Brenetta Howell Barrett Papers

Biographical Note

As a Black woman who lived most of her life on Chicago's West Side, Brenetta Howell Barrett spent more than sixty years working to bring civil liberties, equal rights, and economic justice to her neighborhood, her city of Chicago, and her world. She recognized the issues afflicting her community, whether the problem was segregated schools, job discrimination, or the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She flourished as an activist, grammar school parent, journalist, community organizer, political candidate, fundraiser, agency executive, and nonprofit board member. Barrett's special gift involved bringing diverse constituencies together so that grassroots people, government officials, and board members could mutually solve problems.

Born Brenetta Pearl Brooks in Chicago on 1932 June 28, she grew up at 43^rd and Lawrence with her six sisters in the South Side home of her parents, Barissa ("B.B.") and Arthemise Butler Brooks. Her musically gifted mother supported gender and racial empowerment through a number of organizations, as well as campaigning for progressive candidates. Her father, a self-employed contractor and custodian, was a locally admired skilled craftsman who gave Brenetta hands-on guidance in business entrepreneurship. As "the world's greatest listener and watcher," Barrett quickly mastered her grammar-school curriculum at Forestville Elementary School, even skipping a grade. Just after she enrolled at DuSable High School, she experienced a life-changing event. She attended a school assembly performance by singer and activist Paul Robeson. Robeson's inspiring, masterful presentation of his global musical repertoire lifted her far above the racial divisions of 1940s Chicago, to a universal spiritual ideal. Barrett credits this new awareness with guiding her life work.

Eager to pursue a career in journalism, Barrett joined the school newspaper staff. Before leaving DuSable she turned to another career interest, medicine, and completed several classes at Century College of Medical Technology in Chicago. She continued at St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing in Kankakee, Illinois until lack of funding and local racism caused her to stop. In her late teens Barrett decided to answer an ad for an apartment in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side. She moved there and quickly established Chicago's West Side as her lifelong home. In 1951 she married Jesse L. Howell. By June 1959 their family numbered four children: Cynthia Therese, Abiiba Sharonne Marie, Kevin Lawrence, and Viveca Lynne.

During the 1950s Barrett also created the foundations for her multiple careers in journalism, social welfare, and independent politics, while sharpening her talent for community organization and fundraising. In 1956 she joined the social group work staff at Marcy Center Settlement House in North Lawndale. The next year, she was hired as a reporter by Augustus "Gus" Savage, publisher of the Lawndale Booster, where she soon was given responsibility for editing, writing a column, and carrying out the paper's community organization initiatives. In 1961 she spent a year as Attorney Chester L. Blair's legal secretary and began working for the Chicago Urban League as field secretary for voter registration.

Jesse and Brenetta Howell divorced in 1968. By that time she had already been forced to support her children by becoming a public welfare recipient. But locating on the West Side had placed Brenetta Howell (Barrett) in the heart of Chicago's civil rights movement. The West Side was home to thousands of African Americans from Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama. They came to Chicago seeking economic opportunity and full citizenship but instead found overcrowded and segregated schools, job discrimination, and government corruption.

As her children entered public grammar school Barrett quickly stepped into PTA leadership roles. She then organized Westside Parents Council for Integrated Schools. This protest group participated in the citywide movement to fight overcrowding created by the Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Benjamin Willis' segregationist policies. Despite her status as a "welfare mom," Barrett played key leadership roles along with Al Raby, Bennett Johnson, Timuel Black, Jesse Jackson, and other founders of the Chicago Freedom Movement, a civil rights coalition of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO). She also worked with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

As Chicago regional director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1964-1968), Barrett worked to create national NAACP support for these local struggles. In 1963 she was one of the founders of Chicago's Protest at the Polls organization, which promoted voter registration and independent political candidates as part of the national civil rights struggle. Barrett herself then ran for Congress in an effort to dislodge the white Democratic Party Machine incumbent--and lost, despite the latter's death days before the election.

In 1965 Barrett joined the staff of the Chicago Economic Development Corporation (CEDCO), a nonprofit formed by business leaders to help minority businesses qualify for federally funded contracts. As manager of CEDCO's West Side branch, Barrett helped establish training programs and application procedures for contractors and other local business owners. Her West Side branch soon produced nearly 70 per cent of four branches' total service output. Barrett also organized and obtained funding for the West Side Builders Association (1967), Chicago's first successful organization of Black construction contractors. She also addressed the inadequate public transportation situation on the West Side by co-founding the Chicago Independent Transportation Survey. This research group produced detailed reports of both jitney and "gypsy" taxicab operations there, with recommendations for mainstreaming them to benefit both consumers and the industry.

