Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the Gayle Morrison Files on Southeast Asian Refugees, 1969-2001
MS-SEA014
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Gayle Morrison files on Southeast Asian refugees,
Date (inclusive): 1969-2001
Collection number: MS-SEA014
Creator:
Morrison, Gayle
Extent:
7.2 linear feet
9 boxes and 7 oversize folders
7 digitized images
Repository:
University of California, Irvine. Library.Special
Collections and Archives.
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Abstract: This collection contains materials acquired by Gayle Morrison
during the time she served with the Lao Family Community, Inc., and the Governor's Task
Force regarding issues of Southeast Asian refugees living both in the United States and in
camps located in Southeast Asia. Materials relating to the Lao Family Community and the
Governor's Task Force include correspondence and information on agencies at the local,
state, and federal level. The agencies and services included in the collection deal with the
issues and challenges Southeast Asian refugees face living in the United States and ways of
helping the refugees adapt to their new home and surroundings.
Language:
English.
Selected digitized images from this collection.
Collection is open for research. Access to files covered by California personnel records legislation is restricted for 50
years from the latest date of the materials in those files. Access to medical records is restricted for 100 years from the
latest date of the materials in those files. Restrictions are noted at the file level.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by
the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish,
please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.
Gayle Morrison Files on Southeast Asian Refugees. MS-SEA014. Special Collections and
Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Gift of Gayle Morrison, 1992-1997.
Processed by Julia Stringfellow, 2003. Processing was supported by a Library Services and
Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the California State Library.
Gayle Morrison has been active in several organizations working with Southeast Asians since
the 1970s. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from California State
University in Fullerton, California, in 1972. She then went on to receive a Master of Arts
degree in Educational Counseling and Psychology in 1976 from Chapman University in Orange,
California. She began her involvement with Southeast Asian organizations by working in the
Home Support Program in Orange County. This program sent counselors into the homes of
Southeast Asians where they educated members of the household in areas such as health care.
Morrison was also a member of the Refugee Forum of Orange County from 1978 to 1991. The
forum was a county wide, inter-agency group of professionals and interested individuals who
met to facilitate refugee resettlement through group problem solving and information
sharing. From November 1985 through June 1988, Morrison served as the chairperson of the
Linkages Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Refugee Forum.
Morrison was the Assistant Executive Director of the Lao Family Community, Inc. (LFC),
located in Orange County, California, from December 1988 to June 1990. During that time she
performed all grant writing for program expansion of new programs. Within this organization,
she established and coordinated an English as a Second Language (ESL) program for
preliterate and survival level adult refugee students. She also assisted the executive
director in developing and providing services for refugees and was responsible for all
personnel management. She served as the Executive Director of LFC from June 1990 through
February 1991. During this time, Morrison was responsible for all agency planning and
supervised and reviewed all agency programs. She also reviewed all fiscal records to
determine the agency's solvency.
Morrison went on to serve as Personnel Administrator for the Lao-Hmong Security Agency in
Garden Grove, California, from March 1991 to the present. This private business trains and
employs Southeast Asians, especially former Hmong and Lao soldiers, as security guards for
warehouse and industrial sites throughout California.
Morrison has also been a member of various statewide committees, including the Governor's
Task Force Citizen Advisory Committee from 1979-1981. Several articles by Morrison have been
published, as well as the book,
Sky is Falling: An Oral History of
the CIA's Evacuation of the Hmong from Laos
, in 1999.
Morrison currently lives in Santa Ana, California, where she continues to serve as an
expert consultant for several organizations involved with Southeast Asian refugees. She has
recently received a one-year research fellowship from the National Endowment for the
Humanities for the purpose of completing oral history research regarding the Hmong who were
United States allies and remained in Laos after 1975. This activity is part of the Hmong
Oral History Project, an independent project of Morrison's that has been ongoing since
1988.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection contains materials acquired by Gayle Morrison during the time she served
with the Lao Family Community, Inc., and the Governor's Task Force regarding issues of
Southeast Asian refugees living both in the United States and in camps located in Southeast
Asia. Materials relating to the Lao Family Community and the Governor's Task Force include
correspondence and information on agencies at the local, state, and federal level. The
agencies and services included in the collection deal with the issues and challenges
Southeast Asian refugees face living in the United States and ways of helping the refugees
adapt to their new home and surroundings.
Each series is arranged alphabetically by topic. The materials in each file are arranged
chronologically.
The collection is arranged into four series.
- Series 1. Lao Family Community, Inc., 1977-1990. 1.5 linear ft.
- Series 2. Orange County and California Agencies and Services, 1976-1998. 1.4 linear ft.
- Series 3. Non-California state and national organizations, 1976-2000. 2.6 linear ft.
- Series 4. Printed Ephemera, 1969-2001. 1 linear ft.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Morrison, Gayle,--Archives.
Refugee Forum of Orange
County--Archives.
Lao Family Community--Archives.
Hmong (Asian people)--California--Archival
resources.
Laotians--California--Archival resources.
Refugees--Asia, Southeastern--Archival
resources.
Refugees--California--Archival resources.
Refugees--Vietnam--Archival resources.
Southeast Asians--California--Archival
resources.
Vietnamese--California--Archival
resources.
Ephemera--20th century.
Sound recordings--20th century.
Index Terms Related to this Collection
Refugee Forum of Orange County.
Lao Family Community.
Online Archive of California.
Southeast Asian
Archive.
This collection is supplemented by materials in the SEA Archive's newspaper clippings file.
Additional material on the Refugee Forum of Orange County can be found in the Collection on
Refugee Forums (MS-SEA019).