Augustus F. Hawkins papers, 1935-1990

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Summary

Creators:
Hawkins, Augustus F
Abstract:
Augustus Freeman Hawkins (1907- ) was a member of the California State Assembly (1935-63) a Democrat in the U.S. Congress (1963-91), Chairman of the Committee on House Administration (1981-84), Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor (98th-101st Congresses), and a member of many Congressional Committees. He retired from public service in 1990. The collection consists of materials documenting Hawkins' service as a U.S. Congressman from 1963-90 and as Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee from 1984-90. A small portion of the collection relates to his service as a California State Assemblyman.
Extent:
137 linear feet (137 cartons) and 1 oversize box
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Augustus F. Hawkins papers (Collection 1642). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of materials documenting Augustus F. Hawkins's lengthy service as a U.S. Congressman representing South Central Los Angeles from 1963-90 and as Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee from 1984-90. A small portion of the collection relates to his service as a California State Assemblyman, 1935-62. Materials in the collection cover subjects such as Civil Rights, employment, child care, and equal opportunity with respect to education and job training.

The papers of Congressman Augustus F. Hawkins include materials documenting his lengthy service as an United States Congressman representing south, central Los Angeles from 1963 to 1990 and as the Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee from 1984 to 1990. A small amount of material relates to his service as a California state Assemblyman from 1935 to 1962.

In the collection are Legislative Files, Subject Files, Correspondence Files, District Office Files, Education and Labor Committee Files, California State Assembly Files, and Miscellaneous Material. The papers cover subjects such as civil rights, employment, equal opportunity, education, job training, and child care. The two series with perhaps the greatest research value are the legislative files since they document Congressman Hawkins' attempts to enact legislation and his Committee service, and the subject files which provide the background information, including his handwritten notes, for many of his legislative efforts.

During the last year, approximately 200 boxes of inactive files of the Washington and district offices and numerous filing cabinets and boxes of Education and Labor Committee staff files were reviewed to determine historical value. Of this total, over 130 boxes were retained for the archives. Duplicates, publications, routine files, and other materials were discarded.

The papers are arranged by series (or type). A minimum amount of arrangement was done within each series. Each type of material is described in a series description (a narrative with accompanying box lists or box and folder lists). Individual folder listings were compiled for most of the series and were taken directly from folder labels. The number in parentheses after a folder listing indicates when more than one folder exists for a particular topic. Since similar materials could not always be packed together, numbered boxes are sometimes listed out of order. Asterisks denote when a box containing more than one type of material appears on the list more than once. Additionally, box counts given at the beginning of each series are not the actual number of boxes in that series but rather a total of the number of boxes containing that type of material. The table of contents below refers researchers to individual series descriptions.

Biographical / historical:

Augustus Freeman Hawkins was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on August 31, 1907; his family moved to Los Angeles in 1918; AB, UCLA, 1931; graduated from USC, 1932; member, California State Assembly, 1935-63; Democrat, U.S. Congress, 1963-91; Chairman, Committee on House Administration, 1981-84; Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor (98th-101st Congresses); member, Joint Economic Committee, 1984-90; member, Joint Committee on Printing, 1977-84; member, Joint Committee on the Library, 1981-84; retired from public service in 1990.

Augustus F. Hawkins was born August 31, 1907, in Shreveport, Louisiana. At age eleven his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he later attended Jefferson High School, graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with a degree in Economics, and attended graduate school at the University of Southern California.

Congressman Hawkins represented south, central Los Angeles for fifty-six years. He served from 1935 to 1962 in the California State Assembly before coming to Washington in 1963 as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He will retire from elected public service at the end of 1990.

He has compiled a remarkable record of legislative achievement. As a State Assemblyman he authored over 100 laws, including many important social welfare and anti-discrimination bills. As a United States Congressman, he has enacted legislation in the areas of child care; elementary, secondary, vocational and higher education; job training and employment; and Civil Rights. Significant bills passed into public law include the Civil Rights Act Amendment establishing the Equal Employment opportunity Commission, 1975; the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act Amendments, 1978; the Full Employment and Balanced Growth (Humphrey-Hawkins) Act, 1978; the Job Training partnership Act, 1982; the School Improvement (Hawkins-Stafford) Act, 1988; and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, 1988.

Prior to his chairmanship of the Education and Labor Committee, Congressman Hawkins served as chairman of the House Administration Committee from 1981 to 1984, where he was responsible for House of Representatives procurement, personnel, printing, elections, and automation issues. Additionally, he served as a member of the Joint Economic Committee from 1984 to 1990, the Joint Committee on Printing from 1977 to 1984, and the Joint Committee on the Library from 1981 to 1984.

Congressman Hawkins' view of public service is best expressed by his own words: The leadership belongs not to the loudest, not to those who beat the drums or blow the trumpets, but to those who day in and day out, in all seasons, work for the practical realization of a better world --those who have the stamina to persist and to remain dedicated. To those belong the leadership.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Augustus F. Hawkins, 1990.
Processing information:

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Legislative files (39 Boxes).
  2. Subject files (31 Boxes).
  3. Correspondence files (10 Boxes).
  4. District office files (39 Boxes).
  5. Education and Labor Committee files (17 Boxes).
  6. California State Assembly files (2 Boxes).
  7. Miscellaneous (11 Boxes).

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Augustus F. Hawkins papers (Collection 1642). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website