Finding Aid to the Edward Howden Papers,
1905-2017
(bulk 1944-1985),
SFH 731
Finding aid prepared by Tami J. Suzuki.
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
sfhistory@sfpl.org
July 28, 2023
Title: Edward Howden Papers
Date (inclusive): 1905-2017
Date (bulk): 1944-1985
Identifier/Call Number: SFH 731
Creator:
Howden, Edward W. (Edward Watson), 1918-2018
Physical Description:
4 cartons, 2 manuscripts boxes, 2 flat boxes, 1 oversized flat box
(6.5 cubic feet)
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Abstract: Collection documents Edward Howden's lifelong efforts to fight bias and end discrimination in employment, housing, and other
matters by working for what he preferred to call human rights.
Physical Location: The collection is stored on site.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English.
Access
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Edward Howden Papers, (SFH 731), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Provenance
Donated by Edward W. Howden in 2013, with additional gifts made in each successive year through 2017.
Existence and Location of Originals
Edward Howden: Ed Howden and the Rise of Civil Rights Advocacy in Governmental Institutions
conducted by Martin Meeker in 2016-2017, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2017.
Related Materials
Ed Howden Oral History by Michael Semler conducted May 25, 2010.
Oral history on Howden's work with the U.S. Community Relations Service conducted July 12, 1999 by the University of Colorado,
Boulder:
The Civil Rights Mediation Oral History Project; see https://www.civilrightsmediation.org/interviews/Edward_Howden.shtml.
The Color of America Has Changed, How Racial Diversity Shaped Civil Rights Reform in California, 1941-1978,
Brilliant, Mark, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Cottrell Laurence Dellums Papers, BANC MSS 72/132 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley.
Charles J. Patterson,
Working for Civic Unity in Government, Business, and Philanthropy,
an oral history conducted in 1991 by Gabrielle Morris, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley, 1994.
William Byron Rumford Papers, BANC MSS 73/112 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Tarea Hall Pittman Papers, BANC MSS 75/56 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley.
Catherine Bauer Wurster papers, BANC MSS 74/163c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
California Federation for Civic Unity Records, BANC MSS C-A 274, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley.
Records of the Community Relations Service, Significant Case Files, 1974-1994, Record Group 379, National Archives.
Processing Information
Processed by Tami J. Suzuki in 2023.
Biographical and Historical Notes
Edward Watson Howden articulated fair employment and fair housing laws, and non-discrimination and desegregation policies
throughout his professional life. He was born in 1918 in Oakland, CA to Robert Howden, Jr. and Grace Brady Howden. He and
his sisters, Jean and Elizabeth, were raised during the Depression years. Their grandfather, Robert Howden, Sr., immigrated
from Galashiels, Scotland in 1882 and eventually founded Howden Tile in Oakland.
Howden attended University High School in Oakland. With fellow seniors Paul Chown and Wyman Hicks, he published
Cub Commentator,
a mimeographed newspaper, in the Howden basement. He also created a discussion group of students interested in exploring issues
and problems.
While a student at the University of California, Berkeley, he created and moderated "Town Hall of the Lawns," a lunchtime
forum on current issues. He was also editor of a campus literary magazine and served as vice president of Stiles Hall, the
university YMCA. Howden was selected to represent UC Berkeley in the annual Rhodes Scholarship competition in 1938. However,
the program was suspended during World War II. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1942.
As executive director of the California Housing Association, he testified on "California's Housing Needs" to the Tolan Committee
on Interstate Migration (in 1940).
Howden attended Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1942 to 1944 but was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army. He
served with the Quartermaster Technical Training Service, leaving in 1946.
He then began working as executive director of the San Francisco Council for Civic Unity, a multiracial human rights organization
focused on non-discrimination, desegregation, equal housing and employment laws and public policy. At the time, there were
not state or federal law prohibiting discrimination in redevelopment programs or private employment. With the council, he
co-authored
A Civil Rights Inventory of San Francisco
(with Irving Babow) in 1958. In
The Postwar Struggle for Civil Rights, African Americans in San Francisco, 1945-1975,
Paul T. Miller called the
Civil Rights Inventory
"the most comprehensive study on African American concerns since the 1944 survey,
The Negro War Worker in San Francisco"
(by Charles S. Johnson, et. al.). Howden and others worked from 1949 to 1957 to establish the San Francisco Fair Employment
Practice ordinance.
