Al Wroblewski

      papers. ([original](http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/p2599.xml)) ([raw](?raw))

An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society

Manuscripts Collection

OVERVIEW

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Al Wroblewski was born ca.1945, one of two sons in a Polish-American family that made their home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father, John Wroblewski, was a laborer in a factory making gears. Wroblewski attended Beloit College (Beloit, Wis.) in the mid-1960s, and after college worked as a city planner. In 1968 he was living in the Bronx, New York, and was employed by a planning consulting firm known as F. P. Clark Associates. In 1970-1971 Wroblewski was living in St. Paul and working as a planner for the South St. Anthony Park Association, a neighborhood development firm. In 1971 he was associated with with a Twin Cities group called the Metropolitan Housing Committee. In 1975-1977 he was director of the Crossroads Resource Center, Minneapolis.

In 1974 Wroblewski resurrected the Minnesota Leader newspaper, which he called "the voice of the Farmer-Labor Association," and which he wrote and published until July 1977. In the_Leader_ Wroblewski railed against what he called the "corporate liberalism" of such figures as Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale. From 1979-1981 Wroblewski was state coordinator of the Farmer-Labor Association, which was organized in 1979 and which apparently saw itself as a successor to the old Farmer-Labor Party. Wroblewski described the Farmer-Labor Association as "an independent political association working within Minnesota's DFL Party...intent on building an anti-corporate movement for the 1980s."

Wroblewski was hired in September 1977 by the Hallie Q. Brown Center, St. Paul, and went to work as a community organizer in the city's distressed Selby-Dale neighborhood. He last appeared in the local city directories in 1981-1982, living on the East Side of St. Paul, but the directory does not list his occupation. In the late 1990s Wroblewski was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was working as a financial planner for American Express. He left American Express in 2001 in order to start his own financial planning firm.

In addition to his many other activities and pursuits Wroblewski spent time in VISTA, "worked for the Catholic Church," and taught occasionally in small colleges. A campaign flyer in the collection indicates that he was at one time a candidate for a seat on the St. Paul school board. City directories indicate that during his years in the Twin Cities he lived at varous locations in both St. Paul and Minneapolis. Wroblewski and his wife Susan had at least one child, a son named Nicholas, who was born in 1973.

The information above was taken from the papers, from St. Paul and Minneapolis city directories, from the pages of the Minnesota Leader, and from the internet.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The collection includes information on the Farmer-Labor Association; Farmer-Labor, communist, and Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party politicians and candidates for office; professional sports stadiums proposed for downtown Minneapolis, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome which was eventually built there; Mexican Americans in Minnesota; migrant farm workers, organizations of and for migrant farm workers, and the Mexican American community in St. Paul (1936); and information about some cooperative businesses in the Twin Cities, including the Green Grass Grocery in St. Paul and a proposed depositor-controlled bank in Minneapolis. There is a campaign flyer indicating that Wroblewski was at one time (1970s?) a candidate for a seat on the St. Paul School Board.

There is little if any information about Wroblewski's work as editor of the Minnesota Leader or as state coordinator of the Farmer-Labor Association, and there is no information about Wroblewski's work and career after leaving Minnesota.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Al Wroblewski Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,810

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, May 2004

Catalog ID number: 002907640

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION

RELATED MATERIALS

CATALOG HEADINGS

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:

Communists -- Minnesota.

Cooperative societies -- Minnesota.

Hispanic Americans -- Minnesota.

Mexican Americans -- Minnesota.

Migrant agricultural laborers.

Political candidates -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

School elections -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Stadiums -- Minnesota.

Places:

Minnesota -- Politics and government.

Persons:

Benson, Elmer A. (Elmer Austin), 1895-1985.

Bernard, John T. (John Toussaint), 1893-1983.

Hendrickson, Viena Johnson.

Savola, Matt, 1908-1977.

Organizations:

Catholic Church. Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Farmer-Labor Association (Minn.).

Green Grass Grocery Community Store (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Migrants in Action (Organization : Saint Paul, Minn.).

Minnesota Migrant Council.

St. Paul YWCA (Minn.). International Institute.

Occupations:

Political activists -- Minnesota.

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