In the forefront of the struggle for gender equality, Barrett joined with Doris Saunders, Lenora Cartwright, Theresa F. Hooks, Jorja English [Palmer], Nancy Jefferson, and Edith Sampson to found Black Sisters United. She also co-founded the League of Black Women. Barrett joined forces in the 1970s with Citizens for Medical Control of Abortion and the Abortion Rights Association to lay groundwork for the Roe vs. Wade effort. By 1970 she also had launched her own company, "Affairs Unlimited," an event planning business that organized fundraisers, galas, and award programs. In 1970 she married Marvin Barrett; the couple later divorced.

Following her early work on the Lawndale Booster, Barrett moved on to serve several other local newspapers as news reporter, columnist, or editor, including the Austin Voice, Chicago Enterprise, Muhammad Speaks, the Star, West Side Gazette, and West Town Journal. As West Side Editor, she managed the Chicago Daily Defender's West Side Office, from which she contributed her weekly West Side news column (1964). In 1969 she became vice-president of Path Press, a Chicago-based publisher of important African American works founded by her Booster colleague Bennett Johnson and Herman C. Gilbert.

In 1972 Barrett campaigned successfully for her New Chicago Delegation seat at the Democratic National Convention. She was the only delegate from Illinois pledged to Congresswoman and U.S. Presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm. The next year newly elected Illinois Governor Daniel Walker appointed her to his cabinet. Barrett served as Director of the Governor's Office of Human Resources (not the state's personnel office). She headed multiple programs outside of the city of Chicago concerned with minority business enterprise, equal economic opportunity, and public health, all derived from federal funding mandates. In 1975, Barrett became the first executive director of the Chicago Black United Fund, created within the National Black United Fund to offer fundraising and grant support to nonprofit organizations in the African American community.

Active on the Committee for a Black Mayor, Barrett helped Gus Savage persuade State Senator Harold Washington to launch his first mayoral campaign in 1976. Barrett handled Washington's campaign scheduling, fundraising, and publicity. She organized supporters through the West Side Coalition for Unity and Political Action. Washington's 1977 race, though unsuccessful, was the foundation for his election in 1983.

During the 1970s Barrett continued to assist new advocacy organizations with West Side roots, including Introspect Youth Services (providing access to higher education opportunities), and Sally Johnson's Magic, Inc. (offering training and job placement in construction trades for Midwest women). She was an early member of the Westside Association for Community Action (WACA). As vice-president of the Third World Conference she worked with president and founder Roger K. Oden to provide an annual conference for international members to meet, including students.

When the 28^th Ward Alderman died in office in 1980, Barrett filed suit to force an interim election in order to restore City Council representation to the ward's constituents. She ran for the opening unsuccessfully as independent candidate. That year she also managed her colleague Gus Savage's winning congressional campaign. As administrator and director of Savage's 2^nd Illinois Congressional District Office, she worked with the Congressional Black Caucus on issues of economic empowerment and equal employment opportunity.

In 1982 Globetrotters Engineering Corporation (GEC) engaged Barrett to foster minority business entrepreneurship by providing training in business and contract application procedures. She first headed the Gary (Indiana) Minority Business Development Center, and, as GEC vice president, oversaw the management consulting division in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. In 1983 and 1987 Barrett was a close advisor to Harold Washington in his campaigns for mayor. As Chicago's first African American mayor, Washington appointed Barrett to the Private Industry Council of Chicago in 1986, and then named her Commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Consumer Services. Barrett served a tumultuous term under Washington and his successor, Mayor Eugene Sawyer (1987-1989). As Commissioner she was responsible for city licensing, inspection, and legislation to protect transportation, food, and the environment. She is remembered for the thousands of new taxicab medallions made available to independent taxicab drivers, and for enforcing food safety regulations. She also trained inspectors and taxi drivers, expanded local farmers markets, and fought industry resistance to toxic waste cleanup.