He left CCU in 1958 to lead the San Francisco Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, the first such agency in the state.
There, he worked to settle disputes through dialogue, conference, and conciliation. Howden actively participated in the successful
campaigns for the California Fair Employment Practice Commission and the state's Fair Housing Law.
In 1959, Gov. Edmund G. Brown appointed Howden as chief of the newly-created Division of Fair Employment Practices in the
Department of Industrial Relations, where he administered the state's first FEPC law. He resigned in 1967 upon the election
of Gov. Ronald Reagan.
Howden's last job was as director and senior conciliation specialist with the federal Community Relations Service, Western
region. He was the first director for the four-state region. With CRS, he worked to resolve racial and ethnic-based conflicts
until his retirement in 1986. Among matters concerning tribal peoples, Howden worked to maintain open lines of communication
and to reduce the level of tension and violence between the American Indian Movement and local, state and federal law enforcement
agencies during the protracted armed standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973. In his retirement, he was active in
battles over certain major measures affecting housing discrimination and affirmative action.
His first marriage was to Marion Beers, with whom he had a son, Michael. The marriage ended in divorce. Howden married Anne
Saito, with whom he shared a son, Jonathan. Anne was also a human rights activist, working for many social and political causes.
The Howdens enjoyed time in the High Sierra and in the log cabin that Ed built in Gualala, CA. Howden died in 2018.
In a September 4, 2015 conversation with Tami Suzuki of the San Francisco Public Library, Howden reflected: "I feel that I've
done some useful work, contributed solutions to problems in many ways. On the other hand I constantly feel admiration for
the remarkable work of others. I am quite humbled by the work of many on behalf of the poor, those who are ill, for social
justice in the face of terrible tragedies that beset the world. I take some comfort in their fine work."
Scope and Contents
The collection documents Edward Howden's lifelong efforts to fight bias and end discrimination in employment, housing, and
other matters by working for what he preferred to call human rights. The papers cover his employment with the California Housing
Association, San Francisco Council for Civic Unity, San Francisco Commission on Fair Employment Practices, California Fair
Employment Practices Commission, and U.S. Community Relations Service.
Materials include essays, speeches and testimony, newsletters and brochures, radio program scripts, memoranda, newspaper clippings
and files on discriminatory housing (in San Francisco) and employment (in California) matters, the 1963 Los Angeles riots,
and 1964's California Proposition 14, which struck down the Rumford Housing Act. Howden's years-long struggles, locally and
statewide, for basic legislation around desegregation to dismantle restrictive housing covenants, the San Francisco Housing
Authority's "neighborhood pattern" policy, and realtors' "block buster" tactics; and lengthy campaigns for fair employment
as well as fair housing laws are covered. Also documents efforts to pass the San Francisco Fair Employment Ordinance and to
create the state FEPC. Mediation files from Howden's work with the U.S. Community Relations Service are included.
Of note is a dossier rebutting disloyalty charges brought by the U.S. Army in 1950 against Edward and Marion Howden. The charges
were successfully disproven.
Howden annotated some of the documents, from 2015 to 2017.
Organization
Organized into eight series: Series 1: Professional Associations and Activities; Series 2: California Housing Association/California
Housing and Planning Association; Series 3: San Francisco Council for Civic Unity; Series 4: San Francisco Commission on Equal
Employment Opportunity/Fair Employment Practices Commission; Series 5: California Fair Employment Practices Commission; Series
6: U.S. Community Relations Service; Series 7: Post-professional Activities; and Series 8: Personal. Series 2 through 6 document
Howden's employment.
Arrangement
Arranged mainly chronologically, with some series organized alphabetically.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Howden, Edward W.(Edward Watson), 1918-2018 -- Archives.
