Description

This folder contains materials created/collected by George Williams College. Known at first as the Training School of the YMCA (1890-1896) and subsequently as the Secretarial Institute and Training School (SITS) (1896-1903), the Institute and Training School of the YMCA (ITS) (1903-1913), and the YMCA College or Association College (1913-1933), it was finally named George Williams College in 1933 in honor of the man who founded the YMCA movement in 1844. By the 1930s, the college was a national center for the development of group work as a profession. It was also an early pioneer in the idea of holistic health, with the integration of body, mind and spirit that was key concept within the YMCA movement. In the late 1960s, the college moved to a western suburb of Chicago, Downer's Grove. The move from inner city to the mostly white suburbs brought racial tensions, already heightened nation-wide during this period, to the fore. Local residents were suspicious and hostile to the appearance of so many black college-age students in their neighborhood, and fault lines emerged within the school, which by the late 1960s was about 20% African American, over issues such as curriculum and the racial balance of the faculty and staff. George Williams College, as an independent college in Downers Grove, closed in 1985 for financial reasons. This folder specifically contains materials relating to diverse youth in urban populations.

Record Contributed By

University of Minnesota Libraries