Faith Rich Papers

Rich's membership with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began around 1945 and lasted until her death in 1990. She served the organization in a variety of roles, such as on the Education Committee that she chaired at various times over the years, most notably from 1956-1957 when her landmark study, De Facto Segregation in Chicago Public Schools (Box 8, Folder 14), was released. Other highlights include her contributions to the Textbook Committee who researched and proposed revisions in school textbooks in 1946-1947 to remove bias and better reflect contributions made by African Americans, Catholics, Jews and other groups as well as her work on the NAACP bookmobile, organizing Illinois State Conferences and the housing and labor committees.

The meeting materials include a range of agendas, bulletins, correspondence, flyers, handwritten notes, meeting minutes, research and reports.

Subseries B: Civil Rights, Community Services and Labor brings together Rich's files of her work with several community groups that worked on civil rights and labor actions such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI) and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, (ILGWU). Early in her career, Rich realized that Chicago's political wards played a role in where and how social issues, particularly related to de facto segregation were or could be addressed in Chicago. In 1948, Rich and her husband, Ted, compiled a Political Directory of Chicago and Illinois. A copy of this publication is included in Subseries B.

Most of Rich's CORE files were deposited at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library and Archives, Madison, Wisconsin in 1971 by Professor August Meier. The CORE files found in this collection of papers primarily concern a portion of her work with the Schools Committee in the early 1960s. Specifically, there is some documentation of Operation IN (Integration Now), a CORE statement at a schools budget meeting and opposition to Superintendent Benjamin Willis, along with a few letters expressing opposition to her efforts.

Subseries B also contains files on her work with the people with disabilities, libraries, parks, peace groups and political organizations.

Rich was a lifelong advocate of equal access to quality education and schools. This subseries brings together all of the educational organizations outside of the NAACP and CORE that Rich worked with over the years. These meeting materials and reports document her service with George W. Collins High School's Local School Council, as a board member of the Literacy Council of Chicago and as a volunteer for Educable Mentally Handicapped (EMH) Coalition and the Citizens Schools Committee. The Education subseries also includes her research on efforts to improve student reading capabilities through the use of phonics and other teaching innovations, along with publications that document Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) procedures.

Researchers should also consult Subseries A for Rich's NAACP Education Committee work and Subseries B for her CORE Schools Committee integration work and Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI) for school district studies.

Faith Rich's activism included her West Side Chicago neighborhood of North Lawndale where she resided for 37 years, first at 1500 S. Karlov Avenue from 1953-1959 and later at 1516 S. Albany Avenue from 1959 until her death in 1990. During these years, North Lawndale went from being a neighborhood with a high concentration of Russian Jews to a predominantly African American community whose members found few employment opportunities with neighborhood industries. As a consequence, North Lawndale's new population struggled with poverty, overcrowding and a lack of new housing. These circumstances created tension with the white workers who commuted from other parts of the city or suburbs to work at neighborhood businesses and industries. The racial discrimination behind these circumstances was among the reasons Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. chose North Lawndale as a base for his northern civil rights campaign, also known as the Chicago Freedom Movement. North Lawndale changed little as a result of Dr. King's stay and most businesses closed or relocated after the riots that followed his assassination in 1968. The community-based organizations he inspired, such as the Lawndale Peoples' Planning & Action Conference and the Pyramidwest Development Corporation, failed in their revitalizing mission. Conference materials and a report from these groups, respectively, were among Rich's files. Subseries E contains Chicago's Department of Urban Renewal plans for the Douglas Park and Lawndale communities along with other reports and studies of the area.

As a white activist in her North Lawndale community on Chicago's West Side, Rich spent decades advocating for equitable and desegregated neighborhood services that included schools, housing, economic development opportunities and city services such as libraries and parks. As with other initiatives by Rich, she worked both with local organizations, such as the 15th Place Block Club (part of the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission, GLCC) and independently as a researcher and advocate. The bulk of this subseries documents block club activities such as baseball leagues, community gardens, forums for neighborhood complaints, reading programs, support for local school programs and vacant lot clean-up. Lists of land parcels, ward maps, correspondence and studies provide additional insight into Rich's research interests.

Researchers should also consult the Rich's research library of urban renewal publications in Subseries E and the NAACP files in Subseries A for meeting materials and other files on housing and labor, including the report from circa 1953 on job opportunities.

Faith Rich kept an extensive library of publications, studies, reports and articles related to urban development plans in Chicago along with a small number of studies on comparative cities. The bulk of these publications was created by a handful of City or civic organizations, although private studies or corporate entities often authored and participated in neighborhood plans or attempted to influence the direction of renewal projects. Some of these publications are accompanied by maps or photographs. A number of the planning organizations and City departments included in Rich's library changed names and/or evolved into new divisions over the years.

The Chicago Plan Commission was established in 1909 to promote and implement the Plan of Chicago, also referred to as the Burnham Plan. In 1939, the Commission was reorganized as a part of City government. The Commission continues to be staffed by the City of Chicago's Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning and reviews proposals of land acquisitions, sales and developments.

Chicago's Department of Urban Renewal (DUR) was created through the combination of the Chicago Land Clearance Commission and the Community Conservation Board in 1962. This merger was the result of the State of Illinois Urban Renewal Consolidation Act of 1961, which required municipalities to create departments of urban renewal to manage projects and funding related to land clearance and redevelopment.

The topics covered in Rich's library include demographics, environmental conditions, historic preservation, housing, land clearance, neighborhood redevelopment, relocation for businesses and residents, transportation planning and zoning. Some of these publications use the terms "blight" and "slum clearance." Urban renewal plans for numerous Chicago neighborhoods are represented.

This subseries contains genealogical notes and legal documents, such as indentures and mortgages, for the Rich and Varney families in the areas of Burlington, Vermont, and East Avon, New York, along with correspondence that dates from the 1820s through 1970. Ted's ancestral lines include the Cole, Milliman, Smith, Varney and Rich families.

The bulk of the family letters include those written by or to Ted's parents, Dr. Frank A. and Anna Rich; as well as his siblings, Ethelinda, Frank, Lucy, Ramon and Robert. A selection of the letters have detailed inventories with contextual and biographical notes about the correspondents that were made by Chicago Public Library staff and Ted Rich around the time the collection was donated in 1993. Folders with letters and documents for Ted's parents that were found grouped together have been retained in this fashion. However, additional correspondence to and from Anna and Frank can be found in the Rich Family letters.

More information about the Rich-Varney family lines can be found in the book, Around the Mountains: Historical Essays about Charlotte, Ferrisburgh, and Monkton, by William Wallace Higbee. (F49.5.H54 1991)

Subseries A also contains a selection of Ted's personal and academic writings, including his WPA research on Chicago packinghouses, poetry and a scholarly article. His Civil Service Translator ratings in French, German, Italian and Spanish are also in this subseries.

This subseries consists of photographs, including tin types, ambrotypes and cyanotypes, of Ted Rich's ancestral families.