John Usher Monro Papers (T/025)
Collection Details:
Collection Name and Number: John Usher Monro Papers (T/025).
Creator/Collector: John Usher Monro; and others.
Date(s): 1929-2002, bulk 1968-1996.
Size: 8.00 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: Tougaloo College staff; Finding Aid by MDAH staff, J.L. Hocking, 2005.
Provenance: Gift of Richard Johnson of Tougaloo, MS, to Tougaloo College in 2000.
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. Boxes 10, 11, 12 and 13 are restricted.
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: John Usher Monro Papers (T/025), Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.
Biography:
John Usher Monro
John Usher Monro was born to Claxton and Frances Sutton Monro on December 23, 1912, in North Andover, Massachusetts. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover on scholarship, graduating in 1930. He also received a scholarship to Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1934, with a degree in history. In 1936, he married Dorothy Stevens Foster. They had two children, Alice and Janet. Dorothy Monro died in March of 1984.
John Monro worked as a reporter at the beginning of his career, both for the Harvard News (1934-1941) and for the Boston Evening Transcript (1936-1941). He served in the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1946, seeing three years of combat experience in the Pacific and winning the Bronze Star. He retired from the Navy with the rank of captain. After the war, he returned to Harvard and served as counselor to veterans (1946-1951), assistant to the provost (1948-1952), director of the financial aid office (1950-1957), as well as teaching general education and freshman English in both Harvard College and Harvard University Extension (1951-1967). As director of the financial aid office, he founded the College Scholarship Service to improve financial aid policy. In 1957, he became dean of Harvard College, a position he held until 1967.
A 1962 meeting with Lucius Pitts, president of Miles College, an unaccredited historically black college near Birmingham, Alabama, sparked Monro’s interest in Miles College. Monro spent three summers at Miles as a volunteer English composition teacher. In 1967, he left his Harvard position to teach English and serve as director of Freshman Studies at Miles College. He stayed at Miles until 1978 when he joined Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Madison County, Mississippi, as professor of writing. In 1984, he took over administration of the Tougaloo College Writing Center. Monro became professor emeritus at Tougaloo in 1991 and retired in 1996.
In addition to his teaching duties, Monro served on the board of directors of Phillips Academy, Tougaloo College, the College Entrance Examination Board, the National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students, the Southern Education Foundation, and on the board of overseers for Harvard University. He held honorary degrees from Amherst (Amherst, MA), Brandeis (Waltham/Boston, MA), Carleton (Northfield, MN), Columbia (New York, NY), Harvard (Cambridge, MA), Holy Cross (Worcester, MA), Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), Miles (Birmingham, AL), Manhattanville (Purchase, NY), Oglethorpe (Atlanta, GA), Wesleyan (Middletown, CT) and Wooster (Wooster, OH). John Monro died in LaVerne, California, on March 29, 2002, at the age of eighty-nine.
Scope and Content Note:
This collection consists of personal papers; correspondence; academic material from Harvard, Miles College, and Tougaloo College; material relating to national associations; written works; and published information documenting the career of John Usher Monro. The collection primarily covers his tenure at Tougaloo College. The personal papers contain correspondence and photographs.
Series Identification:
Series 1: Personal Papers. 1929-2002; n.d. 1 box.
This series contains the personal papers of Monro. Included in the series are personal correspondence, news clippings, and photographs, including portraits and childhood photographs.
Box 1
Series 2: Correspondence. 1968-1996; n.d. 47 folders.
Subseries 2.1: General Correspondence. 1974-1996; n.d. 18 folders.
This subseries contains general correspondence. Much of the correspondence refers to administrative matters at Tougaloo. The material is arranged chronologically.
Box 2, folders 1-18
Subseries 2.2: Specific Correspondence. 1968-1996; n.d. 29 folders.
This majority of the correspondence in this subseries is related to the Tougaloo faculty. Of note is Monro’s correspondence with the Academic Standing Committee, with various education program committees at Tougaloo, and with the Tougaloo presidents. Also included in the subseries is correspondence with several Harvard visiting committees.
