Black Women’s Civic Fundraising and Federal Service in Atlanta, 1943 to 1966

Cloatee Arnold Banks

Photograph

Cloatee Carter Arnold Banks voting and political engagement photo and document group, Atlanta, 1943 to 1966, recording the education, employment, and civic work of a Black Atlanta woman during segregation and the early Civil Rights era. Banks attended Morris Brown College in 1943 to 1944 and by March 1966 had completed fifteen years of United States government service, placing the start of her federal career around 1951. She entered federal service shortly after Executive Order 9980 of 1948 barred discrimination because of race, color, religion, or national origin in federal personnel actions. A 1975 Georgia directory later lists “Banks Cloatee” with the Department of Offender Rehabilitation in Atlanta. The documentation supports a career in public administration and civic work rather than elected office.
Photo archive of three 8 x 10 inch silver gelatin photographs, one hand colored, with two associated documents, Atlanta, Georgia, circa 1940s to 1966. The hand colored portrait depicts Banks in a blue suit and pale pink blouse; the verso is marked “CAB” with colorist’s instructions including “suit blue,” “blouse light pink.” Two photographs document a women led fundraising campaign organized by divisions, sections, teams, quotas, and awards. One shows more than a dozen Black women working at tables beneath signs reading “Bellamy’s section” and “Mrs. Georgia Wilkes’ division.” Another records an awards presentation before a chalkboard listing workers’ surnames, a “team quota” of 35, division totals of 175, and running reports; the women hold books and a boxed “Corn King ham.” Banks’s Morris Brown College record for the second semester of 1943 to 1944 lists elementary German, introduction to education, general mathematics, insurance, “Negro history,” college choir, and history and appreciation. An August 1944 notice identifies “Miss Cloatee C. Arnold” in Atlanta during a visit from Navy serviceman Aubrey Price. Her 1966 Small Business Administration certificate, issued to “Cloatee A. Banks,” recognizes fifteen years of service “in the Government of the United States.”
Morris Brown College was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1881 and opened in 1885 as the first educational institution in Georgia established under sole African American patronage. Morris Brown College Georgia Wilkes, named on one of the campaign signs, was vice president of the University John Hope Homes Tenants’ Association in 1955 and general chairman of a joint anniversary program for two Atlanta public housing communities, coordinating committees for education, music, tickets, refreshments, and publicity. Georgia Historic Newspapers The divisions, quotas, and report totals visible in the photographs closely match Atlanta Community Chest practice: its segregated Negro Division operated through divisions and regular report meetings, with a $112,000 campaign goal in 1960. Banks later appears in Georgia state employment and, under the name Cloatee Arnold Lewis, in a Georgia State AFL CIO contact file, extending her documented public and civic activity beyond the campaign shown here. Photographs with light to moderate surface wear and occasional creasing, including a pronounced diagonal crease or tear at the upper left of one campaign photograph; portrait with scattered surface marks; documents with folds, toning, and light soiling. Overall in good condition.

Item #23990

Price: $585.00