Charles J. Hatfield papers

The papers of educator, union organizer, and civil rights activist Charles J. Hatfield Jr. document his life and career, as well as aspects of his family history. The collection includes correspondence; photographs; family records; financial, school, and military records; newspaper clippings; video cassettes; and writings/speeches by Hatfield. Hatfield's legal pursuits to integrate the Louisiana State University Law School, as well as his later teaching career, are documented within the collection.

The collection includes records pertaining to Hatfield's parents, Charles Sr. and Mary Hatfield, and maternal parents, Richard and Ann Douse. Tax records (1872) and a Masonic resolution (1879), as well as photocopies of Civil War muster rolls, for Richard Douse are present, as are materials related to the death of Ann Douse in 1917. Records regarding Hatfield's parents include a 1911 warranty deed between Titan D. and Aladia D. Duplantier of Cicero, Illinois, and Charles Sr. for land in Lakeview, Oregon, as well as an 1898 school certificate for Mary Douse (Hatfield) from the Sisters of the Holy Family Academy in New Orleans. Two pages from a family Bible recording births and deaths in the family are also present.

The majority of the correspondence in the collection regards Hatfield's teaching career and is comprised of letters to and from various New Orleans school administrators, members of the Orleans Parish School Board, and Louisiana state education officials. Another group of letters reflects Hatfield's efforts toward the publication of his book "Civilization over the Horizon," and includes letters to a various publishing houses and editors. Correspondents include: Edward Adams, B. K. Agnihotri, M. J. Becnel, Doris L. Cade, Bill Clinton, M.D. Coghill, Thomas J. Cole Jr., U.S. Representative John Conyers Jr., Helen J. Cumbo, James E. Dean Jr., James DeLee, Freda DePolitte, Annabelle Dutton, Edwin W. Edwards, Phillys S. Foner, James Gill, William Gill, Al Gore, W. E. Groves, N.B. Hackett, James. P. Hadley Jr., George W. Healy Jr., Alfred B. Hebeisen, J.J. Hedgemon, Thomas Hoover, Mort. M. Horowitz, J. Harvey Korns, Glenn Labbe, Willie Le Beau, B. Leiter, Anna Judge Veters Levy, Martin Littlefield, John F. Monie, Arthur Morell, Revius Ortique, Sidney J. Parfait, William C. Petersen, John D. Reid, David Selden, M. U. Sheldon, Lamar Smith, Leon R. Tarver II, G. H. Taylor, Henry Williams, and Evelyn L. Wilson.

Photographs include one of Hatfield and one taken during a Xavier University reunion in 1971. Personal records include Hatfield's school, military, and financial records. Materials related to Hatfield's efforts to enter the law school at Louisiana State University include photocopies of legal records related to his lawsuit, as well as newspaper clippings and correspondence from a scrapbook. The latter includes a January 25, 1945, letter from Hatfield to the LSU registrar and an agreement signed by Hatfield engaging the services of A.P. Tureaud and Joseph A. Thornton as his attorneys. Additional materials relate to Hatfield's work with the American Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana AFL-CIO, as well as Xavier University reunion materials and the Southern University Law Center.

A typescript of Hatfield's book "Civilization over the Horizon" is present. The book, which does not seem to have been published, dealt with the topic of society and societal institutions. Collected newspaper clippings cover a variety of civil rights and discrimination issues, as well as the lives of Hatfield, Oscar J. Dunn, and Thurgood Marshall. A 1950 political circular by Malcom Lefargue on the topic of Russell Long's views on African American voter registration is present. Public relations videos on Southern University Law Center, as well as an interview of Hatfield by Al Kennedy, complete the collection.