Cyrus Hall Adams, III, papers

Series 1. Board of Education files, 1874-1968 (Boxes 1-42)

Series 1 contains Cyrus H. Adams III's Board of Education files. These files consist of correspondence, minutes, financial and other reports, transcripts of board hearings and meetings, speeches, news clippings, and other printed materials. The correspondence is composed of both incoming letters and copies of Adams' outgoing ones. It includes letters exchanged between Adams and other board members (especially James Clements) and with General Superintendents Benjamin Willis and James Redmond sometimes frankly discussing the course of the board's actions. The correspondence also includes administrative letters and memos from Superintendent Willis, letters from the Chicago Teachers Union, and an exchange of letters with R. Sargent Shriver (in Sept. 1966) discussing the philosophy behind the War on Poverty programs, especially Head Start.

The issue of integration of the schools is reflected in many documents throughout the collection, including the correspondence among board members and the General Superintendents and numerous letters from Chicago citizens and civic organizations including the Citizens School Committee. Other documents include reports of the board committees, transcripts of community committee hearings including those of the 1968 committee on Transferring Students at which both board members and citizens spoke, press releases, and news clippings. There is also material concerning the Hauser report (released in March 1964) and the Havighurst survey (released in November 1964), both of which were designed to guide the board's plans with regard to the elimination of segregation in the schools. There are transcripts of meetings (ca. June-August 1964) of the Committee to Study and Make Recommendations to Implement Sections I, II, and III of the Hauser Report. Adams was chairman of this committee whose purpose was to consider student enrollment patterns, the utilization of space, and the location of schools and school boundaries.

The suggestions and plans of the school board with regard to school boundaries, student transfer plans, etc., caused a great deal of reaction within the community. Adams' papers contain many letters that he received from individual citizens and community organizations such as the Lincoln Kenwood Community Conference and the coordinating Council of Community Organizations, both opposing and supporting various board proposals. Most letters from these organizations can be found in chronological groups in the collection, including those received in late 1964 and early 1965 regarding the modified open enrollment plan (known as the "cluster" plan), those received in the summer of 1966 about a student transfer plan, and another lot in June 1967 concerning boundary changes for Nash and May Elementary schools among other things. Also, in August 1967, Superintendent James Redmond released a plan to decrease segregation through busing. Most of Adams' letters from citizens in 1967-1968 protest this busing plan.

Items which document the physical, financial, and educational condition of the public schools, both individually and as a whole, include statements from Parent-Teacher Associations to the Board of Education at the board's annual budget hearings. These statements (which appear in the December preceding the budget years of 1965 to 1968.) outline the specific needs of the individual schools; they were usually requests for supplies and the repair or construction of facilities at the schools. There are also a number of statements given by PTAs and civic associations at November 1964 and April 13, 1957 policy meetings of the board; most of the statements in November 1964 are in support of the neighborhood school policy, while many in April 1967 call for more board attention to furthering and stabilizing integration of the schools. The series also includes annual financial reports, and reports with statistical information about the Chicago public schools including figures on racial distribution of pupils and faculty and on class and faculty size. Adams annotated many of the reports in the collection, as well as the correspondence providing information and comments about their contents.

Letters, reports, legal memos, and statements by involved parties discuss (especially during April 1964) a proposed time-sharing plan between the public and Catholic school systems in Chicago through which pupils would attend classes in both school systems.

Copies of speeches given by Adams, mostly to local groups, on the topic of the school system, and the transcript of Adams' reappointment hearing (in May 1966) appear here and are useful for determining Adams' position on many of the issues which the board faced.

Miscellaneous material includes some reports from Booz, Allen and Hamilton about administratively reorganizing the Board of Education and the school system, some minutes and reports (Nov. 1964, Spring 1965, and Fall 1966) from the Research Council of the Great Cities for School Improvement of which Dr. Willis was president, and some publications by the state concerning education in Illinois. This series is arranged chronologically.

Series 2. Carson Pirie Scott and Company materials, 1932-1968 (Boxes 43-44)

Series 2 contains printed material on the history of Carson Pirie Scott and Company and one scrapbook. This series is arranged chronologically.