L. Hollingsworth Wood papers, 1910-1953

Levi Hollingsworth Wood was born into a Quaker family in Westchester County, New York, 1873. He was the son of James and Emily (Hollingsworth) Wood, and the brother of Carolena Morris Wood and Ellen Morris Wood. He graduated from Haverford College in 1896 and Columbia University Law School in 1899. He formed the Kirby and Wood law firm in New York. Wood was active in area of peace, social reforms, racial justice, and humanitarian causes. He served on the Trustee of Fisk University from 1917 to 1956. He was one of the founder and President of the National Urban League (NUL) for 26 years. He also supported the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and Civil Liberties Bureau, later became the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920. He was involved in the joint Peace Committee of the Hicksite and Orthodox New York Yearly Meetings, Peace Association of Friends and the Peace Committee of Associated Yearly Meetings, Haverford's Board of Managers, the American League to Limit Armaments (also known as the American Union Against Militarism), the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland (1920-1923), Board of International Rescue Committee (chairman, 1940s-1950s), Fellowship of Reconciliation, and so on. He died in 1956 at the Mount Kisco, New York. A more detailed biography about the Woods can be found in Barbour, Hugh. "The Woods of Mt. Kisco." Quaker History, vol. 87, no. 1, 1998, pp. 1–34.