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Alabama. Governor (1943-1947 : Sparks). Administrative files, 1942-1947.

Title: Administrative files, 1942-1947.

The Governor is the chief executive of the state whose function is to administer the laws of the state. One of the activities used to accomplish this function is the administering of executive decisions and actions. This series consists of the administrative files of Governor Chauncey Sparks. It contains correspondence, reports, photographs, pamphlets, publications, and telegrams. The records consist of correspondence and other material regarding the activities of the numerous state departments and agencies. The bulk of the routine correspondence was handled by George Bliss Jones, secretary to the governor, and Mabel Amos, the governor's recording secretary. The files continue to document the programs established during the administration of Frank Dixon in response to the United States' entry in World War II. The Selective Service System files contain information on recruitment, draft boards, industry, defense programs, jobs, propaganda, rationing, and civilian defense. Among the groups and agencies represented in these files are: Office of Price Administration (OPA), Alabama Salvage Committee, and the State Defense Council. Race relations and labor strikes plagued the Sparks administration. These files contain correspondence and telegrams between Governor Sparks, Alabama congressional officers, and I.S. Rouzer, President of the Alabama Mining Institute. The coal miners' strikes of 1943 in Ozark and Birmingham, and the 1945 strike in Birmingham are documented along with a strike of Birmingham newspapers that also occurred in 1945. Race riots and segregation are well documented in the Sparks records. The files contain reports from investigators and law enforcement officers, correspondence from citizens across the nation, publications, and other material maintained by the governor and his staff regarding race relations in the state. The two incidents that aroused the greatest furor were the race riot at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Corporation in Mobile in 1943 May, and an order by the War Department to end segregation at Maxwell Field in Montgomery. Another incident of note was the investigation of Cleburne County Sheriff Ewell Norton regarding the arrest of two African American youths around Christmas 1944 and the extraordinarily high fines set for minor violations. The records of Governor Sparks also contain considerable information regarding the ongoing debate over freight rates. This issue continued to be the main topic of concern at the Southern Governors' Conference meetings. The administrative files also document the Alabama Department of Archives and History's acquisition in 1945 of a piece of oar that supposedly came from the C.S.S. Alabama. Notable correspondents with the governor in this series included: Senator John H. Bankhead, Frank Boykin, Henry S. Geismer (the Governor's representative in Washington, D.C.), George Grant, Senator Lister Hill, Sam Hobbs, Pete Jarman, Carter Manasco, and Joe Starnes.

ArchivalResource: 49 cubic ft. (48 records center cartons and 4 indexes card boxes).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122380860 View