American Committee on Italian Migration Records (CMS 001)
July 11, 2016
The American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM) was organized in February 1952 as a member agency of the National Catholic Resettlement Council, which later formed part of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC). From its inception, ACIM’s chief objective was the liberalization of the United States immigration policy that, as delineated in the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, rested upon a restrictive “national origins” quota. ACIM undertook a wide range of activities, from raising funds to sponsoring new Italian immigrants into the United States and promoting new immigration legislation by Congress. With the passage in 1965 of the Kennedy-Johnson Bill abolishing the “national origins” quota, ACIM turned to aiding immigrants in migration and adapting to their new surroundings. The collection documents the work of ACIM’s local committees and chapter to lend financial backing and grassroots support to the national program; annual fundraising benefits; national conventions and Symposia; copies and preparatory materials for their bulletin, “the Dispatch;” files of staff members; documents pertaining to the verification of a Sponsor’s assurance on behalf of a prospective refugees; public relations and publicity materials; fundraising by ACIM’s women’s division.
Arrangement
Series A: Committees and Chapters
Series B: Dinners and Cruises
Series C: Symposia
Series D: “The Dispatch”
Series E: General Correspondence
Series F: Refugee Cases
Series G: Public Relations Records
Series H: Press Books
Series I: Yolanda Coda, Women’s Division Coordinator Records
Series J: Joseph Jordan, Public Relations Records
Series K: Speeches, Biographies, Photos
Series L: Reading Files, Dinner Reading Files, Symposia Reading Files