Director's Statement: Plan of Coordination, 1943

Included in the correspondence are requests for recommendations, publications, and information on race relations or the Black experience. Also, there are interdepartmental items, correspondence with personnel of the American Missionary Association at the New York headquarters, and letters to or from organizations and individuals having a similar interest. Of special note is data about the early organizational format of the department, plans of coordination, lists of staff personnel, and descriptions of the program of the department. A 1948 letter from Long to his graduate dean at the University of Michigan gives a concise summary of the work of the department.

The interagency correspondence included in the collection amply documents the status enjoyed by the department and its personnel. Not only did it address itself to the improvement of relationships in the totality of life in this country by sponsoring activities at Fisk and designed to attract persons working in related fields, but it also engaged in outreach programs and sent its staff into the field. Cities and communities seeking solutions to specific problems could appeal to the department for guidance in techniques. The scope of the department's work may be glimpsed in greater detail through this segment of the collection. Urban and rural areas were represented in the sphere of the department's interest; men and women were represented on its staff and among its invited guests. The interracial and inter-ethnic nature of the staff contributed to its program. The interagency correspondents included such organizations as the Committee on Civil Rights in East Manhattan (later CCRM), the Los Angeles Committee on Human Relations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the President's Commission on Government Contracts, National Committee against Discrimination in Housing (NCDH), and National Association of Human Rights Workers (NAHRW formerly the National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials NAIRO).