Civil rights -- California -- San Francisco.
Discrimination in employment -- California -- San Francisco.
Discrimination in housing -- California -- San Francisco.
Dispute resolution (Law) -- California -- San Francisco.
Human rights advocacy -- California -- San Francisco
Mediation -- California -- San Francisco.
Minorities -- Civil rights -- California -- San Francisco.
Minorities -- Employment -- California -- San Francisco.
Minorities -- Housing -- California -- San Francisco.
Race discrimination -- California -- San Francisco.
Series 1
Professional Associations and Activities,
1940-2017
Scope and Contents
Contains Howden's life sketch, resumes and work commendations, as well as human rights documents that were outside his work
duties, and items relating to professional associates and/or close friends. Notably contains a dossier rebutting a disloyalty
charge brought by the U.S. Army in 1951. Howden was cleared of the charge.
Includes some materials of his involvement with the National Association of Intergroup Relations, later known as the National
Association of Human Rights Workers. Howden served as president, vice president, western regional chairperson, and board member,
and was a national conference keynote speaker. A few documents of the San Francisco chapter of the Americans for Democratic
Action are included; Howden helped organize the local chapter.
In his end paper, he wrote of joy and gratitute to his father who had a great love of nature and frequently took the family
on camping trips to the Sierra. Ed noted that his father's "racist abstract tendencies dissolved into love and labors of helpfulness."
He also expressed appreciation to his mother, "whose warm and generous caring for all people was never fettered by any touch
of bias."
Arrangement
Biographical material is followed by other materials in chronological order.
Biographical,
1945-2017
Note
The Commendations file includes a thank you letter from outgoing Gov. Edmund Brown for his effective work as the first chief
of the Division of Fair Employment Practices. A congratulatory letter from John Anson Ford (upon receiving the James P. Mitchell
Award of the Catholic Interracial Council) closes: "All hail to Ed and to Ann. The world is better because they are here."
Box 7, Folder 1
Ed Howden and the Rise of Civil Rights Advocacy in
Governmental Institutions
Oral History, with Martin Meeker, Bancroft Library,
2017
Note
Howden provided errata and an addendum with his copy of the oral history. These notes are not included in the original transcript
which is digitized.
Existence and Location of Originals
See digitized copy of the published interview transcript at https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/howden_ed_2017.pdf.
Box 1
Obituary and Life Sketch, Retrospective Notes, and End Paper,
March 15, 2016
Box 1
San Francisco Housing Association,
1940
Physical Description:
1 folder
Note
Howden served as executive secretary of the civic organization, founded by Alice Griffith, that challenged the construction
of new slum dwellings and unplanned neighborhoods. Howden's Dec. 9, 1940 guest column in the
San Francisco Chronicle,
"In the Districts," described the group's efforts toward better housing for those living in substandard quarters and for intelligent
city planning.
Box 2
Newspaper Clippings on Race Matters
1944-1968
Note
Topics in the first scrapbook include the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the west coast, wartime incarceration,
and subsequent return; Jim Crow laws, the right to fair employment, and the future of African Americans with slowing of the
war production program; efforts to make the federal Fair Employment Practices Commission permanent; and the creation of a
California Fair Employment Practices Commission. The second volume includes fair employment practices legislative efforts
for the state of California as well as for some cities; racial housing covenants, and bias against African Americans, then
referred to as Negroes.
Folder 3
African Americans,
1949-1968
Box 1
Stiles Hall/Harry Kingman Article,
1948
Box 1
American Veterans Committee Membership Card,
1950
Box 1
Waring, Waties, U.S. District Judge, Correspondence,
1950
Box 1
Ed Howden and Marion Beers Howden's loyalty response dossier (combined; two sets),
1951-1953
Scope and Contents
The federal government alleged that from 1945 to 1947, Howden was a key official in an organization which must have referred
to the Council for Civic Unity; that the organization allowed Communist infiltration; and that Howden followed the Communist
Party line in this leadership role; and in 1950, was "an active, loyal member of the Communist Party." Howden noted that since
leaving college, he was working in housing and intergroup relations. In preparing his defense, he wrote to close associates,
"Is it possible still today for an American to be a militant liberal—as I hope I am—and yet be officially adjudged loyal to
his country?"
