Guide to the Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello Papers
Sean Dickerson
African American Museum & Library at Oakland
659 14th Street
Oakland, California 94612
Phone: (510) 637-0198
Fax: (510) 637-0204
Email: aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org
URL: http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/locations/african-american-museum-library-oakland
© 2013
African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello Papers
Collection number: MS 203
African American Museum & Library at Oakland
Oakland, California
- Processed by:
- Sean Dickerson
- Date Completed:
- February 8, 2017
- Encoded by:
- Sean Dickerson
© 2013 African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello Papers
Dates: 1962-2008 (bulk 1966)
Collection number: MS 203
Creator:
Van Dyke Bello, Savannah A.
Collection Size:
.25 linear feet (1 box)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Abstract: Beginning in the Civil Rights Movement during the early 1960's, Bello became politically involved and was active with local
school board elections and city council meetings. In 1963, together with Charlesetta Braggs-Ford, she founded the Richmond
chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to address discriminatory practices in local housing and employment. As
a representative of Richmond CORE, Bello participated in training institutes, educational leagues and programs for the purpose
of helping the public become better informed on the problem of de facto segregation in the Richmond Unified School District.
The Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello Papers consists of pamphlets, reports, flyers, strategy and progress reports, papers, action
plans, correspondence, meeting minutes, newsletters and newspaper clippings related to Bello’s founding and involvement with
the Richmond chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), as well as her extensive work involving desegregation in the
Richmond Unified School District.
Physical location: African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Access
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Access Restrictions
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Publication Rights
Permission to publish from the Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library
at Oakland.
Preferred Citation
Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello papers, MS 203, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland,
California.
Acquisition Information
Donated to the African American Museum & Library at Oakland by Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello on September 1, 2016.
Processing Information
Processed by Sean Dickerson, February 3, 2017.
Biography / Administrative History
Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello was born May 5, 1922 in Idabel, Oklahoma the daughter of farmers Richard and Rebecca Van Dyke.
After graduating from high school in Lawton, Oklahoma she moved to California to work for the United States Civil Service
Commission in San Francisco. There she married Albert Bello and they became the parents of three children, Stalfana, Albert,
and Gwendolyn. In 1955, after recovering from tuberculosis, she decided to go to nursing school. In 1961, she became a nurse
and worked at the Contra Costa County Medical Center until her retirement in 1984. In addition to work with the America Red
Cross for 20 years, Bello also served as president of the Western Student Movement Richmond Tutoring Program, board member
of the Progressive Education League and on the Executive Committee Board of the Ronald Dellums for Congress campaign.
Beginning in the Civil Rights Movement during the early 1960's, Bello became politically involved and was active with local
school board elections and city council meetings. In 1963, together with Charlesetta Braggs-Ford, she founded the Richmond
chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to address discriminatory practices in local housing and employment. Richmond
CORE focused on issues related to fair employment and housing, schooling, accurate newspaper coverage, and police brutality
towards African Americans and other minorities. Bello served as spokesperson for the Committees on Education, Storm Drainage,
and Public Housing and was involved with working on California Fair Housing initiatives. Bello was active in sit-ins, picketing
and negotiation projects with the Richmond Housing Authority and the Richmond Unified School District. As a representative
of Richmond CORE, Bello participated in the 1966 Civil Rights Training Institute for the purpose of helping the public become
better informed on
the problem of de facto segregation in the Richmond Unified School District.
Bello was invited on the basis of her activities in the Richmond Unified School District and with Richmond CORE to enroll
in the Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation offered through the University of California Extension
beginning in 1966. Of the sixty-nine adult participants, 37 were teachers and 11 were community persons. The Institute workshop,
which afforded the participants the opportunity for interpersonal relationships across race, class, and age lines, was held
from June 23 to July 14, 1966 in Olympic Valley, CA. During her enrollment, Bello served as a committee member of the Strategy
Planning Team on Grouping and Marking to advocate heterogeneous grouping throughout the Richmond Unified School District.
Federally funded, the two-year Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation program was directed by Dr.
Marie Fielder, a pioneering educator and civil rights leader who was the first African-American woman with a doctorate to
teach in the Bay Area and one of the first researchers to prove cultural bias in IQ tests. She was also instrumental in making
Berkeley public schools the first in the nation to desegregate through two-way busing, and advised civil rights leaders Martin
Luther King Jr. and Whitney Young, and government and civil-rights organizations, including the U.S., Department of Education,
the Black Panther Party for Defense and Justice, and the National Organization for Women. Fielder had created the two-year
program to develop objectives centered on techniques, skills, and understandings necessary to solve problems incident to desegregation.
