¹ “22nd Annual Convention at Birmingham Big Success,” Boys Club Workers News Bulletin (15 May 1928): 3; “22nd Annual Convention at Birmingham, Ala.,” Boys’ Workers Round Table, no. 3 (Summer 1928): 24. The passage is an extended version of text that the author composed for a recently published history of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Glenn Slattery, ed. Changing Lives… Changing America: 100 Years of Boys & Girls Clubs (New York: Boston Hannah International, 2006), 36–37.Google Scholar

² “22nd Annual Convention at Birmingham, Ala.,” 24; “22nd Annual Convention at Birmingham Big Success,” Boys Club Workers News Bulletin (15 May 1928): 3.Google Scholar

³ Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), established in 1906, has its roots in local Boys’ Clubs beginning as early as 1860. An urban, northeastern organization, early Boys’ Clubs served predominantly poor white youth, the children of immigrant mill workers, and other members of the emerging industrial class. Thus, few African Americans were served by these early Boys’ Clubs. The first boys’ clubs were established in the midst of rapid urbanization of the northeastern cities, the political and social outreach of the Social Gospel Movement. From 1860, boys’ clubs were loosely defined collections of local organizations that focused on working with boys. BGCA's organizational history documents a subset of these local Clubs. Within BGCA's organizational history, the first formal Boys’ Club was opened in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut by three women, Elizabeth Hamersley and sisters, Mary and Alice Goodwin. Stymied by the Civil War, similar organizations cropped up in the Northeast between 1870 and 1900. By the later part of the nineteenth century, several prominent local Clubs began calling for the establishment of a “central bureau” for the coordination and expansion of this work. After a few unsuccessful attempts toward a national organization, 53 local Boys’ Club organizations met in Boston on May 18, 1906, and formed the Federated Boys’ Clubs (FBC). Having few operating dollars, no executive secretary was hired; however, they elected a competent board and executive committee with prominent reformer, Jacob Riis as the first president. For the next eight years, the FBC managed its operations under the same structure and from the same office in Boston. Although there were local Boys’ Clubs in every region of the country, the FBC was still predominantly a northeastern phenomenon. Similarly, their diversity only spanned the range of northern and southeastern European immigrants. Early records suggest minimal engagement of African-American residents.Google Scholar

⁴ Hall, William E., 100 Years and Millions of Boys: The Dynamic Story of Boys’ Clubs of America (New York: Farrar, , Strauss, and Cudahy, , 1961): 1–10; R. K. Atkinson, The Boys’ Club (New York: Association Press, 1939): 22–32. A significant amount of the organization history that I draw upon is taken from an unpublished history by Alexander Campbell, C. Hired by the Boys’ Club Federation in 1919, Campbell had intimate knowledge of the organization and key players, as well as its foundations, transitions, and philosophical perspectives. This manuscript was completed around 1957. Alexander C. Campbell, The A. C. Campbell Paper: The History of the Boys’ Club Movement: 1856–1956 (Atlanta, GA: Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 1957): 54–55, 74–79; “20th Annual Convention of the Boys’ Club Federation,” Boys’ Worker Round Table 1926; “Clubs for Colored Boys Widen Service in Ten Cities,” Boys Club Federation News Bulletin (15 March 1931).Google Scholar

⁵ McGerr, Michael E., A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920 (New York: Free Press, 2003): 77–115; Halpern, Robert, Making Play Work: The Promise of After-School Programs for Low-Income Children (New York: Teachers College Press, 2003): 9–20; Allen Freeman Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890–1914 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984): 40–59, 60–83; Link, Arthur Stanley and McCormick, Richard L., Progressivism (Arlington Heights, IL: Davidson, Harlan, Inc., 1983): 67–84; Nasaw, David, Children of the City: At Work and at Play (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986): 34–37; Klapper, Melissa R., Small Strangers: The Experiences of Immigrant Children in America, 1880–1925 (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007): 55–107; Campbell, Campbell Paper. Google Scholar

