Collection Title: Joseph S. Freeland Papers
Series Number: MS70-01
Processed and Cataloged by: No information listed
Date Listed: 1970. No exact date listed.
Date Span: 1939-1967
Size of Collection: 4.0 linear feet.
Number of Boxes: 8 legal size document cases.
Type of Material: Correspondence, legal documents, case files and newspaper clippings.
Condition of Material: Fair with foxing and fading from improper storage.
Arrangement: Organized alphabetically by title of case file. Chronological arrangement.
Biographical / Historical Information: Joseph Stephen Freeland was a labor and civil rights attorney that practiced law in Paducah, Kentucky from 1938 to 1992. He was born in Paducah on March 19, 1915. He attended local public schools and graduated Tilghman High School in 1932. For the next two years, he studied at Murray State Teachers College (presently Murray State University) before being admitted to law school at the University of Kentucky. Freeland received a degree in law in 1938 and began a legal practice in Paducah later that year. Not long after his return to Paducah, he became involved in the city's Socialist Party and ran unsuccessfully campaigns for city judge, city commissioner and United States Representative during 1940s. From 1949 to 1953, he represented the Paducah Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and was the co-founder of the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union in 1955. He was appointed to the state Workman's Compensation Board by Governor Bert Combs in 1959 and held that position until 1967. He continued practicing law in Kentucky until his retirement in 1992.
Scope and Content: Collection consists of correspondence and case files that Paducah, Kentucky attorney Joseph S. Freeland deliberated before the state and federal courts from the 1940s to the 1960s. The bulk of the collection focuses upon labor disputes between union members and corporations that operated in the State of Kentucky. Included with the case files are legal documents, materials used as evidence, newspaper clippings and related items to trial proceedings. A brief autobiography accompanies the collection.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Freeland, Joseph Stephen, 1915-
Labor unions – Law and legislation – Kentucky.
Employees – Law and legislation – Kentucky.
Grievance arbitration – Kentucky.
