Martin Bickham papers, 1903-1972

Old Resource ID was MBickham

Rev. Martin Hayes Bickham (October 7, 1880 - May, 1976) was a minister, sociologist, civil rights activist, and civil liberties advocate. Bickham held a wide variety of interests that involved him a number of significant activities. His Methodist background predisposed him to much of this work. He was employed by the YMCA in the 1910s and through the World War I period. Bickham was an ordained a minister by the Methodist Church and also earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1922 with the dissertation "The Scientific Antecedents of the Sociology of Auguste Comte." Throughout the 1920s Bickham studied and spoke on student issues. During the Depression he served on the Illinois Emergency Relief Commission's Work Relief Committee. Then, during World War II, Bickham worked as a missionary touring the United States as a chaplain to American soldiers.

Martin Bickham's work brought him into a leading role in addressing the issues of his times. Throughout the thirties Bickham was involved in the rights of the disabled and he advocated for civil rights by the mid-forties and for fair housing by the mid to late fifties. Bickham also became a member of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at this time and remained active with that group for nearly two decades. He also advocated throughout his life - and especially after the repeal of Prohibition - voluntary temperance, a view in harmony with his religious outlook.

As a scholar Bickham worked on a number of manuscripts throughout his life, many of which were never published. Some were never even completed. For nearly a decade at the end of this life Bickham worked on a manuscript, "A History of Racism," which never saw publication. An early draft was submitted to several publishers including the University of Chicago Press. His last manuscript was "Human Rights in Lincoln Land." It was circulated among Illinois legislators in the early 1970s and was published by the Wilmette Human Relations Committee.

The Martin Bickham Papers contain agendas, financial statements, bulletins, memoranda, minutes, newsletters, press releases, by-laws, clippings, correspondence, journals, letters, manuscripts, maps, pamphlets, artifacts, photographs, plans, posters, proceedings, research notes, resolutions, speeches, and reports spanning the mid-1920s through about 1971. The bulk of the material covers the 1930s, 1950s and 1960s.

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Martin Bickham papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Names
  • Bickham, Martin Hayes -- Archives
  • United States. Works Progress Administration.
• Subject
  • African Americans.
  • Civil rights.
  • Evangelistic work.
  • Methodism.
  • People with disabilities--Employment.
  • Race discrimination.
  • Race relations.
  • Temperance.
• Geographic CoverageIllinois--Chicago.