⁶ Tyack, David B., The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974); Kantor, Harvey A., “Vocationalism in American Education: The Economic and Political Context, 1880–1930,” in Work, Youth & Schooling: Historical Perspectives on Vocationalism in American Education, ed. Kantor, Harvey A. & Tyack, David B. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1982); Lawrence A. Cremin, The Transformation of the School; Progressivism in American Education, 1876–1957 (New York: Knopf, 1961); Diane Ravitch, “A Different Kind of Education for Black Children,” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 30 (2000): 102–3 Grossman, James R., Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989); Diane Ravitch, The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000): 161–242; Franklin, V. P., The Education of Black Philadelphia: The Social and Educational History of a Minority Community, 1900–1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979).Google Scholar

⁷ Tyack, , The One Best System, 177–216; McGerr, , A Fierce Discontent, 77–115; Halpern, Making Play Work, 9–20; Klapper, , Small Strangers, 55–107.Google Scholar

⁸ Phillips, Kimberley Louise, “Heaven Bound: Black Migration, Community, and Activism in Cleveland, 1915–1945” (PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1992); Trotter, Joe William, The Great Migration in Historical Perspective: New Dimensions of Race, Class, and Gender (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991); Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America (New York: Knopf, A. A., 1991); Carole Marks, Farewell-We're Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989); Grossman, Land of Hope; Charles Ashley Hardy, III, “Race and Opportunity: Black Philadelphia during the Era of the Great Migration, 1916–1930, volumes I and II” (PhD dissertation, Temple University, 1989); Gottlieb, Peter, Making Their Own Way: Southern Blacks'Migration to Pittsburgh, 1916–30 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987); Joe William Trotter Jr., “The Making of an Industrial Proletariat: Black Milwaukee, 1915–1945” (PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1980); Nell Irvin Painter, Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction (New York: Knopf, , 1977); Gottlieb, Peter, “Making Their Own Way: Southern Blacks’ Migration to Pittsburgh, 1916–30” (PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1977); Richard Walter Thomas, “From Peasant to Proletarian: The Formation and Organization of the Black Industrial Working Class in Detroit, 1915–1945” (PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 1976); Henri, Florette, Black Migration: Movement North, 1900–1920 (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1975); Osofsky, Gilbert, Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto: Negro New York, 1890–1930 (New York: Harper & Row, 1971); Spear, Allan H., Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890–1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Myrdal, Gunnar, Mauritz, Richard Sterner, Edvard, and Rose, Arnold Marshall, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1944); Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1922); Scott, Emmett Jay, Negro Migration During the War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1920); W. E. B. Du Bois and Eaton, Isabel, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (New York: Blom, B., 1967); Woodson, Carter G., A Century of Negro Migration (Washington, DC: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1918).Google Scholar

⁹ Grossman, , Land of Hope, 3–4; Charles Edward Hall, Negroes in the United States, 1920–1932 (New York: Arno Press, 1969): 55; Marks, Farewell, 1–3, 121–22; Henri, Black Migration, vii–viii, 51, 68–69, 83; Ravitch, , The Great School Wars, 241–42; Hardy, , III, “Race and Opportunity,” 130–36; Gottlieb, Peter, “Rethinking the Great Migration: A Perspective from Pittsburgh,” in The Great Migration in Historical Perspective: New Dimensions of Race, Class & Gender, ed. Trotter, Joe William (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991): 3–4; Hine, Darlene Clark, “Black Migration to the Urban Midwest: The Gender Dimension, 1915–1945,” in The Great Migration in Historical Perspective: New Dimensions of Race, Class and Gender, ed. Joe William Trotter (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991): 127–28.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Hall, , Negroes in the United States, 55, 210–12, 21–22.Google Scholar

¹¹ Phillips, , “Heaven Bound,” 44; Hall, Negroes in the United States, 55, 210–12, 21–22; Anderson, James D., “The Historical Development of Black Vocational Education,” in Work, Youth & Schooling: Historical Perspectives on Vocationalism in American Education, ed. Kantor, Harvey A. & Tyack, David B. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1982): 199.Google Scholar

