Alfred Baker Lewis papers

The papers of insurance executive, union organizer, author, and Treasurer and Board Member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Alfred Baker Lewis consist principally of letters to the editor, which broadcast his views on race relations, as well as social and economic policy in the United States. Other materials in the collection include correspondence, press releases, and writings.

Letters to the editor from Alfred Baker Lewis to newspapers throughout the United States, as well as newspaper clippings of published letters, constitute the bulk of this collection. Most letters are from the 1960s and 1970s, and topics include civil rights legislation and other contemporary events, American politics, his progressive opinions on social and economic policy, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and health care. Several of his letters to the editor were written to local newspapers in the Deep South during his frequent NAACP branch tours, as well as local newspapers in his home state of Connecticut. Lewis was a strong critic of Black Power, a frequent theme of his letters to the editor and other writings. Also included in the collection are responses to Lewis' letters to the editor from both editors and readers. Other letters to the editor chronicle a lengthy war of ideas between Lewis and columnist Westbrook Pegler.

Other materials in the collection include general correspondence, press releases, writings, and other formats. In partnership with the Amistad Research Center, Lewis sent three-page questionnaires to African American political leaders in Alabama and Illinois on various motivations and influences in their respective political careers. Lewis received responses from several prominent leaders, including Charles Rangel, Charles Gomillion, George W. Collins, Harold Washington, Edward Brooke, Louis Stokes, and Shirley Chisholm.

Most press releases are authored by Lewis, and here, as with several of the letters to the editor, he identifies himself as "National Treasurer Emeritus" of the NAACP. Press releases, newspaper articles, and short travel diaries document Lewis' frequent tours to branches of the NAACP, particularly in rural areas of the South.

Items reflecting Lewis' personal life include photographs, biographical sketches, ephemera from his 1972 campaign for Connecticut State Senate, and newspaper articles. Of interest are articles and responses to those articles on Lewis' facilitation of the assisted suicide of his wife, Eileen.