Box 2, folders 19-47
Series 3: Harvard College. 1973-1995; n.d. 12 folders.
This series contains documents reflecting Monro’s continued involvement with Harvard College, specifically with several committees having to do with the Continuing Education and University Extension departments.
Box 2, folders 48-50
Box 14, folders 1-9
Series 4: Miles College. 1971-1992; n.d. 2 folders.
This series contains newspaper articles on Miles College, material on various programs at the college, and some of Monro’s vocabulary lists from Miles.
Box 14, folders 10-11
Series 5: Tougaloo College. 1968-1998; n.d. 5 boxes.
Subseries 5.1: Board of Trustees. 1982-1996; n.d. 2 folders.
This subseries contains notes Monro took at board of trustees meetings and reports of the board of trustees.
Box 3, folders 1-2
Subseries 5.2: Administration and School Planning. 1978-1996 n.d. 30 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence, meeting minutes, and reports relating to budgetary issues, curriculum planning and grant proposals. Included is a self-study analysis done at Tougaloo.
Box 3, folders 3-32
Subseries 5.3: Faculty. 1978-1997; n.d. 43 folders.
This subseries contains correspondence, meeting minutes, and reports reflecting Monro’s involvement with general faculty matters, the Humanities Division, the English Department and the Mathematics Department.
Box 3, folders 33-66
Box 14, folders 12-20
Subseries 5.4: Committees and Task Forces. 1979-1996; n.d. 12 folders.
This subseries contains material from the many committees and task forces on which Monro served while at Tougaloo, including the General Education Task Force, Mission Involvement, the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning (IRAP), and the Writing Task Force (later known as the Commission on Writing and the Writing Commission).
Box 4, folders 1-3
Box 14, folders 21-29
Subseries 5.5: Writing Center. 1972-1997; n.d. 27 folders.
This subseries contains material relating to work Monro did at the Writing Center. At the Writing Center, Monro helped prepare students for tests such as the Tougaloo English Proficiency Exam and the Graduate Records Exam; oversaw the English Proficiency Exam; and developed the Senior Research Paper Handbook.
Box 4, folders 4-30
Subseries 5.6: Teaching. 1978-1995; n.d. 143 folders.
This subseries contains class material and notes from Monro’s courses in the Basic Studies Division; the Invitation to Learning program (also known as Core Course, Freshman Core Course, and SEEC); the Summer Science Program; English Department; and the Mathematics Department, including the Mississippi Secondary School Mathematics Institute. The English Department materials are arranged by year and course.
Box 4, folders 31-53
Box 5, folders 1-68
Box 6, folders 1-38
Box 14, folders 30-43
Subseries 5.7: Academic Events. 1968-1998; n.d. 27 folders.
This subseries contains general Tougaloo material, including information on various conferences, programs, and seminars held at the college.
Box 6, folders 39-44
Box 7, folders 1-21
Series 6: Associations. 1979-1997; n.d. 12 folders.
This subseries contains material from Monro’s involvement with national associations including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the College Board, and the Southern Education Foundation.
Box 7, folders 22-33
Series 7: Written works. 1959-1996; n.d. 149 folders.
Subseries 7.1: Written Works and Speeches by Monro. 1962-1994; n.d. 48 folders.
This subseries contains articles and the texts of speeches by Monro. This subseries is arranged chronologically.
Box 7, folders 34-66
Box 9, folders 41-55
Subseries 7.2: Works by Others. 1959-1996; n.d. 101 folders.
The majority of articles and reports in this subseries deal with education. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by author and then by title if the name of the author is not provided.
Box 8, folders 1-60
Box 9, folders 56-96
Series 8: Published Information. 1956-1997; n.d. 40 folders.
This series contains news clippings, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets collected by Monro. Much of the material is related to education. The news clippings are arranged by subject. The articles and journals are arranged by title.
Box 9, folders 1-40
Series 9: Restricted Material and Duplicates. 4 boxes.
This series contains Academic Standing Committee material, graded papers, student writing, restricted personal material and duplicate material.
Boxes 10-13 (Restricted)