Joyce A. Ladner Collection (T/020)
Collection Details:
Collection Name and Number: Joyce A. Ladner Collection (T/020).
Creator/Collector: Joyce A. Ladner; and others.
Date(s): 1931-2003 (Inclusive), 1962-2003 (bulk).
Size: 54.44 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: Tougaloo College staff; MDAH staff, 2005.
Provenance: Loan of Tougaloo College of Madison County, MS, in 2004.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.
Rights and Access:
Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.
Publication rights: Copyright assigned to Tougaloo College. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to MDAH Reference Services, Attention: Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Tougaloo College as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.
Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).
Preferred citation: Joyce A. Ladner Collection (T/020), Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.
Biography:
Joyce Ann Ladner
Joyce Ann Ladner was born in Battles, Wayne County, Mississippi, on October 12, 1943, the second child of Annie Ruth Woullard and Eunice Stafford Ladner. She grew up and attended public schools in Palmer’s Crossing, an African American community three miles south of Hattiesburg, Forrest County, Mississippi. She and her older sister, Dorie, attended Earl Travellion High School in Palmer, Forrest County Mississippi. While there, they helped to organize a National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council Chapter in Hattiesburg. At the formal opening of the youth chapter, Joyce and Dorie Ladner received support from Civil Rights activists: Vernon Dahmer, the NAACP leader in the Hattiesburg community; Medgar Evers, the State Field Representative for the NAACP; and Clyde Kennard, a NAACP leader who had attempted to integrate the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
In the spring of 1960, the sisters enrolled in Jackson State College in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, and continued the Civil Rights activities they had started in Hattiesburg. At Jackson State College, they renewed their acquaintance with Medgar Evers. He encouraged them to continue their activities in the NAACP Youth Council Chapters. Despite the restrictions at Jackson State College against Civil Rights activism, the Ladners constantly left campus to meet with Evers to discuss activism and the need to demonstrate against the segregation policies within the state. In 1961, Evers specifically encouraged the sisters to organize students at Jackson State College to demonstrate support for students from Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Madison County, Mississippi, who were planning a sit-in at the white-only public library. In April of 1961, Jackson State College students actively demonstrated their support for the students both after their arrest and at their arraignment. Because of their leadership and their active involvement, the Ladner sisters were informed by the college administration that they would not be allowed to return to Jackson State College for the coming academic year.
Joyce and Dorie Ladner enrolled in Tougaloo College in the fall semester, 1961. They immediately became active workers in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While Dorie became an active field representative for SNCC, Joyce Ladner joined with others going throughout the state organizing voter registration. She worked on the March on Washington in 1963, and in the same year went to jail for a week for disturbing the peace when she participated in the attempt to integrate Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Ladner excelled academically at Tougaloo. She came under the tutelage of Dr. Ernst Borinski, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, who was a professor of sociology in the Social Science Division at Tougaloo. At the time of her graduation from Tougaloo in 1964, she was a member of the Dean’s List and was selected for inclusion in the Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities. In the fall of 1964, Ladner entered Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to begin her graduate education. She continued her work in the Civil Rights Movement by working with various organizations in St. Louis. She was particularly active in helping to protect rights of black males. While at Washington University, Ladner returned periodically to Mississippi and other parts of the South to work with SNCC and other Civil Rights groups in demonstrations, registering people to vote, and in assisting the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
Ladner received her Master of Arts degree in sociology in 1966. She wrote a thesis on “Deviance in the Lower Class Adolescent Sub-Culture.” In 1968 she received her doctorate in sociology. Her dissertation was an elaboration of the themes that she had used in her thesis and focused on the lives of women in a low-income housing project. This became the basis for her first book, Tomorrow’s Tomorrow: The Black Woman, published in 1971. Following her graduate work, Ladner served as a senior research fellow at the Institute of the Black World, an African American research organization associated with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. It was established in 1968 by Corretta Scott King, the widow of the slain Civil Rights leader. In 1970, Ladner left the Institute of the Black World to work as a research associate at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. There she conducted research on the roles of women in community development in a newly independent African state.
