Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Executive director of the Detroit Urban League, 1960-1978; general chronological files, topical files, correspondence, speeches, personal, Detroit Urban League materials, and other organizational activities files.

The papers of Francis A. Kornegay document four decades of service with the Detroit Urban League. These files which Kornegay categorized as personal and thus kept separate from the records of the Detroit Urban League which are also housed at the Bentley Library are a mixture of Urban League and non-Urban League related materials. The researcher interested in either Kornegay or the history of the Detroit Urban League during the Kornegay years (1944-1978) will need to examine both collections for relevant materials.

The Kornegay papers came to the library in two major accessions both of which required extensive processing. The two accessions were not interfiled, thus there are some files that might properly be placed elsewhere within the collection. The files received in 1977 (boxes 13-18) consisted primarily of materials which were generated after the initial papers were received and files which were active at the time of the initial deposit of material in 1969. The series received in 1969 were titled General Chronological and Topical Files. The materials received in 1977 were processed into five series: Correspondence, Speeches, Personal, Detroit Urban League, and Organizational Affiliations. On its surface, these appear to be six distinct series. On examination, however, there are some materials that could have been grouped together if the two accessions had been interfiled. The Correspondence series could have been interfiled with the General Chronological, for example; or the Detroit Urban League files to be found within the Topical Files series could have been placed with the Detroit Urban League series. The finding aid is small enough that the researcher should be able to locate similar files within the six series.

Managing editor of the Detroit Free Press, president of the Michigan Press Association, 1969, and national treasurer of Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalism society. Activities and topical files; speeches; papers concerning work on Cooley High School Community Council, Detroit, Michigan, files concerning Detroit race relations and the Detroit riot of 1967; papers relating to Detroit Press Club; and photographs.

The Frank Angelo papers document his career in journalism, as editor of the Detroit Free Press, his professional and community activities. The Angelo papers came to the library in several accession which have been integrated in this description.

The last will and testament of Horace H. Rackham provided for the establishment of a trust fund to provide for the health and welfare of individuals, particularly the sick, aged, the young, the poor, and other underprivileged. Much of the trust money went to the University of Michigan to be used for a building for the graduate school and an endowment to be used for different kinds of research. The Fund also awarded grants to agencies involved in child welfare, community culture, education, health, philanthropy, and science. The Fund distributed money from 1934 until about 1941. The series in this record group consist of administrative and executive files, and project applications and grant files.

The records of the Horace H. Rackham and Mary A. Rackham Fund document the continuing generosity of Horace Rackham and Mary Rackham to numerous charitable, educational, and scientific organizations and causes. The records contain the files of the Fund's trustees and directors and provide insight and information about such topics as the administration of a philanthropic fund-giving organization during the mid-1930s, the kinds of gifts made, the relationship among the Fund's trustees and officers, and the relationship between the Fund and the grant recipients. Because of the size of the gift, most of the documentation within the record group details the close ties between the Fund and the University of Michigan. These files concern not only the establishment of the Rackham endowment to the University, but also the different scientific and educational grants made. Additionally, these files detail the construction of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies building in Ann Arbor and the Rackham Educational Memorial building in Detroit.

The records of the Fund cover the period of 1929-1950 though they bulk largest for the period of the Fund's greatest activity, 1934-1940. The record group has been separated into two series: Combined Administrative and Executive Office Files and Project applications/grants.