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Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Administrative and research files of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, 1922-2007 (bulk dates 1965-2006)
787  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Restrictions on Access
  • Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
  • Provenance/Source of Acquisition
  • Preferred Citation
  • Historical Note
  • Scope and Content
  • Organization and Arrangement
  • Items Removed from the Collection
  • UCLA Catalog Record ID

  • Title: Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Administrative and research files of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University
    Record Series number: 787
    Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Language of Material: English
    Physical Description: 161.5 linear ft. (158 record cartons, 1 manuscript box, 1 oversized flat file box)
    Date (inclusive): 1961-2007 (bulk dates 1965-2006)
    Abstract: Files generated by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University (1996-2006) and the profession and research files (1961-2007) of the Civil Rights Project co-founder Gary A. Orfield. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University was established in 1996 by founding co-directors Orfield and Christopher Edley, Jr. as a multi-disciplinary civil rights research organization and think tank. In 2004 Edley resigned and in 2007 Orfield relocated the Project to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). With the 2007 relocation, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard was renamed the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles and Patricia Gandara joined Orfield as co-director.
    Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.
    Creator: Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles (University of California, Los Angeles), 2007-
    Creator: Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, 1996-2006
    Creator: Orfield, Gary A., 1941-

    Restrictions on Access

    Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary 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.

    Provenance/Source of Acquisition

    All materials located in Record Series 787 were acquired from the UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles in November 2008 and from Gary A. Orfield in 2013.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Administrative and research files of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University (University Archives Record Series 787). UCLA Library Special Collections, University Archives, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

    Historical Note

    The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University/CRP was established in 1996 to: 1) conduct scholarly research and analysis in support of U.S. civil rights and 2) produce multidisciplinary research and policies on behalf of academics, policy makers, and civil rights advocates. The Civil Rights Project's founding co-directors were Christopher Edley, Jr. and Gary A. Orfield. In 2004 Christopher Edley, Jr. resigned as the Harvard CRP co-director. In 2007 Gary Orfield and the CRP relocated to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. With the 2007 relocation to UCLA, the Harvard Civil Rights Project was renamed the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles and Patricia Gandara joined Gary Orfield as co-director.
    From 1996-2006 the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University produced and/or commissioned over four hundred research and policy studies covering the topics of school desegregation, student diversity, special education, and college access.
    Prior to co-founding and co-directing the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, Gary Orfield was on the faculty at the University of Virginia (1967-1969), Princeton University (1969-1973), the University of Illinois (1977-1982), the University of Chicago (1982-1991), and Harvard University (1991-2007). Orfield served as a scholar-in-residence at the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (1972-1973), a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution (1972, 1977-1982), and as a consultant for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (1976). Shortly after his arrival at Harvard University in 1991 and prior to the founding of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard, Orfield headed the Harvard University Project on School Desegregation.
    Orfield received his B.A. University of Minnesota (1963), M.A. (Political Science) University of Chicago (1965), and Ph.D. (Political Science) University of Chicago (1968).
    As a political scientist and scholar, Orfield "worked to understand the realities of racial injustice and possible cures... and to create new knowledge and policies that enhance civil rights." [source: PS: Political Science & Politics (2010), 43: 661-670].

    Scope and Content

    UCLA University Archives Record Series 787 contains files of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University/CRP (1996-2006) combined with the professional/research files (1961-2007) of the CRP's founding co-director, Gary Orfield. Material contributed to Record Series 787 by the Harvard Civil Rights Project (CRP) includes: academic and conference papers, press releases, correspondence, administrative files (budgets, funding, and conference preparation), and minutes of staff meetings. Material contributed to Record Series 787 by Gary Orfield includes: correspondence (letters, memos, emails); research files; interviews; questionnaires; published material and other writings authored by Orfield (drafts, conference notes); and presentations, speeches, lectures delivered by Orfield outside of the classroom.
    UCLA University Archives Record Series 787 includes three (3) series:
    • Series 1. Litigation Files, 1922-2005.

      Materials generated by Gary Orfield during his service as either a Special Master or Expert Witness on behalf of the courts; official court documents, including pleadings, and unofficial court-related documents. Pleadings include: applications, motions, evidence, data, orders, judgments, opinions, decisions, settlement agreements, and consent decrees. Official court documents also include: transcripts of testimony given in court, correspondence, reports, and memos of parties to litigation and their representatives. Unofficial court-related documents include: data, correspondence and communications, and work product used to prepare records for the court. Materials located in the Litigation Files (Series 1) and in the Research and Administrative Files (Series 2) reference a variety of court cases, including cases in the areas of school desegregation, public and fair housing, education, voting rights, and equal employment opportunity.