The July 3, 1951 letter from C.A. Beall, Jr., Adjutant General, bringing the allegations is included. Howden's rebuttal noted
he was frequently a spokesman against pro-Communist proposals and was regarded by left-wing members of the American Veterans
Committee, of which he was a member, as an opponent and target. One of his supporters noted in Howden's rebuttal documents
that Howden was responsible for ridding the CCU of Communist or pro-Communist members and staff. His then-wife, Marion Beers
Howden, was also charged with disloyalty. She worked in housing matters, for the federal government, concerned with low-rent
public housing; and as a member of Mayor Roger Lapham's Emergency Housing Committee; and was active with the women's division
of the Democratic Party. Included in Edward Howden's rebuttal is Marion's statement disavowing any Communist Party affiliation
nor disloyalty to the country, as well as a letter of support from Mrs. Charles B. Porter, a prominent Democratic official.
The June 3, 1953 letter from William E. Bergin, Adjutant General, clearing Edward Howden is also included.
Box 1
Americans for Democratic Action,
1948-1951
Box 1
National Association of Intergroup Relations (NAIRO)/National Association of Human Rights Workers (NAHRW),
1948-1976
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 1
Francois, Terry: Recommendation to Municipal Bench,
1961
Box 1
Housing Discrimination,
1969-1975
Series 2
California Housing Association/California Housing and Planning Association,
1940-1942
Note
Howden was executive director of the housing organization which promoted low-income and public housing. While an undergraduate
student at UC Berkeley, he took a graduate seminar on housing policy with Catherine Bauer, leading to the job with this agency.
Includes Howden's testimony on the state's housing situation before the Tolan Committee on Interstate Migration, and some
newsletters.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Related Materials
See also the Catherine Bauer Wurster Papers, BANC MSS 74/163, at the Bancroft Library.
Box 1
"California's Housing Needs," Statement to Tolan Committee on Interstate Migration,
1940
Series 3
San Francisco Council for Civic Unity,
1944-1959
Historical Note
The San Francisco Council for Civic Unity formed in late 1944, "to promote civic unity, thus precluding the serious consequences
of strife, bigotry, and prejudice," as noted by Daniel E. Koshland in his support letter included in Howden's refutation of
the government's disloyalty charges against Howden (found in Series 1). CCU was formed at the peak of World War II to seek
correction of the community sources of interracial tensions. Initial financing came from San Francisco foundations, Columbia
and Rosenberg.
Ed Howden became executive director of the council in January of 1946. CCU was a bipartisan, multiracial, membership organization
that played a significant role on issues including public housing segregation, urban redevelopment nondiscrimination policy,
equal employment opportunity, hospital practice, and restrictions in private housing while carrying on an education program
on these and related issues. Howden produced the television series,
Barrier
and radio program,
Dateline Freedom. Dateline
ran for six years on KCBS and had a wide listenership, sometimes reaching far-flung parts of the country. With Irving Babow,
Howden co-authored
A Civil Rights Inventory of San Francisco.
Howden and the council worked with the San Francisco Committee for Equal Job Opportunity to establish San Francisco's Fair
Employment Practice ordinance. Passed in 1957, this was the first such ordinance in California. Howden left CCU in September
of 1958 to lead the newly-created San Francisco Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity.
Scope and Contents
Contains constitution and By-laws, minutes, newsletters, speeches, testimony on fair employment practices, radio program
(Dateline Freedom) scripts, and news clippings. Includes files on discrimation issues including the housing matters of Sing Sheng and Willie
Mays, the Bay View residential covenant, and papers refuting the subversive labeling of CCU by the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs. (The V.A. later withdrew the charge.) Also documents efforts to pass a fair employment practices ordinance in the
city, including a major speech by then-city Supervisor J Eugene McAteer (in 1957; in folder 1/28).
