December 1962. Smiles at the Champaign-Urbana Improvement Association's annual Christmas dinner Saturday night at Mount Olive Baptist Church are from Mrs. Anna Dalton (in white hat), who initiated
several years ago the idea of having a holiday banquet annually that would be free to youngsters 15 through 19. From left are Mrs. Virginia Rodgers, Mrs. Dalton, general chairman for the dinner; Mrs. Beatrice Ward, speaker Robert Bowles, executive director of the Urban League here: the Rev. J. E. Graves, president of the the CUIA, and Mrs. Albert Alexander, treasurer.

The Champaign-Urbana Improvement Association was a community group advocating for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. The CUIA was headed by Rev. J.E. Graves.

Source: Carol Lewis Papers