The 1990s brought together Barrett's lifelong interest in health-related issues and belief in grassroots community organization. In 1991 she became assistant to the executive director of the Bobby E. Wright Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center. To this locally based West Side facility Barrett provided access to fundraising, training, and vigorous public relations. Through her active membership in the Third Unitarian Church, in the West Side's Austin neighborhood, she recruited support for local West Side initiatives involving health and violence issues. Through the church's popular "Forum" series she helped promote dialogue on current issues of international importance. Barrett founded the National Association of Black Consumer Organizations, with a particular focus on reducing health-threatening violence created in, and directed against, the Black community. In the mid-1990s she was hired as executive director of the Illinois branch of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).

In the 1990s, the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic spread through the West Side's neighborhoods. Harriet Tubman Place, a local organization that provided HIV/AIDS support services to teens and young adults from GLBT sexual minorities, named Barrett Chief Operating Officer to boost funding and outreach. In 1998 Barrett established and directed Pathfinders Prevention Education Fund (PPEF) to provide grant funding and professional support to local West Side organizations involved in fighting HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and related issues of youth violence, drug addiction, and poor nutrition. In 1998 Barrett entered the race for Cook County Commissioner, drawing attention to the need for countywide cooperation in the fight against HIV/AIDS and other public health issues.

The New Millennium found her characteristically involved with another local organization, Operation Salvation that secured use of empty space in Austin Community Academy High School to offer at-risk youth classes in life skills needed for adulthood. Through her work with PPEF, Barrett was appointed to the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission. After 2000 she maintained active roles in many voluntary organizations addressing issues with which she had always been deeply involved. Those include the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, the Third Unitarian Church, the Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, and the Westside HIV/AIDS Regional Planning Council (WHARP). Barrett continued to write for the Voice newspapers and to collaborate with Voice initiatives, such as the Community Builders Luncheon awards.

Barrett never pursued an academic path to prominence. She selected a wide array of formal and informal course offerings in business, journalism, law, social welfare, and health promotion while building a strong network of friends who were local scholars and activists. Barrett described this strategy as her ad hoc approach to higher education. She indeed expressed herself in all media with great clarity and grace.

She brought her sense of integrity to work in city and state governments, including those weakened by corruption. She approached needy neighbors, powerful CEOs, and federal bureaucrats alike with the same high ethical expectations she required of herself. During almost any year of her long career, one could find Brenetta Howell Barrett simultaneously serving as a paid administrator of a nonprofit organization, sitting as a board member of numerous others, and planning a grassroots protest action. She could be organizing a new initiative to remedy problems ignored by governmental bodies, fundraising for yet other struggling groups, and campaigning for an independent political candidate (perhaps herself). And, as those close to her know, she effectively involved her four children and their families in these successful, significant activities.

Sources:

• Anderson, Alan B. and George W. Pickering. Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986.
• King, Paul. Reflections on Affirmative Action in Construction. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2009.
• Rice, J.F. Up on Madison Down on 75^th Street: A History of the Illinois Black Panther Party, Part I. Evanston, IL The Committee, 1983.
• Seligman, Amanda J. Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago's West Side. University of Chicago Press, 2005.
• Travis, Dempsey. Autobiography of Black Chicago. Chicago: Urban Research Press, 1981.
• _____________. Autobiography of Black Politics. Urban Research Press, 1987.

Scope and Content Note

The Brenetta Howell Barrett Papers offer remarkably rich documentation of nearly 150 organizations from Chicago's West Side as well as another 125 groups both local and national, some dating back to the 1950s. These records of Barrett's work fill in the void that often exists between official bylaws and the posed photos of galas in the Sunday press. Significant records of her work include leadership in Chicago's civil rights movement as well as key roles in such organizations as the Chicago Black United Fund and the Pathfinders Prevention Education Fund, the Harold Washington mayoral campaigns and the Westside Association for Community Action. These unique materials reveal a West Side through its people, their hundreds of names listed therein as volunteers, activists, donors, and praise singers. Study of these papers will illuminate the intricate web created as West Side citizens formed coalitions and built social infrastructure to sustain their community over half a century.

Researchers should be aware that this collection when received possessed no internal arrangement. During archival processing, the Brenetta Howell Barrett Papers were arranged into the following series:

Series 1: Biography and Family History, 1932-2011

Sub-series 1: Brenetta Howell Barrett biographical material

In this series, voluminous yet highly detailed resume materials provide valuable information that supplements somewhat sketchy data from various organization files. Most resumes list Barrett's paid jobs, unpaid directorships, education, consulting work, voluntary memberships, and awards. Date spans are frequently given for employment, volunteer work, membership, and campaigns. Such information can be coordinated with material in Series 5 and 8 to provide a more complete picture of Barrett's wide-ranging work history.