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically. Cases and Discrimination Matters are organized chronologically.
Executive Committee Minutes
Box 1
Candidates Questionnaires,
1950-1951
Box 1
Cases and Discrimination Matters,
1946-1958
Bay View Residential Covenant,
1946
Housing Authority
1946-1959
California Fair Employment Practices Commission Efforts,
1946-1957
California Proposition 14: Housing Initiative,
1948
Redevelopment Agency,
1949
San Francisco Fair Employment Practices Commission Efforts
1949-1957
Testimony Before Board of Supervisors,
1951
Testimony Before Board of Supervisors,
1957
California Proposition 10: Public Housing,
1950
Sing Sheng Housing Matter
1952
Property Values and Minorities,
1952
Restaurant Discrimination,
1955
Tuberculosis and Race Data
1955
Veterans Affairs Disloyalty Charge,
1954
Stanford University,
1957
Redevelopment Agency Appointment,
1956
NAACP: Johnson House,
1957
Little Rock, AR High School,
1957-1958
Fair Housing Ordinance,
1958
Civil Rights Resolution,
no date
Box 1
Director's Activity Reports,
1951-1958
Box 1
Health Committee Report,
1947
Box 1
Housing Opportunities Program,
1959
Box 1
Program Evaluation Committee
Publications and Broadcast Programs,
1946-1958
Box 1
Race Relations Reading List,
1951
Box 1
Among These Rights… Newsletter,
1946-1958
Box 1
Dateline Freedom
Radio Program Scripts,
1952-1953, 1954
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 3
Dateline Freedom
Radio Program Scripts,
1955-1957
Box 3
Dateline Freedom
Guest: Eleanor Roosevelt,
1958
Restriction
Includes a photograph. Gloves required.
Box 3
Barrier
Television Program,
1956
Box 3
Walls of Prejudice
Television Series,
[1957 or 1958]
Box 3
A Civil Rights Inventory of San Francisco,
1954-1959
Physical Description:
2 folders
Existence and Location of Copies
A digitized copy is available at https://archive.org/details/civilrightsinven01babo/page/n5/mode/2up.
Correspondence and Reviews,
1954-1959
Box 3
Photographs
Restriction
Gloves required.
Box 3
Reference Material
Physical Description:
4 folders
California Federation for Civic Unity,
1949-1953
Race Relations Research Trends Report,
[1955 or later]
Box 3
Speeches by Howden
1946-1958
Physical Description:
5 folders
Minority Housing Testimony Before Congress,
1947
School Desegregation,
1958
Civil Rights Legislation, (partial),
no date
Equal Employment Opportunity,
no date
"A Living Thing," Walter Huston,
1945
Employment Discrimination Testimony to Board of Supervisors, D. Donald Glover,
1949
"Requirements of Home-Front Unity," Judge Raymond E. Peters,
1951
"Who is My Neighbor," Rev. John R. Bodo,
1957
McCarran-Walter Act, Philip S. Perlman and Julius Edelstein,
1957
School Desegregation, Roy Wilkins and Warren Olney III,
1957
"Civil Rights and Foreign Policy: A Reporter's Perspective," Edward P. Morgan,
1958
Box 3
Series 4
San Francisco Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity/Fair Employment Practices Commission,
1958-1959
Physical Description:
4 folders
Related Materials
See also published text of the San Francisco Fair Employment Practices Ordinance, 1957: http://sflib1.sfpl.org/record=b1847330~S1.
Note
San Francisco passed the first fair employment practices ordinance in the state, in 1957. Edward Howden was hired as the agency's
first director in 1958. Only a few materials are included, including the first annual report. Howden left in 1959 to helm
the state's newly-created Fair Employment Practices Commission.
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically.
