This fonds contains materials created or collected by CARAL Windsor and affiliated organizations between 1968 and 1994. It has been divided into six series reflecting the group’s pro-choice activism during a tumultuous period of uncertainty around abortion legality and access in Canada. Series I to V contain records of day-to-day operations, advocacy, and resource sharing by CARAL itself, as follows: Series I - Administrative Materials; Series II – Correspondence; Series III - Publicity and Awareness; Series IV - National Office Materials; Series V -Resources. Series VI - Windsor Women’s Incentive Centre (WIC) contains a small number of records related to the WIC’s broader support for women’s issues in Windsor-Essex in the same time period.

This collection provides glimpses into community and associational life for people of African descent in Windsor, Ontario between the late 19th and early 21st centuries, with an emphasis on the mid-20th century. It is divided into nine thematic series.

Series I contains records of the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church, 1873-1999, both Windsor-specific and national. Included are doctrinal books, church registers and membership rolls, land indentures, annual reports, church histories, orders of service, ephemera, press clippings, correspondence, conference programmes, and photographs of historic BME chapels in Windsor, Woodstock, and Chatham, some of which have since been demolished.

Series II consists of administrative and financial records and ephemera from the annual Emancipation Celebration held in Windsor, 1837-1983, including papers of the British-American Association of Coloured Brothers of Ontario, souvenir programmes, and photographs of Emancipation parades ca. late 1950s/early 1960s.

Series III contains minutes, financial records, correspondence and two newspaper clippings from a committee to organize a concert in Jackson Park in affiliation with a conference of the National Association of Negro Musicians, 1955-1956.

Series IV contains minutes, correspondence, and a guest book from the International Women’s Committee (of Black women in Windsor in Detroit) relating to speakers and events in conjunction with Emancipation events, 1954-1956.

Series V holds the constitution, minutes, financial records, history, correspondence, and event-related ephemera (1940-1960) of the Armstead Club, a sporting and social club that also provided youth scholarships. Of special interest is a letter from the first scholarship recipient reflecting on being one of only a few Black students at Queen’s University in the late 1940s.

Series VI consists of minutes, ephemera, and correspondence of the War Mothers Protective League, 1943-1945, which provided morale-boosting cards and gifts to local armed forces personnel serving abroad during the Second World War. One file contains letters of thanks from the servicemen themselves.

Series VII contains minutes, history, and correspondence of the Central Citizens’ Association, 1929-1958, an organization that advocated for the rights and opportunities of Black citizens in Windsor and organized collective action including social clubs, mentoring, boycotts, and political activism.

Series VIII consists of a small number of administrative records – constitution, financial records, names of members (1867-1881) – from the Lydian Association of Windsor, a working women’s mutual aid group that provided financial and nursing support to sick or injured members.

Series IX contains personal records from the Christian/Shreve/Moore family, consisting of A.S. Shreve’s course notes from his flight engineer training in 1944. (Note: further accruals to Series IX are expected.)

This fonds primarily contains personal papers, publications, and oral histories (ca. 1870-1984) relating to the Basilian Fathers who served as teaching staff for Assumption College and Assumption University. Included are diaries, notebooks, correspondence, memoirs, recorded interviews, memorials, manuscripts and published works. Of special note are the extensive papers of Bishop Leo C. Nelligan, records of O’Connor House, and a few records from Rev. Pierre Tourvieille. Secondarily, this fonds contains extensive administrative records documenting the history of Essex College, found in the papers of professor W.H. Arison.

This fonds contains records charting the institutional life and physical premises of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in the Town of Walkerville / Walkerville neighbourhood of Windsor. Series I – Paper Files is not formally arranged into sub-series, but significant record-creating groups or genres of material are grouped together in the file order. These include: church wardens, board of management/vestry, financial records, various church committees, women’s groups, men’s groups, youth groups, orders of service (bulletins), special events, church visitors and staff, as well as the building, its contents, its churchyard and cemetery (including sketches and architectural plans). Of note are a small number of records relating to the church’s relationship to the family of Walkerville founder Hiram Walker, and rich records of social and service groups for men, women, children, and youth. Series II – Photographs was originally arranged separately from the paper files. Its previous arrangement and description has been retained here; the images capture elements of the congregational activities and physical premises documented in the paper files.

The fonds does not contain parish records of births, deaths, marriages, or baptisms.

This fonds contains records of students and student activities at Assumption College and Assumption University, ca. 1870s-1980s. It also includes some records from Assumption High School in that period, and for the University of Western Ontario during the years of Assumption’s affiliation with Western. Included are roll books and testimonials; minutes of the Literary Society; newsletters, yearbooks, and student publications; handbooks for students, residents, and faculty; promotional and recruitment brochures for Assumption; ephemera relating to special events, convocation, dramatics, and athletics; program and course listings; and news clippings. There is a small amount of material relating to student grades or schoolwork, alumni, Second World War servicemen, and deceased Basilian Fathers. Of special note: correspondence relating to the Assumption victory song, a history of Holy Names College, and brochures for 1940s summer school offerings listing Wyndham Lewis and Marshall McLuhan as faculty.

This fonds contains records connected with 22 Superiors or Presidents of Assumption College and University, ca. 1861-2009. For the most part it is organized chronologically by individual, although later accruals to the fonds have led to some quirks in file numbering or arrangement. Much of the fonds consists of administrative correspondence connected with institutional matters. There are also photographs, reports, publications, statistics, and notes on various subjects.