Robert and Anita Stein papers

1963-1977

In 1963 Robert Stein, a member of the American Ethical Union (of the Ethical Culture Society) was made Field Manager for the Chicago Ethical Society's Commission on Race and Equality. As part of Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Commission worked to eliminate bigotry in the South by having African Americans and whites interact in social settings. The commission therefore sponsored "Creative Inter-Racial Recreational Programs" such as Inter-Racial Vacations (summer camps in the North for Southern African American children), tutorial programs and remedial classes for adult African Americans and whites. Begun in the summer of 1963, the programs continued until 1977, when loss of money and camp sites put an end to these activities. The Robert and Anita Stein Papers document the efforts of the American Ethical Union to further interracial harmony in the South through social interaction: seminars, tutorial programs and summer camps for African American children. The papers consist mainly of evaluations submitted by staff members for the summer projects in Mississippi and Alabama. Also included are camp yearbooks, staff and camper responses to the program, and an interview with Robert Stein after his 1963 fact-finding trip to Birmingham, Alabama. Additionally,there is correspondence and budgetary records as well as camp brochures, year-end reports, news clippings and curricula for the tutorial program and adult seminars. Included are newspapers such as the Alabama Council Newsletter published by the Alabama Council on Human Relations, the Birmingham News, the Tuskeegee News and New America.