Folders containing Barrett's educational history illustrate the diverse coursework Barrett pursued throughout life. Relatively little data exists from the years more recent than 2000. The clippings in this series focus on Barrett's unaffiliated activities and a few earlier events in her life; but most clippings in this collection are filed with the organization or activity they represent.

A few of Barrett's many awards are included here. See also Series 15, Memorabilia, and also the awards listed in her resumes.

Sub-series 2: Family of Brenetta Howell Barrett

Brenetta Howell Barrett involved her four children closely in her work while they were relatively young, and they and their own families remained actively involved during adulthood. Therefore the researcher will find relevant information within various organizational files. Aside from Barrett's birth certificate, material in this series is limited mainly to funeral programs, a small amount of family correspondence, event programs, and awards. Files for Barrett's four children are more extensive (Cynthia Therese, Abiiba Sharonne Marie, Kevin Lawrence, and Viveca Lynne). The researcher should consult the "Brooks Family Album" for the family ancestry and relationships. For more about family members see also Series 14, Photographs, and Series 12, Barrett's personal correspondence.

Series 2: Manuscripts by Brenetta Howell Barrett, 1960-2002

Sub-series 1: Speeches by Brenetta Howell Barrett

Series 2 provides nearly fifty speeches, from fully typed to handwritten drafts to index cards. Topics include Barrett's life and work issues, such as minority and small business, civil liberties, public health, education, and special holidays or civic events. The speeches are arranged chronologically.

Sub-series 2: Other writings by Brenetta Howell Barrett

Newspaper columns, editorials, and news reports provided here do not represent all of Barrett's journalistic work. Many organization files (Series 5 and 8) contain press releases and other public relations texts prepared by Barrett, although some are unsigned. The researcher should examine the serial publications in Series 7 and 11, as well as historic newspaper indexes online (such as the Chicago Defender). Most of the poems in this series were written by Barrett for family occasions or funerals.

Sub-series 3: Writings by other persons

These works include the poem "I Walk Tall" by Dr. Margaret Burroughs, unpublished.

Series 3: Event Programs Related to Brenetta Howell Barrett, 1963-2011

Events in which Barrett was recognized, and those in which she presented programming herself, are included in this series. The "Kafee Klats" cabaret party in 1963, and the DePriest Douglass Center recognition dinner of 1973, are notable. Additional event programs are filed with their respective organizations.

Series 4: Political Campaigns by Brenetta Howell Barrett, 1962-1998

The material in this series was created during Barrett’s own campaigns for office. It includes the Protest at the Polls campaign (1963-1964), her 1969 slogan "no brick on my tongue," and Barrett's 1980 campaign for 37^th Ward Alderman. The materials include press releases, fundraising records, court documents from legal challenges, lists of volunteers, and election data. See also Series 5 and 8 (Organizations) for various campaign organizations that Barrett supported; Series 14, Photographs, for campaign events; and Series 15, Memorabilia, for campaign posters, buttons, etc.

Series 5: West Side Organization Files (nonprofit, business, government, political)

1950s-2012

The files of some 150 various organizations rooted in West Side neighborhoods make up this series. The organizations include both commercial and nonprofit, private and governmental groups. The files of these organizations vary greatly in volume and content, depending partly upon Barrett's degree of involvement and partly upon losses of many earlier records before the collection was accessioned. A number of West Side groups employed Barrett at some point, such as the Bobby E. Wright Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center, Marcy Center Settlement House, and Pathfinders Prevention Education Fund (founded by Barrett). However, Barrett also carried out a variety of roles while serving many organizations over a period of time: founder, administrator, publicist, fundraiser and/or grant writer, or consultant. Researchers may verify this work history in Series 1 (resumes). On the other hand, files of hierarchical organizations such as the NAACP, CEDCO, YWCA, and Malcolm X College relate to both the West Side and to a wider area, and therefore may contain multiple levels of information ranging from local to national and reflecting Barrett's level of involvement.