¹² Marks, , Farewell, 145–51; Henri, , Black Migration, 84–85, 104–5; Grossman, , Land of Hope, 123–8, 29–30; Phillips, , “Heaven Bound,” 148–56; Hardy, , “Race and Opportunity,” 130–36; Franklin, , The Education of Black Philadelphia, 3–28; Henderson, H. Donald, “The Effects of the Negro Migration on the North,” The Journal of Negro History 6, no. 4 (1921): 436–37; Gottlieb, , “Rethinking the Great Migration,” 73; Osofsky, Harlem, 105–23.Google Scholar

¹³ Grossman, , Land of Hope, 246–58; Henri, Black Migration, 124, 325–31; Franklin, The Education of Black Philadelphia, 29–59; Tyack, The One Best System, 217–29; Ravitch, “A Different Kind of Education for Black Children,” 98–102; Anderson, “The Historical Development of Black Vocational Education,” 197–206.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Henri, , Black Migration 99, 121–24; Eugene Kinckle Jones, “Problems of the Colored Child,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 98 (1921): 142–47.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Henri, , Black Migration, 124; “Harlem Conditions Called Deplorable,” New York Times, 6 September 1927, 17; Franklin, The Education of Black Philadelphia, 176.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Henri, , Black Migration, 41, 114–15; Halpern, Making Play Work, 36; Grossman, Land of Hope, 271–97; Washington, Forrester B., “Recreational Facilities for the Negro,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 140 (1928): 274–75.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Campbell, , Campbell Paper, 34–44; Keith, Charles C., “A Brief History of Boys’ Club Work,” Boys’ Worker Round Table (March 1918): 7.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Campbell, , Campbell Paper, 46. The history of Atkinson's early life and work history comes from a variety of documents. The primary sources were presentations given at Atkinson's Memorial Service by Campbell, A. C. (BCF); Boy Scouts of America's longtime, Chief Scout Master James West, and Otter, E. D. Otter's memorial, entitled, “Atkinson of Broadview,” provides the most comprehensive biography of Atkinson. This presentation was given on 14 April 1935; the quote from David Armstrong comes from a letter to Taylor Statton of the Toronto YMCA dated, 30 March 1945.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Keith, , “A Brief History,” 7; Campbell, Campbell Paper, 42–43, 46.Google Scholar

²⁰ Hall, William E, “Twenty-Five Years of Progress: Annual Message—A Review and Challenge,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, June 1931, 172–73, 80; Campbell, Campbell Paper 48–49.Google Scholar

²¹ Hall, , “Twenty-Five Years of Progress,” 80. He traveled to England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, and Italy at his own expense to promote Boys’ Clubs. Affiliate Boys’ Clubs from all of these countries including China and India were given membership with the Federation.Google Scholar

²² Campbell, , Campbell Paper, 59–61.Google Scholar

²³ Ibid., 63.Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid., 54–55.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid., 55.Google Scholar

²⁶ Ibid., 55, 170.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid., 76–78.Google Scholar

²⁸ Ibid., 78.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid, 59–61, 78–9.Google Scholar

³⁰ Starting in 1923, the Boys’ Club Federation's annual yearbooks identified these Clubs with a “C” (Colored) beside the name of the branch or organization. “Colored” Clubs, like these early ones, appeared and disappeared due to local issues of sustainability and/or reorganization of these Clubs. Whereas a few were exclusively a Boys’ Club operation, most “Colored Clubs” were simply an affiliated boys’ department of a neighborhood settlement house.Google Scholar

³¹ U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor Bureau of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States 1900, 5th Prescient; Baltimore Maryland (Washington, DC: Govermental Printing Office, 1900).Google Scholar

³² Secretary Coleman, William T., Jr., interview by Carter Julian Savage, 15 July 2006.Google Scholar

