Joyce A. Ladner Collection, 1931-2003, [manuscript].

Boxes 49 through 52 are restricted. Video and audio cassettes must be used in the media room.

This collection consists of correspondence, writings, photographs, and other personal materials of Joyce Ann Ladner. It spans the years from 1931 through 2003 and is divided into the following series: Personal Papers, Civil Rights Materials, Early Career, Howard University and Hunter College, Brookings Institution, Teaching Positions at Georgetown and George Washington Universities, Consultant Positions, District of Columbia Control Board and Committee of Juvenile Justice, Written Works and Speeches by Ladner and Associates; Research Materials, Miscellaneous Materials; Books, Journals, Pamphlets for Background Reading and Study; Newspaper Clippings, and Photographs, Audiotapes, and Videotapes. The Civil Rights materials contain articles, bibliographies of civil rights sources, correspondence, documents, interviews, and oral histories of those involved with the Civil Rights Movement. Ladner's research materials include items on the black family, children, teen pregnancy, and poverty.

Preferred citation: Joyce A. Ladner Collection (T/020), Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

Joyce Ann Ladner was born in Battles, Wayne County, Mississippi, on October 12, 1943, the second child of Annie Ruth Woullard and Eunice Stafford Ladner. She grew up and attended public schools in Palmer's Crossing, an African American community three miles south of Hattiesburg, Forrest County, Mississippi. She and her older sister, Dorie, attended Earl Travellion High School in Palmer, Forrest County Mississippi. While there, they helped to organize a National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council Chapter in Hattiesburg. In the spring of 1960, the sisters enrolled in Jackson State College in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, and continued the Civil Rights activities they had started in Hattiesburg. In April of 1961, Jackson State College students actively demonstrated their support for the students both after their arrest and at their arraignment. Because of their leadership and their active involvement, the Ladner sisters were informed by the college administration that they would not be allowed to return to Jackson State College for the coming academic year. Joyce and Dorie Ladner enrolled in Tougaloo College in the fall semester, 1961. They immediately became active workers in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Joyce Ladner joined with others going throughout the state organizing voter registration. She worked on the March on Washington in 1963, and in the same year went to jail for a week for disturbing the peace when she participated in the attempt to integrate Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Ladner excelled academically at Tougaloo. She came under the tutelage of Dr. Ernst Borinski. At the time of her graduation from Tougaloo in 1964, she was a member of the Dean's List.

In the fall of 1964, Ladner entered Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to begin her graduate education. She continued her work in the Civil Rights Movement by working with various organizations in St. Louis. Ladner returned periodically to Mississippi and other parts of the South to work with SNCC and other Civil Rights groups. Ladner received her Master of Arts degree in sociology in 1966. In 1968 she received her doctorate in sociology. Her dissertation became the basis for her first book, Tomorrow's Tomorrow: The Black Woman, published in 1971. Following her graduate work, Ladner served as a senior research fellow at the Institute of the Black World. In 1970, Ladner left the Institute of the Black World to work as a research associate at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Ladner returned to the United States in 1971 and for three decades distinguished herself as teacher, author, lecturer, and administrator. She served as professor of sociology at Hunter College in the City University of New York system from 1976 until 1981, when she joined the faculty of the Howard University School of Social Work in Washington, D. C. Ladner was elevated to Vice President for Academic Affairs at the university (1990). In 1994, Ladner was appointed by the Board of Trustees of Howard as its interim president. In 1995, Ladner was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the District of Columbia Financial Control Board. Ladner was selected as a Senior Fellow for the Brookings Institution. Her work at Brookings resulted in the publication of The New Urban Leaders (2002). In 2002, Ladner retired and moved to Sarasota, Florida. She co-authored Launching Our Black Children for Success: A Guide for Parents of Kids from Three to Eighteen with Theresa Foy DiGeronimo in 2003.

Processed by: Tougaloo College staff; MDAH staff, 2005.