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COLLECTION Identifier: A/H1688

Papers of Cleo F. Haley 1939-1948

Overview

Meeting minutes from the 1939 and 1940 National Conventions of the National Association of Colored Women and a typed florist's invoice and related letter concerning convention corsages (1948).

Dates

  • Creation: 1939-1948

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in papers created by Cleo F. Haley as well as copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.

Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

1 folder

The papers of Cleo Frances Haley include handwritten minutes detailing board, committee, and delegate actions during the conventions of the National Association of Colored Women, which met in Boston, Massachusetts, July 24-29, 1939, and in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 28-31, 1940. It also details resolutions, reports, and visits to the grave of Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and the Robert Gould Shaw and Crispus Attucks monuments in Boston. Also included is a typed florist's invoice and related letter concerning convention corsages from 1948.

BIOGRAPHY

Cleo Frances Haley was born on August 5, 1886, in Kent County, Michigan, to Paul and Kate Haley. She grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan, with four siblings (Charlie, Olga, Paul Jr., and Emma) and attended Battle Creek Central High School. By the age of 23, she worked as a nurse to help support her family and eventually graduated from Battle Creek College with a bachelor's degree in Home Economics (1935).

Haley was active in local and national women's clubs. In 1939 and 1940 she served as the convention secretary for the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), an organization founded in 1896 by the merger of the National Federation of Afro-American Women, the Women's Era Club of Boston, and the Colored Women's League of Washington, DC. The NACW promoted civil rights, equality, and education for African American women and children. In 1947, Haley was president of the Sojourner Truth Memorial Association, which sponsored a special celebration of the life of Sojourner Truth in Battle Creek during Negro History Week. Haley was also president of the Michigan Association of Colored Women (1949). Haley died in 1957.

Physical Location

Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession number: 2004-M66

The papers of Cleo F. Haley were given to the Schlesinger Library by Drew Faust and Charles Rosenberg in 2004 in honor of their daughter, Jessica Rosenberg.

Related Material:

There is related material at the State Archive of Michigan: see the Michigan State Association of Colored Women's Clubs collection, 1969-1985 (MS 86-33).

There is related material at the Tuskegee University National Center of Bioethics Archives and Museums: see the Papers of National Association of Colored Women, 1903-1959.

Processing Information

Processed: December 2016

By: Jehan Sinclair

Title
Haley, Cleo F., 1886-1957. Papers of Cleo F. Haley, 1939-1948: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
sch01553

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

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