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Swarthmore College Race Relations Club surveys

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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Swarthmore College had a Race Relations Club, or Race Relations Committee, as early as the 1930s and as late as the 1980s. After the group succeeded in 1940 in agitating to remove the barrier against admitting African American students to the College, the Club continued to work toward increasing the number of African Americans in the student population. Activities toward this goal included working with the Negro Scholarship Fund and visiting high schools to encourage African American students to apply to Swarthmore. The Club also rallied against discrimination observed in the town of Swarthmore.

In response to an incident in which an African-American resident of the town of Swarthmore was denied service at a local barber shop, the Swarthmore College Race Relations Club decided to undertake a community race relations survey. Carol Creedon of the College Psychology Department served as advisor. The Club put a notice in the local Swarthmore newspaper and trained students in interviewing techniques. In the 1950-1951 school year, approximately 120 community members and approximatly 90 college students were interviewed.

This small collection contains the code and response of the community questionnaire, and several interviews and a card record of responses to the student questionnaire. Also included are coding instructions and a paper about conducting community self-surveys that was used as a reference by the Race Relations Club.

The collection consists of 1 folder.

Gift of Winifred Armstrong '51, accession number SCA.2013.005

Publisher
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Finding Aid Author
FHL staff
Finding Aid Date
2016
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Copyright has not been assigned to Friends Historical Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in to the Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Friends Historical Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by reader.

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