Bello left her work with CORE during the National CORE Conference of 1967 held in Oakland after George Innis and other members
of the Harlem NY chapter made demands for CORE to begin promoting a platform of militancy. The conference had brought together
representatives from a range of political organizations: representatives of the local CORE chapters led by Wilfred Ussery,
Floyd McKissick and James Farmer from the national CORE, Afro-American Association leader Donald Warden, Elijah Turner, California
Assemblyman Willie Brown, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Chairman H. Rap Brown and Muhammad Ali. As members began
participating with Black Power movement groups in community organizing, Richmond CORE was officially disaffiliated from the
national organization at a meeting of officers and delegates to CORE’s Western Regional Conference on August 30, 1968.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Savannah A. Van Dyke Bello Papers consists of pamphlets, reports, flyers, strategy and progress reports, papers, action
plans, correspondence, meeting minutes, newsletters and newspaper clippings related to Bello’s founding and involvement with
the Richmond chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), as well as her extensive work involving desegregation in the
Richmond Unified School District. The collection documents negotiation projects with the Richmond Housing Authority and the
Richmond Unified School District around fair employment, housing and school integration. Included are Bello’s materials from
the Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation program, directed by Dr. Marie Fielder, to develop objectives
centered on techniques, skills, and understandings necessary to solve problems incident to de fact desegregation. The papers
are organized in three series: CORE Richmond activities, School integration in the Richmond Unified School District, and assorted
print
materials.
Arrangement
Series I. CORE Richmond activities Series II. School integration in the Richmond Unified School District Series III. Assorted
print materials
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
African Americans--California--Richmond--Social conditions--20th century.
African Americans -- Civil rights.
African Americans--Civil rights--California--Oakland Region--History--20th century.
Busing for school integration--United States.
Congress of Racial Equality.
School integration--California--Richmond.
Related Material
Charlesetta Braggs-Ford Papers, African American Museum and Library at Oakland.
Congress of Racial Equality records, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Richmond CORE activities
Physical Description: 1 folder
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes pamphlets, reports, flyers and newspaper clipping related to Bello’s work with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Richmond. Also included are lists of Richmond CORE projects and a time line of events related to the history of the chapter.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Box 1:1
The relationship between racial balance and sound education in the San Francisco Unified School District
1962-09-01
Box 1:1
CORE sit-in songs pamphlet
1965
Box 1:1
The Campus CORE-lator,vol. I, no. 4, table of contents
1965-03-13
Box 1:1
newspaper clipping "Discriminatory Hiring," from the
Flatlands newspaper [photocopy]
1966-05-21
Box 1:1
U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1968: As it applies to California (Title 8: Fair Housing Law)
1968
Box 1:1
Let's walk that walk and talk that talk public meeting flyer
circa 1960s
Box 1:1
Richmond Housing Authority Equal Opportunity Housing Program agreement to CORE
circa 1960s
Box 1:1
Interview with Michael Jones conducted by David Lance Goines transcript
1994-02-15
Box 1:1
Congress of Racial Equality Richmond, California time line of events and projects
2008-04
Box 1:1
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Richmond and San Francisco Bay Area list of projects
undated
Box 1:1
CORE boycott list [photocopy]
undated
Box 1:1
Handwritten list of Richmond CORE projects
undated
School integration in the Richmond Unified School District
Physical Description: 4 folders
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes files held by Bello as participant in the Civil Rights Act Training Institute and Leadership Training Institute in
Problems of School Desegregation, and as board member of the Progressive Education League and Western Student Movement Richmond
Tutoring Program. Included are strategy and progress reports, papers, action plans, correspondence, meeting minutes, and copies
of the Leadership Training Institute’s
Strategy newsletter.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by organization.
