Family Papers contains the subseries: correspondence, subject files, financial and legal papers, and health records. RESTRICTION: Access to distinct portions of this series is restricted. Contact the Powell Archives for details.

Records re Education, (2 cu.ft.) consists primarily of notes taken in class and in preparation for class while Powell studied in the law schools of Washington and Lee University and Harvard University. The professors' names, when known, are included in the container list with the corresponding notes. Bar review notes and some exams are also present. Powell's undergraduate thesis is included with legal education materials, as he was already taking law classes in his late undergraduate days in order to finish both degrees in six years. There are also some writing assignments from his prep school days at McGuire School.

Speeches, Statements, and Writings (7 cu.ft.), includes: lists of selected speeches; the speeches and writings themselves; and materials related to the speeches and writings. This last category includes: drafts; correspondence about travel and publication arrangements; and research materials.

A frequent public speaker throughout his career, no one knows how many speeches Powell delivered. The speeches and writings in this subseries--and throughout these papers--should not be considered as the complete body of Powell's work. References are made throughout the papers to speeches not found here. Certain other portions of these papers contain speeches and informal talks which are not present in this series. (See also: Speeches, Interviews and Writings series in United States Supreme Court and Retirement subgroups for speeches made after 1971.)

One folder containing lists of selected speeches precedes the speeches themselves. These lists represent at least three unpublished compilations of Powell speeches. One was made just before Powell became American Bar Association President-Elect. The second was done immediately following Powell's ABA Presidency. The last was assembled for his Supreme Court nomination hearings.

World War II Service series, includes subseries of diaries, a record volume, Powell's "201" file, correspondence, reports, training materials, and printed materials and memorabilia. The Post World War II series includes subseries dealing with the Air Force Association and the Air Force Reserve.

Historical Studies & Interviews contains materials from thirty years and more after Powell left active service. The allies' ability to break the German Ultra code remained a U.S. government security classified secret until the mid-1970's. Powell never spoke or wrote about these activities during this period of secrecy. When the activities of Powell and his cohorts became declassified public knowledge, there followed a period of intense interest on the part of the news media and historians.

Finally able to talk publicly, Powell eagerly corresponded with historians and former associates. He offered several authors extensive assistance and granted oral history interviews in his Supreme Court chambers. One of these projects culminated in the publication of Ultra and the Army Air Forces in World War II. This work, subtitled An Interview with Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Lewis F. Powell, Jr., was published by the Office of Air Force History. Memoranda, notes and diary entries from the first series of this subgroup appear as appendices in this book.

This subseries comprises exemplar contracts and other legal instruments.

American Bar Association includes records from the time Powell joined the ABA's Junior Bar Conference in 1937 until he joined the Supreme Court. His extensive committee work records, alone, run some nine feet. Powell's service in a variety of offices is documented here. These include: chairman of the Junior Bar Conference; member of the House of Delegates and Board of Governors; president-elect; and president. There is also a long run of general correspondence from 1952 to 1971.

Among the voluminous committee records, those pertaining to the Economics of Law Practice Committee are especially notable. Powell had a career long interest in improving law firm management, as can be seen in several of his speeches. The first ABA Lawyer's Handbook was published under Powell's chairmanship of this committee.

The campaign that made Powell president-elect was hard fought, as had been his first election for the House of Delegates. It is interesting to note the similarities between the meticulous planning and the gathering of endorsements in these campaigns, and the later preparation for his Supreme Court nomination hearings. Powell may have learned important lessons in his work on the ABA presidential campaigns on behalf of his fellow Washington & Lee alumnus and friend Ross Malone. Records from these Malone campaigns are present, as well.

Powell's presidential papers are dominated by documentation of the agenda he brought to this office: legal ethics reform, legal services to the poor and the establishment of standards for the administration of criminal justice. During his time in the ABA's top office, he also played a vital role in passage of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution regarding presidential disability and succession.

Powell also used his influence in the ABA as an opportunity to promote the establishment in schools and colleges of educational programs about communism. This is reflected, not only in his presidential papers, but throughout his ABA records. In 1961, Powell introduced a resolution in the House of Delegates calling for "adequate instruction in the history, doctrines, objectives and techniques of Communism." He chaired the special committee established to implement this resolution. In 1962, this committee published the pamphlet "Instruction on Communism and Its Contrast With Liberty Under Law." All of this is extensively documented here.

Powell made hundreds of speeches as president-elect and president. He had these bound into two record volumes which are in this subseries. Volume II includes clippings. Hundreds of additional, loose clippings are here, as well.

American Bar Foundation series includes two subseries: general papers and papers about Powell's presidency from 1969-1971. The relationship of the American Bar Foundation to the American Bar Association is a frequent topic in these papers.

American College of Trial Lawyers series is similar in content and arrangement to the ABF series. A significant difference is that the papers from Powell's time as president of this organization (1969-1970) are not segregated from those concerning his general membership. Subseries include: correspondence, 1958-1971; committees; meetings; subject files; and printed materials.

National Center for State Courts treats Powell's membership on the steering committee of this organization. The committee was responsible for organizing the center as a nonprofit corporation. This work included preparing the charter and determining the method of trustee selection.

Richmond Bar Association (known as the Bar Association of the City of Richmond until around 1960) series is less than four inches of correspondence and records. In addition to a twenty year run of general correspondence, there is correspondence about Powell's role in the successful 1954 campaign to have his law school classmate, Walter E. Hoffman, nominated for the newly created position of U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. The general correspondence for 1947-1948 deals with Powell's service as president during that time.

Virginia State Bar Association series is one foot of correspondence, committee files and printed materials. Powell served on the Executive Committee and also co-chaired the committee that planned the ceremony at Jamestown (May 1959) commemorating the advent of common law in North America in 1607. The committee's work is thoroughly documented in this series. Records of Powell's other committee work are here, as is a run of general correspondence spanning the years 1948-1970.

This series includes one folder of general correspondence and a dozen case files. Attorney General Tom Clark appointed Powell Special Assistant to the Attorney General to act in the Eastern District of Virginia as Hearing Officer under section 6 (j) of the Selective Service Act of 1948. In this unpaid capacity, Powell was to help in determining "the character and good faith" of those registrants claiming to be conscientiously opposed to participation in war.

Joint Civilian Defense Orientation Conference is three inches of correspondence and printed materials concerning Powell's participation in this May 2-11, 1957 conference. Selected civilians were flown to various U.S. military bases where they witnessed demonstrations and exercises. The aim was to give the conferees an overall acquaintance with the national defense program and to invite their views on the defense effort.

Attorney General's Conference on Court Congestion and Delay In Litigation is one inch of correspondence and printed materials concerning Powell's work on this conference, created by the Attorney General of the United States. The aim of this group was to generate ideas and lend support to legislative efforts designed to improve the administration of justice. State committees were formed to support more day-to-day activities, and Powell also served on the Virginia committee.

President's Commission On Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice(1.75 cu.ft.) begins with a record volume comprising correspondence, memoranda, report drafts, and a printed copy of the supplemental statement to the commission's report. Some of the contents of this volume are duplicated in the unbound records that follow. These other records include subseries of correspondence, memoranda, notes, chapter drafts of the report, drafts of the supplemental statement and a printed version of the report. Miscellaneous documents, printed materials, and clippings complete the series.

Based on the awareness of the crime problem that Powell had articulated in many of his speeches as ABA President, President Johnson appointed Powell to this commission. Though this diverse committee agreed on many solutions to the crime problem, there were differences among the commissioners. Powell's differing views on the questions of wire tapping and certain Supreme Court decisions led to his drafting of the "Supplemental Statement on Constitutional Limitations," published over the names of seven commission members.

Powell anticipated criticism of the inconsistencies between the views expressed in his work on this commission and some of his Supreme Court opinions. In an annotation (written after Powell was appointed to the Supreme Court) to the introduction to the record volume in this series he wrote, "When I accepted appointment to this Commission I knew little criminal law as I never practiced it . . . and some of my views have changed."

Blue Ribbon Defense Panel (1.66 cu.ft.) contains the records of Powell's service on the commission President Nixon created to recommend reforms in the structure and operation of the Pentagon. It was to evaluate the organization and management of the Department of Defense, but not delve into questions of broad national policy. This body was formed in the face of mounting criticism of cost overruns in weapons systems and the stalemate in Vietnam.

As in his work on the crime commission, Powell expressed his views separately from those of the panel's report. This time these expressions took two forms. The first was Powell's thirty-five page statement (signed by seven of the sixteen panelists), "Shifting Balance of Military Power." Drafts and three different printed versions are included in subseries 5.5(c) "Supplemental Statement." The other separate expression was Powell's reaction to the war in Vietnam. This was sent confidentially to President Nixon as the memorandum, "Political Warfare." A draft and final version are included under that title in the 5.4 Subject Files. (Another copy is in the "Speeches, Statements and Writings" series of the II. Personal Papers).

Forms of materials which make up this subseries include: correspondence; memoranda; notes; subject files; drafts and printed versions of the report; and printed materials. The Commission's Southeast Asian, European and NORAD inspection trips are documented in the subject files.

Advisory Commission of the Federal Judicial Center is one file consisting of a few letters about Powell's appointment to this commission. Within weeks of this appointment, Powell was nominated to the Supreme Court, effectively ending his service.

Contains general correspondence; bylaws and minutes; and publications by the Chamber. One subseries contains Powell's papers as President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1950. These consist of correspondence; subject files; and speeches, statements and writings.

Made up of correspondence; speeches and statements; lists of persons who testified about the charter; and clippings. Powell's service on this commission was his only venture into electoral politics. Richmond had an ineffective form of government based on a federal model--a bicameral city council and a mayor with veto power. State law authorized the election of a charter commission to propose a new form of government, to be submitted to the electorate by referendum. Powell was elected to the Commission and chosen as chairman by his fellow commissioners. The city manager style of government proposed by the commission was enacted by referendum on November 7, 1947.

This one folder consists of correspondence and reports.

Anyone delving into the Richmond School Board series with the hope of finding thorough documentation of the desegregation of Richmond public schools, or of Powell's contemporaneous thoughts on desegregated education, is bound to be disappointed. There is documentation of the desegregation struggle, but it is mostly limited to newspaper clippings. There is expression of Powell's thinking on race, but it is mostly from the perspective of a 1975 Supreme Court Justice, whose social views had markedly changed in the intervening decades.

Like the other parts of this series, the bulk of the contents of the record volume are devoted to the budgetary process, teacher salaries, raising the quality of education and the inclusion of education against communism in the school curriculum. Powell speeches on educational matters are also present.

The titles of the various parts of the correspondence subseries mirror interests and activities noted in the record volume: General; Course on International Communism; Report on Trip to Russia; and Speech to Richmond Public School Teachers. The "Trip to Russia," in the subseries title above, was Powell's visit in the summer of 1958 with a delegation of lawyers representing the American Bar Association. They attended conferences and exchanged views with Soviet lawyers and judges. Upon his return, Powell spoke and wrote about his experiences in a variety of settings. The same month he returned from this trip, August 1958, he reported to the Richmond School Board. The Board published the report in pamphlet form under the title, "Soviet Education--A Means Towards World Domination: Report on Trip to Soviet Union (July - August 1958)." The "Trip to Russia" correspondence consists of cover letters which accompanied some of the distributed copies of the reports and thank you letters from recipients of the report.

