STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-ST. LOUIS
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST.LOUIS
Related collections:
s0551 CALLOWAY, DEVERNE (1916-1993) ADDENDA, 1929-1989
s0011 CALLOWAY, ERNEST (1909-1989), PAPERS, 1937-1983
s0540 CALLOWAY, ERNEST (1909-1989), ADDENDA, 1932-1989
s0550 CALLOWAY, ERNEST (1909-1989), ADDENDA, 1948-1984
For a list of the images in this collection click here and go to the WHMC photograph database
DeVerne Calloway Donated her papers to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection in increments on December 2,1975 and August 20, 1980.
Ms. Calloway was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis and did graduate work at Atlanta University and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She taught school in Georgia and Mississippi before joining the American Red Cross and traveled to China, Burma and India during World War II. While in India, she led a protest against the segregation of Negro Soldiers in the use of Red Cross facilities.
Calloway moved to Chicago after the war and helped form the committee for Racial Equality (CORE) in 1946. She later joined the staff of Jewish Welfare Fund and Developed skills in fund-raising. In 1948, she married Ernest Calloway, a political activist and union organizer. Ernest Calloway later became president of the St. Louis NAACP, research director of Teamster's Joint Council #3 and a professor of Urban Affairs at St. Louis University. In February, 1961, they began publishing Citizen Crusader, later named New Citizen, a newspaper covering black politics and civil rights in St. Louis. Calloway was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives on her first bid for public office in November, 1962. She was the first black woman elected to the Missouri Legislature. She served on the House committees on education, public health and safety, and social security. She also served on the Elections Committee, and the Accounts Committee, as chairman of the Federal- State Relations Committee, and as a secretary of legislature's Democratic caucus. During her career in the legislature, she worked actively to increase state aid to public education and to improve welfare grants and services for dependent children, the blind, disabled and elderly. In 1978, she served on the education committee that presided over the transfer of administrative control of Harris- Stowe Teachers' College from the St.Louis Board of Education to the state. Calloway also served on many community boards, including the board of the Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, an organization incorporated to improve the economic, educational and social opportunities in the North St. Louis area.
Calloway was elected to her tenth term in the Missouri House in November, 1980. She retired from Public office at the conclusion of that term.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The DeVerne Calloway papers of 1956 to 1983 primarily document her work as a legislator. The only campaign literature included with the collection is from her first campaign in 1962, although congratulatory correspondence from other campaigns are included.
Most of the records date from 1962, with only one letter from 1956. The legislative correspondence is mainly from constituents urging Calloway to vote pro or con on specific bills. Other correspondence include thank-you letters for supporting or helping defeat legislation and for making appearances. The correspondence also reveals Calloway's personal involvement with her constituents, including the assistance she provided a black military officer in adopting a Korean girl in the mid-1960's and her work in helping welfare recipients and prisoners. The papers contain material from legislative committees on the restoration of historic buildings, state goals, and the transfer of Harris-Stowe Teachers' College. Additional correspondence, notes and reference files on the Harris Stowe transfer are included. Board meeting minutes, memoranda, bylaws and correspondence document Calloway's involvement with the Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation. The papers include correspondence, campaign literature, memoranda, committee meeting minutes, conference materials, public testimony, newsclippings, photos and oral histories. The collection is arranged alphabetically by subject categories. Copies of Citizen Crusader and New Citizenare in the Ernest Calloway papers, sl 11.
