Letters from Ken Leighton to Jeanie Schroeder, 1941-1944

This collection contains letters and paper ephemera written to Jeanie Schroeder, a young, white woman who fell in love, got pregnant during her pre-med studies at Northwestern University, and secretly married a young Black musician identified as Keith "Tiny" Leighton in the letters. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1940s to the 1950s. The content centers Jeanie Schroeder's courage in facing the difficulties of being seen as an unwed mother in the 1940's; young men going off to World War II, and women obtaining new careers and exploring the work place that was previously unavailable to them.

It contains 130 handwritten letters, thirty typed letters, and 115 pieces of paper ephemera, including identification cards, handwritten poetry, and illustrations by Blair, their child, drawn for his mother.

The archive includes letters from Jeannie's father, Theophile R. Schroeder, a Chicago business owner, demanding to know the baby's father, from Jeannie's mother, Goldie Halliday Schroeder, begging her daughter to hide her condition, from a girlfriend, Doris Reiman Gorman, urging Jeannie to move to Mexico where her "sociological problems" won't be an issue, and from a friend (George Nesbitt) of Tiny's family with advice for the courage an interracial marriage would require of her, as well as letters from Jeannie and Keith's son. Blair. He wrote letters to his mother while he attended the Williams Military Academy. An envelope with some of the boy's hair is included.