There are also subseries of speeches, statements, subject files, printed materials and clippings. The folder titles in the container list for the speeches, statements and subject files generally reveal their contents. The "Desegregation--General" subject file consists mostly of speeches and statements by persons other than Powell. The "Desegregation--Chandler School" subject file contains correspondence from homeowners living near that school. There is no record here of the debate at which Powell silenced the crowd trying to prevent black attorney Oliver Hill from speaking. The "Desegregation--Lawsuits" file contains documents regarding legal actions taken by "certain Negro children and their parents" in which the school board was named.

The "Publications by Richmond Public Schools" include: City of Richmond Superintendent of Schools annual reports for the years 1950, 1951 and 1954; and the pamphlet, "Quality in Education: A National Necessity," the printed version of Powell's February 1958 address to Richmond Public School teachers.

Consists of 1.5 inches of correspondence about Powell's service on this body. Most of the letters concern notices of, and preparations for upcoming meetings.

Four inches of correspondence and memoranda from Powell's membership in this private group of businessmen organized to promote industrial development in the state. Also included is a June 1980 informal history of the group documenting its role in opposing massive resistance. This was written by the group's former chairman--and former Norfolk and Western Railway Company president--Stuart Saunders.

Realizing that few businesses would come to Virginia until the school crisis was resolved, the group held a dinner meeting on December 19, 1958, attended by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, at which the relationship of the school crisis to industrial development was discussed. Though Powell was out of town at the time of the meeting, his memorandum of December 15, 1958 to Saunders and vice- chairman J. Harvie Wilkinson suggested how the group's presentation to the high state officials should proceed.

One folder of correspondence. The topic of most of the letters is fund raising.

One foot of correspondence, speeches, subject files, printed materials and clippings from Powell's service on this board. Powell shared the board's interest in many areas including: raising the level of public education, the role of public television in the classroom, continuing education of teachers and research in education. All of these topics are documented here.

As President of the State Board of Education in the socially tumultuous year of 1968, Powell wrote the pamphlet, "Citizenship Education as Law; Disorder, Extremism and Civil Disobedience." It was published and distributed by the board as part of the Citizenship Education Project initiated by Powell. Included here are correspondence, minutes and documentation of the "Citizenship Education Project."

As in the Richmond School Board papers, the area of racial desegregation, which formed the backdrop to this entire period, is only lightly documented here. As the Virginia General Assembly had directed the state board to authorize local school boards to resume control of pupil placement, few records concerning desegregation were created by state board members.

The subject file "Prince Edward County School Board Suit" does involve state board action in desegregation. This file includes a 1961 memorandum prepared by Powell's Hunton & Williams law firm partner George C. Freeman, Jr. This document is notable for two reasons. The topic, "The State Board of Education's Power to Operate Free Public Schools In Localities Where Local School Boards Cannot or Will Not Continue To Operate Them" suggests that Powell considered the idea of circumventing the General Assembly's local school board option policy. The memorandum is also interesting as an early example of the reliance Powell would come to have on his law firm partners in areas beyond the conduct of Hunton & Williams business. In drafting his American Bar Association presidential speeches, in his work on the revision of the Virginia Constitution, and in preparation for hearings on his Supreme Court nomination, the counsel of his law partners informed his public statements and writings.

On July 1, 1964, Powell was part of the unanimous vote to extend the deadline for state tuition grants for children attending private, all-white schools. His handwritten revisions to the draft of the minutes of this meeting show Powell's anticipation of the criticism that he and the board were to receive for taking this action.

2.5 inches of chronologically arranged correspondence about Powell's service on this body which helped plan and carry out a 750th anniversary celebration at the College of William & Mary in May 1965. Powell gave a speech at this event. Though there is overlap in the documentation, this event is not to be confused with the 750th anniversary celebration of Magna Carta which took place in England a month later. Powell attended that event as President of the ABA and also spoke on that occasion. Documentation of this later event and speech are located in the American Bar Association series. Publications that Powell read in preparing these two speeches can be found in series "14.3.7 --Magna Carta."