      Note: Series 1 includes photocopies of Litigation Files dating from 1922; original documents date from c.1975-2005.
    • Series 2. Research and Administrative Files, 1922; 1945; 1961-2006.

      Administrative files of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University and material that the CRP, Orfield, and Orfield's associates collected while conducting research on a number of projects, as well as the products of the research. Series 2 provides in-depth and comprehensive documentation on: the desegregate U.S. schools (copies and original documents date from 1955-2006); the desegregation of U.S. housing (copies and original documents date from 1956-2004); and the relationship between the two. Specific subjects include: school district desegregation plans, with a particular emphasis on busing; legislation governing racial integration and desegregation; litigation in jurisdictions across the United States contesting school segregation and the remedies for ending it; controversies generated by school desegregation plans and proposals; education reform; "white flight" and "resegregation;" proposals for the racial integration of neighborhoods; and the impact of immigration on race relations.

      Note: Series 2 includes photocopies dating from 1945; original documents date from 1961-2006.
      • Series 2. Subseries

        Academic Papers (1928; 1970-2006) - Scholarly papers submitted to Orfield for comment; selected student papers; papers that may not pertain to civil rights as such, but were authored by persons whose work frequently appears elsewhere in Record Series 787. Note: academic papers also located in other Series 2 subseries.
      • Affirmative Action (1972-2006) - Notes, correspondence, commentary (academic and otherwise) on affirmative action and on specific cases or instances of affirmative action (i.e. the Bakke case). Material filed with courts, or pertaining directly to specific cases, is filed in Series 1. Litigation Files.
      • Atlanta, Georgia (1968; 1976-1998; 2002) - Material collected by Orfield while researching The Closing Door (1991), and the Metropolitan Opportunity Project's study (mid-1980s) of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Types of material include: reports, data, memos, correspondence, interviews, literature from local civic organizations, and academic papers.

