Bernice Hubbard May | 150 Years of Women at Berkeley

Bernice Hubbard May grew up in the Elmwood district of Berkeley and graduated from Cal in 1918. During her senior year, she was woman's editor of the Daily Californian and aspired to attend graduate school, eventually forgoing the opportunity due to financial constraints. In 1923, she became the administrative lead for courses at the UC Extension Program's San Francisco office. She managed the Engineering, Science, and Management War Training program until its obsolescence in 1946. Afterwards, she began a distinguished career in local politics and community organizing with an emphasis on anti-housing discrimination.

The Bernice Hubbard May Papers contain material of interest to researchers of the history of women in politics, the conflict over housing discrimination in Berkeley, and the issue of regional government in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The collection focuses on Hubbard May's professional endeavors and includes an array of campaign literature, correspondence, and other materials from Berkeley elections, covering the period from May's first candidacy for city council in 1959 to her retirement in 1971.

The most extensively documented of the electoral measures is the unsuccessful 1963 Fair Housing Ordinance, which sought to penalize racial discrimination in housing. Reports, minutes, and other documents from several organizations promoting regional governance (sometimes referred to as "home rule") in the Bay Area are present: substantive documentation of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), including reports on a wide variety of bay issues, preparatory to the Commission's master plan; and a smaller range of materials regarding the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Joint Committee on Bay Area Regional Organization (BARO). Also included are reports and other documents from the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) and its Citizens' Task Force, focusing on land acquisition efforts. The materials from the Berkeley City Council center on the issue of waterfront development, but also touch on the city's responses to regional government and affirmative action policies. May's other professional activities represented in the collection include the League of Women Voters and the California Citizens' Adoption Committee.