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Lawndale Community Committee records

Descriptive Summary

Repository
Chicago History Museum
Research Center
1601 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60614-6038
Creator
Lawndale Community Committee
Bib number
00066253
Title
Lawndale Community Committee records
Dates
1949-1975
Quantity
10.75 linear ft. (26 boxes)
Call number
MSS Lot L
Language
English

Restriction(s)

Boxes 16-17 are closed until 2050.

Terms governing use

All rights owned by the donor, including copyright, were deeded to Chicago Historical Society. Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Provenance statement

Gift of John T. Harris (accession #: M1975.0026).

Please cite this collection as

Lawndale Community Committee records (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

Collection Summary

Meeting minutes, reports, correspondence, legal documents, newsletters, press releases, newspaper clippings, neighborhood maps, publications, and other records of the Lawndale Community Committee (LCC), a Chicago (Ill.) neighborhood organization that sponsored programs and activities associated with the Fillmore Youth Center. Includes materials regarding consultant director John T. Harris; and administrative files involving other Lawndale organizations, such as the Near West Side Community Committee, Westside Youth Boosters and Civic Committee, Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission, and the Little Community Council. Also includes documents and publications produced by the Chicago Committee on Urban Opportunity's Model Cities Programs and the City of Chicago's Department of Urban Renewal; reports from the Illinois Department of Corrections Joint Treatment Program (some reports closed until 2050); and Community Project Reports to the Illinois Youth Commission. Topics include work at the Fillmore Youth Center; providing athletic activities for youths; anti-juvenile delinquency programs; opposition to the proposed Crosstown expressway; involvement of business executives from Sears and from General Electric in neighborhood improvement efforts; and analyses by professional social workers involved with the Chicago Area Project or the Institute for Juvenile Research.

Biographical/historical note

The Lawndale Community Committee (LCC) was founded in 1949 to prevent juvenile delinquency in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. LCC established headquarters at 4001 W. Fillmore Street, on the third floor of a Chicago police station. This space became known as the Fillmore Youth Center. The Committee provided afterschool courses and sponsored athletic activities, including boxing, basketball, and baseball. LCC also organized educational trips and sent children to summer camps in the Chicago area. The committee worked with the local police and the Family Court of Cook County to monitor and assist recently paroled young people and other youths with problems who lived in the area. In the 1960s, youths were also directed towards state-government and federal-government funded job programs through the LCC. On some programs, the LCC worked cooperatively with the Youth Division of the Illinois Department of Corrections and with the Chicago Area Project. Social worker John T. Harris was a longtime Consultant Director of the LCC and also was a supervisor with the Youth Commission of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Related material

Related materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission records and photographs; the Chicago Area Project records; the Anthony Sorrentino papers; and the Institute for Juvenile Research records, ca. 1930-1980.

Related material at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Special Collections and University Archives, include the Near West Side Community Committee records; and the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission records.

Other Finding Aids

Finding aid also submitted to Explore Chicago Collections portal.

Indexed Terms

Organization and Arrangement of Collection

The collection is arranged in twelve series

Series 1. Administrative records, ca. 1949-1975 (box 1-3)

Series 1 contains annual reports, financial records, and Community Project Reports (submitted to the Illinois Youth Commission), which detail Lawndale Community Committee meeting minutes, agendas, notices, and related reports. Also included is an early history of the Lawndale Community Committee (ca. 1956). Publications directly related to Lawndale are also present, including those produced by the Chicago Department of Urban Renewal

Series 2. Affiliate organizations files, ca. 1949-1975 (box 4-8)

Series 2 contains reports, financial records, correspondence, publications, and other records from over two dozen Lawndale community groups. Organizations include Little Community Council, Near West Side Community Committee, Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission, Midwest Youth and Community Committee, Westside Youth Boosters and Civic Committee, Lawndale Cultural Development Project, and the Lawndale Mobilization for Youth Council

Series 3. Lawndale Executives files, ca. 1949-1975 (box 8-9)

Series 3 consists of correspondence, memos, meeting minutes, agendas, by-laws, and other records of the Lawndale Executives, an organization of Lawndale professionals who worked with local businesses to improve the community. Included are reports concerning projects with Sears Roebuck, General Electric, and the Chicago YMCA. Correspondents include founding member John T. Harris. In 1972, the Lawndale Executives became the Westside Association for Community Action

Series 4. Youth Commission materials, ca. 1949-1975 (box 9-12)

Series 4 contains inter-office memos, correspondence, staff worker reports, and newsletters generated by the Youth Commission of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Many of the documents were written by Youth Commission Supervisors John T. Harris, Anthony Sorrentino, and Ray Raymond. The Lawndale Community Committee was a subgroup of the Chicago Federation of Community Committees, which worked with the Illinois Youth Commission, a subgroup of the Illinois Department of Corrections

Series 5. Correspondence, ca. 1949-1975 (box 13-15)

Series 5 contains LCC Consultant Director John T. Harris' correspondence with Committee members, other Lawndale community groups, area schools, corporations, and businesses

Series 6. Volunteer reports, ca. 1949-1975 (box 15)

Series 6 consists of handwritten reports of LCC volunteers who worked at the Fillmore Youth Center on programs and activities. Reports discuss daily activities, attendance, incidents, and other topics

Series 7. Joint Treatment Program materials, ca. 1949-1975 (box 16-17) [closed until 2050]

Series 7 materials include Joint Treatment Program referral cards, Chicago Police Department juvenile complaint cards, visitation reports, parolee lists, and correspondence between Joint Treatment Program staff workers. The Joint Treatment Program was sponsored through a collaborative effort by the Illinois Youth Commission, Chicago Area Project, and the Family Court of Cook County. This program referred juvenile parolees to social workers who would monitor their progress subsequent to their court appearances. Also included are writings and correspondence of Chicago Area Project founder Clifford R. Shaw.