FOLDER LIST
BOX 1
1. Abortion Issues, 1970-1976
2. Black Legislative Clearinghouse, 1969-1971
3. Campaign Correspondence, 1962-1966
4. Campaign Materials and Newsclippings, 1962
5. Conference on the Office of Economic Opportunity, 1971-1972
6. Congratulatory Letters, 1956-1972
7. Department of Corrections, 1974-1975
8. Discrimination Hearing, 1973
9. Education, 1970-1975
BOX 2
10. Employment, 1963-1979
11. Equal Employment Opportunities for Women, 1970-1973
12. First Congressional District Correspondence, 1971
13. First State Capitol and Other Historic Missouri Towns, 1967
14. Full Employment Resolution, 1975
15. General Correspondence, 1969-1979
16. Harris-Stowe Materials, 1975-1978
17. Harris-Stowe Materials, 1977
18. Harris-Stowe Special Committee, 1971-1978
19. Harris-Stowe Transfer, 1976-1978
20. Harris-Stowe Working File, 1978
21. Highway Patrol, 1973-1975
BOX 3
22. Housing, 1967-1971
23. Housing Conference, 1967
24. Housing Correspondence, 1963-1966
25. Housing Correspondence, 1967
26. Housing Legislation, 1963-1967
27. Housing Miscellaneous, 1961-1967
28. Housing Newsclippings, 1965-1967
29. Kim Do Ja Adoption Correspondence, 1965-1966
30. Legislative Correspondence, 1967-1971
31. Legislative Correspondence, 1971
32. Legislative Correspondence, 1972
BOX 4
33. Legislative Correspondence, 1973
34. Legislative Correspondence, 1973
35. Legislative Process, 1965-1973
36. Memoranda, 1965-1973
37. Miscellaneous, 1966-1969
38. Missouri Commission on the Status of Women, 1972
39. Missouri Soft Drink Association, 1971
40. Missouri Training School, 1973-1974
41. Payne Testimonial, 1978
42. Panel Reform Information, 1965-1975
BOX 5
43. Personal, 1963-1979
44. Precinct Manual of the 26th Ward, Domestic Voters Organization, 1959
45. Report on Missouri State Penitentiary, 1976
46. Restoration Committee, 1965
47. St. Louis Council on Human Relations, 1976
48. St. Louis Airport, 1971-1972
49. St. Louis Public Schools
BOX 6
50. Sex Discrimination Hearings, 1973
51. State Goals Committee, 1972-1973
52. Regional Conference, 1978
53. Thank You Letters, 1964-1970
54. Thank You Letters, 1971-1972
55. Thank You Letters, 1973-1974
56. Thank You Letters, 1975-1980
57. Tipton Correctional Facility, 1975-1978
BOX 7
58. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1969
59. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1970
60. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1971
61. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1972
62. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1973
63. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1974
64. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1974
65. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1975
BOX 8
66. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes and Memoranda, 1975
67. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Bylaws and Personnel Manual, 1969
68. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, Community Organizations, 1971-1978
69. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, General, 1971-1974
70. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, General, 1975
71. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, General,1967-1971
BOX 9
Folder 72. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, General, 1971-1974
73. Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, General, 1975
74. Welfare, 1962-1964
75. Welfare, 1964-1971
76. Welfare, 1971
77. Welfare, 1973
78. Welfare, 1974
79. Welfare, 1975-1977
80. Her Final Days and Highlights of 20 years in the Missouri Legislature, compiled by Ernest Calloway, 1983
81. Photographs, 12.1-12.9
T-016. Interview With DeVerne Calloway, September 9, 1971
T-705. Interview With DeVerne Calloway, February 23, 1983
INDEX
Abortion, f.1
Afro-American Legislatures, f.1-79
Atkins, Carol, f.57
Calloway, DeVerne, f.1-79
Democratic Party, f.1-79
Discrimination, f.8
Education, f.9, 49
Employment, f.10, 14
Equal Employment Opportunity for Women, f.11
Harris-Stowe Teachers' College, f.16-20
Highway Department, f.21
Housing, f.22-28
Jails, f. 22-28
Legislators, f.1-79
Missouri Commission on the Status of Women, f.38
Missouri State Penitentiary, f.45
Payne, Franklin, f.48
Politics, f.1-79
St. Louis Airport, f.48
St. Louis Public Schools, f.49
Sex Discrimination, f.50
Tipton Correctional Facility, f.57
Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation, f.58-73
Welfare, f.74-79
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-ST. LOUIS
222 THOMAS JEFFERSON LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS
ONE UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD
ST. LOUIS, MO 63121
(314) 516-5143