Civil Rights Act Training Institute
1965-1966
Box 1:2
Secondary school course offerings and related policies for the Richmond Unified School District brochure
1965-07
Box 1:2
Responsibilities of the Citizens Advisory Committee on De Facto Segregation, enrollment data and considerations for secondary
schools of the Richmond Unified School District
1966-02-24
Box 1:2
Community awareness data parade of segregation witnesses [two copies]
1966-01-28
Box 1:2
Community awareness data Citizens’ Advisory Committee on De Facto Segregation
1966-03-02
Box 1:2
Community awareness data Citizens for Improved Education
1966-04-05
Box 1:2
Community awareness data Congress on Racial Equality submitted by Savannah Bello
1966-05
Box 1:2
Roster of invited community resource persons
1966-06
Box 1:2
Desegregation-integration strategy team progress report
1966-07-12
Box 1:2
“Richmond Unified School District faces the challenge in education” conference program
1966-11-12
Box 1:2
Paper on the Civil Rights Act Training institute and its impacts for civil rights groups
circa 1966
Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation
circa 1960s
Box 1:3
Statement by United States Senator Thomas H. Kuchel on Civil Rights
1963
Box 1:3
"Guidelines for school desegregation; A summary explanation of the revised statement of policies for school desegregation
plans under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964"
1966-03-01
Box 1:3
Statement by Harold Howe II in connection with announcing revised school desegregation guidelines
1966-03-07
Box 1:3
Stanford University News Service release on Stanford doctoral dissertation by Theodore W. Parsons [two copies]
1966-03-24
Box 1:3
Letter from Dr. Marie Fielder and Dr. James L. Merrihew to certified personnel and school related (by board action) citizens
re: Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation formal application
1965-05
Box 1:3
Pre-institute questionnaire
Pre-institute questionnaire
Box 1:3
Imperatives of school desegregation held at Walter Helms Jr. High School
1966-06-27
Box 1:3
University of California Extension presents Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation: For selected
persons in the Richmond Unified School District community information day event release
1965-06
Box 1:3
Letter from Gus Guichard to institute participants re: resident accommodations at Squaw Valley
1965-06
Box 1:3
Some considerations with respect to grouping in schools, with special reference to schools predominantly attended by individuals
from non-dominant culture groups prepared by Peres School Parents for Better Education, Peres Elementary School, Richmond
1966-03-26
Box 1:3
Strategy newsletter
1966-07-03
Box 1:3
In-Service education progress report
1966-07-12
Box 1:3
Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation resident portion schedule
1966-07-12
Box 1:3
Desegregation committee – strategy planning secondary school desegregation
1966-07-13
Box 1:3
Strategy newsletter
1966-07-13
Box 1:3
Strategy newsletter [two copies]
1966-07-15
Box 1:3
Strategy newsletter
1966-08-22
Box 1:3
Blowing in the wind” lyric sheets [two copies]
1966
Box 1:3
Did you know-negro history [two copies]
1966
Box 1:3
Discussion groups [Squaw Valley]
1966
Box 1:3
The function of the sensitivity group demonstration in the staff training program [two copies]
1966
Box 1:3
General information sheet of details involving resident portion of the institute held at Squaw Valley
1966
Box 1:3
In-service education collaborative work session on “change agentry”
1966
Box 1:3
Leadership skit, issue: corporal punishment [two copies]
1966
Box 1:3
Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation bibliography [two copies]
1966
Box 1:3
Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation participant positions
1966
Box 1:3
Materials distributed to date
1966
Box 1:3
Memo from Gus Guichard to institute participants re: communication among all participants
1966
Box 1:3
Memo from Gus Guichard to institute participants re: “mopping-up details”
1966
Box 1:3
Negro history teaches’ guide [three copies]
1966
Box 1:3
Project potential: interpretative guide for the tests of creativity
1966
Box 1:3
Report of the Strategy Planning Team on Grouping and Marking
1966
Box 1:3
Report from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
1966
Box 1:3
Room assignments for strategy planning
1966
Box 1:3
Social interest guide
1966
Box 1:3
Squaw Valley State Recreation Area map
1966
Box 1:3
Strategy planning on history and literature
1966
Box 1:3
University of California Extension presents Leadership Training Institute in Problems of School Desegregation discussion groups
roster
1966
Box 1:3
Why the in-service education fellows ’66-’67
1966
Box 1:3
Visitation weekend schedule
1966
Box 1:3
Visitation weekend schedule (revised)
1966
Progressive Education League
1968
Box 1:4
Progressive education league minutes
1968-11-03
Box 1:4
Progressive education league minutes [two copies]
1968-11-17
Western Student Movement Richmond Tutoring Program
1966
Box 1:5
Board of trustees meeting
1966-07-14
Assorted print materials
Physical Description: 1 folder
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes assorted newspaper clippings and a letter from the notary public to the Van Dyke family.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Box 1:6
Newspaper clipping "Back to school in Richmond…with lots of problems: New superintendent at odds with black community," from
the
Freedom News
1969-09
Box 1:6
Letter from the notary public of Alameda County to the Van Dyke family re: estate of Rebecca Van Dyke
1969-12-26
Box 1:6
Newspaper clipping "Protestor on Richmond Police back"
circa 1960s
Box 1:6
Newspaper clipping "Making History: Former activities remember the movement," featuring photograph of Savannah Van Dyke Bello,
from the
Sunday Times, vol. 8, no. 281
1984-10-07
Box 1:6
Newspaper clipping "Ex-Justice Bird content off the bench"
circa 1990s
Box 1:6
Newspaper clipping "It's all there in black and white," featuring photograph of Savannah Van Dyke Bello and Charlesetta Braggs-Ford
circa 1990s
Box 1:6
Newspaper clipping Samuel Burns Jr. obituary
circa 1990s
Box 1:6
Newspaper clipping "A day of recognition, honor, and thanks," from
The Post
2005-02-23—2005-03-01