Title:

Norvel L. Smith papers, 1963-1982

Creator/Contributor:

Smith, Norvel L., 1924-2004, creator, creator.

The bulk of the collection contains materials related to Smith's work as Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UC Berkeley. These include letters congratulating him on his appointment; administrative materials; materials about student affirmative action programs; incoming and outgoing memos and correspondence; newspaper clippings; photographs; materials related to the Institute for the Study of Educational Policy; articles and publications about student learning and life at UC Berkeley; files on the Bakke decision; and monographs on minorities, poverty, and education. There is a small amount of personalia and materials related to the boards of directors Smith's served on and his community activism, including files from the Bob Wells Defense Committee. There is also a folder of material related to his wife Mary Perry Smith's service on the Alameda County Grand Jury in 1970. Perry Smith was one of the five African American grand jury members who generated a report criticizing the county's grand jury and prison systems.

Date:

1973 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

African American college administrators -- California

African American college teachers -- California -- Berkeley

African American civic leaders -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area

Administrateurs d'université noirs américains -- Californie

Professeurs noirs américains (Enseignement supérieur) -- Californie -- Berkeley

Leaders noirs américains -- Californie -- San Francisco, Région de la baie de

African American civic leaders

African American college administrators

African American college teachers

Universities and colleges -- Faculty

California

California -- Berkeley

California -- San Francisco Bay Area

University of California, Berkeley -- Faculty

University of California, Berkeley. -- Office of the Vice Chancellor--Student Affairs.

Merritt College (Oakland, Calif.)

Merritt College (Oakland, Calif.)

University of California, Berkeley.

Smith, Norvel L -- 1924-2004 -- Archives

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Gift of Kathryn Autin ; 2016.

Related item: A life in education and community service : oral history transcript / Norvel Smith ; interviews conducted by Nadine Wilmot in 2002 and 2003. Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library (BANC MSS 2005/253 c).

Related collection: Merritt College Black Student Union collection (BANC MSS 2006/240).

Related collection: Mary Perry Smith papers (BANC MSS 2016/195).

Norvel Lee Smith was a pioneering African American educator and a longtime community leader in the East Bay. Smith was born in Lynchburg Virginia in 1924 and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He served in the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division in Italy during World War II and attended the University of Pennsylvania on the G.I. Bill. Smith earned a B.S. and M.S. in business education at Penn. After graduation, he accepted a teaching position at Texas Southern University, where he met and married Mary Perry, an educator and activist in her own right. The couple moved to California in 1951 and Smith received his doctorate in educational administration from UC Berkeley in 1956. Smith worked for the Alameda County School Department and, in 1963, he became director of Oakland's Department of Human Resources, and implemented one of the nation's first poverty programs. Smith served as deputy director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1967 to 1968 and became the first African American to head a California college when he was appointed president of Merritt College in 1968. Smith served as president until 1973 when he became Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UC Berkeley. He retired from that post in 1982. Smith was active in local politics and community affairs, serving on the Oakland Port Commission, and on the boards of directors for many organizations. These included the College Entrance Examination Board, the Institute for the Study of Educational Policy, the Oakland Museum Association, the ACLU of Northern California, the UC Berkeley Black Alumni Association, and the Rosenberg Foundation. Smith was also involved in the Self-Advancement through Education program for Black inmates at San Quentin and chaired the Bob Wells Defense Committee. Smith died in Oakland in 2004 at the age of 80.

Norvel L. Smith papers, BANC MSS 2016/199, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

In English.

Type:

faculty papers.

Archives.

print

2.5 (2

English

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.