³³ Farrar, Hayward, The Baltimore Afro-American, 1892–1950 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998): 29–30; “Baltimore's Excellent School Facilities,” Afro-American, 15 August 1908, 1; “The Colored High School,” Afro-American, (24 June 1899), 1; Howard Young, “Colored Schools in Maryland,” Afro-American (18 September 1915): 2–4.Google Scholar

³⁴ Secretary Coleman, William T., Jr., interview by Carter Julian Savage, 15 July 2006. The story of Coleman's entrance could not be verified by external sources; however, a 1 December 1928 article in the Baltimore Afro-American entitled “‘Wild Bill’ Back” details that Coleman, Sr. was known as “Wild Bill” when he was growing up in Baltimore. It also noted that he left Baltimore at fifteen years of age for Hampton Institute. “‘Wild Bill’ Back,” Baltimore Afro-American, 1 December 1928, 20.Google Scholar

³⁵ Williams, Robert, “Philadelphians,” Baltimore Afro-American (9 March 1940): 9; “After 40 Yrs. WBC Head Finds ‘Pace Gets Tough,” Germantown Courier (n.d. [1953]), (n.p.). This source was located in Emlen-Jones Papers. Quaker & Special Collection (Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania). “Graduates and Ex-Students,” The Southern Workman XLII, no. 3 (1913); Eugene Beaupre, “Negro Boys Activities at Wissahickon,” The Southern Workman LVII, no. 9 (September 1929). At the 40th Convention of Boys’ Clubs of America, Coleman was honored with a thirty-five-year Medal of Service from the Boys’ Clubs Professional Association. In Coleman's brief biography in the award program, it stated, Coleman “was a teacher of manual training before entering the profession of boys’ work. His interest in and concern for boys led him into the Movement.”Google Scholar

³⁶ Campbell, Jane, “Club's Good Work for Colored Boys,” in Newspaper Cuttings (Philadelphia, PA: Courtesy of the Germantown Historical Society, 1909).Google Scholar

³⁷ “Graduates and Ex-Students,” 191. In its March 1914 edition, The Southern Workman highlighted the recent hire of Coleman as Superintendent of the Wissahickon Club. As noted early, Coleman, in 1953, completed an organizational history for Boys’ Clubs of America. On this form, he listed his hire date as 8 October 1913.Google Scholar

³⁸ Secretary Coleman, William T., Jr. interviewed by author on 15 July 2006.Google Scholar

³⁹ “A Club for Colored Boys,” Work With Boys: A Magazine of Methods XIX, no. 3 (May–June 1919); “Graduates and Ex-Students”; “A Wissahickon Boys Club,” Social Forces 5, no. 1 (1926): 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁰ John, T. Emlen devoted his life to improve conditions for African Americans in Philadelphia. Born in 1879, Emlen was a graduate of Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania. After college, Emlen taught at Hampton Institute for two years. Upon his return to Philadelphia, he not only founded the Wissahickon Club in 1905 but also cofounded the Armstrong Association in 1907 (which became the Philadelphia chapter of the National Urban League in 1957). “50 Year Youth Work Career Is Halted by Death,” Philadelphia Tribune, 14 May 1955, 5; “Germantowners Want Wissy Playground Named for J. T. Emlen,” Philadelphia Tribune, 15 December 1958, 16.Google Scholar

⁴¹ The following historical account was included in a report submitted by William T. Coleman in 1953. In preparation of the 50th Anniversary of the Boys’ Clubs of America, each Club was asked to complete a form on the history of their organization.Google Scholar

⁴² The New York Colored Mission was established by Quakers after the Civil War under the name, the African Sabbath School Association. In its earliest configuration, it provided religious tracts, temperance information, Bibles, and religious instruction to African Americans in New York. As the African-American populations grew toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Sabbath Association transitioned into a social service agency. When Emlen arrives in 1904, the Mission ran an employment agency, a nursery, and a boys’ club among many other services to the African-American community. Gilbert Osofsky, Harlem, 55; Nancy J. Weiss, The National Urban League, 1910–1940 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974): 13.Google Scholar