Ladner returned to the United States in 1971 and for three decades distinguished herself as teacher, author, lecturer, and administrator. She became an authority on the topics of African American women, the feminization of poverty, the African American family, and transracial adoption. Ladner authored, co-authored, or edited four different books, including Death of White Sociology (1973) and numerous articles for professional publications. She served as professor of sociology at Hunter College in the City University of New York system from 1976 until 1981, when she joined the faculty of the Howard University School of Social Work in Washington, D. C. In 1985, she chaired the Mayor of the District of Columbia’s Blue Ribbon Panel on the Study of Teenage Pregnancy. Ladner also lectured throughout the world on the black woman, the problems of the black family, and diversity in American society. After serving as professor of sociology at Howard University for seventeen years, Ladner was elevated to Vice President for Academic Affairs at the university (1990). In 1994, Ladner was appointed by the Board of Trustees of Howard as its interim president. She thus became the first woman to manage this complex institution with over 10,000 students and a budget of $500 million. The appointment came at a critical time, as the university was experiencing financial and staff difficulties. Despite opposition from staff and students, Ladner led a workforce restructuring program that reduced the staff by twenty percent and closed an estimated $10 million budget deficit. In 1995, the Board of Trustees did not accept her application to become the permanent president of the University.
In 1995, Ladner was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, a three member agency that had titular control over the operation of the nation’s capital. As a member of this controversial group, Ladner had oversight responsibility for the public schools, public health, and employment services of the District of Columbia. In addition to her work on the D. C. Control Board, Ladner was selected as a Senior Fellow for the Brookings Institution, a prominent research group. Her specific task was to conduct research in national urban affairs and discuss what was necessary to improve the quality of life within the cities of the nation. In that capacity, she studied the activities of urban nonprofit leaders and the needs of black entrepreneurs. Her work at Brookings resulted in the publication of The New Urban Leaders (2002), a study of leaders making a difference in urban areas. In 2002, Ladner retired and moved to Sarasota, Florida. There she has devoted her time to consulting, writing, jewelry crafting, and abstract painting. She co-authored Launching Our Black Children for Success: A Guide for Parents of Kids from Three to Eighteen with Theresa Foy DiGeronimo in 2003.
Scope and Content Note:
This collection consists of correspondence, writings, photographs, and other personal materials of Joyce Ann Ladner. It spans the years from 1931 through 2003 and is divided into the following series: Personal Papers, Civil Rights Materials, Early Career, Howard University and Hunter College, Brookings Institution, Teaching Positions at Georgetown and George Washington Universities, Consultant Positions, District of Columbia Control Board and Committee of Juvenile Justice, Written Works and Speeches by Ladner and Associates; Research Materials, Miscellaneous Materials; Books, Journals, Pamphlets for Background Reading and Study; Newspaper Clippings, and Photographs, Audiotapes, and Videotapes. The personal papers consist of correspondence, interviews, documents related to her immediate family and her graduate school work; as well as informational material related to outstanding persons and personalities, her overseas travel, and her church and professional affiliations. The Civil Rights materials contain articles, bibliographies of civil rights sources, correspondence, documents, interviews, and oral histories of those involved with the Civil Rights Movement.
Ladner’s early career, her doctoral work at Washington University in St. Louis and as a senior research fellow at the Institute of the Black World; her experience as both a teacher and an administrator at Hunter College and Howard University; her work as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and her teaching career at Georgetown and George Washington University are documented in correspondence, class schedules, programs of events, administrative documents, academic writings, interviews, project proposals, and seminar agendas. Ladner also did work as a consultant and this is reflected in correspondence, reports and other materials. In 1995, Ladner was appointed to the District of Columbia Financial Control Board and Commission of Juvenile Justice. This series contains agenda items, budget analyses, correspondence, interviews, and minutes from Ladner’s work with the board and commission.
The written works and speeches series contains articles, papers, and speeches by Ladner and some of her contemporaries. Some of these works appear in national publications, such as The Black Sociologist, Ebony, and the Washington Post. Ladner’s research materials include items on the black family, children, teen pregnancy, and poverty. Miscellaneous materials contain articles from the internet, newsletters, magazine articles, grant proposals, and pamphlets covering such topics as self-help, community development, welfare, and nutrition. The books, journals, pamphlets for background reading and study include works from such authors as Stokely Carmichael, Charles Cobb, Elizabeth Kytle, Robert Moses, Alan Paton, and Margaret Walker. The series is arranged alphabetically by title within each box. Newspaper clippings contain press clippings about Tomorrow’s Tomorrow and Ladner; articles on families, children, and education; and the Civil Rights Movement. The photographs, audiotapes, and videotapes series also contains broadsides and posters. These items document various parts of Ladner’s personal life, her family, her work in the Civil Rights Movement and her academic and professional careers.