Series 5 materials have been arranged alphabetically by organization name, and usually chronologically within folders. Contents of most organization folders may contain any of the great variety of materials potentially available in these files. That includes board meeting minutes and agendas; correspondence and memos; committee records; audit reports; training sessions; fundraising materials; lists of members; volunteers; staff; and donors; grant applications; event program booklets; court documents; clippings; flyers; and newsletters. Only the organizations providing the bulkiest records display the specific contents on the file folders. The largest organizational groups include Bobby E. Wright Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center, Harriet Tubman Place, Pathfinders Prevention Education Fund, and Third Unitarian Church. These materials are arranged as closely as possible to original function.

Records revealing some of Barrett's earliest activities in the 1950s include files of the Westside Parents for Integrated Schools, the NAACP, Marcy Center Settlement House, the Lawndale Booster newspaper, and the Independent Civic Committee. Also in this series are two folders labeled "businesses" and "churches" which provide a wide selection of information about particular organizations that may or may not be related to Barrett's work.

West Side politicians, many of whom Barrett worked to elect, are listed in a second sub-series at the end of Series 5.

Series 6: West Side Event Programs, 1963-2013

Programs in this series were produced for a single event by an organization not represented in Series 5, or else they involved a single event created through joint sponsorship. Of note is the memorial program held to honor murdered alderman Benjamin F. Lewis (1963).

Series 7: West Side Serial Publications, 1961-2012

Serial publications are arranged alphabetically by title, then chronologically within.

Almost no West Side serials in this collection date from the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s. Exceptions are the Chicago News Star (1961) and Black Truth (1970). The Austin Voice, Austin Weekly News, and [Chicago] Westside Journal provide a detailed view of many activities and issues in the West Side's neighborhoods of Lawndale, East and West Garfield, and Austin. The issues comprising this series mostly include articles relating to Barrett's work. The West Side Journal in particular hosted Barrett's op-ed columns for a time in the late 1970s. A few individual issues are not complete, the partial editions being included because of their informational content. Barrett's first employer, the Lawndale Booster, is not represented in this series, but the researcher may see also the file of the Lawndale Booster office in the organizational records of Series 5.

Series 8: Organization Files, general (nonprofit, business, governmental, political), 1959-2013

Barrett worked as consultant, executive director, board member, and active member with a number of national associations, including professional organizations like the National Black Nurses Association, or with groups promoting advocacy, such as the Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights. This series also includes governmental or quasi-governmental entities such as the Illinois Governor's Office of Human Resources, the Chicago Department of Consumer Services, the Chicago Economic Development Corporation (CEDCO), Globetrotters Engineering Corporation, and National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), all in which Barrett worked.as paid employee. These materials provide records similar to those listed in Series 5.

Files of hierarchical organizations such as CEDCO, Chicago Black United Fund, and the Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights relate to both the West Side and to a wider area, and therefore may contain multiple levels of information ranging from local to national depending upon Barrett's involvement.

The many politicians with whom Barrett worked but not strictly West Side, such as Congressman Bobby Rush, are listed separately at the end of Series 8. Although Gus Savage (Lawndale Booster publisher and Congressman, 2^nd District) had deep West Side roots, his record here reflects his South Side political activity.

Series 9: Event Programs (general), 1973-2003

Programs in this series were produced for a single event by an organization not represented in Series 5 or 8, or else involved a single event through joint sponsorship. Variety is the theme--fundraising, grammar school graduation, or tribute to a scholar. Event programs created by an organization have been placed in that organization's folder if there is one.

Series 10: Funeral Programs (general), 1963-2010

These programs are arranged alphabetically. Many represent persons close to Barrett's family, but the series includes both West Siders and a wider range. The researcher might note the programs of Richard Criley, Harry Gaynor, Rew Mae Hopkins, and Lawrence A. "Larry" Landry.

Series 11: Serial Publications (general), 1963-2012

The publications in this series loosely represent the issues in Barrett's work: public health, civil rights, gender equality. They are arranged alphabetically, except that the oversize periodicals are placed at the end of the series in a separate box.

Series 12: Personal Correspondence of Brenetta Howell Barrett, 1970-2007

Most items in this series were written not as part of an organization's activity, but rather as social greetings from individuals. They are arranged in alphabetical order. Some family members are included. Of interest are holiday Kwanzaa cards that appear to have been created by Brenetta Howell Barrett.