⁴³ Papers, Emlen-Jones. Quaker & Special Collection. Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ “Colored Real Estate Dealer of Germantown Makes Successful Deal for Rich White Corporation,” Philadelphia Tribune, 25 October 1919, 5; “Graduates and Ex-Students,” 191.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ “Building, Improvements and Endowments: Evidence of Progress from the Field Nothwithstanding Close Money Market,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, January 1921, 14.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Beaupre, , “Negro Boys Activities at Wissahickon,” 413–4 (Courtesy of the Hampton University Archives); “Boys’ Clubs Assets Steadily Growing,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, January 1923, 22.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ “Graduates and Ex-Students,” 286.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ “Boys’ Club News Culled from Many Sources,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, October 1920, 30; “Boys’ Club News Culled from Many Sources,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, April 1923, 30; “Building, Improvements and Endowments,” Boys Worker Round Table, January 1921, 14–15; “Around the Table,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, Mid-Summer 1923, 12; “Around the Table,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, Autumn 1923, 11.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ “Boys’ Club News Culled from Many Sources,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, April 1922,28.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Eugene Beaupre, “Negro Boys’ Activities at Wissahickon: The Leading Colored Boys’ Club of the B.C.F.,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, Autumn 1928, 35.Google Scholar

⁵¹ “Baseball-Our Sports-Baseball,” Philadelphia Tribune, 3 July 1920, 7; “Wissahickon Boys Club Takes Seven Awards at the Boys Work Conference,” Philadelphia Tribune, 11 June 1921, 2; “Boys’ Club Winner in National Competition,” The Chicago Defender, 25 June 1921, 3; “Boys’ Club Wins Prizes,” The Chicago Defender, 2 June 1923, 9; “Urges Teaching of Trades,” New York Times, 2 December 1923, 21; “Wissahickon Boys’ Club in Exhibition Is This City,” The New York Amsterdam News, 3 June 1925, 5; “Wissahickon Boys’ Club Has High Standard,” The Pittsburgh Courier, 13 June 1925, 7.Google Scholar

⁵² “Negro Delegates at Dinner of White Men and Women Cause Conference Problem,” The Indianapolis News, 9 May 1922, 1.Google Scholar

⁵³ Ibid.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Ibid.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Federated Boys’ Club, “Executive Secretary's Report to the Board of Directors of the Boys’ Club Federation,” Minutes of Meeting of the Board of Director, 24 October 1922. Boys & Girls Clubs of America; Atlanta, GA.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ “Jim Crow at Boys’ Club Conference,” The Chicago Defender, 19 May 1923, 1.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ “Executive Secretary's Report to the Board of Directors of the Boys’ Club Federation.”Google Scholar

⁵⁸ “A Quest for Understanding,” The Journal of Negro Education 2, no. 2 (1933): 241.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Federated Boys’ Clubs, “Executive Secretary's Report to the Board of Directors of the Boys’ Club Federation,” Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Director of February 1926. Boys & Girls Clubs of America; Atlanta, GA.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ “20th Annual Convention of the Boys’ Club Federation,” Boys’ Worker Round Table, March 1926, 24.Google Scholar

