These papers document the career of Jesuit, legal scholar, and social activist William J. Kenealy, SJ. Materials include addresses, articles, correspondence, ephemera, minutes, and reports spanning Kenealy's work at Boston College and Loyola University Law Schools, the National Committee for Human Development, and as director of the Jesuit Social Apostolate National Office.

The bulk of the materials comprise his correspondence and writings from his years as a law professor, but correspondence from his service as a Navy chaplain during World War II and notes from his licentiate degree in theology at Weston College are also included. The smaller amount of material from Kenealy’s participation in Jesuit and Catholic social initiatives nonetheless illustrates the concerns of these groups at the beginning of the 1970s with issues of race and poverty.