Ramsey County Historical Society issued the following announcement on April 8.
In 1938, the International Institute became its own organization, no longer under the umbrella of the YWCA, but remained at the YWCA’s location on West Fifth Street. At that time, the Institute was serving and advocating for the many Mexicans who had immigrated to Minnesota to work the sugar beet fields. Before WWII in the early 1940s, over 1000 African Americans and people from over 28 nations paid annual dues of fifty cents to join the Institute.
During WWII, as Japanese Americans were put under restrictions and even house arrest after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Institute assisted them. In about 1942, the Institute in Saint Paul started the St. Paul Resettlement Committee, to assist and relocate Japanese Americans from the war-time incarceration camps.
Image: Photo of a residence in Swede Hollow on Saint Paul’s east side, a location that was home to many immigrants over the years. Circa 1956, from the City Planning Board of Saint Paul. From the RCHS Collection.
For more on the International Institute, see “One Hundred Years Serving New Americans: The Centennial of the International Institute of Minnesota” by Krista Finstad Hanson at https://publishing.rchs.com/.../ramsey-county-history.../
Original source can be found here.
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