Newspaper Clippings,
1958
Where Shall We Live? Report of the Commission on Race and Housing…
University of California Press,
1958
Series 5
California Fair Employment Practices Commission,
1959-1967
Historical Notes
The California Fair Employment Practices Act was signed into law by Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown on April 16, 1959, creating
the Division of Fair Employment Practices, under the Department of Industrial Relations. Edward Howden was hired as the first
executive director of the regulatory agency. Compliance efforts included conciliation and major education initiatives. Howden
would later also administer fair housing law in his job capacities. Among Howden's successful proposals was the Code of Fair
Practices, issued by the governor in 1963. Howden's hires included Aileen C. Hernandez, civil rights activist and subsequently
the only woman on the newly-established federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commmission (in 1964); and Cruz Reynoso, the
first Latino California Supreme Court justice.
In 1963 California legislators passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act which banned discrimination in housing. The following year,
voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 14 which struck down the Rumford Act. The passage of Proposition 14 was cited by
Howden (in an editorial published in the
Los Angeles Times) as a contributing factor to the six days of violence that broke out between residents and police in the Watts neighborhood
of Los Angeles in August 1965. In 1966, the state Supreme Court ruled that Proposition 14 violated the equal protection
clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that ruling (in Reitman v.
Mulkey) in 1967.
Howden left the agency in 1967 after Gov. Ronald Reagan took office. Gov. Brown wrote in a Dec. 5, 1966 letter: "I want you
to know how much I have appreciated your continuing work...to do a more effective job as the social climate has changed."
Scope and Contents
Includes speeches, notes and draft articles, files on various matters handled by the agency, FEPC annual reports and other
publications, and a few photographs. Includes many departmental memoranda on the 1965 violence in Los Angeles, as well as
Howden's statement to the Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots.
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically. Cases are organized chronologically.
Related Materials
Tarea Hall Pittman Papers, BANC MSS 75/56 c, U.C. Berkeley, The Bancroft Library
Cottrell Laurence Dellums Papers, MS 14, U.C. Berkeley, The Bancroft Library.
Catherine Bauer Wurster Papers, BANC MSS 74/163, U.C. Berkeley, The Bancroft Library.
California, Division of Fair Employment Practices publications, California State Library.
California Fair Employment Practice Commission Records, F3929, R154, California State Archives.
Agency records with the California Civil Rights Department.
Box 3
Appointment of Howden,
1959
Box 3
Affirmative Action,
1963-1965
Box 3
Brown, Gov. Pat, Campaign,
1966
Box 3
California Fair Employment Practices Act,
1959-1967
Box 3
California Code of Fair Practices,
1963
Box 3
Case Reporting,
1960-1962
Box 3
San Francisco Taxi Companies,
1963
Box 3
Mexican American Leaders,
1963-1964
Box 3
San Diego Investigation,
1964
Box 3
Los Angeles City Schools Report,
1964
Box 3
Rumford Fair Housing Act,
1964-1966
Box 3
Proposition 14: Repeal of Rumford Act
Physical Description:
5 folders
1964-1966
Physical Description:
2 folders
Appendix to Unknown Report,
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 3
Los Angeles Riots (Watts Area)
1965
Physical Description:
3 folders
McCone Commission
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 4
Special Services Reports,
1965
Box 4
San Francisco Civil Disturbance,
1966
Box 4
Commission Meeting, Audio Recordings,
Oct. 14-15, 1965
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
2 reel-to-reel recordings
Contents
Testimony of Mr. Choy and Mr. Wong
Box 4
Correspondence,
1965-1966
Box 4
Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
1962
Box 4
Hernandez, Aileen
1961-1998
Box 4
Photographs
Scope and Contents
Includes two images of Gov. Edmund G. Brown, one inscribed, "To Ed Howden, A wonderful human being, a dedicated public servant,
a friend. Sincerely, Pat Brown."
Restriction
Gloves required.
Annual Reports,
1959-1964
Booklets on Ethnic Groups
Press Releases,
1962-1972
Discrimination in Housing and Employment, Thesis, William Pedder,
1964
Discrimination Against African Americans,
1964-1966
Box 4
Reports to Governor's Council,
1961-1965
Box 4
Speeches by Howden,
1958-1966
Related Materials
See also
Hearings Before the United States Commission on Civil Rights,
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960.