Series Identification:
Series 1: Personal Papers. 1963-2003; n.d. 6 boxes
Subseries 1.1: Biographical data. 1967-2003; n. d. 17 folders.
This subseries consists of curricula vitae, oral history transcripts, newsclippings and data from family research.
Box 1, folders 1-15
Subseries 1.2: Personal Correspondence, General and Specific. 1963-2003; n.d. 32 folders
This subseries consists of correspondence both general and specific. The specific correspondence is concerned with contractual negotiations between Ladner and various publishers and informational packets concerning speaking engagements. There is one folder of correspondence from President Bill Clinton.
Box 1, folders 16-42
Box 2, folders 1-5
Subseries 1.3: Persons and Personalities. 1990-1993; n.d. 6 folders
This subseries consists of materials of noteworthy personalities who were at some period involved in Ladner’s life. They include such persons as Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Richard Hunt, Peter Jennings and Nelson Mandela. Included as well are a biography and a funeral program of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Box 2, folders 9-14
Subseries 1.4: Education. 1964-2000; n.d. 22 folders
This subseries consists of materials primarily from Ladner’s graduate work at Washington University, St Louis, Missouri. There are some draft copies of sections of her dissertation as well as finished papers from her master’s and doctoral work. There is, as well, alumni literature from Tougaloo College and Washington University.
Box 2, folders 15-36
Subseries 1.5: Travel. 1989-1995; n.d. 5 folders
This subseries contains travel documents for Ladner’s overseas trips.
Box 3, folders 1-5
Subseries 1.6: Church Affiliations. 1981-2002; n.d. 9 folders
This subseries contains materials regarding Ladner’s involvement with organized churches, particularly the Trinity Episcopal Church in Washington, D. C.
Box 4, folders 1-9
Subseries 1.7: Professional Affiliations. 1983-2003; n.d. 2 boxes
This subseries contains correspondence, documents, newsletters, and other materials of professional associations. In many of these groups, Ladner was extensively involved in the operation of the organization. This is particularly true of the American Sociological Association, the American Black Sociologist, and the Center for National Policy. The correspondence in this subseries points out the extensive involvement by Ladner in the field of American Sociology.
Boxes 5 and 6
Series 2: Civil Rights Materials. 1963-2003; n.d. 2 boxes
This series contains a variety of materials associated with the Civil Rights Movement. The most important part of this series is a collection of thirty-three transcripts of interviews that Ladner did with members of the movement, such as Marion Barry, Dave Dennis, Lawrence Guyot, Ed King, and Bob Moses. Also included are oral histories of Constance Baker, James Nix, J. C. Fairly, and others who discuss their participation in the movement in Mississippi. There is also material that features the accomplishments of national leaders, such as Stokely Carmichael and Ella Baker. Writings by Ladner and others about various Civil Rights events are included as well.
Boxes 7 and 8
Series 3: Early Career. 1962-1971; n.d. 3 boxes
Subseries 3.1: Graduate Assistant. 1964-1969; n.d. 4 folders
This subseries consists of correspondence, proposals, and syllabi that are associated with Ladner’s work while she was a graduate student and immediately after she obtained her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The papers show her initial involvement in developing studies on the history of the black family, and writing proposals for the study of the problems of urban communities, particularly among the poor, black women, and black families. Also in this subseries are class notes from her teaching in higher education.
Box 9, folders 1-4
Subseries 3.2: Senior Research Fellow, Institute of the Black World. 1962-1971; n.d. 2 boxes
This subseries consists of materials documenting Ladner’s tenure as a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute of the Black World in Atlanta, Georgia. There are a few organizational documents found in this sub-series, but it is the writings of scholars like Ladner, Vincent Harding and Andrew Billingsley that constitute the bulk of the material. The writings cover a number of issues that faced the African American community, such as the black family, black studies, and black power.
Boxes 10 and 11
Series 4: Howard University/Hunter College. 1969-2001; n.d. 6 boxes
Subseries 4.1: School of Social Work. 1969-1994; n.d. 1 box
This subseries contains academic, administrative and classroom materials associated with Ladner during her tenure as a professor at the Howard University School of Social Work. The majority of the materials are related to her classroom work in the areas of Family and Child Services and Social Welfare Policy. There are documents on Social Work Education that highlight her association with Andrew Billingsley. There is some correspondence in the sub-series related to Ladner’s time at Hunter College in New York particularly those letters commenting on her Op-Ed article to the New York Times on her Civil Rights involvement.