        SEE also subseries: Job Training Partnership Act/JTPA.
      • Baltimore, Maryland (1967-1998) - Newsletters and reports focusing on school desegregation.
      • Boston, Massachusetts (1966; 1975-2005) - Orfield's initial research on Boston's busing controversy began in the early 1970s. His involvement with the desegregation of Boston housing and of Boston schools intensified with his relocation to Harvard University in 1991. Subseries includes: material pertaining to the METCO voluntary desegregation program; busing; HUD's investigation of blockbusting alleged against the Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (B-BURG).
      • California (1967-2003) - Material collected in California, excluding Los Angeles and San Francisco. Subjects include: state education policy, ethnic diversity, and civil rights legislation and policies specific to California.
      • Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina (1974-2001) - Research for Dismantling Desegregation (1996). Includes: newspaper clippings, newsletters, and correspondence documenting local reaction to Orfield's findings.
      • Chicago, Illinois and Metro Chicago (1962-2003) - Orfield lived in Chicago from 1981-1991 and this subseries reflects Orfield's academic work and communnity activity. In addition to serving as the director of the Chicago Fair Housing Alliance the Metropolitan Opportunity Project, Orfield was active in the Chicago Urban League, the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, and conducted research for both groups. Orfield also conducted research for the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. Includes materials on: fair housing, conditions in public housing, school desegregation, housing desegregation lawsuit in Chicago's southern suburbs, and the "Access to Excellence" voluntary desegregation plan.
      • Civil Rights Project at Harvard University/CRP (1990; 1994-2006) - Conference papers, data sets, drafts of published material, grant proposals, staff meeting minutes, and internal correspondence.
      • Cleveland, Ohio (1976-1996) - One half of the material in this subseries concerns housing segregation; the other half concerns school desegregation. Includes: reports, newsletters, and clippings about Cuyahoga Plan of Ohio (fair housing practices), school decentralization, dropouts, and school performance.
      • Denver, Colorado (1971; 1974-1997) - Topics include housing and school desegregation, specifically: passage of the Poundstone Amendment; the Green Valley Ranch housing development; and efforts of developers to implement school and housing desegregation.
      • Diversity/Demography (1965-2006) - Materials in this subseries document the changing racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population. Topics include: racial profiling; race relations; multicultural curriculum; and the Latino population and civil rights concerns specific to it, such as immigration and bilingual education. Includes: publications by racial or ethnic advocacy groups; academic papers and memos regarding demographic change; data sets and tables documenting change nationally or in specific locations.
      • Education (1956; 1965-2006) - This subseries includes topics on: desegregation in schools; resegregation of schools; creation of unitary school districts; creation of magnet schools; public school enrollment statistics broken down by race/ethnicity; financial aid; minority access to higher education; school staff diversity; standardized testing, racial and ethnic gaps in academic performance; school dropouts; special education; and school reform.
      • Housing/Urban Affairs (1945; 1956-2004) - The bulk of this subseries contains material on fair housing advocacy in cities around the United States. Also included: local governments' implementation of or resistance to housing integration; adult education; job training; and urban economic development.
      • Indiana Youth Opportunity Study /IYOS (1988-1999) - The Indiana Youth Opportunity Study (1992-1994) was funded by the Lilly Endowment. Orfield served as the study's director. The study's objective: to determine the readiness of Indiana students for higher education and employment. IYOS researchers gathered data from and about middle and high school students, and the students' parents, throughout Indiana. Data was also gathered on the Indiana labor market and on conditions within Indiana communities. Types of material in the subseries include: data sets; reports; internal memoranda and correspondence regarding the use and collection of data; interview notes by Orfield and other researchers; and questionnaires.
      • Job Training Partnership Act/JTPA (1982-1992) - The Job Training Partnership Act was a federal program designed to help lower-skilled workers enter and remain in the work force. In the mid-1980s, under the aegis of the Metropolitan Opportunity Project, Orfield directed a study of the JTPA's effectiveness in Atlanta (Georgia), Los Angeles (California), and Houston (Texas). Material includes: data sets; reports; internal memos and correspondence; and notes by Orfield and other researchers. SEE ALSO subseries: Atlanta; Los Angeles; Housing/Urban Affairs.
      • Kansas City, Missouri (1971-1995) - Contains material on school desegregation in Kansas City.
      • Los Angeles, California (1965; 1970-2003) - Contains material on education in Los Angeles, including public school desegregation and access to higher education. Also includes: materials on the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA); notes by Orfield on interviews and on community meetings; reports; testimony; data sets; and Orfield's letters to "Mr. Greenstone" (box 142). The "Mr. Greenstone" letters were written in August 1965, during the Los Angeles Watts riot, and include Orfield's personal observations of his movements around Los Angeles. An undated essay, entitled "After Los Angeles" (box 142) - assumed to be written by Orfield - also refers to the Watts riot.
      • Louisville, Kentucky (1971-2003) - This subseries contains materials on the city of Louisville and the Louisville metro area, including all of Jefferson County. Topics include: school and housing desegregation, and the relationship between the two. The subseries contains official reports and newsletters by community groups.
      • Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1985-2000) - Contains material on school desegregation, including: Interdistrict Student Transfer; school choice; and desegregation in the suburb of Sherman Park. There are also materials on housing segregation in the Milwaukee metro area.
      • Minnesota (1971-1999; 2005) - Covering the metropolitan Minneapolis/St Paul area, the topics of this subseries are school desegregation and housing desegregation. Materials include: official reports; studies; and reports by Myron Orfield, a Minnesota-based attorney, academic, legislator, and brother of Gary Orfield.
      • Montgomery County, Maryland (1975-1995) - Data, newsletters, interviews, reports, and correspondence related to school choice and school integration.
      • Native Americans (1961-1965; 1971-1989) - Topics include conditions on Native American reservations and the social problems associated with Native Americans, with a focus on the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin as it tries to regain Federal recognition of its tribal status after recognition was terminated in the 1960s. Materials include: official reports; publications by Native American activist groups; and reports, co-authored by Orfield in 1961 and 1962, about the National Students' Association project to document conditions on Native American reservations.
      • No Child Left Behind/NCLB (1996-2006) - Contains research by Orfield and by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University to determine the effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind program instituted in 2001. The purpose of NCLB was to aid disadvantaged students and to measure educational progress through standardized testing. Types of material include: data sets; questionnaires from teachers in Fresno (CA) and Richmond (VA); clippings from local and national press; academic papers examining the program; notes by Orfield and other investigators; internal memos and correspondence regarding the data, its collection, its use, and the CRP study in general; interview notes; and press releases of CRP events and findings.
      • Norfolk, Virginia (1955-ca.1996) - Contains material on the resegregation of the Norfolk school system, and on the city's school system in general. Additional topics include: school discipline; school funding; and test scores.
      • Pennsylvania (1975-1996) -- This subseries contains material on all levels of education and includes: standardized testing; access to higher education; job training; and local conditions within the Philadelphia school system.
      • Prince Georges County, Maryland (1972-1994) - Material in this subseries relates to the transition by Prince Georges County from a court-ordered school desegregation busing program to the establishment of magnet schools as a mechanism for promoting school desegregation. Includes correspondence between Orfield and local officials disputing the findings in Orfield's reports: "Dismantling Desegregation" and "Still Separate, Still Unequal: the Limits of Milliken II's Educational Compensation Remedies."
      • Seattle, Washington (1964; 1976-1982; 1993-1996) - Contains materials on school desegregation and housing desegregation including official reports by the school district and by the housing authority, and Orfield's notes of a speech he gave to the education committee of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
      • St. Louis, Missouri (1955; 1972-1995) - Topics include: school desegregation, housing desegregation; public housing; school choice; and busing. Materials include: official reports; notes and memos by Orfield and others.
    • Series 3. Publications and Correspondence Files, 1960-2007.

