New Orleans Improvement League records

The New Orleans Improvement League was a civil rights organization founded on Thursday, June 21, 1956, to supplement the objectives of the NAACP, which was banned from operating in Louisiana by a state court order. Members included Dr. W.R. Adams, Rev. G.N. Collins, A.L. Davis, Arthur J. Chapital Sr., Revius Ortique, Leonard Burns, C.C. Dejoie Jr., and other prominent New Orleanians. The collection consist of the organization's constitution and by-laws; correspondence; minutes of the executive committee, nominating committee, and legal redress committee, as well as general league meetings; financial reports; and membership lists. This collection also includes a study entitled "Some Tangible Inequalities within the New Orleans Public Schools", which presented statistical information to the public about overcrowded facilities of Black schools and unjust shortages of African American educators. Also present are documents related to the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, collected programs of local civil rights organizations, and a flyer for a 1957 speaking engagement in New Orleans featuring Martin Luther King Jr.