Series 6
U.S. Community Relations Service (CRS),
1969-2015
Related Materials
Records of the Community Relations Service, Significant Case Files, 1974-1994, Record Group 379, National Archives.
Historical Note
The Community Relations Service was established pursuant to Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1963. Howden was director and
mediator for a four-state (western) region for the CRS, which was a component of the U.S. Department of Justice. CRS worked
to address community conflicts arising of of actions, policies and practices perceived to be discriminatory on the basis of
race, color, or national origin. The agency provided conflict prevention and resolution services using conciliation and mediation
techniques and providing technical assistance, getting the parties to clarify the problems and envision a solution.
Scope and Contents
Includes notes and articles on the agency, CRS publications, and Howden's mediation files. Major cases included the occupation
of Wounded Knee, South Dakota; land and water matters with the Freedonia Kaibab Paiute Reservation in Arizona; and water matters
with the Kaibab Paiute Tribe in Moccasin Springs, South Dakota. The Wounded Knee case file includes Howden's daily crisis
reports during negotiations in early April, 1973, and his summary of conclusions of a CRS critique group. The file on mediation
and the role of conflict resolution includes several Hopi-Navajo tribal community matters. The file on budget cuts has evidence
of Howden's largely unsuccessful efforts with key Congress members to salvage the agency after cuts imposed by the Nixon and
Ford administrations.
Arrangement
Organized into two subseries: Subseries 6A: Cases and Subseries 6B: Subject Files.
Subseries 6A
Cases,
1969-[1985?]
Arrangement
Organized chronologially.
Box 4
Richmond (CA) Police,
1969
Box 4
Wounded Knee Occupation,
April-June 1973
Box 4
Navajo Nation, Window Rock, AZ and Gallup, NM,
1973
Box 4
Farmworkers, Stockton, CA,
1975
Box 4
Solano County, (CA) Community College Affirmative Action,
1975-1976
Box 4
Farmworkers, Colusa County, CA,
1976
Box 4
Ohlone Burial Ground, San Jose, CA,
1977
Box 4
Kaibab Paiute Tribe, Freedonia, AZ
Physical Description:
4 folders
1977-1980
Physical Description:
3 folders
Box 4
Kaibab Paiute Tribe, Moccasin Springs, SD,
1977-1980
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 4
Humboldt County (CA) Sheriff and Native Americans,
1979
Box 4
San Francisco Fire Department and San Francisco African American Firefighters (then known as SF Black Firefighters),
1980
Box 4
Navajo-Hopi Removal, Big Mountain, AZ,
1980
Box 5
Christ Miracle Healing Center, Miracle Valley, AZ,
1981
Box 5
Richmond (CA) Police Brutality
1981-1982
Box 5
[Unknown Assignment, Asian/Pacific islander Community?],
1984
Box 5
Stagg High School, Stockton, CA
[1985?]
Box 5
Subseries 6B
Subject Files, 1972-2015
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically.
Correspondence,
1977-1985
Mediation Process
Physical Description:
6 folders
Role of Conflict Resolution and CRS,
1975-1986
Mediation Training Workshop,
1985
"CRS and Racial Conflict Resolution," Article by Howden,
1974
Interview by Howden, University of Colorado,
1999
Newspaper Clippings,
1973-1978
Publications
1965-1980
Physical Description:
2 folders
Brochures and Newsletters,
1965-1975
Annual Reports,
1965-1980
Reference Material
[1971?]-1981
Physical Description:
2 folders
Series 7
Post-professional Activities,
1995-1998
Scope and Contents
Consists mainly of Howden's efforts to defeat California Proposition 209, known as the California Civil Rights Initiative.
At the time, he suggested to one of the authors to correct whatever affirmative action abuses may have existed through legislative
action as opposed to a ballot measure. While the CCRI proponent, Glynn Custred, told Howden this seemed reasonable, Custred's
209 co-author declined that route. See
Edward Howden: Ed Howden and the Rise of Civil Rights Advocacy in Governmental Institutions,
Martin Meeker, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2017; in Series 1.
