RAINBOW CLUB:

Records describing the activities of a Twin Cities social club established in 1947 to foster friendship and understanding among individuals of different racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds. The bulk of the collection consists of the club's dismantled record books (1945-1995) which contained its constitution and bylaws, board minutes, treasurer's reports, membership rosters, event programs, newspaper clippings, photographs, flyers, and occasional correspondence. A group of newspaper clippings, obituaries, and memorial announcements related to individual members, and an audio recording of a radio program called Twin City Roundtable (January 16, 1955), are also included. The program featured an interview of the club's first president, Robert Mitchell, concerning the club's history and objectives.

In 1943 a group called "Twin Cities Married Couples" was formed by Reverend Daisuke Kitagawa, a field secretary with the Federal Council of Churches' Committee on Japanese-American Resettlement. The objective of the group was to bridge the gap between Japanese American families and the civilian population in the Twin Cities. After the war the group adopted the name The Rainbow Club (1947) and its membership became more diverse. The variety of club activities documented in the records reflect the club's goal of social interaction, not social reform or the furthering of a political agenda. Among the activities represented are club picnics, parties, circle suppers, an annual International Night at which the club hosted a number of foreign students, and a May dinner which also served as the club's annual meeting. The club officially disbanded in May 1995.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Rainbow Club Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Master Files:

Digital audio master is maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and is managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audio reel was disposed after it was digitally reformatted into a WAV file.

Accession Information:

Accession Number: 15,241

Processing Information:

Processed by: Frank P. Hennessy, May 1998

Digitization and encoding by: Joseph Larsen, April 2023, and Aubrey Mullenix, July 2024.

Digital audio transferred from the master audio reel by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (April 2023).

Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Catalog ID: 990017345700104294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Cultural relations.

Japanese Americans -- Cultural assimilation -- Minnesota -- Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

Japanese Americans -- Minnesota -- Twin Cities Metropolitan Area -- Societies, etc.

Japanese Americans -- Minnesota -- Twin Cities Metropolitan Area -- Socialization.

Places:

Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minn.) -- Clubs.

Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minn.) -- Ethnic relations.

Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minn.) -- Race relations.

Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minn.) -- Social conditions -- 1945-

Person:

Kitagawa, Daisuke.

Organization:

Twin Cities Married Couples (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Type of Documentation:

Audio recordings.

Photographs.

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