      Includes: publications by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, publications authored by Gary Orfield, selected publications on topics related to U.S. civil rights, correspondence to/from Gary Orfield, and selected third-party correspondence. The files contain: drafts; research files for specific publications; reports by agencies at all levels of government; reports by research institutions; reports and newsletters from civil rights advocacy groups; selected academic papers by Orfield's graduate students and other scholars; transcripts of testimony before legislative bodies and other official bodies; press releases; selected clippings; notes by Orfield (handwritten and typed); and correspondence. Subjects include: Orfield's years as a Scholar-in-Residence at the United States Commission on Civil Rights /USCCR (1972-1973); Orfield's work with the Department of Health Education and Welfare's Office of Civil Rights/OCR during his tenure at USCCR (1972-1973); material pertaining to projects that Orfield directed or conducted under the aegis of the Metropolitan Opportunity Project/MOP (1985-1991).
    Abbreviations and Initialisms

    Materials located in Record Series 787 include the following abbreviations and initialisms:
    • ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union
    • B-BURG - Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group
    • CRP - Civil Rights Project at Harvard University
    • GI Forum - [a Latino veterans group]
    • HUD - Housing and Urban Development [U.S. federal agency]
    • IYOS - Indiana Youth Opportunity Study
    • JTPA - Job Training Partnership Act
    • KCMSD - Kansas City, Missouri School District
    • LASMC - Los Angeles [California] School Monitoring Committee
    • LAUSD - Los Angeles [California] Unified School District
    • LULAC - League of United Latin American Citizens
    • METCO - Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity [Boston, Massachusetts]
    • MOP - Metropolitan Opportunity Project [Atlanta, Georgia]
    • NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
    • NCLB - No Child Left Behind
    • OCR - Office of Civil Rights (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare)
    • SFNAACP - San Francisco [California] National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
    • SJUSD - San Jose [California] Unified School District
    • USCCR - United States Civil Rights Commission
    • USD - Unified School District

    Organization and Arrangement

    NOTE: At the time of acquisition, portions of Record Series 787 had no discernible organization. As a result, the physical arrangement and description of the files were determined by the archival processors. To the extent possible, the contents of the files created by the archival processors reflect the functions and organization of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard and/or the research and professional activities of Gary Orfield.
    Information located within a bracket [ ] indicates that the information is provided by the archival processor, based on the contents of the folder and/or information located within the record series.
    Record Series 787 is arranged into three (3) series:
    • Series 1. Litigation Files, 1922-2005.

      50 boxes (50 linear ft.)

      Materials related to civil rights litigation, including Special Master research litigation files and Expert Witness research litigation files.

      The Litigation Files are organized alphabetically by the commonly known court case name. The file titles consist of the name of the first named plaintiff (person or group) versus the first named defendant (person or group). All related cases, including cases that are appealed, are assigned the same file name. For example, a case that began as Smith v. Jones retains that folder title even when the official name of the case changes to Jones v. Smith under appeal. [Note: when cases are appealed, plaintiff and defendant names are reversed.]

      Examples of the case names and case name formats are:
      • Jenkins v. KCMSD -- Long range magnet school plan
      • Liddell v. Board of Education of the City of St. Louis (Missouri) -- Board of Education hearing request
      • United States v. Board of School Commissioners of the City of Indianapolis -- Dare declaration
    • Series 2. Research and Administrative Files, 1922; 1945; 1961-2006.