Consists of two feet of papers and records concerning Powell's work as a member of this commission charged with the task of thoroughly revising the 35,000 word 1902 constitution. Included in this series are: general correspondence and memoranda; "public comment" correspondence and memoranda; memoranda from the Commission's executive director, A.E. Dick Howard (additional Howard correspondence concerning the Commission is in the general correspondence subseries of the Personal Papers subgroup); Powell's handwritten meeting notes; subcommittee files; drafts and text of the new constitution; and printed materials and clippings.

The commission worked in subcommittees and Powell, and his fellow State Board of Education member, Colgate Darden, were assigned to the subcommittee on education. It is clear from inspecting these papers, however, that Powell had significant input in several other areas, most notably taxation. (Virginia's pressing need to be able to borrow money more easily was an important force behind undertaking the revision at that time.) In fact, there are few records about education in these papers and none specifically about the work of the education subcommittee. Powell and Darden's work can be seen in the drafts of the constitution in which the State Board of Education is given a greater role in setting standards, and in which cities and counties are required to keep their schools open.

Series 1. Civic, 1940-1966 is 4.5 cubic feet in extent and includes the subseries:
8.1.1 Family Service Society, 1940-1957; c.2 in.
8.1.2 Retreat for the Sick, 1941-1965; c. 3 in.
8.1.3 Richmond Memorial Hospital, 1946-1966; 2 cu.ft.
8.1.4 Gunston Hall, 1951-1965; .5 cu.ft.
8.1.5 Virginia Home for Incurables, 1946-1964; 1 cu.ft.
8.1.6 Richmond Area Community Chest/Fund, 1952-1957; 2 in.
8.1.7 Society of Colonial Wars, 1958-1964; 1 in.
8.1.8 Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1961-1966; .5 in.

Subseries "8.1.3 Richmond Memorial Hospital" is especially noteworthy as Powell was one of the incorporators of the hospital, in addition to serving as counsel and trustee. One of his most significant appellate cases involved the hospital. City of Richmond v. Richmond Memorial Hospital established the tax exempt status under Virginia law of community-type hospitals. This case is extensively documented in the papers.

Series 8.2. Educational includes 2 feet of papers, half of which composes subseries 8.2.1 Washington and Lee University, 1937-1994. Powell's long and devoted service to his alma mater is extensively documented here. Correspondence as a member of the Alumni Association of Richmond, from years before he joined the board, is also included here.

Subseries 8.2.2 Washington School of Public Law, 1947-1949; 1 inch in extent, consists of correspondence concerning an unsuccessful attempt to launch a graduate school of public law in Washington, D.C. It was to have been a cooperative, experimental law school located within the Washington College of Law.

Subseries 8.2.3 Union Theological Seminary, 1952-1968; is made up of two inches correspondence from Powell's service on that board. He served on the finance committee and gave legal and investment advice to that body.

Subseries 8.2.4 Hollins College, 1956-1966; .25 cubic foot, consists of general correspondence and papers about the selection of a new president in 1960.

Series 8.3 Corporate, 5 cubic feet, contains 13 subseries:
8.3.1 Hollywood Cemetery Company, 1946-1964; c. 2 in.
8.3.2 E. R. Squibb & Sons, 1946-1951; 1 cu.ft.
8.3.3 Miller and Rhoads, Inc., 1949-1961; 1 folder
8.3.4 Richmond Cold Storage, 1949, 1954-1961; .5 in.
8.3.5 Commonwealth Natural Gas Corporation, 1952-1958; 1 in.
8.3.6 Ethyl Corporation, 1953-1971; 1 cu. ft.
8.3.7 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1955-1993; 1 cu. ft.
8.3.7 State Planters Bank, 1959-1962; .5 cu. ft.
8.3.8 Lawyers Title Insurance, 1965-1971; 1 folder
8.3.9 First Colony Life Insurance Company, 1967-1969; 1.5 in.
8.3.10 Philip Morris, 1967-1971; .75 cu. ft.
8.3.11 Richmond Corporation, 1967-1971; 1 folder
8.3.12 Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company, 1968-1972; .25 cu.ft.