem. Smith also addressed the Race Street (Hicksite) Meeting, and they, too, formed an Anti-Lynching Committee after consideration in the Men’s Yearly Meeting. The two committees cooperated until both were laid down in 1921, whereupon Hicksite Friends formed a Committee on the Interests of the Colored Race and the Orthodox Friends formed a Committee on Race Relations to “encourage all right methods tending to a better understanding between the white and colored races.” (1921 PYM [O] proceedings, p. 16) The committee was also expressly “empowered to add to its members those other than Friends.” (1921, p. 39 [O])

The two committees worked separately (albeit with occasional cooperative efforts) until 1929 on such projects as Housing and Education and with groups such as the Southern Conference on Inter-Racial Cooperation (supported by Orthodox Friends) and the Interracial Committee of Philadelphia (organized by Hicksite Friends). In 1929, on the recommendation of the American Friends Service Committee, the two committees merged to form a “Joint Committee on Race Relations.” Sixteen years of cooperation between the two meetings followed, during which time the foremost objective was exposure of white Friends to “educated Negroes.” The committee was especially impressed by Crystal Bird, a singer of spirituals hired by the American Friends Service Committee, and with her help they began sending various black representatives to schools, meetings, and clubs in the Philadelphia area in an effort to eliminate prejudices and build understanding. The committee also became concerned with episodes of anti-Semitism prior to and throughout the Second World War, during which time they published and distributed pamphlets designed to counteract negative publications then in circulation. Their primary focus, however, remained what they termed White-Negro relations in the United States, to which they compared the anti-Semitism in Central Europe: “We are aghast at what is going on in Germany, but we need to realize that we have never given full rights as human beings to the largest minority group in our own country.” (1936, p. 126 [O]) (The committee published one annual report which was issued in both sets of Yearly Meeting Proceedings.) During this time period, guests of the committee included W.E.B. DuBois, Marian Anderson, and Alan Patton, among others.

Following the 1955 “organic union” of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, the committee continued its work, starting a yearly conference entitled “Beliefs Into Actions,” supporting various Fair Housing organizations, and developing a very successful “Green Circle” program designed to educate children in a prejudice-free fashion. Beginning in the 1960s, the committee saw increased activity as Race Relations became a national concern. It worked to integrate Friends’ Schools as well as Philadelphia public schools, to educate both whites and blacks, and to eliminate cultural deprivation and housing and workplace discrimination. A Meeting for Social Concerns was created in 1969, and the Committee on Race Relations, along with seven others, was placed under its jurisdiction. Later in 1969 the committee was jarred by the demands of the Black Manifesto and the group that published it, the Black Economic Development Conference. In special sessions of the Yearly Meeting, Friends were addressed by Muhammed Kenyatta , a Black civil rights leader, and struggled to find unity with the ideas of reparations and Black Power. In 1970 the Committee was laid down, and its functions and experience were continued by the Community Involvement Program under the Meeting for Social Concerns.

Extent

6 linear ft. (12 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Records, 1921-1969, of the Race Relations Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and its predecessors, the Anti-Lynching Committee (1919-1921), Committee on the Interests of the Colored Race (1921-1929) Committee on Race Relations (1921-1929), and the Joint Committee on Race Relations(1929-1955).

Physical Location

This collection is stored at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Deposit, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Subject

Title
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Records: Committee on Race Relations and its predecessors (1919-1970)
Date
2004
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Find It at the Library

Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting repoductions from Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College Library