Series 13: Subject Research Files, 1948-2005

Informational material used by Barrett during her career, whose originating organization was unknown or not included in the collection, was arranged in this series. Government publications, newsclippings, and a few pamphlets are also included. The sub-series categories reflect Barrett's working issues.

Sub-series 1: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

"The CIA Off-Campus," an interview with Angela Davis, and an essay on South African apartheid by Prexy Nesbitt are but a few of the items in this sub-series.

Sub-series 2: Consumer Information

Sub-series 3: Education

Sub-series 4: Fund-raising

Sub-series 5: Health Care and Prevention

Sub-series 6: Local Government Information

Sub-series 7: Small/Minority Business

Sub-series 8: Pamphlets

A few pamphlets, possibly rare, are written by prominent activist authors such as Richard Criley, Harry M. Winslow, Gus Hall, Claude Lightfoot, and William L. Patterson. Also note examples of contemporary comic genre.

Series 14: Photographs (1932-2005)

Almost half of this series is devoted to Barrett's family. Many family snapshots also relate to the West Side and to Barrett's wider influence, through the active roles played in her work by a number of family members who appear in photos taken at various organizational events.

Barrett's impact through her City of Chicago and State of Illinois appointments is well illuminated in the professional photographs taken during training programs, conferences, farmer's markets, and other public activities. Barrett's overhauling of the city administration of taxicab licenses is also well documented. Her work in affirmative action is illustrated in the photographs of persons at events sponsored by the Chicago Economic Development Corporation (CEDCO) and Globetrotters Engineering Corporation. There also are views of the NAACP's West Side branch photographed in the early 1960s. Harold Washington's visit in 1986 to the 37^th Ward campaign headquarters of Percy Giles provides views of several contemporary West Side political powerhouses, including Bobbie Steele and Art Turner. A number of other politically related events are also included in this series. In her work, Barrett reached out to persons with international reputation, such as Josephine Baker, Jocelyn Elders, and Lena Horne, who appear in several organizational photos. Third Unitarian Church features in a number of events included in this series.

Series 15: Memorabilia, 1944-2012

Most items in this series reflect the various organizations in which they were created. The bulk of the items come from political campaigns (e.g., posters, buttons, etc.), a number of which were designed by Barrett herself. Also of interest are two videos produced by Barrett's City of Chicago Department of Consumer Services staff (1987-1989) that depict how-to inexpensive weatherproofing of a city apartment and the smart way to build up personal financial credit. Also included are youthful drawings made by Barrett's grandsons.

Related materials:

Related materials at the Chicago Public Library include:

• Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers
• Timuel D. Black, Jr. Papers
• Chicago SNCC History Project Archives
• Etta Moten Barnett Papers
• William McBride Papers
• Path Press Archives

Related materials at other institutions include:

• Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights Papers, Red Squad Collection, and Freedom Movement pamphlets, all housed at the Chicago History Museum

Container List

Series 1: Biography and Family History, 1932-2011

Sub-series 2: Family of Brenetta Howell Barrett

Series 2: Manuscripts by Brenetta Howell Barrett, 1960-2002

Sub-series 1: Speeches by Brenetta Howell Barrett

Sub-series 2: Other writings by Brenetta Howell Barrett

Sub-series 3: Mss. by other writers

Series 3: Event Programs, Brenetta Howell Barrett Related, 1963-2011

Series 4: Political Campaigns by Brenetta Howell Barrett, 1962-1998

Series 5: West Side Organization Files (nonprofit, business, government, political), 1950s-2012

Sub-series 1: Nonprofit, business, and government organizations on the West Side

Sub-series 2: West Side--Political

Series 6: West Side Event Programs, 1963-2013

Series 7: West Side Serial Publications, 1961-2012

Series 8: Organization files (General nonprofit, business, government, and political), 1959-2013

Series 9: Event Programs (General), 1973-2003

Series 10: Funeral Programs (General), 1963-2010

Series 11: Serial Publications (General), 1963-2012

Series 12: Personal Correspondence, Brenetta Howell Barrett, 1970-2007

Series 13: Subject Research Files, 1948-2005

Sub-series 1: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Sub-series 2: Consumer Information

Sub-series 3: Education

Sub-series 4: Fund-raising

Sub-series 5: Health, Care and Prevention

Sub-series 6: Local Government Information

Sub-series 7: Small/Minority Business

Series 14: Photographs, 1932-2005

Series 15: Memorabilia, 1944-2012