1 ft.

MSS 4

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Henry C. Patterson, humanitarian and Civil Rights Advocate, was the first Philadelphia Director of the United Negro College Fund.  His personal and professional life was dedicated to improving the life of minority groups in America.  As an officer of the War Relocation Authority, he concerned himself with the Japanese internment during the Second World War.  He was a member of the Republican Party and used his influence with elected officials to lobby for the benefit of the Negro.  He was also an active member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Philadelphia Chapter, and Swarthmore Friends Meeting.

PROVENANCE

Gift of Mrs. Henry Patterson, March 21, 1974.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection contains some Xerox copies as well as the original correspondence of Henry C. Patterson, most of which is typescript.  Topics include Negro education in America (solicitations for funds for Lincoln University in Pennsylvania), Patterson's urgings for integration of the United States Navy, and his support for John F. Kennedy's civil rights stand.  Also featured is personal correspondence with Whittaker Chambers in which Patterson applauds Chambers's courage in the Alger Hiss Case.  The Patterson Collection also houses correspondence with and about Vice-President Richard M. Nixon (1953-1960) regarding political matters, the future of the Republican Party, and the career of Harold Stassen.  There is also correspondence between Patterson and Wendell Wilkie in which Patterson advises Wilkie on how to win the vote of the Negro.  Patterson's papers also include those generated during his years of service with the War Relocation Authority (1943-1948) in which he expresses his support for the compensation of Japanese-Americans.

The box list of the Register of the Papers of Henry C. Patterson is three pages long.