Proposition 209/California Civil Rights Initiative,
1995-1998
Scope and Contents
Includes Howden's strategy documents, correspondence, statements, and newspaper clippings. Proposition 209 ended affirmative
action practices in the state.
Box 5
Campaign Materials (No on CCRI)
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 5
Correspondence
Physical Description:
2 folders
Johnson, Roberta, Articles
Box 5
Various
Physical Description:
6 folders
Box 6
Reference Material
Physical Description:
3 folders
Box 6
Statements and Editorials by Howden
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 6
Statements by Others
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 6
"Civil Rights, Now and Then" Speech Outline,
no date
Series 8
Personal,
1905-2006
Scope and Contents
Contains mostly family documents including writings and photographs.
Box 7, Folders 2-7
Ed Howden
1934-2003
Note
Includes issues of
Cub Commentator,
a "journal of opinion," published by University High School (Oakland) seniors, Paul Chown, Wyman Hicks and Howden in the Howden
basement. Also includes Chown's unpublished memoir.
Cub Commentator,
1934-1935
Miscellaneous Documents,
1940-1955
Speech on Civil Rights, Lowell High School,
1972
Jonathan Howden Photograph
Newspaper Clippings,
1961-2003
Are you now? Were you ever? The Issue that split us! A personal account by Paul Chown, The war against labor!,
no date
Anne Saito Howden
[1931?]-2006
Biographical Note
Anne Howden was Ed's second wife and herself a human rights advocate. She worked and/or volunteered on the 1948 California
Housing Initiative and James Roosevelt's gubernatorial campaign, and for Israel Bonds and the San Francisco Council for Civic
Unity. She served on the state Women's Board of Terms and Parole in the late 1960s, and on the San Francisco Fire Commission
during the 1980s. During World War II, the Saito family was imprisoned at the Poston incarceration camp in Arizona. The Howdens
had a son, Jonathan. Anne Howden died in 2006.
Includes a speech Anne gave upon receiving the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the San Francisco Democratic Women's Forum, and
a remembrance of community organizer, Fred Ross, delivered at his memorial. She was among those who testified for the establishment
of a fair employment practices commission before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1951; see Series 3, Council for
Civic Unity.
Box 7, Folder 8
Correspondence and Speeches
Box 7, Folder 9
Interview with Lisa Hirai Tsuchitani,
1993
Box 8, Folder 1
Poston Concentration Camp Poster
Robert Howden, Jr.,
1915-1939
Note
Robert Howden, Jr. was Ed Howden's father. An amateur photographer, Robert's album and loose prints of the Golden Gate International
Exposition, Palace of Fine Arts and the Yacht Harbor during the Panama Pacific International Exposition, and Yosemite and
Dutch Flat landscapes are included.
Box 8, Folder 2
Photographs,
1915-1939
Restriction
Gloves required.
Robert Howden, Sr.,
1905-1945
Note
Robert Howden, Sr. was Edward Howden's grandfather. Robert immigrated from Galashiels, Scotland in 1882. A stone carver in
Scotland, he established Howden Tile and Mantel in Oakland in the 1920s, later known as Robert Howden and Sons. His original
tilework can be seen on the landmark Howden Building which served as a showroom. The replica Scottish castle that he built
in Ben Lomond, CA, also stands.
His creative writings and comments on the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands, World War I, and other topics including a piece
on the Scottish poet "Robert Burns, Champion of Women's Rights," are included. A number of Howden's writings were published
in the
Oakland Tribune
and other publications including his hometown Scottish newspaper. Also included are life history manuscripts and accounts
of the financial difficulties of the Howden Building and the sale of the castle.
Box 7, Folder 10
Part Two. of Rhymes and Ramblings.,
1939
Box 9, Folders 1-2
Scrapbook and Loose Documents of Lifelong Writings,
1905 [or earlier]-1945
Restrictions
Includes photographs. Gloves required. Scrapbook cannot be photocopied.
Shirley Newell
Note
Shirley Newell was Ed Howden's cousin.
Box 9, Folder 1
Letter to Ed Howden,
no date
