Manuscripts Collection
Dorwatha Helen Woods Adderley was born in January 1958, the youngest of six daughters born to Lewis and Hazel Caldwell Woods. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Adderley spent her childhood all over the world, as her family relocated every eighteen months to satisfy her father's assignments in the Army Corps of Engineers. When Adderley was ten, her father retired from the Army and the family settled in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Adderley's first contact with Catholic education was as a schoolchild. Although members of the Baptist Church, Adderley's parents, in an effort to shield their daughter from the racial riots of the late 1960s, placed her in Catholic schools. Dissatisfied with her Baptist church affiliation, Adderley chose to convert to Roman Catholicism during her college years at Hampton Institute (Hampton, Va.).
Adderley went on to graduate school at the University of Michigan, where she worked as a campus minister, and later completed a Masters in Pastoral Studies degree at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minn.). She worked as Director of Religious Education for St. Joan of Arc Parish in south Minneapolis until taking a position in 1987 as principal of Ascension School, a Catholic school in north Minneapolis. Adderley became known for her work educating low income and minority children who make up the majority of the student body there, and for her efforts for organizations such as the Joint Ministry Project, an interdenominational group formed to provide a voice for inner city low and moderate income people on a variety of issues. In recognition of these accomplishments, Adderley received the Archbishop John Ireland Award from the Archdiocesan Office for Social Justice in 1991 and the Archbishop John R. Roach Award from the Commission on Women in 1996.
In addition to her work as principal of Ascension, Adderley has been a staunch supporter of the school choice movement in Minnesota. In 1996 a major bill to establish a voucher system for middle and low-income parents of non-public school children was introduced in the state legislature by Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson. As part of the push to pass the bill, Adderley was hired by the Choice In Education League to serve as grassroots network coordinator for Parent Choice Advocates, a group organized by the League to train citizen lobbyists. She took a leave of absence from Ascension School to lead the group from January to April 1996. Although the 1996 bill was not successful, Adderley continues to work as an advocate for Catholic schools and for initiatives to expand school choice in the state of Minnesota.
In 1980 Dorwatha married Donald Adderley. The couple had two daughters, Michelle (b. 1983) and Alisha (b. 1985).
This records are divided into the following three sections:
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
Accession number: 14,603; 15,120; 15,398; 15,470; 15,574
Processed by: Lara D. Friedman-Shedlov, February 1998 and May 2000.
Catalog ID number: 09-00023622
Personal papers include scrapbooks, genealogical charts, press clippings, correspondence, greeting cards, and speeches and other writings by Adderley. Biographical materials on Adderley and her family include folders of genealogical information and press clippings, as well as a folder of material related to a Woods family reunion organized by Adderley in July 1996. Further biographical information can be found in a number of the pieces included in the folder of speeches and writings. The remainder of the personal papers consists primarily of greeting cards and notes of appreciation from family members, friends, and faculty, students, and parents from Ascension School.
Includes information on planning, how activities were chosen, schedule of events, and evaluation forms filled out by family members who attended.
Correspondence with the family and friends of a teacher who came to Ascension School from the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, a religious order based in Nigeria.
Scrapbooks include greeting cards from family and friends, childhood and college memorabilia, and photographs of Ascension School activities.
Materials relating to Adderley's work as principal of Ascension School, a Catholic elementary school (K-8) located in north Minneapolis. The series includes school and classroom newsletters, notices sent to parents, a faculty handbook, grant applications, and photographs. The newsletters, which form the bulk of the Ascension school materials, contain detailed information on such aspects of school life as holidays, programs, religious observances, discipline, tuition, school policies, student programs and progress, and school lunch menus. Photographs depict the school Christmas and Kwanzaa programs, fund raising events, and classroom activities.
One folder of minutes and related papers (1989-1991) document the work of the Joint Ministry Project, an interdenominational organization including neighborhood groups formed to provide a voice for inner city low and moderate income people on a variety of subjects, including church attendance, neighborhood issues, economic problems, and matters relating to children. Ascension School was one of the Catholic organizations that worked in the project. The remainder of the series concerns Parent Choice Advocates, a group that organized and trained parents to serve as citizen lobbyists to institute a system of vouchers that would provide financial assistance with tuition to middle and low income parents with children in Minnesota non-public schools. Material includes Adderley's employment contracts, documentation of the group's mission and strategies, articles on the school choice issue, press clippings, and correspondence.
Folders 1-3 were formerly contained in a three-ring notebook organized by Adderley.
A video produced by the Choice in Education League of Minnesota to promote the proposed voucher program.