Series 8. Events and activities records, ca. 1949-1975 (box 17-19)

Series 8 contains press releases, newsletters, leaflets, correspondence, publications, attendance lists, and other materials related to sporting, social, and cultural events and activities of the Lawndale community. Topics include local businesses, Bronze Gloves boxing tournaments, the annual Lawndale Art Fair sponsored by Sears Roebuck, Boy Scout and Girl Scout activities, and the movement against the Crosstown Expressway project.

Series 9. Chicago Area Project and Institute for Juvenile Research files, ca. 1949-1975 (box 20)

Series 9 contains correspondence, newsletters, reports, pamphlets, and other materials from the Chicago Area Project. The Chicago Area Project was founded by Clifford R. Shaw to combat juvenile delinquency through neighborhood action and self-help. Also present are correspondence, reports, studies, scholarly articles, and other records produced by the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research, where Shaw was the head of the sociology department

Series 10. Model Cities-Chicago Committee on Urban Opportunity files, ca. 1949-1975 (box 21-22)

Series 10 contains newsletters, publications, correspondence, inter-office memos, meeting minutes, agendas, reports, and other records of the Chicago Committee on Urban Opportunity's Model Cities Program. The program cooperated with the Lawndale Community Committee to provide summer job programs and other opportunities for inner-city youth, such as the Federal Neighborhood Youth Corps program

Series 11. General materials, ca. 1949-1975 (box 22-23)

Series 11 contains essays, scholarly articles, and reports on the issues of juvenile delinquency, inner city poverty, drug abuse, urban renewal, public education, and healthcare

Series 12. Publications, ca. 1949-1975 (box 24-26)

Series 12 contains publications mostly originating from City of Chicago and State of Illinois government agencies and area businesses and corporations. Included are publications and newsletters from the Lawndale General Electric/Hotpoint plant, the Chicago Urban League, and the Chicago YMCA. Also present are general anti-drug publications and educational materials

Detailed list of contents of the collection

Series 1. Administrative records
1949-1975
Box 1
Title
Administrative records, ca. 1949-1975
Box 2
Title
Administrative records, ca. 1949-1975
Box 3
Title
Administrative records, ca. 1949-1975
Series 2. Affiliate organizations files
1949-1975
Box 4
Title
Affiliate organizations files, ca. 1949-1975
Box 5
Title
Affiliate organizations files, ca. 1949-1975
Box 6
Title
Affiliate organizations files, ca. 1949-1975
Box 7
Title
Affiliate organizations files, ca. 1949-1975
Box 8
Title
Affiliate organizations files, ca. 1949-1975
Series 3. Lawndale Executives files
1949-1975
Box 8
Title
Lawndale Executives files, ca. 1949-1975
Box 9
Title
Lawndale Executives files, ca. 1949-1975
Series 4. Youth Commission materials
1949-1975
Box 9
Title
Youth Commission materials, ca. 1949-1975
Box 10
Title
Youth Commission materials, ca. 1949-1975
Box 11
Title
Youth Commission materials, ca. 1949-1975
Box 12
Title
Youth Commission materials, ca. 1949-1975
Series 5. Correspondence
1949-1975
Box 13
Title
Correspondence, ca. 1949-1975
Box 14
Title
Correspondence, ca. 1949-1975
Box 15
Title
Correspondence, ca. 1949-1975
Series 6. Volunteer reports
1949-1975
Box 15
Title
Volunteer reports, ca. 1949-1975
Series 7. Joint Treatment Program materials
1949-1975
Box 16
Title
Joint Treatment Program materials, ca. 1949-1975 [Closed until 2050]
Box 17
Title
Joint Treatment Program materials, ca. 1949-1975 [Closed until 2050]
Series 8. Events and activities records
1949-1975
Box 17
Title
Events and activities records, ca. 1949-1975
Box 18
Title
Events and activities records, ca. 1949-1975
Box 19
Title
Events and activities records, ca. 1949-1975
Series 9. Chicago Area Project and Institute for Juvenile Research files
1949-1975
Box 20
Title
Chicago Area Project and Institute for Juvenile Research files, ca. 1949-1975
Series 10. Model Cities-Chicago Committee on Urban Opportunity files
1949-1975
Box 21
Title
Model Cities-C.C.U.O. files, ca. 1949-1975
Box 22
Title
Model Cities-C.C.U.O. files, ca. 1949-1975
Series 11. General materials
1949-1975
Box 22
Title
General materials, ca. 1949-1975
Box 23
Title
General materials, ca. 1949-1975
Series 12. Publications
1949-1975
Box 24
Title
Publications, ca. 1949-1975
Box 25
Title
Publications, ca. 1949-1975
Box 26
Title
Publications, ca. 1949-1975