⁶¹ The BCF was not unique among national youth organizations in its efforts toward inclusion. Although segregated, African-American YMCAs had served black boys since the mid-1850s, matching funds from philanthropist, Julius Rosenwald, led to the opening of 24, full-service YMCAs in African-American communities between 1913 and 1933. These full-service buildings, many still open today, dramatically increased the activities attractive to black boys. Similarly, the Boys Scout of America, founded in 1910, had African-American troops and troop leaders as early as 1911. Employing a similar strategy to the BCF, there was no active recruitment of African-American scouting. For African Americans who sought participation, the unofficial policy called for adherence to “local custom.” However, in 1925, Boys Scout of America established an “Interracial Committee” primarily for the purpose of expanding scouting in the African-American community. Finally, the Playground and Recreation Association of America (PRAA) began its expansion of its service model in 1919. Organized in 1906 in New York, the PRAA did not engage in work in the African-American community until the onset of World War I. Charged by the federal government to provide recreational activities to service men and women, the PRAA, through its War Camp Community Services (WCCS), determined that it had to establish separate facilities for African Americans in the armed forces. To facilitate work with African-American soldiers, PRAA hired Ernest, T. (E. T.) Attwell to organize these facilities and services. Following the war, Attwell was retained as Field Secretary for the Bureau of Colored Work (BCW). Through the BCW, Attwell organized city leaders and philanthropists to build playgrounds in urban, African-American communities across the United States. Additionally, he trained and provided consultations to African Americans who managed these facilities. Nina Mjagkij, Light in the Darkness: African Americans and the YMCA, 1852–1946 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994); Rowan, Edward L., To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America (Exeter, NH: Publishing Works: Distributed by Revolution Booksellers, 2007); Pilz, Jeffrey J., “The Beginnings of Organized Play for Black America: Attwell, E.T. and the PRAA,” The Journal of Negro History 70, no. 3/4 (1985): 59–72.Google Scholar

⁶² “Wm. Coleman, T. Receives Signal Appointment,” Philadelphia Tribune, 8 May 1926, 1.Google Scholar

⁶³ “Clubs for Colored Boys Widen Service in Ten Cities,” Boys Club Federation News Bulletin, 15 March 1931. Each year, the Boys’ Club Federation published a yearbook listing all member organizations, their addresses, the Superintendent, and board president. The new “colored” Clubs, listed in the text were noted in the 1927 Boys’ Clubs Federation Yearbook, 1928 Boys’ Clubs Federation Yearbook, 1929 Boys’ Clubs of America Yearbook, and 1930 Boys’ Clubs Federation Yearbook.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ “Clubs for Colored Boys Are Swinging into Line,” Boys’ Club Worker News Bulletin, 15 March 1929; “Clubs for Colored Boys Widen Service in Ten Cities,” Boys’ Club Worker News Bulletin, 15 March 1931, p. 1.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Coleman, William T., “More Boys’ Club Needed,” The Southern Workman 54, no. 7 (1931): 302–303, 4; Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West, The Future of the Race (New York: Knopf, A. A., 1996): 133–58.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ After a review of BGCA's records and personal interviews, there is no specific mention of why Coleman returned to Philadelphia; however, the correlation of Coleman's resignation as field secretary and Atkinson's retirement seem to be connected. My hypothesis is that a number of conditions may have led to a personal decision on Coleman's part. First, Atkinson, with his engaging personality and racially tolerant attitude, was a palatable employer; however, Atkinson's replacement, William Hall, was not as tolerant. Second, the organization's 1931 revenue had dropped by 25% due to the Depression. Given that Coleman was contracted through the Wissahickon Club, his contract may not have been renewed.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Campbell, , Campbell Paper, 80; “C.J. Atkinson, 76, Boys’ Lead, Dies,” New York Times, 5 April 1935, 23. The primary source is a presentation at Atkinson's Memorial Service entitled “Atkinson of Broadview,” from a member, Otter, E. D. This presentation was given on 14 April 1935; the quote from David Armstrong comes from a letter to Taylor Statton of the Toronto YMCA dated, 30 March 1945.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Brealand, Albert, interview by Carter Julian Savage, 22 October 2009.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ “Coleman Quits Wissy Club Post,” Philadelphia Tribune, 22 November 1955, 1, 3; “Coleman, W. T., Lauded, Sr.,” Philadelphia Tribune, 16 May 1961, 14; “Old Timers Honor William T. Co Leman for 42 Years of Service,” Philadelphia Tribune, 13 March 1965, 14; “Coleman, William T., Sr. Funeral Friday Morning,” Philadelphia Tribune, 4 February 1967, 1.Google Scholar