National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Ypsilanti-Willow Run Branch
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Ypsilanti-Willow Run Branch series (2 linear feet, 842 KB) consists mainly of meeting material and information about NAACP hosted events along with various publications, clippings, correspondence, and photographs. Documents in folders Mullins labeled "Memorabilia" include education committee papers regarding desegregation in Ypsilanti schools, state conference activities, newspaper clippings and an occasional copy of meeting minutes. Also of note is a folder with a brief historical sketch and photocopied articles on the history of the organization. Included in the collection is a July 1919 reprint from Crisis Magazine which discussed NAACP recruiting in the Midwest; Ypsilanti experiences are featured, along with Detroit, Cleveland, and other industrial cities. Other various national NAACP publications are also present in the collection. The series also holds letters to Congressman William Ford urging that a national holiday be declared to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and a collection of programs and clippings from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebrations. The photographs are of Mullins with Muhammad Ali in 1992 and Don Rieglie in 1993, both autographed.
The series also contains materials of the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) competition. There are balance sheets, correspondence, fliers, grant applications, a news article, and programs about various events related to the competition.
A folder that may hold particular interest is the "officer elections" folder, which includes a list of officers for election in 1994 and nomination forms from the 1990 election.
Meeting materials are a large portion of the series. In order to maintain the original order of the collection, the executive and general membership meetings have been grouped together. Meeting materials include notes, agendas, minutes, brochures, reports (treasurer, finance, and presidential reports), and sign in sheets. Assuming that they were distributed during meetings, fliers and brochures were kept in their original order and filed with the meeting materials. Membership information spanning various years can be found throughout the collection.