Midwest Academy (Chicago, Ill.) records

Descriptive Summary

Title: Midwest Academy (Chicago, Ill.) records
Dates: 1973-1989
Creator: Midwest Academy
Creator: Booth, Heather - Archives , Hudek, Bob , Max, Steve , Washington, Harold, 1922-1987 , Egan, John Joseph , Citizen Action (U.S.) , Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition (U.S.) , Citizen Leadership Foundation (U.S.) , State and Local Leadership Project (U.S.)
Size: 128.25 linear ft. (297 boxes)
Size: sound recordings.
Language: Material is in English unless otherwise noted.

Scope and Content

Board meeting minutes, correspondence, pamphlets and fliers, budgets, grant applications and reports, annual reports, news clippings, news releases, research data and topical files, student files, and training curricula of Midwest Academy, a training school for grass-roots organizers in political action campaigns and community organizing. The collection also includes office files of Citizen Action (U.S.); files of the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition; and files on their affiliated groups and leaders in various states of the U.S.; and smaller amounts of personal files of Heather Booth, founder of the Midwest Academy, relating to her work with SNCC in 1964 in Mississippi, student activist role at the University of Chicago, and early political activist campaigns. Topics discussed in the collection include local and national aspects of environmental concerns, energy policy, community organization and fundraising, empowerment of voters, international affairs, political elections and leaders, labor unions, and women's issues.

Conditions for Access

Boxes 99-113 and 295-297 are closed to researchers. For listening purposes, it is necessary to use a copy, not the original (and to have a listening copy made if one is not available).

Conditions Governing Use

Contact the archives for more information on licensing and permissions for use and reproduction.

Preferred Citation

A common citation for archives is as follows: Item, Folder number and/or title, Box number, Collection title, ID number, Repository name, location.

Acquisition Information

Midwest Academy, 1987/0719, 87.0309, Gift. 108 cartons. Heather Booth, Gift 1990.0784, 12 linear ft., 1980-1989: Office files of Citizen Action director Heather Tobis Booth, consisting of correspondence, memoranda, reports, and various organizational records 1986-1989; along with the papers of Ms. Booth relative to her service as a delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, and other social and political concerns. Plus a small number of political pins, photographs, and audio tape recordings 1980-1989. Booth had been active in Citizens Action Program in Chicago (Ill.) in the 1970s, and founded Citizen Action (U.S.) in 1980 as a national organization. This material was cataloged for about 20 years as the "Heather Booth papers."

Custodial History

Gift of Midwest Academy (1987.0309) and of Heather Booth (1990.0784).

Other Descriptive Data

Heather Booth was born in 1945, Heather Tobis; she married Paul Booth in 1967.

Related Material

Related materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the Action Committee for Decent Childcare records; and materials related to the Citizens Action Program (Chicago, Ill.) of the 1970s and the later organization known as Citizen Action.

Alternate Format Available

Material from box 251 relating to Booth's experiences with SNCC and as a student activist has been digitized by ProQuest and is available to subscribers to the History Vault collection, Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century, Part 2.

Descriptive inventory available online does not include later additions to the collection (beyond box 297).

Indexed Terms

Uncontrolled Related/Analytical Title

Heather Booth papers.

Contents

Collection Access