Abstract In 2007, Reuther archivist William LeFevre conducted an oral history on the organization Focus: HOPE, interviewing its co-founder, Eleanor Josaitis, and longtime supporter Senator Carl Levin. The civil and human rights organization Focus: HOPE emerged in March of 1968 in the aftermath of the 1967 Detroit riots. Its aims were and are to overcome racism and poverty and foster social justice, racial integration, and urban employment through food distribution, human relations, and job training...

Abstract Focus: HOPE emerged in March of 1968 from the ashes of the 1967 Detroit riot. The largely volunteer civil and human rights organization has created an astonishing variety of innovative programs aimed at overcoming racism, poverty and injustice by fostering integration and bringing the urban unemployed into the economic mainstream, programs which have become a model for urban revitalization worldwide. The Focus: HOPE Collection contains a wide variety of sources, including correspondence,...

Abstract Dr. Francis H. Palmer was president of Merrill-Palmer from 1978-1981, prior to which he worked at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received his education at the University of Pittsburg, published widely, mainly on preschool and early educational child development and was very active in the Headstart program. Palmer's records reflect his emphasis on the psychology of preschool and elementary age children and his direction of institutional focus to research.

Abstract J. William Rioux was the president of the Merrill-Palmer Institute from 1967-1973, prior to which he worked for the U.S. Department of Education. He was a native of Detroit and received his Ed. D. at Wayne State University. During his time at Merrill-Palmer he worked to diversify the student body, establish a graduate degree program, work with urban youth, and bring more students into the program. He also emphasized dissemination and publication of research by Merrill-Palmer faculty and...

Abstract Dr. Michael D. Usdan was president of the Merrill-Palmer Institute from 1974-1977. Educated at Brown University and Teachers College at Columbia University, Usdan worked as a professor at City University of New York before joining Merrill-Palmer. He published widely, writing mainly on educational politics. His records document his work on urban and lower income youth in the Detroit area, as well as research and conferences focusing on urban poor, parent-child relationships and the impact of...

Abstract Dr. Pauline Park Wilson Knapp was the president and director of the Merrill-Palmer Institute from 1952-1967. Knapp received her B.S. in Home Economics from the University of Kentucky and M.A. and Ph. D in Psychology from Columbia University. She established the first Child Development Center in Georgia in 1928, was head of the Department of Family and Life at the University of Alabama from 1941-45 and the Dean of the School of Home Economics at the University of Georgia from 1946-52. In...

Abstract Dr. William Wakefield McKee was with the Merrill-Palmer Institute for 30 years in a variety of roles. He began as a faculty member in 1953, became Vice-President in 1957 and served as Acting-President during the 1973-73 school year, eventually retiring in 1983. McKee received his B. A. from the University of North Carolina, his B. D. from Yale Divinity School, a S. T. M. from Union Theological Seminary, NY, and his Ph. D. from Yale. Prior to coming to Merrill-Palmer he worked for the YMCA, the...

Abstract The Merrill-Palmer Institute was founded in 1920 by an endowment from Lizzie Merrill Palmer. Throughout its 61years of independent operation, the Institute was greatly respected and internationally known as one of the top institutions for education, training and research in Child Development. Merrill-Palmer staff conducted and published studies on families and children, operated a nursery school, children’s camps and clubs, offered marriage and family counseling, and performed community service...

Abstract Subjects include: social welfare and health care services in metropolitan Detroit; AIDS and HIV; education; senior citizens; substance abuse; child abuse; family services; hunger and malnutrition; spouse abuse