Box 12
Subseries 4.2: Vice President for Academic Affairs. 1987-1994; n.d. 3 boxes
This subseries contains administrative documents, financial and planning reports that chart the direction of the University from 1987-1993. There is correspondence regarding Ladner’s position as chief academic officer. Included as well are selected papers from a forum on Ethics: Social Responsibility and Higher Education.
Boxes 13, 14a, and 14b
Subseries 4.3: Interim Presidency. 1993-2000; n.d. 19 folders
This subseries consist mainly of some of the major documents of Ladner’s interim presidency. Prominent among them are the transition committee documents; reports from the Vice President for Business; University restructuring documents; an analysis of the university’s personnel and financial crisis; and correspondence and documents related to a search for a permanent president. Included as well are ceremonial programs of the visit of Nelson Mandela to the campus; speeches and articles concerning the financial and personnel crisis at Howard; and copies of speeches that Ladner, as the university president, delivered both on the University campus and throughout the larger community of Washington, D. C.
Box 15, folders 1-19
Subseries 4.4: Howard University: Public Relations. 1984-2001; n.d. 23 folders
This subseries consists of articles, correspondence, magazines, newsletters and public information related to events and programs at Howard University during the period 1984-2001. The majority of these publications were produced by the public affairs department of the university and include issues of the Capstone (1992-1995) as well as the Journal of Negro Education. In addition to these major publications, there is a copy of a work by Harry G. Robinson, In the Bosom of the Capstone, a study of a family and its involvement in the life at Howard from the founding of the institution to the 1980s.
Box 15, folders 20-36
Box 16, folders 1-5
Subseries 4.5: Legal Affairs. 1984-1998. 9 folders
Included in this subseries are copies of legal documents, some are from lawsuits brought against Howard during Ladner’s presidency.
Box 16, folders 6-14
Series 5: Brookings Institution. 1990-2003; n.d. 6 Boxes
This series contains correspondence, administrative documents, project reports, interviews, biographies of national leaders, and other materials associated with Ladner’s work in urban affairs at the Brookings Institution. Some of the projects deal with continuing problems found in American urban areas, but the major focus of this series is Ladner’s examination of new urban leaders. Through interviews and analyses Ladner examines the work of these new urban leaders and presents her conclusions in a volume, The New Urban Leadership.
Boxes 17-20b
Series 6: Teaching Positions at Georgetown and George Washington Universities. 1996-2002; n.d. 1 box
This series contains administrative documents, examinations, student papers, and other course materials related to Ladner’s teaching positions at the Georgetown and George Washington Universities in Washington, D. C. The courses were primarily focused on race relations, public policy and urban problems. The papers and presentations reflect a variety of views of students at that time.
Box 21
Series 7: Consultant Positions. 1972-2003. 2 boxes
This series contains contractual agreements, testimonies, conference materials and general articles associated with Ladner’s involvement as a consultant with many different issues throughout the nation, such as teen pregnancies, crime in urban areas, and other social problems of the economically disadvantaged. Her consultancies included serving as a defense witness in a criminal trial; participating in panel discussions on the roots of crime; discussing diversity with business and industrial leaders; and serving as the director for studies of teen pregnancies in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D. C. The bulk of the material in this series concerns her work with various panels and commissions investigating the problems associated with teen-aged pregnancy in Washington, D. C. and Baltimore.
Box 22a and 22b
Series 8: District of Columbia Financial Control Board and Commission of Juvenile Justice. 1985-2002; n.d. 4 boxes
This series contains materials concerning the District of Columbia Control Board. Most of the materials are official Federal documents or District of Columbia official documents. Since Ladner’s position on the Board dealt with the plight of the public school system and human services within the city, much of the series documents the problems, progress, and projections for these areas. An extensive examination of Children In Crisis: A Report on the State of Education in the District of Columbia and the role of Charter schools in the D. C. public school system can be found in this series. There are limited reports on the status of juvenile justice.
