Clyde Summers Office Files

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 6206

Scope and Contents

The collection of papers of Clyde Summers comprises 51 linear feet of arbitration files and office files consisting of professional correspondence, subject files, case materials, course materials, constitutions, collective bargaining agreements, testimonies to federal agencies, speeches, and publications.

Materials of note are Summers' applications to the bar dated 1938, 1944, and 1951. The early two applications were rejected by the Illinois bar on grounds of Summers' conscientious objection during World War II. The 1951 application to the New York bar was accepted. Also included are drafts of legislation with his handwritten notes, and court cases, including cases of conscientious objectors. Correspondents include unions, discussing union democracy and workers' rights; colleagues in universities at which he taught; civil rights associations; and various arbitrators.

Dates

1903-2005

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

Clyde W. Summers was a distinguished and prolific labor and employment law scholar, who played an influential role in the areas of worker rights, union democracy, unjust discharge, and the rights of public employees and non-union employees. Born in 1919 from Mid-Western farmers, Summers had initially planned to become a preacher, but was drawn to labor law after witnessing first-hand labor conditions during the Depression. He taught at the University of Toledo, University of Buffalo, Yale University, and Penn State. He was a visiting professor at Cornell University, teaching courses for the Buffalo Extension Division, and at several other universities in the United States and abroad. He was also an active arbitrator and for 20 years and an umpire for the anthracite industry. A passionate advocate for workers' rights, Summers wrote seminal articles on statutory protection against unjust dismissal and union democracy. This work led President John F. Kennedy to call upon him to draft what would become the Landrum Griffin Act of 1959, designed to protect and promote the democratic process in unions. Clyde Summers died on October 31, 2010.