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This collection has been arranged into nine series.
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Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William B. Welsh papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
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Source of acquisition--William B. Welsh. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1976.
Herbert H. Lehman Papers Columbia University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University
William Brownlee Welsh was born on September 18, 1924 in Munfordville, Kentucky, the son of Mary Cox Welsh and Benjamin Tibbits Welsh. He grew up near Berea, Kentucky and attended Berea College, leaving during his sophomore year to serve in the 66th Infantry during World War II. He returned to college after the war, but took another break from his studies to help create the National Student Organization. He was elected its first president and spent a year in Madison, Wisconsin, struggling in particular with the question of racial integration, which the organization supported after much debate. He finished his senior year at Berea College in 1947.
After college, Welsh received a fellowship to the Southern Regional Training Program in Public Administration, a master's program offered through partnership between the University of Alabama, University of Tennessee, and University of Kentucky. The program gave him the opportunity to sit in on the senate of the Alabama state legislature. After graduating he went to the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University to study for a doctorate, and at the recommendation of a dean he went to work as an assistant to New York senator Herbert Lehman as soon as he finished his degree. He worked closely with Lehman's assistant Julius Edelstein.
After Lehman retired, Welsh served as research director for the Democratic National Committee, He then worked as an administrative assistant to Senator Phil Hart and later an assistant to Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
Gift of William B. Welsh, 1976.
Correspondence, memoranda, clippings, research material Surveyed Julie Miller 05/--/87.
Papers processed Carolyn Smith 2013.
Finding aid written Carolyn Smith 2013.
The papers of William B. Welsh, research and legislative aide to U.S. Senator Herbert H. Lehman of New York, contain research files on eight subjects; civil rights, housing discrimination, communism, Constitutional amendments, immigration, Joseph McCarthy, the Refugee Relief Act, tidelands, and Vietnam. Materials include correspondence, memoranda, clippings, and research material.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
This series contains information on Lehman's efforts to support civil rights legislation. It includes material on fair employment legislation, reports and correspondence on housing discrimination, and documents on the cases of black soldiers who were denied access to classes at several Southern universities, despite a program that provided the classes for free to soldiers. There is also material on filibusters, a tactic Lehman opposed and hoped to eliminate. It includes letters from those facing discrimination, correspondence between Lehman's office and other government officials, goals and plans for meeting with officials, and press releases.
Series II contains one folder of clippings and letters from the ACLU written in reaction to the booklet "How to Spot a Communist."
This series contains correspondence, fliers, clippings, press releases and other documents on two proposed amendments: the Bricker Amendment, which concerned treaty regulation, and The Lodge-Gossett Amendment, which would have eliminated the Electoral College and replaced it with a proportional electoral vote.
Material in this series relates to immigration legislation and problems faced by immigrants. It includes a wide range of documents, such as immigration and crime statistics, clippings and editorials, information on the effect of the McCarren Act on immigrants, a collection of hate literature (much of it anti-Semitic) accompanied by notes, and letters to Lehman from people who experienced problems applying for visas or with reentering the country and his responses. The series focuses primarily on European immigration, but there are two folders on illegal Mexican immigrants.
This series contains material on Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism, which Herbert Lehman opposed. It contains research and clippings, reports, press releases, and copies of Lehman's speeches on McCarthy and his charges against him. There is a folder on the McCarthy franking controversy, in which both Lehman and McCarthy accused each other of abusing franking privileges, that includes franked envelopes sent by McCarthy.
This series is primarily concerned with efforts to amend the act and contains bills, correspondence between Lehman and his assistants, reports, visa statistics, lists of immigrants, and descriptions of individual cases.
Series VII holds information the Fair Committee Procedure, a proposal put forth by a group of Senators and members of the House (including Lehman) which would outline an official set of procedures to be used by all committees and subcommittees. It also includes a proposal to change rules on Senate conference reports. It contains correspondence, drafts of resolutions, and notes, among other materials.
This series is comprised of one folder containing a letter from Francis Williams to Julius Edelstein, in which he discusses his views on government leadership in Asia.