Finding aid for the L. Pearl Mitchell Papers

Biography of L. Pearl Mitchell

L. Pearl Mitchell (1883-1974) was born in Wilberforce, Ohio, to Amanda M. and Dr. Samuel T. Mitchell, president of Wilberforce College. Mitchell received her bachelor's degree from Wilberforce and worked in community service at war camps during World War I. After her father's death, she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to work as a typist to help fund the education of her siblings. In 1926 she became a probation officer for the juvenile court, a post she held until her retirement in the 1940s due to ill health.

Mitchell joined the Cleveland Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1923 and served as president, executive secretary, national vice president, and national director of membership campaigns. In Cleveland she participated in protests against the public school systems operations of special-activity schools and segregated public housing projects. She served on the board of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home and integrated the Columbus, Ohio facility. She also served on the Women and Manpower Commission, Greater Cleveland Fair Employment Practices Commission, and the Commission on the Aged. She was also a member of the Gilpin Players at Karamu House, and she performed in the first interracial production at the Cleveland Play House in its production of Jo Sinclair's The Long Moment.

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for L. Pearl Mitchell

Scope and Content

The L. Pearl Mitchell Papers, 1875-1970 and undated, consist of correspondence; Dr. Samuel Mitchell's license, sermons, and speeches; editions of The Wilberforce Graduate, 2 copies of The Ohio Book for the Lincoln Jubilee, pamphlets and printed material from the NAACP, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority pamphlets, Mt. Zion Congregational Church Building Fund records, F.E.P.C. financial reports, a copy of The Long Moment by Jo Sinclair, Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home financial records and trustees' minutes, Women's Council reports to the Cleveland Mental Health Association, Cleveland Job Corps for Women materials, biographical material on Mrs. Mitchell, newspaper clippings, awards, pamphlets, brochures, and a copy of A Half Century of Freedom of the Negro in Ohio by W.A. Joiner.

This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of Cleveland, Ohio, and the African American community there in the late nineteenth century and the first seven decades of the twentieth century. Those studying women's history and the role of women in charity, philanthropy, and the African American community will find this collection useful.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3533 L. Pearl Mitchell Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of L. Pearl Mitchell in 1971.

Detailed Description of The Collection