Title: Wendell P. Russell, Jr. Papers, 1964, 1967-71

ID: RG 30/272

Extent: 1.25 Linear Feet

Wendell Philip Russell, Jr. was born in Oberlin, Ohio, and moved with his family to New York City when he was eight years old. He ultimately decided to return to his hometown and enroll in Oberlin College in the fall of 1967. He graduated in 1971 with a degree in Sociology and Anthropology, and went on to earn his J.D from Harvard in 1974. He has spent his career working as a corporate attorney, specializing in providing legal advice and services to corporations. He spent ten years as a member of the Senior Counsel at Meijer, and now provides legal counsel to the New York State Industrial Board of Appeals. He is an active member of the Oberlin Alumni Leadership Council and the Oberlin Alumni Association of African Ancestry, in addition to serving as President of the Oberlin Alumni Association from 2005 to 2007.

While a student at Oberlin, Russell played a pivotal role in the development of the College’s Afro-American Studies Program. Founded in 1968 as a program without an academic major, it was one of the first of its kind among liberal arts colleges. In February 1969 Russell attended his first meeting as a member of the Committee for Afro-American Studies, led by Oberlin faculty. The Committee administered the Afro-American House, an identity-based housing option for students of African descent to live in community with one another. It also coordinated events on campus of interest to Black students, and worked to develop the program into a full-fledged academic department. The College first offered a major and minor in Black Studies in the 1984-85 academic year.

Russell was active in the Oberlin College Alliance for Black Culture (OCABC), open to all Oberlin faculty and students. The Alliance issued a long list of demands to the College administration in 1968 that included recruiting Black faculty, establishing a Black artist residency program, including Black performers in the Conservatory’s Concert Series, and expanding the holdings of the College and Conservatory libraries to include works by Black authors and composers. On May 23, 1968 the faculty issued a resolution to the College to implement these and other actions from the OCABC’s list of demands. On May 29 the Ad Hoc Committee on Afro-American Concerns held its first meeting, with students from the OCABC and faculty. Russell served on the steering committee of an intercollegiate conference sponsored by the OCABC, “Revolution in the Inner-City,” held in Oberlin March 6-8, 1969. Among the speakers and discussants was Jesse Jackson, who spoke at a pre-conference event on “Economic Power in Black Communities.” Jackson was then the National Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago.

In the summer of 1970 Russell was hired with funds from the Ford Foundation as a full-time research assistant in the Division of Higher Education and Research at the Academy of Educational Development, Inc. Russell’s work supported the development of the Academy’s Black Studies Seminar, held in Aspen, Colorado, July 19-25, 1970. The seminar was organized for directors of Black Studies programs previously supported by the Ford Foundation to meet with each other, with outside scholars in related disciplines, and with students to discuss some of the fundamental issues and problems raised in the thrust for Black Studies programs. At the beginning of his last academic year at Oberlin in 1970, Russell was a part-time administrative assistant for the Afro-American Studies Program. In his last semester, Russell was appointed a commissioner in the newly-formed Education Commission, charged with reevaluating all aspects of Oberlin’s curriculum and student life in 1971.

Author: Salsich, Anne Cuyler; Clark, Julia

Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Administrative Information

Scope and Contents:

The Wendell P. Russell Papers cover the period of his undergraduate career at Oberlin College, in which he was a key member of committees and organizations for Black Studies and the reevaluation of education at Oberlin, and as a research assistant for a Black Studies Seminar for program directors funded by the Ford Foundation.

The bulk of the collection, in Series 4, documents the Black Studies Seminar held in Aspen, Colorado July 19-25, 1970. The Seminar was organized by the Division of Higher Education and Research at the Academy of Educational Development, Inc. The files include agendas, three volumes of comb-bound background materials prepared for the participants, limited correspondence, participant lists, questionnaires sent out to colleges for collecting data, a transcript of the proceedings, and a report on the seminar for the Ford Foundation prepared by Russell in August 1970.

Series 1 holds three folders on the Committee on Afro-American Studies, for which Russell served as a member. Series 2. Student/Faculty Organizations holds material on the Oberlin College Alliance for Black Culture (OCABC), an important catalyst for Black student experience and curriculum development at a pivotal moment at Oberlin. A file on the Oberlin College Student Senate includes the formal recognition of the OCABC as a College organization.

Series 3. The Education Commission reflects a broad-based reevaluation of education at Oberlin college-wide; Russell was a commissioner in 1971. The Commission represented an opportunity for the consideration of new modalities in all aspects of the curriculum, such as the inclusion of Black Studies and related program activities. The faculty member at the head of the OCABC pushed for involvement by the College in improving the community’s public schools, among other initiatives. The series includes the Commission’s progress report submitted in March 1971.

Series 5 holds files assembled for Russell’s personal use on Black Studies in general and on the Institute of the Black World. The Institute states that it is “a community of black scholars, artists, teachers and organizers who are coming together in Atlanta under the aegis of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center.” Their activities included seminars and publications. The file includes their Ethnic Studies Survey.

Download Box / Folder List (pdf)