Boxes 23-26
Series 9 Written Works and Speeches by Ladner and Associates. 1931; 1964-2003; n.d. 8 boxes
Subseries 9.1: Written Works Authored by Ladner and Co-Authored with Others. 1965-2003; n.d. 4 boxes
This subseries contains works on racial and social problems authored by Ladner or coauthored with other writers. These are major works or drafts of major works. Some of the works are chronologically arranged, others that are not clearly dated, are alphabetically arranged by title. The topics covered in these works extend from Ladner’s concern with the black woman in poverty, as seen in her major work, Tomorrow’s, Tomorrow, to her examination of the black family, teenage pregnancy, the problems of urban areas, the difficulties of endemic poverty, and the effects of racism on blacks and whites. The associates who collaborated with Ladner in many of these works include sociologists Walter Stafford and Peter Edelman. Together they explore many different subjects in the field of sociology, such as matriarchy, crime and poverty, race and sex, and sociological literature. There are extensive drafts and notes on Black Power In Mississippi. Aside from her professional writings, Ladner’s attempts at writing fiction are found in undated manuscripts in this series. Included are speeches delivered by Ladner throughout her career. The topics for these speeches follow the same pattern as those of her writings.
Boxes 27-30
Subseries 9.2: Ties that Bind, a Book on Values and Other Autobiographical Writings and Drafts. 1994-2000; n.d. 2 boxes
This subseries contains a collection of drafts, notes, and the finished copy of one of the final works by Ladner in which she takes a look at her family and community. In the work she explores the foundation of the values that affected her and helped to create families and communities like hers. The book’s development is reflected in this series, including the proposals for the manuscript, the contractual negotiations, and the final reviews. In addition to her autobiographical writings, Ladner’s work includes examinations of the breakdown of families in the black communities, the loss of values, and the needs for community cooperation to handle problems.
Boxes 31-32
Subseries 9.3: Written Works Done by Others, Dated and Undated. 1931; 1964-2002. 2 boxes
This subseries contains writings done by other scholars, such as Andrew Billingsley, Julian Bond, Mary Wright Edleman, Marita Golden, K. C. Morrison, Charles Payne, Alvin Poussaint, and Walter Stafford. These scholars were Ladner’s co-authors, had some close affiliation with her, or wrote about topics or issues that held her interest. Most of the writings covered the fields of the black family, civil rights, or urban issues.
Box 33-34
Series 10: Research Materials. 1965-2002; n.d. 2 boxes
This series contains a collection of articles, magazines, newsletters, and newspapers, from such sources as the American Sociological Review, Journal of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Essence. They cover nearly all the topics that were important to Ladner. The research materials are arranged alphabetically by topic within each box.
Boxes 35-36
Series 11: Miscellaneous Materials. 1955; 1970-2002; n.d. 2 boxes
This series contains materials randomly acquired by Ladner about different issues. The materials include articles, brochures, lists and notes. The articles cover general topics, such as family issues and educational concerns. The notes reflect Ladner’s thinking about issues and form a part of some her later writings. The series is arranged alphabetically by topic within each box.
Boxes 37-38
Series 12: Books, Journals and Pamphlets for Background Reading and Study. 1948; 1963-2003; n.d. 2 boxes
This series contains sets of books, journals, and pamphlets that formed a part of Ladner’s personal library. The books cover a variety of issues, some that are directly connected with her work, such as Black Power, by Stokely Carmichael; and some that are related to her general interests, such as Selections of Writings and Speeches, by Julius Nyerere and Direct Score, by Don Lee.
Boxes 39-40
Series 13: Newspaper Clippings. 1963-2003; n. d. 1 box
This series contains photocopies of newspaper and magazine clippings collected by Ladner. Some are about Ladner’s work and accomplishments, particularly her work as the interim president of Howard University. Others are by Ladner, such as her articles written for the Washington Post. There are copies of her series on teen-aged pregnancy written for the Post in 1986. Included in this series as well is a chronicle of events in Ebony Magazine about the March On Washington in 1963.
Box 41
Series 14: Photographs, Audiotapes and Videotapes. 1947; 1962-2002; n. d. 9 boxes
This series contains photographs of family, friends and distinguished personalities who have been a part of Ladner’s life and career. The photographs include those of President and Mrs. Bill Clinton; Nelson Mandela; Ted Turner and his then wife; Jane Fonda, Margaret Walker Alexander; Corretta Scott King; and others. The audiotapes and videotapes reflect various activities of Ladner’s life and career, and include interviews done with prominent Civil Rights activists, such as Kent Amos and Anne Moody. Also included are posters and broadsides depicting events such as lectures by Ladner, conferences, and Angela Davis’ wanted poster.
Boxes 42-48
Series 15: Restricted Materials. 4 boxes
This series contains materials that are restricted. They contain privacy-sensitive documents, original materials that have been copied, and duplicate interviews of civil rights veterans.
Boxes 49-52