      81 boxes (81 linear feet)

      Administrative files of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University; comprehensive research files relating to a variety of civil rights topics including in-depth coverage of U.S. school desegregation.

      As was previously mentioned, portions of Record Series 787 had no discernible organization. This was especially true for the materials located in Series 2, in that the identification, organization, and arrangement of Series 2 was determined by the archival processor, Richard Fraser.

      Whenever possible, multiple types of materials found within a single file folder are kept together. For example, a given folder will contain a government report which provides research data, a draft of a paper based upon the contents of the government report, and letters/memos regarding edits to the draft paper.

      FOLDER TITLES used in Series 2:

      When possible, original folder titles are retained; the original title appears in the Container List of the finding aid within single quotation marks (' '). Original folder titles, punctuation and abbreviations are transcribed directly. Alternatively, retaining original folder titles is not always practical. In such cases, a title, or elements of a title, are supplied by the processor, often accompanied by clarifications or expansions of the original title. As a result, most folder titles will identify the creator of the material (if known), the subject of the material, and the types of material in the folder.

      Folder title elements are separated by double dashes ( - - ). In cases where a folder contains item(s) having formal title(s) and author(s), the names of the author(s) are listed (Last, First), then the formal title of the item, as the following example demonstrates:

      Box 124 Affirmative Action -- "Working and Learning Together" -- Report of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights 1996 October

      The use of the genre term "Papers" in Series 2 refers to scholarly papers.
    • Series 2 - Arrangement of subseries

      NOTE: The material located within Series 2 is further divided into an alphabetical arrangement of subseries, based on geographical location or topic, as a means of classifying the materials and to assure that related materials are, to the extent possible, housed in close proximity to one another.

      The following subseries headings are used in Series 2:
      • Academic Papers (1928; 1970-2006)
      • Affirmative Action (1972-2006)
      • Atlanta, Georgia (1968; 1976-1998; 2002)
      • Baltimore, Maryland (1967-1998)
      • Boston, Massachusetts (1966; 1975-2005)
      • California (1967-2003)
      • Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina (1974-2001)
      • Chicago, Illinois and Metro Chicago (1962-2003)
      • Civil Rights Project at Harvard University/CRP (1990; 1994-2006)
      • Cleveland, Ohio (1976-1996)
      • Denver, Colorado (1971; 1974-1997)
      • Diversity/Demography (1965-2006)
      • Education (1956; 1965-2006).
      • Housing/Urban Affairs (1945; 1956-2004)
      • Indiana Youth Opportunity Study /IYOS (1988-1999)
      • Job Training Partnership Act/JTPA (1982-1992)
      • Kansas City, Missouri (1971-1995)
      • Los Angeles, California (1965; 1970-2003)
      • Louisville, Kentucky (1971-2003)
      • Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1985-2000)
      • Minnesota (1971-1999; 2005)
      • Montgomery County, Maryland (1975-1995)
      • Native Americans (1961-1965; 1971-1989)
      • No Child Left Behind/NCLB (1996-2006)
      • Norfolk, Virginia (1955-ca.1996)
      • Pennsylvania (1975-1996)
      • Prince Georges County, Maryland (1972-1994)
      • Seattle, Washington (1964; 1976-1982; 1993-1996)
      • St. Louis, Missouri (1955; 1972-1995)


      Note: subseries designations do not imply significance, value, or original use of the materials by either the CRP or by Orfield. Nor does the placement of material in a subseries indicate the attribution by the processors of any final or definitive meaning to the material. Material placed in Series 2 was labeled and arranged so it could easily be identified and retrieved, not to assign it a specific value or to identify for it any specific function.
    • Series 3. Publications and Correspondence Files, 1960-2007.

      31 boxes (30.5 linear ft.)

      Publications by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, publications authored by Gary Orfield, selected publications on topics related to U.S. civil rights, correspondence to/from Gary Orfield, and selected third-party correspondence. Similar types of materials are grouped together and, in most cases, arrangement is chronological within each Series 3 box.

    Items Removed from the Collection

    Examples of material removed from Record Series 787 include:
    • - newspaper clippings from nationally distributed publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, and the Washington Post
    • - detailed financial reports and administrative personnel files generated by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University
    • - course materials and graded student papers
    • - out-of-scope publications (not about civil rights)

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 6869059 

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Harvard University. Civil Rights Project at Harvard University -- Archives
    Harvard University. Project on School Desegregation -- Archives
    Orfield, Gary A. (1941- ) -- Archives