http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8vd74ms No online items Guide to the Bob Fitch Photography Archive M1994 Gurudarshan Khalsa Department of Special Collections and University Archives 2017, revised 2019 (one map folder) Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Guide to the Bob Fitch M1994 1 Photography Archive M1994 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: Bob Fitch photography archive creator: Fitch, Bob Identifier/Call Number: M1994 Physical Description: 83.4 Linear Feet140 containers (133 manuscript boxes, 6 flat boxes, and one map folder) Date (inclusive): 1960-2016 Abstract: The Bob Fitch Photography Archive consists of the photographic work of activist and photojournalist Bob Fitch, documenting the civil rights movement, the farm worker movement, the peace movement, other social justice movements and issues, cultural change, religion, as well as his professional and personal life. Scope and Contents The Bob Fitch Photography Archive primarily consists of photographic materials: contact sheets, negatives, prints, and slides. The images are predominantly black and white, however there are also color images. There is additionally a small amount of notes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, audiovisual materials, and research materials. The collection also contains documents, graphics, spreadsheets, databases, software programs, video, audio, and other material created and/or stored on computers, removable media, and hard drives that were managed by Bob Fitch. The CD-ROMs have been processed and can be accessed but the rest of the computer media is closed until processing has been completed. The collection is composed of Bob Fitch’s work as a photojournalist and activist documenting the leaders and ordinary people involved in social justice, civil rights, labor, and peace movements. The collection also records his professional, personal, and family life. Some of the subjects the materials cover are Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers, Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker movement, Martin Luther King Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the civil rights movement, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, David Harris, Joan Baez, hippie communes and communities, and the campaigns of Ron Dellums and other progressive politicians. The collection also documents cultural change, alternative lifestyles, sexuality, art, religion, spirituality, reconciliation movements, nonviolence, ecology, youth, poverty, family life, and living conditions. Fitch work was primarily based in Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the American South. Bob Fitch used a numbering system to organize his photographs. The numbers ascend from 101 and are, on a macro level, chronological. Each contact sheet was assigned a number which was marked on the back of the sheet. The negatives were placed in an envelope marked with the same number. Large projects, such as the Glide Foundation, SCLC, and the UFW East Coast trip, had their own numbering system – the initials of the organization followed by a number, again ascending from 101. Fitch arranged the negatives from these large projects with the rest of the materials from that project and they were separated from the main group of negatives. The numbering system, where existent or legible, has been noted in the scope and contents at the file level in this guide. Some materials containing privacy and confidentiality issues have been closed for 80 years from the date it was created. Within this guide, these files will be marked with a Restricted Material note specifying the extent of the closure period. Biographical Bob Dewitt Fitch (1939-2016) was an activist, photojournalist, union steward, community organizer, minister, housing program manager, and musician. He was born in Los Angeles, California on July 20, 1939. His father, Robert, was a professor of Christian ethics and a United Church of Christ minister. Bob Fitch’s mother, Marion Weeks Dewitt, was a homemaker. In 1950 the family moved to Berkeley, California, where Fitch became involved with socially committed families of Communist and Socialist organizers, was active in the folk music scene, and interned at the community-supported radio station KPFA. He graduated from Berkeley High School in 1957. In 1961 Bob Fitch graduated from Lewis and Clarke College in Portland, Oregon with a Bachelor's of Science in Psychology and then received a Bachelor's and Master's in Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. While in the seminary Fitch read James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and had an experience where he felt the need to somehow be artistically involved in portraying the elements emphasized in the book. He settled on photography as the best medium to achieve this goal. Fitch was ordained as a United Church of Christ minister in 1965. After graduating from the Pacific School of Religion Fitch interned with the Glide Foundation in San Francisco, where he was a community organizer working with street gangs, the homeless, hippies, and gay, lesbian, and transsexual groups. The Glide Foundation asked Bob Fitch to do photography for books published by them. Without any formal training in photography, Fitch studied the works of Dorothea Lange and Henri Cartier-Bresson, talked to professional photographers, took free courses on photography, and began documenting the groups he was working with in San Francisco. In 1965 Fitch was invited to be a staff photographer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the civil rights movement. He worked in areas and situations where it was considered to be too dangerous for African-American journalists to operate. His role was to take photographs and file stories, acting as a wire service for national African-American newspapers and magazines. Fitch photographed voter Guide to the Bob Fitch M1994 2 Photography Archive M1994 registration, voting, and recruitment and training for African-American political candidates during the first election following the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. He also documented the everyday lives of African-Americans, including marches, demonstrations, meetings, SCLC's organizing efforts in Chicago, Martin Luther King Jr.'s People-to-People tours in Alabama, and the Meredith Mississippi March Against Fear. In 1968 Bob Fitch moved back to Oakland, California where he continued to document and be involved in social justice movements. After Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in April 1968, Fitch photographed Coretta Scott King and her family during the funeral and afterwards. Discouraged after attending an interracial retreat on nonviolence in the Santa Cruz Mountains which devolved into divisiveness, a vision of Martin Luther King Jr., appeared to Fitch and told him "Bob! Continue the work!" The next day Fitch made a list of leaders in social justice movements that he admire and respected. He wanted to document them before they too were killed, beaten, or jailed. These activists included David Harris and Joan Baez, Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, and Pete Seeger. He also sought to document cultural and spiritual movements including hippies, communes and the anti-war movement. Fitch documented political campaigns and local and national politicians including Ron Dellums, Warren Widener, Betty Ann Bruno, Shirley Chisholm, and Andrew Young. He also photographed journalists, photographers, activists, clergy, and artists including: Cornell Capa, Don Devereaux, Betita Martinez, Evan Golder, Robert Olmstead, and Ali Luterman. In his photography he emphasized the role of the rank and file as agents for social change and he was propelled by a desire to not just observe movements but to be deeply involved in them. In 1978 Fitch started working for California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, where he helped develop affordable housing in rural communities. After retiring in 1996 Fitch continued his involvement in social justice movements by working with the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz and travelling to Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico. He also worked for immigrants' rights and for Luis Alejo's campaign for California Assembly. Bob Fitch died of complications from Parkinson's disease on April 29, 2016 in Watsonville, California. Bob Fitch wrote several books, his photographs have been featured in books and in exhibits, including at the Smithsonian Institution. Conditions Governing Access The collection is open for research except restricted materials which are closed until the date noted at the file level. The majority of audiovisual material in the collection has been digitally reformatted for preservation and materials that are unrestricted are available to view in the Special Collections Reading Room; audiovisual materials not already reformatted are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Conditions Governing Use There is no fee for non-commercial image downloading and use. Commercial use requires permission from the Department of Special Collections and University Archives prior to publishing or rebroadcasting any item or work, in whole or in part, held by the Department. More information can be found on our permissions page [http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish].