January 17, 1964
1129 Maple Street, Apt. 3-B Jackson, Mississippi
Dr# Zinn—
Mid write a letter to you the other day but since a couple of things have come up x± and since I can't discover a record of the letter or of having mailed it I thought it wise to write a gain.
The following is en excerpt from a letter I sent to a former professor of mine at SIU:
I wonder how you react to the following kind of program and whe ther you think that it fits into the acope of your thinking up to this point. I think of a program, perhaps making a special effort to involve faculty from other schools who are sabatticitls at between jobs or something, with three prongs to it*
1, These people would serve as special guest faculty who could work along with the regular Tougaloo faculty to instruct special courses in their respective fields0 These courses would be offered to the regular student body as well as to special students for transferable credit.
2. They should have a large block of time together to use for special seminars on basic problems. These being aimed particularly at the students and other who are not in school at the time but who are working the field in some capacity. Especially impor tant here would be the chance to involve people in some of the creative t£pe bull sessions*
3* Finally, it seems to me that there is an infinite range of complex and interesting bunch of research problems, the data from which would have practical and immediate value as well as long range academic and schoolarly significance.
end quote.
Mindy samstein tells me that you have been working along simlliar lines. Worth Long was here for a day alsoe He suggested that the time to get SNCC action on the idea would be at the exec, comm, session comming up the 24th of this month, which I understand that you plan to attend.
In the meantime, I'm trying to work-up a program suggestion that would incorporate this plan along with a couple of others, I would like to know if you think that the kind of thing I suggest would fit into plans that you have and if I could be of any assis tance to you in developing the program? I will be free by the end of this month to help out on the legwork that would be involved at least, If you think that it's feasible to try this kind of thing at the present time perhaps we can arrange to get together at the exec comm meeting or sometiime before that If I'm able to get all these ideas down on paper in the next couple of days I'll try to get that to you too for your reaction. Sincerely—- John 0*Ne«l January 30, 196U,
Dear John: I just returned from Hattiesburg and Atlanta to find your tetter of January 17 (no, I did not get an earlier letter) and the prospectus for the Free Southern Theater, On the steps of the courthouse in Hattiesburg, in the rain, I spoke ^0 Doris Derby (she's so pretty I) and she told me a little jabout the theater _r oject. It sounds just terrific, the most exciting idea I've come across in a long time. Since the days of the Federal Th ater In the New Deal fchere has been nothing like this. (I'm particularly thrilled because o^ r whole family is theatre connected in minor but loving ways - my wife and daughter are great actresses, my son is a ham, and even I have over-acted on stage), incidentally, a good friend of mine in &ew York is a ^egro playwright, Loften itchell, whose play Land Beyond the hiver (dealing with the first school desegregation case ln S, Carolina) played off-Broadway several years ago; he might have something on paper you might want to do. You shouldn't have trouble enlisting the aid of Oseie ^avis and Ruby Dee* The Executive Committee did not have too much time in ^ectic Hattiesburg. A committee was set up to work on summer plans for Mississippi. But we didn't get to othermatter s, like the plan for education which I submitted. Unfortunately, I don't have a, other copy. Bob Moses has one, and perhaps you can g et it from him. Ild like your reaction. The Atlanta office may have mimeographed it, in which case there are extra copies available there* It seems to me that you would be ideal to work on this program In some way. The basic i dea (to brief you until you do get hold of the plan) is tc have all of the ?00-odd S^CO staff take turns - in groups of 25 or 50 perhaps - going, every three months or so, to a five or six day Intensive "refueling" session in the social sciences and humanities, at a central spot far from scenes of trouble, where iectures, discussions,etc. can be combined with a kind of rest-recreation periqjd. In between those trips, there would be, in every field situation, a small-scale going educational program, with someone in feat place in charge of checking up on people reading, holding occasional discussions, following up on the assignments and plans made in the refueling center. Let's hear from you when possible. I'm ho Ing the SNCC organization will socn be able to get down to doing some thing on this educational program, which it seems to me fits in with what you are interested in doing. uhuru HAROLD TAYLOR 241 WEST TWELFTH STREET ELEANOR ROOSEVELT FOUNDATION STUDY NEW YORK 14. NEW YORK OREGON 5-3177
February 2Uth, 196U.
Dr. Howard Zinn, U5 Chapin Road, Newtonville, Massachusetts.
Dear Dr. Zinn,
Last month, at a meeting of student activists in the civil rights movement, one of the students present spoke warmly of your work in the South and of your experience with the Negro colleges. I have also known of the things you have done in the past, and would be very much interested in having your ideas and suggestions about what the Eleanor Roosevelt Foundation could do in the field of human rights, poss ibly working through the universities, student groups, labor unions, and religious organizations.
I have collected quite a few proposals and concepts, but would like to get your immediate reaction to the possibilities, rather than explaining any given direction in which the study is now taking me.
I will look forward to hearing from you as soon as you can manage it.
With very best wishes,
Ajlil ) (MV^ Harold Taylor \ ELEANOR ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL FOUNDATION Empire State Building, New York 1, N.Y.
"She would rather light a candle than LW 4-0440 curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world . . ."
FOR RELEASE: MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1964
The appointment of Dr. Harold Taylor, former President of Sarah Lawrence College, as special Consultant to Adlai E. Stevenson, Chairman of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, was an nounced today (Monday, January 20th.) Mr. Stevenson said that in implementing the Foundation's policy and goals, Dr. Taylor would conduct a study of human rights problems and recommend appropriate action to be taken by the Foundation. Last June,Mr. Stevenson announced that the Trustees of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation would give top priority to programs and projects designed to further human rights. The late President Kennedy hailed this decision "with enthusiasm", declaring that he could "think of no more appropriate and enduring memorial to Eleanor Roosevelt." One of the Foundation's Initial projects in this area, begun on Dr. Taylor's recommendation, has been a pilot program in which selected Peace Corps veterans and other qualified individuals are being awarded internships for training in the field of inter- group relations. Awards to 25 "interns" will be made this month and a two-week seminar held in Washington for them before they start their specialized one year-work-study programs under a (more) - 2 - $5000 grant, of which $2500 will be provided by the Foundation and $2500 to be provided by the agency to which the intern is assigned. As part of the Foundation's human rights program, "Community Action Institutes" will be held this Spring, one In the South and another in the North, to help members of newly-established bi-racial commissions in a number of selected cities to discuss ways of meeting the many problems of inter-group relations. In announcing Dr. Taylor's appointment, Mr. Stevenson said: "in our Foundation's quest for a harmonious transition from antagonism to cooperation between peoples, which was at the heart of Mrs. Roosevelt's work and ideals, we welcome the aid of a man of Dr. Taylor's rich experience and deep dedication to the cause of human rights in America and throughout the world." Dr. Taylor, a friend of the late Mrs, Roosevelt, was at one time Vice-Chairman of the New York State Commission Against Dis crimination in Education. In the summer of 19&3t be *eh«lueted an experimental World College project on Long Island in eoeperation with the Society ef Friends and twenty-four member nations of the United Nations. The World College curriculum dealt with major issues of world <->rder and human rights. The student body and faculty represented a world cross-section of the Communist, non- Communist and non-aligned countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe, as well as Canada and the United States.
The fsurteen years of Dr. Taylor's presidency r'f Sarah Lawrence College, a post he assumed In 1945 at the age of thirty, were marked by his aetive leadership in the struggle for academic freedom, racial equality and religious tolerance. His interest (more).- - 3 - in the field of human rights started when, at the age of twenty- four, he began teaching philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, having taken his B.A. and M.A. degrees at the University of Toronto and his doctorate In philosophy at the University of London. Dr. Taylor has published three books, On Education and Freedom, Art and the Intellect, and Essays ln Teaching, of which he was editor and co-author, and he is the author of more than 300 articles in books and journals of philosophy and education. Since his retirement from Sarah Lawrence College In 1959* Dr. Taylor has travelled ln Asia and Russia on a special Ford Foundation grant and has lectured and taught in colleges and universities here and abroad. He is vice-chairman and co-founder with Mrs. Eugene Meyer of the National Committee for the Support of the Public Schools, and chairman of the National Research Council on Peace Strategy, a group of scientists and scholars active In the field of peace research and disarmament. In addition, Dr. Taylor has conducted special educational research studies, among the most recent being one in the field of education in liberal religion, another in university organization. He has also written widely on social issues in relation to education. The preliminary findings of Dr. Taylor's study on human rights are expected to be ready by April 23, 1964, the first anniversary of the Congressional chartering of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation.
##### For confirmation,call : Ell Jaffe 212-LW 4-0440 1/16/64 To the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
There will be a staff meeting from February 12th thru February l£th at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta.
STAFF MEETING FEBRUARY 12th, 13th, lath, l£th
GAMMON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Note; The staff meeting was originally planned for the weekend of the 5th of February but was changed because the Mississippi staff (100 or more are SNCC staff members felt that the meeting would interfere vdth deposition- taking for the FDP Congressional Challenge. Cars and staff are vitally needed for this phase of the Challenge. #**#*#* 4HHHHHHH* 4M8HBHHHt* ^KHHBHB*
The staff meeting is very important and each s taff member should come for SNCC's finances are low, we are being attacked by many forces because of our political activities with the FDP, and there are many, many problems which must be solved, such as distribution of resources, expansion in other states, summer project, northern offices, and so on. We need to decide things at this meeting and try to set up some kind of way to get things done.
It is extremely important that some kind of ground work and discussion take place in each project about the problems which we are faced with. If this preliminary discussion takes place, when we have the staff meeting de cisions can be made. This neans that we should talk about how we think SNCC should be set up to meet our problems. At each staff meeting, as we all know, we have begun and ended by talking about those things which are basic to our working in the movement: such as what are our goals, where are we going, why are we here, what do we need to know to get the job done, why do people steal. I think we need to continue to grope together with these questions but we also need to think about how we organize ourselves so that we can have a way and a place and an organization where we can talk further about these questions.
The following is a list of four of the major things which we have decided upon at the last two staff meetings.
a, 3NCC is a band of organizers.
b. SNCC's main purpose is to build organizations of local people through which they can exercise their own powers and make de cisions about their lives.
c. SNCC staff is the ultimate decision-making body.
d. Education (workshops and institutes) for developing powers and tools of the staff and of the people they work with is top priority in SNCC.
In order to get things decided at this meeting we all must do some talking before we come to Gammon. Here in Atlanta, next week, Jan. 22nd and 23rd;, there will be another planning committee meeting to further detail a vray of proceeding at the staff meeting. The planning committee will be a lot better if we can get a cross-section of people from each of the geographic areas where we work help to plan the staff meeting: people from SI? Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, the congressional districts in Mississippi, the northern offices, research, communications, and anyone else who has ideas and suggestions on how the 200 of us could meet and try to solve our problems. This planning committee would report back to their areas and hopefully a lot of discussion on how we proceed could be avoided at the staff meeting.
PLANNING COMMITTEE METING Jan 22nd and 23rd ATLANTA, GEORGIA
PLEASE CALL ATLANTA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE '"HEN YOU DECIDED TO COME TO THE PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING.
We Shall Overcome? Barbara Jones March 2, 1964
Dr. Harold Taylor 224.1 West Twelfth Street New York 14, N. Y. Dear Dr. Taylor: I'm sorry for the delay in responding to your letter of February 2I4. but I've just come out of the hospital after a siege of pneumonia and am barely beginning to get back to work. I'm very happy to hear about the establishment of the Eleanor Roosevelt Foundation and of your connection with It. I have had typed up for your consideration a plan for continu ng education of civil rights workers in the field in the Deep South. I think this could be an exciting frontier in education. I have recently discussed this with the executive committee of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee whose members constitute most of the students in this proposal and whose various field offices would be logical centers for field education. Also, there are 3 or 1* people now on the SNCC staff who have both the educational background and field ex perience to handle the job of coordinating the project. Miss Marian Wright of the Legal and Educational Defense Fund of the NAACP, a former student of mine in Atlanta, has spoken recently to the President of Smith College about what they might do and she Is sending thera a copy of this plan. In addition, I might throw out one or two other ideas. It would be extremely useful for someone to set up (the requirement is one volunteer coordinator and a small fund for travel expenses) a national observer corps for civil rights demonstrations In the South. The idea here is to have both prominent and not so promi nent people from all over the nation volunteer for short spans of duty In the Deep South (usually two or three days) to act as observers on the scene of civil rights demonstrations. My own experience in such demonstrations indicates that It is tremendously important to have such observers on the spot for several reasons: to serve by their presence as a deterrent (not certain, but at least possible) to extreme brutality by local police officials; to help focus national attention on such demonstrations (civil rights workers in the Deep South have commented with a little bitterness that the nation pays attention only when some important person from the North is on the scene)? to act as a pressure span upon the Department of Justice and the President to enforce more vigorously than they have done in the past the civil rights statutes (after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the crucial problem will be executive enforcement)J to serve as wit nesses, giving depositions, etc. in the event that lawsuits are initiated in connection with that particular demonstration. Let me emphasize that previous delegations from the North, of ministers particularly, have usually aimed at active participation, culmin ating often in prison. The purpose here would be a more clearly limited but, because of this perhaps, even more useful role. -2-
Another very useful venture would be to help ln a project which is already in the planning stages and that is the setting up of community centers in Mississippi and other parts of the Deep South. I know that the Commissi&n on Rignts and Religion of the Presbyterian Church is gcing to help by paying the sal aries of some divinity school graduates who will serve as directors of such centers. The plan of course Is to have these centers In the Negro community where they are so badly needed. What might also be contemplated Is something bolder — the setting up of one or two experimental centers in a white commu nity of the Deep South to which Negroes would be Invited, as well as whites. There are white Southern college graduates available to man such centers. This is a complex problem and requires a lot of thought but I think the white community of the South has been too much ignored by civil rights organizations.
I think I have belabored you with enough for the time being. I will be happy to hear from you again whenever it is convenient for you to write. Sincerely,
Howard Zinn
k5 Ohapin Road Newton Center $9, Mass, Memo from Howard Zinn on Work as Travelling Professor ln the Deep South, Summer of 196if* We need to take the first steps towards an educational program which will serve the special needs of civil rights workers In the deep South. Many of these are young people whose formal education has been Interrupted by their decision to devote their full energies to the civil rights movement. They now number about 200 people, but this figure will probably Increase next year. Our problem, as I see it, Is to distill the best of what the American educational system has produced — ln the way of teachers, books, audio-visual materials, ideas — and somehow adapt these for people working in small groups, under difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions, in various towns throughout the South. In the ipaat year I have engaged, intermittently, in talks about this with people In the academic world and young persons In the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (to which are attached most of the civil rights workers in the deep South). In Juna, several of us will gather at some place In the South to draw up preliminary plans for an educational program to begin September, 196I4,, and to set in motion the realization of those plans. This means: accumulating books and other materials; assembling a group of consultants who are distinguished scholars in particular fields and who also have indicated their concern for social action and civil rights; lining up first-rate teachers who will agree to make trips to the South for brief periods; working out the logistics of seminars, institutes, lectures, discussions* During August, I will'be in Mississippi, where civil rights workers will be concent rated this summer, and there I hope, in some one loaallty, to try out several pilot projects of the kind we will initiate on a broaier scale next fall. While the education of civil rights staff people will be of cent ral concern, we will give attention also to education for Southern communities at large -- both white and Negro. This may require new forms: perhaps church meetings for educational purposes, or the Freedom Schools that will get their first test in Mississippi this summer, or the use of television, or special work with docu mentary drama. Throughout, the subject matter will be the social sciences and the humanities, and the relation of these to the lives of the people with whom we ares peaking. The whole project Is an exhil arating challenge to those of as in higher education who have been speculating about the creation of links between thought and action, between the academic world and the arenas of social conflict all around us. HAROLD TAYLOR 241 WEST TWELFTH STREET ELEANOR ROOSEVELT FOUNDATION STUDY NEW YORK 14, NEW YORK OREGON 5-3177
Maroh 5th, 1964.
Dr. Howard Zinn, 45 Chapin Road, Newton Center 59, Massachusetts.
Dear Dr. Zinn,
Thank you very much for your letter of Maroh 2nd, with its valuable suggestions for use in the study for Governor Stevenson.
The facts which you have given me about the possibility for an educational program for civil rights workers in the South are important ones, and the idea itself is most interesting. It may just be possible for the Foundation to undertake a program whioh oan include this sort of project, along with others which have a simi lar character.
The Volunteer observer corps is also an interesting suggestion, as is the establishment of commu nity centers.
I will stay in touch with you as we go along, and in the meantime will include your ideas along with the others which are forming part of the study.
With very best wishes, ]^jOu^^X^
Harold Taylor L /^W^Ht
*TOAI Howard 2ian
Proposed Educational Program For Aill-tima Civil Rights Workers in the South
Bote: Everything hare should b© considered sugdeative and exploratory.
The, Problems About 200 young people have interrupted thalr education at various levels—high school, college, graduate school—to devot© their energies full-time to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committea and other groups in securing civil rights for Negroes In the South. In s© doing, they have put Into practice one of those values which the nation's most farsighted educators have sought to place before' the young people of the nation! commitment to helping one*** fellow man. Thus, in a sense, it is those students who are not involved in this movement who are being educationally deprived. let, while recognizing what they are gaining, we must also understand that these young people In the field are sacrificing im portant element§ of education which are available in a formal academi© setting* intensive reading, exchanges of information and opinions wlill others of the same intellectual interests, consultation with teachers and others having special knowledge or Insights to share with young people. To have these available without the stimulation of social Involvement—as Is true In most academic situations—is to have only a partial education. But t© be involved In social action, without utilising its stimulation for intellectual growth, is to leave- unrealized a great potential, for the Individual and for society. Places Ilk© Antloch College have sought In their own way to combine the two, through alternating periods of field work and study. We are proposing, for civil rights field workers in the Deep South, a program that Is specifically designed for civil rights activists, with the same broad goals of combining education and social concern that exists at Antloch and other similar programs.
To set up an educational system for the approximately 200 full* time field workers in the Southern civil rights movement, which with minimum interference- with their day-to-day work, will continue their educational development In the social sciences and the humanities* %er© are two mala elements In this plan: 1. An ''educational refueling" and rest period for all field workers, three times a year—for five or @ix days, or twioe a year for 10-day or 2 week periods. Groups of field workers would come, at different times (in groups of 50 perhaps) to some central place, preferably a college campus (in order to remove them from the area -2- where work commitments may call them). There, led by a staff of lecturers and discussion leaders, they will do intensive study, reading, discussion—in history, political science, economics, literature, etc. Clearly, six day - even two weeks - isa short time, but the main objective will b© to set the tone, standards, directions, for the reading and other educational work which the field person will undertake In the long periods between refueling sessions* 2. Each field headquarters (In most cases, this will be a 3HCC headquarters; or It may be one of the com-realty centers now being projected for the Deep South by SNCC and chureh groups) will have its own going educational program under the direction of an individual for whom this will be hie or her main responsibility. Within the general scheme projected at the last "educational refueling* session, people in the field will read selected articles, essays, books, and get together for discussions one or more times a week. T£e, Curriculum^ At this point we can only make some general statements about curriculum, since much room should b® left for flexibility. There cannot and should not be a duplication of formal academic curriculum. On the other hand, the environment of the field situation, with all its difficulties, should not become an excuse to dilute the educational work into ordinary "bull-sessions" or into work on immediately utilitarian problems* Subject matter should be designed to give the field worker a broad Intellectual background, as well as factual knowledge and deeper perspectives for cllril rights activity. For instance, the reading of great works of literature should be encouraged, even though there Is no immediate relation to the work at hand; yet, novels by James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright, obviously very pertinent to here and now, should also be read. The history of the Segro in the United States is an obvious and necessary sub ject; but major currents in 20th century worl&hlstory (Communism, Fascism, the anti-Colonial movements) should also be studied. Cer tainly, discussion of national politics and government could be re lated to political problems in the locality where the discussion is taking place. Sconomios should be taught not as abstract theory, but In terms of those things,*S*hieh affect the realities of life In the Souths corporate structure, the plight of the farmer, the labor movement, the role of government in the economy. Constitutional law is no longer an abstract topic for people in civil rights, non violence as a philosophy needs to be discussed In relation to inter national problems of war, peace, disarmament.
All this-is merely Illustrative. A committee of educational advisers should work on broad curriculum policy and draw up reading lists. The books to be used should not be text books, but works of quality which are lateres*tin«iy written and intellectually challenging (not an easy combination to findj but this means advisors will have to work hard). They will be mostly paperbacks. Just to cite a few examples J C. Vann Woodward The Strange Career of Jim Crow , John Hope Franklin's Reconstruction.* 8. dranklin Prasler's Black Bourgeois** -3-
Howard Fast*© Freedom Road and W.E.B. DuiSois's The Souls of Black Folk might be good for Hegro history; Walter Llppman* s Xhe Public ^PTgftPPte, ****** Clark's The, Senate Satablls&ienfe, C. Wright Mifills] * me Power Bl^e, f*U goffer^s ^^rue^jTy_jfXT» might be used as a political system; Plato's AtP^-ogbasis foy r^ *discussio <&-$$« nThor©au* of the sAmerica Civilftlsobg.dlonce, n political Henr y Steele Commager's essays, Arthuriflller's The CmiolbXe. and some pertinent Supreme Court decisions slight be used a a a basis for discussing civil liberties. Essays and articles might be reprinted and used to good advantage, since they are fairly manageable as assignments for a x&ipisxxx single dis cussion.
Literacy and the three B*s, which are badly needed both for some field workers and people in the community, constitute a* large-scale problem which deserves separate plans. Iter© we are concerned with those at high school and college levels. Tet, our general philosophy about rleld Education is that the basic problems of man and society, ©f beauty and truth and justice, can be understood and analysed by all people of normal intelligence, regardlea»..*of formal educational background, J£ our approach is imaginative,
• Field workers include people who have not finished high school, and some who have finished college, (the average field worker has had some college training) so that various levels of background are represented. Still, there should be discussion sessions In aJdbe which all people In a given area participate, In order to give everyone the benefit of diversified backgrounds and educations. Then, in addition, smaller groups might get together, consisting of those who want to pursue topics further or carry on certain dis cussions on a more advanced level. This double-level study might be applicable both for the refuelling periods, and in the day-to-day discussions in the field. Personnel Requirements.I 1. One person, generally based in the 5BCC office in Atlanta, but moylng to the "refueling centers" for the periods of activity there, should have this projppa® as his or her chief responsibility. 2. Saeh project in the field should have one person for whom education will be a main responsibility; Shis person will maintain a certain discipline in reading assignments and will plan and lead the discussion groups. 3. to overall advisory committee, consisting of persons whe have not only competence in education but an understanding of the special needs of people in the civil rights mevesanb, should be used for planning and consultation. These advisers will be gen erally available to act as lecturers, instructors, discussion leaders at the "refueling" sessions and also to go out into the field on request to work at different times with discussion groups there. Ij.. This advisory panel should be supplemented, for these pur poses, by other persons in and out of the academic world, who would be available for occasional assignments. Sueh persons should combine a knowledge of their field, an ability to communicate this knowledge, and a commitment which makes their educational approach socially vital rather than purely academic. Financial Requirements, t Assuming that No. $ will be donated, an annual sum of #15,000-420,000 should cover the first four items. 1« Retaining an educatioaal coordinator in Atlanta, full-time. 2. Travel and costs for field people going to the "refueling" sessions. 3. Travel coats for visiting lecturers, teachers, advisers (who will donate their time). he Paperback books, magazines subscriptions used in each area. 5. A center for the "refueling*' sessions, supplying room and board and classroom facilities; perhaps a college campus in the Morth, which could handle $Q people for two eight-week periods, one around Christmas, and one in late spring or summer. Schedule; It would be desirable tol a) set up a small advisory committee immediately, during March. b) appoint a full-time education coordinator before April 1st. e) during April, send out reading materials to the field and arrange for field supervisors d) plan to hold the first sessions for 200 people over an eight-week period in June and July, using April and May to plan curriculum, Instructional staff, etc. ADDRESS ...Otf HUMAN" RIGHTS STUDY BT • DR. HAROLD TAYLOR
Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation First Anniversary Luncheon New York Hilton, April 9, 1964
I recommend to anyone who is gloomy or discouraged here today to do a study of human rights for Adlai Stevenson in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt . You would find that everywhere you go, the mention of her name makes a very great difference in the universities, the schools, the United Nations,, the government and everywhere else. People Immediately stop doing what they are doing and ask how they can help. The world is full of her friends - taxi drivers who drove her, soldiers who met her, students who heard her, photographers, writers, actors, politicians, singers, professors, scientists, and men and women who never knew her but who believed in her and what she did.
I think I will give you my final conclusions first. What v:o must do is to organize a world-wide movement of volun teers to replace, by hundreds of others, this one extra ordinary person whose life had so great a meaning for everyone who lived in her world and in her time. Her secret was her selflessness, her genius lay in the utterly simple,' direct, informal and bountiful way in which she shared herself with others0 We all felt better because she was around,,and the best thing we can do to honor her memory is to pick up the tasks which she left unfinished and carry them out in the style which she taught us to admire. We must work to put human rights into effect,
By Mrs„ Roosevelt's style, I mean that she was infinitely patient with other people's problems and that she approached world problems believing they were simply personal Ones blown up to world size, and that they were soluble only by those who cared to take them personally,, She was deeply interested In young people, and they flocked to her asking her advice. She lent her name to their causes. She was fond of saying that all human problems had to be solved in the communities, by the people who lived there; that human rights begin "... in small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world..,"
I assure you that there are hundreds of persons in the communities ready and willing to volunteer for service in Mrs. Roosevelt's cause, A whole segment of the country's youth is already at work in the slums of the great cities and in the rural slums of the South, tutoring children of all races and religions,,
I have discovered that there are approximately 10,000 college students across the country presently at wqrk as volunteers, some of them full-time, in tutoring programs. Nearly one thousand volunteers from Northern, Midwestern and Western colleges will work in Mississippi this summer in Freedom Schools and in community centers now being formed, where voter-registration and literacy programs are being organized for children and for adults.
I believe that Mrs. Roosevelt would be travelling to visit the Freedom Schools and community centers t&is summer, that she would be urging her friends and everyone else in sight to support the young people in what they are doing. What better tribute could we make than to award Eleanor Roosevelt scholarships to those who have the talent and who would be proud to develop it to serve the cause of Mrs. Roosevelt?
The Foundation has already made a beginning here, by the appointment of twenty-four Eleanor Roosevelt interns in the field of human rights, chosen from Peace Corps veterans, among others, who are now engaged in work-study programs ranging from a voter-registration project in Atlanta to work with the Civil Rights Commission in Washington and the Urban League in Chicago.
I have also found in the universities and high schools, teachers and scholars In large numbers who are ready to turn their energies and attention to serious Issues in human rights. It would not be too hard to mount a national program in which the universities turned their intellectual;resources straight to work on the social problems of their regions, communities and States.
Here is the mere beginning of a list of things to be done
We jsould appoint Eleanor Roosevelt professors to develop new plans for the integration of schools and housing in their own communities, to write new texts in history for children and high school students where the contribution to American culture of the Negro, the Indian, the Spanish, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Japanese, can be given full recognition, where the Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Pdghts will become central to historical understanding. - 2 - We could appoint an Eleanor Roosevelt Travelling Pro fessor to teach college students In the South in church basements or wherever there is student need.
- an Eleanor Roosevelt teacher to accompany the families of migrant workers to organize literacy classes for children and adults
- an Eleanor Roosevelt Professor to act as liaison for student and faculty exchange of ideas and students between a Negro college in the South and a university in the North.
- other Eleanor Roosevelt Professors in foreign universities could be appointed to carry out research in the status of human rights, to provide a flow of objective fact on the present condition of man, facts which, when held before the world, would help to make real the call of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that "every individual and organ of society ...shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms...and to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance..."
You will notice that I speak of volunteers to work In communities everywhere. There are In this room today hundreds of such volunteers, who by their own lives have shown not only that they understand and value the testament which Mrs. Roosevelt has given to us, but are themselves willing to continue her work. There are hundreds like you here and abroad. Some are mothers who, without formal education, have a natural talent for community organization in establishing human rights. Others are leaders of community groups which have not begun to tap the resources which exist among themselves for work in human rights,
Mrs. Roosevelt would have hoped that in her name, programs of action could be started. Here is the beginning of another list:
We could bring to this country an Eleanor Roosevelt community leader from India to help us with child-care centers in Harlem
- an Indonesian student to work and study with Americans in the civil rights movement in the South
- 3 - - we could make a $600 Eleanor Roosevelt grant to a mother in Harlem to rent a store front or a basement for organizing a cooperative nursery school, or a literacy and voting program for adults
- we could appoint an Eleanor Roosevelt Professor to organize training courses in teaching and tutoring for women in the cities and suburbs who have had the experience of raising families and who are now ready to put their talents to work in the cause of human freedom and human rights.
I would like to see the nerve center for this entire enterprise in a place here ln New York, to be called the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, preferably In a converted brown- stone of the kind Mrs. Roosevelt would have liked^ where the informal atmosphere she always created would once'more exist, and where a continuing series of enterprises of the kind I have described would be planned and carried out. I
r For all of us here today, these are affairs ©f the heart, and what I am suggesting is a world-wide labor of love. The legacy we have inherited from Mrs. Roosevelt commits us to a series of personal and compassionate acts, to do our part in bringing peace and good will among all mankind. ;
As Mrs, Roosevelt would say^Xt is time to get on with the business.
###
- 4 - ELEANOR ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
' HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAM
The human rights program of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation is
designed to carry on Mrs. Roosevelt's life-work, and to do so by enlisting the help of young people, teachers, community leaders, scholars and others to work
directly on the problems of inequality, discrimination, and violations of human
rights wherever they 'may be found.
The Foundation plan of operation is to make Eleanor Roosevelt Awards to
selected persons who have already shown by their work, their interests and
their talents that they have a contribution to make to the solution of problems
in human rights and human relations. In order to do so, we need the help of
those familiar with work going on in the field and with the persons who are
doing it.
The awards will be modest in size, in keeping with the conception of
voluntary service represented by Mrs. Roosevelt's philosophy, and will be made
mainly to cover the expenses of those who volunteer to work on particular
projects. The projects will be of great variety, and will range from teaching
under-privileged children and working with civil rights organizations to
carrying out studies and educational programs in housing, unemployment, and
school integration.
We are asking each candidate for an Eleanor Roosevelt Award to describe the
project for which the award would be made, and to name three sponsors willing Page 2
to provide recommendations and testimony to the candidate's ability, knowledge and interest in the field of human rights.
Statements from the sponsors of the candidate should include information about:
1. The length of time the sponsor has known the candidate and in what capacity.
2. The extent and nature of the candidate's interest in the field of human
rights.
3. The degree to which this interest may be expected to continue. k. The sponsor's estimate of the candidate's personal qualities and ability
to carry out the project for which the award would be made. IV. A. A. C. P. LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC.
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N. Y. 10019
JUDSON 6-8397
March 12, 1964
Mr. Howard Zinn 45 Chapin Road Newton Centre, Massachusetts
Dear Howard: Many thanks for the memorandum. Smith is red hot about it and you should, as soon as possible, contact Miss dean Wilson in the Department of History located in Wright Hall, to set up a meeting to work out details. There is no question of the availability of facilities; they are even talking in terms of get ting money to furnish board, as well as room.
One of the Smith professors has informed me that his house will be available during the month of August for anybody in the "civil rights field" who might like to take a vacation. If the Northampton project does work out, which I feel it should, you and Roz might be interested. Will send you his name; for got his card today, but will get his name off to you.
You should expect to hear from dean Wilson pretty soon as they are so terribly interested. Hope something definite can be worked out in the near future Take care of yourself. Lots of love to Roz, Myla, deff, and to you. ely,
Wright
MEW:deh HAROLD TAYLOR
241 WEST TWELFTH STREET ELEANOR ROO5EVELT FOUNDATION STUDY NEW YORK 14. NEW YORK OREGON 5-3177
June 6th, 196k
Dr. Howard Zinn, lf-5 Chapin Road, Newton Centre 59, Mas sachusett s.
Dear Dr. Zinn,
Thank you very much for sending me the outline of the project about which we spoke on the telephone, along with the list of publications and the account of your education and work in the civil rights field.
It is a most impressive record, and I am happy to have it. Over this coming week I will be working with the members of the Sub-Committee of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation - Mrs. Lash, Mr. Young and Mr. Dubinsky - on the awards, and will hope to be able to let you know about the award within ten days.
I am delighted with the spirit in which you offer your cooperation, and hope that we can work out the details shortly.
With best wishes,
AL Harold Taylor HAROLD TAYLOR
241 WEST TWELFTH STREET ELEANOR ROOSEVELT FOUNDATION STUDY NEW YORK 14, NEW YORK ORESON 5-3177
June 20th, 1964.
Dr. Howard Zinn, 1*5 Chapin Road, Newton Centre 59, Massachusetts.
Dear Howard.,
The Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation's Trustee Sub-Committee on awards met yesterday, and gave preliminary approval to your appointment as travelling Eleanor Roosevelt professor for this coming summer, beginning July 1st, and running into the first week of September, with a stipend of $800 to cover your expenses in connection with developing educational programs for students in the South.
I am writing to give you this news immediately and although final approval lies with Governor Stevenson, after the Sub-Committee has drawn up the complete list of appointments, I believe that the Committee on Awards, which consists of Mrs. Trude Lash, Mr. Whitney Young, Mr. Orin Lehman, has given its approval and that the appointment will be made.
The letter of appointment wiH come from Governor Stevenson later. In the meantime I felt that you might like to make your plans in advance of receipt of the funds and the appointment.
I will write to you as soon as I can with the final news.
Yours sincerely,
'
Harold Taylor INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES 1900 FLORIDA AVENUE. N. W. WASHINGTON D. C. 20009
July 11, 1964
Mr. Howard Zinn 45 Chapin Road Newton Center, Massachusetts
Dear Howard:
A number of plans habe been changed since we last met at Highlander.
Political Workshop:
The workshop Has been changed to Jackson and will be held August 10 through 12. There is some question, I understand,on whi ch people should be invited. Sin ce I had already written to Walter Johnson, 3oe Raugh, and Bill Higgs asking them to participate on those days that we first decided upon, there is some confusion. I've written to Bob asking for the latest plans and who has the responsibility for making the plans.
Work-Study:
Jim Forman strongly disagrees with out thought about giving the work-study program independence from the regular SNCC staff, since, as he sees it, the pxspsKK purpose of the work-study program is to provide staff for SNCC. Billy and I questioned the educationalttalue of a work program that was limited to tea voter registration, and Jim feels that fcaos this can be answered by varying SNCC's program in the field to include adult education, freedom school teaching, community center work, and other programs we have yet to work out. I'm not sure how serious 5im is about broadening the scope of SNCC field work. It just may be a gesture of compromise. Also, Jim feels that too much time is defooted to study, and that the breakdown of one month study and one month work devotes too short a period for work.
Herman Long of Talladega has sent a request for funds to Carnegie to incl/ude five students from T lladega, and eight students from Lindoln. Carnegiess board meets in September.
Dr. Beidle, in keeping with the Tougaloo prospectus sent to Field feels that the money should be used for students planning to go to Tougaloo. Our problem is to find 30 students. This may be less difficult than it sounds, since there should be good leads from the summer activities .d" Billy has finally tracked down Bertrand Phillips, Dean c&f Students at Tuskegee to see what's up with work study there. We're to meet with him here in Washington on Monday, July 13.
Walter Tillow, who is working on the convention challenge here in Washington might be a good person for work-study. He has a Masters in economic history, is intelligent, well-informed, good disposition. Do you know him? what do you think?
In-service Education:
Still needs funding. Maybe Taconic? Billy is doubtful that WE'11 find anybody to support it. I'm going to write to Harold Taylor for possible leads. Also, have you been able to ask Martin Duberman if he knows of any foundations?
State Conferences and Leadership Institute:
Moses didn't seem to like the idea that the state conferences and the leadership institute had been taken out of the educational program. He wonders how we are going to finance it. And singe Billy continues to work on the programs (his primary concern at the Institute) for all intents and pnrtposes, it they are still part of the overall program. Billy is definitely leaving in September. Also, Fisk's Race Relations Institute has agreed to submit the request for funds to New World for the Leadership Institute if this is OK with Vernon Eagle.
One thing that I though I might do at the Institute was to help prepare the materials for the political workshop, but it looks as though the educational staff doesn't have anything to do with that now. Otherwise, I still keep asking myself what I'm supposed to be doing here. What about planning the curriculum and preparing myself and perhaps materials for work-study, inservice education or whatever.
Billy is trying to locate you so that an appointment can be set up with SsrxuKxbi Garrison to apply for fax exemption for the educational program. When are you free to go to New York? We also need the list of those who have agreed to be on the board of advisors.
Myles, of course, is disappointed that the workshop will not be held at Highlander, but has planned to have an evaluation workshop July 26 through 28 in or around Gulfport, Miss., for the staff j£o0 the White Community Project (who, by the way, met at Highlander for orientation before going to Miss. Highlander would pay room and board, but he has suggested that the educational staff plan and take part in the workshop. Strangely enough, Billy is interested in going to Misssissippi for that. We'll have to see how things and time and money work out. The Eleanor Roosevelt Award of $400 a piece has not yet come.
Please write and give me your thoughts on work-study, money for in-service education, etc.
What is your schedule for the Kuantk rest of the month?
Sincerely, (d^sU-. Carole Merritt
,^3, BOSTON UNIVERSITY % 755 Commonwealth Avenue, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02215
CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS
Office of the President July 21, 1964
Dr. Howard Zinn c/o William Walker Route 6A East Sandwich, Massachusetts Dear Dr. Zinn: Thank you for your letter of July 17. May I assure you of my deep interest in the larger project which you describe for the education of young civil rights workers. When you return to Boston in September I hope you will be in touch with me for further discussion. In the meantime, I send you my good wishes for a very successful month in Mississippi. I hope it will bring results which will be satisfying to you. I am sure it will.
My warm good wishes to you and Mrs. Zinn.
Cordially yours
Harold C. Case w*K 2? 0
BOSTON UNIVERSITY n NEWS BUREAU
V 232 Boy Stole Rood, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02215
CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS
July Ik, 1964
Professor Howard Zinn ^5 Chapin Road Newton Centre, Mass.
Dear Professor Zinn:
Your office informed me that you would not be on the Boston University campus until September. The reason for my wanting to contact you is in regard to a news release the News Bureau is planning in regards to the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation Human Rights Program and B.U.'s part in it. I understand you have some information that could aid us in preparing the story.
President Case submitted background information on this subject to us and is quite eager to have a news story written about it. If you could spare the time, it would be much appreciated if you would call this office. I will be leaving on vacation on Wednesday evening, July 15, but you could speak with Mr. Warren Bazirgan in my absence.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
^^
Bova National & Special Projects Editor July 22, 1964
President Harold Case, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Dear President Case:
We appreciate very much your kind ness in cooperating with the Eleanor Roosevelt Mem orial Foundation In this assignment undertaken by Professor Howard Zinn as an Eleanor Roosevelt Travelling Professor this summer in the South, From ail I have heard, Professor Zinn possesses the quali ties of scholarship and concern for human betterment which Mrs. Roosevelt so admired. We are privileged to lend support to him and to bis two young assistants, Mr. Walter Stafford and Miss Carole Merritt, for their work in developing new educational programs for stu dents whose education in school and college has een interrupted.
The stipend to Professor Zinn is in the amount of $800? to Mr. Stafford and Miss Merritt, $400 each. These modest sums are to be used for travel and incidental expenses connected with their educational work from July 1st to September 15th.
Enclosed is a check for $1,600 made out to Boston University for transmittal to Professor 3&inn and his two assistants. Copies of the letters of appointment from Governor Stevenson are enclosed.
I do want to express my sincere thanks for your fine cooperation in this project and we hope *z»
President Harold Case J^Y 22, 1964
that this may be the beginning of a fruitful associa tion between Boston University and the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation.
Sincerely yours,
Or in Lehman Director
OL:jl cc: Professor Howard ZinnK Walter Stafford- Carole Merritt ELEANOR ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL FOUNDATION EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, NEW YORK, N. Y, 10001 • PHONE: 212 • LW 4-0440
"Honorary Jrustees President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson President* and Mrs. John F. Kennedy President and Mrs. Harry S Truman July 22, 1964 Board of Jrustees Adlai E. Stevenson CHAIRMAN Philip M. Klutznick NATIONAL CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN Professor Howard Zinn, Robert S. Benjamin 45 Chapin Road, EXECUTIVE VICE-CHAIRMAN Marian Anderson Newton Centre 59, Ralph J. Bunche Massachusetts George Meany Mrs. Agnes E. Meyer Walter P. Reuther Dear Professor Zinn: Thomas J. Watson, Jr. VICE-CHAIRMEN Mrs. Anna Rosenberg Hoffman I am happy to inform you that by SECRETARY vote of the Trustee Committee on Awards of the Jesse W. Tapp TREASURER Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, you have Bernard M, Baruch been appointed Eleanor Roosevelt Travelling Pro William Benton fessor for the period from July 1st to September Jacob Blaustein Chester Bowles 15th. This modest stipend of $800 is for your use Henry Crown in travel expenses and other items connected with Richardson Dilworth David Dubinsky your work. Abraham Feinberg Myer Feldman Mrs. Marshall Field From previous correspondence Arnold M. Grant with the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, Armand Hammer, MD. Arthur Hanisch it is my understanding your duties as a travelling John R. Heller, M.D. professor will consist of developing new education Dr. Theodore M. Hesburgh Mrs. Thomas B. Hess al programs in the South for the use of high school Joseph D. Keenan and college students whose education has been in Mrs. Trude W. Lash terrupted. This will include teaching in the Free Mrs. Albert D. Lasker Herbert H. Lehman* dom Schools organized by the Student Non-violent Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman Coordinating Committee and supervising the work Archibald MacLeish Charles W. Mayo, M.D. of Mr. Walter Stafford and Miss Carole Merritt, John J. McCloy who will be responsible for developing work-study Ralph McGill Henry Morgenthau, Jr. programs for the coming year in cooperation with Charles F. Palmer Southern colleges and universities. Jubal R. Parten Dr. Abram L. Sachar Dore Schary Mrs. Stephen E. Smith As you know, our purpose in making Herman W. Steinkraus awards in the field of education is to carry out the Roy Wilkins work of Mrs, Roosevelt in human rights. To do so, Whitney M. Young, Jr. we have sought out those who, like yourself, are al Ex- Officio Jrustees ready committed to a concern for achieving these Mrs. Anna R. Halsted rights, beginning with the right to a good education. James Roosevelt Elliott Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. John A. Roosevelt Orin Lehman DIRECTOR Michael M. Nisselson CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT July 22, L964
Miss Carole Merritt, 3305 Milton Court, Cincinnati 29, Ohio
Dear Miss Merritt:
I am happy to inform you that by vote of the Trustee Committee on Awards of the Eleanor Roose velt Memorial Foundation you have been granted an Eleanor Roosevelt Travelling Scholarship for the per iod from July 1st to September 15th. This will enable you to act as assistant to Professor Howard Zinn, of Boston University in the development of educational programs for students in the South whose education in high school and college has been interrupted. The sti pend of $400 is for your use in travel expenses and other items connected with the work of preparing cur ricula and work-study programs for use by students in Southern schools and universities during the com ing year.
It is my understanding that you will be re sponsible to Professor Zinn for your work and for preparing a report on the results of your summer program.
May I express the appreciation of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation for your willingness to volunteer your services in the cause of human rights to which Mrs. Roosevelt devoted her life. With best wishes.
Sincerely yours,
Adlai E. Stevenson Chairman AES:jl cc: President Case Professor Zinn ^ July 22, 1964
Mr. Walter Stafford, 6420 Fifth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Stafford:
I am happy to inform you that by vote of the Trustee Committee on Awards of the Eleaner Roose velt Memorial Foundation you have been granted an Eleanor Roosevelt Travelling Scholarship for the per iod from July 1st to September 15th. This will enable you to act as assistant to Professor Howard Zinn, of Boston University in the development of educational programs for students in the South whose education in high school and college has been interrupted. The sti pend of $400 is for your use in travel expenses and other items connected with the work of preparing cur ricula and work-study programs for use by students in Southern schools and universities during the com ing year. It is my understanding that you will be re sponsible to Professor Zinn for your work and for preparing a report on the results of your summer program. May I express the appreciation of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation for your willingness to volunteer your services in the cause of human rights to which Mrs. Roosevelt devoted her life.
With best wishes.
Sincerely yours,
Adlai E. Stevenson Chairman AES:jl cc: President Case Professor Zitm\S BOSTON UNlVJliRbll Y ^ IBS 755 Commonwealth Avenue, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02215
^S%^(* CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS
Office of the President July 2M-, 1964-
Dr. Howard Zinn c/o William Walker Route 6A East Sandwich, Massachusetts Dear Dr. Zinn:
We have just received a check for $1,600 from the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation. A letter accompanying it from Mr. Lehman Indicates that this is a stipend for you, Mr. Stafford, and Miss Merritt: $800 for you, $M-00 each to the other two. These sums are described as modest and"are to be used for travel and incidental expenses connected with their educational work from July 1st to September 15th."
My question is this, where shall we send the checks to the three of you and in what amount? Should the full amount be sent immediately or should it be divided into separate checks? We have Cincinnati and Washington addresses for Miss Merritt and Mr. Stafford, but no Mississippi address. I shall appreciate hearing from you at your earliest convenience. I hope the summer is most successful. Our moral support is certainly with you. Sincerely yours.
*et H. Merry Execu/tive Assistant to rne President h
.
Governor Adla:' .
•01
ill
! ! »p in ant . 'ford \ .«t to to
irlt. .-jorklns wi"t . :.:h IX » HAROLD TAYLOR
241 WEST TWELFTH STREET ELEANOR ROOSBVBIT FOUNDATION STUDY NEW YORK 14. NEW YORK OREGON 3-3177 Reply: R.F.D. Ashland New Hampshire.
July 25th, 196U
Dr. Howard Zinn, c/o William Walker, Route 6A, East Sandwich, Massachusetts.
Dear Howard,
I had hoped that by now you would have received the $800 award, but the roster of a wards had to be cleared with the Executive Committee of the Foundation before final arrangements could be completed.
I believe that Mr. Lehman has now written to President Case and that you should receive the award and the funds shortly.
I am sending a copy of this letter to Mr. Lehman, in the event that he wishes to reach you in the next week or two.
The news about your recruitment of a staff for the coming academic year, starting with Erik Erikson, is good news and I know that once you start with Stafford and Merritt on the Eleanor Roosevelt program, a great many good things will happen.
Do stay in touch with me as you go along, and in the meantime I am sure that by now you will have heard from the Foundation about the award.
Yours sincerely,
Harold Taylor
Copy: Mr. Orin Lehman •***» C.«*1£^ . BOSTON UNIVERSITY I 755 Commonwealth Avenue, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02215 4 J# S3&* CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS
Office of the President July 27, 1964-
Dr. Howard Zinn c/o William Walker Route 6A East Sandwich, Massachusetts Dear Dr. Zinn: Enclosed with this letter are the three checks, one for $800 made out to you and one for $4-00 each made out to Mr. Stafford and Miss Merritt. I hope they reach you in ample time before your departure for Mississippi.
Once again our warm good wishes,
Cordially yours,
Margaret H. Merry j Executive Assistant to the President
Enclosures (3) Boston University
CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS • 232 BAY STATE ROAD • BOSTON 15, MASSACHUSETTS
NEWS BUREAU 7/2uM
Dear Professor Zinn:
Would you peruse this proposed news release
for accuracy. Please feel free to make any
changes or corrections you feel are necessary.
Also, if you think anything should be added,
would you do so. Then would you send it back to me.
Best of luck in your endeavors in Mississippi
this summer.
Cordially,
Warren Bazirgan Assistant Director P.S. If you have a photo of yourself, could you
enclose it when you return the release next week. THE ATIAHTA WiRER, Saturday, August 8. 19S4 3 Howard Zinn Establishe Miss. Civil Workshop
A newly-appointed professor of government at Boston Uni versity will leave for Mississippi this weekend to establish a ". unique educational program for young civil rights workers in the South. Prof. Howard Zinn, former chairman of the history depart ment at Spelman College, In Atlanta, will undertake the program under an award from the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation in conjunction with its human rights program, according to Boston University President Harold C. Case, who made the announce ment. Dr. Zinn, who will assume his scholars and others to work di new position as associate pro rectly on the problems of in fessor in Boston University's equality, discrimination and vi College of Liberal Arts in Sep olations of human rights wher tember, has been working and ever they may be found. writing in the area of civil Individuals selected for a— rights for some time. His book, wards, according to the Founda "SNCC: The New Abo tion, are those who have already litionists," will be published shown by their work, their in be Beacon Press this fall. terests and their talents that The Eleanor Roosevelt Me they have a contribution to make morial Foundation project will to the solution of problems involve some 150 young people in human rights and human re in Mississippi, Georgia and lations. Alabama, who were forced to The Mississippi seminars. interrupt their schooling in or Professor Zinn said, will be : der to devote their efforts to conducted during periods of the civil rights movement, ac time when civil rights workers cording to Professor Zinn. are able to take brief leaves The human rights program of from their duties to attend the die Eleanor Roosevelt Me sessions. morial Foundation is designed Professor Zinn said that a to carry on Mrs. Roosevelt's panel of coUege professors and life-work, and to do so by en experts outside the academic listing the help of young people, world is being established, from teachers, community leaders. which the faculty for the se minars will be drawn. Working with the seminars will be two of Professor Zinn's assistants, Miss Carole Merritt and William Stafford, both members of the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Com mittee (SNCC). Miss Merritt is a graduate of Vassar College and has been engaged for the past year on educational pro jects for SNCC. Mr. Stafford holds a Master's degree from Atlanta University in sociology.
• To Carole: Ciainner 7,/46*7| Economics: Theobalds article on Cybernation, latest issue NevrPolitics, 507 plfth Ave NYC c* The Triple Revlution, SDS 119 5 Ave. NYC Alsofrora SDS, pamphlets: The Care Speeding of powerStruetures Readings, in Poverty, The Amer.Planne dEconomy, The New ^olklo^e f Capit. The South As an Under.Country, "his is War? America & The New Era. From center for Study Dem.Inst.SantaBarbara free, VJHFerry, Th C0rp & the Economy Prom Dissent: 509 - 5 Ave. NyC 17, Autumn 1962 issue, 3 articles Tom Kahan, Economics cf Equality, League for Indust.Democracy, 112 E. 19 St. NYC 60^
Race: V nn Woodward, Jim Crox%T Franklin, Reconst. DuBois Souls of Black Folk Baldwn Fire West Time Wright LawdToday Allport Frazier ^U^Wr^;, \TCHJ
Dr. Howard Zinn 25> George Street Newton, Massachusetts Dear Howard,
I received an envelope of amplication materials from ^arold Taylor this morning. In them was included a request for anan three sponsors or recommendations.
Silas and * are applying jointly — as you have sug gested - and thought we would also request at least two of the three sponsors jointly. We wondered if you would mind being one of the joint sponsors.
The difficult is that you don't know me all that well (at least in terms of the information they want) and you don't know Silas at all. But we thought that you could sort of ignore some of the information they ask and include your judgement as to the necessity of such literacy work to the civil rights movement in the south and how it Is right in line with the type of things Mrs. Roosevelt supported — or something along that line — I think you might understand more what I mean than I do.
The information doesn't specify where to send the recommendation — so I suppose it is best to send it directly to Mr Taylor with a copy to us if you wish.
Thanks — hope to get to see you sometime this year,
Sincerely,
Mary Varela
c/o St. Eliz-bents Mission Selma, Alabama September 1, 1964
Dear car I ara great for either just making deadlines ©a* just missing them* I said I would get fc o you by aber 1st a description of the tutes, for forwarding tc Jr* Pitts 30 he can decide on Aether his Miles people w ill c ome to it, and for other uses*/' So here it is* Hake whatever changes you want to make in it*: ^"pu oan leeve in, or not* as you see fit, the two page detailed outline of the October Institute* In another wsek or so I will send in a report to the Eleanor Roosevelt Foundation on our activities this summer* Please send me - andhave Billy send me, if you can 1 ocate him - a paragraph or so on what you want to include about your work as % "assistants" (yon two did the work, and I, was the assistant* but they will never know)* If I don't hear from you, I will include something about the f act that thcaboriwaoodt three of us, in one eodbausting meeting af ter I another in Jackson, hammered out p lans for the Institutes and discussed other e ducat!onal ventures like the work-study program* I ,,will also include the fact that you and Billy made hai#*»raising fiield trips Into the farthest corners of isissippi to/fini students for the work-study program* -*?ry Varella phoned me yesterday to say she had been in touch wit^tifiarold Baylor about getting a grant for the literacy program* % nay want a recommendation from me for her getting it, so I will probably include] that in my report to him* I will also suggest that ojur institutes need funds; though I suspect the Eleanor Roosevelt foundation is not set up for that kind of bigger financing* Wj Is still pondering abjout whether to approach foundations for her 11 terser piroject alone or for us to approach foundations with a package including hers with others* She said she would tryto contact you onj: this* I am sending two copies of this let er to you: one to Atlanta SITCC, the other to the Institute, Washington — just to make sure get it* CaJLlme on the MAT4 line when you can* I will not be afc the SKCC ezec. meeting in Atlanta. That will be a good placed though, u>talk to project directors about who in their .yrojeet will be coming to the Institute* Let me know liiat is hap_ening oh attempts t o rent a place inAtlanta for the Inst tute, on how many people are in workstudy now, etc* I will go ahead to invite the people we spoke about as teachers, and to draw up a list of materials to use at the Institute* My new address: 2k George St* ^ewton $tk Mass* Phone - 2^-0779
i Best - REPORT TO THE ELEANOR ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL FOUNDATION September 9, 19614- Mr. Adlai E. Stevenson, Chairman Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation Empire State Building New York, NewYork 10001 Dear Sir: I would like herein to report to the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation on my work this past summer as a Travelling Professor. This will include a brief account of the activities of Miss Carole Merritt and Mr. Walter Stafford, who served as my assistants.
Knox n S3ee After a week-long meeting In S^yjf^12)g A^ » whae e the three of us made initial plans for the^sWrnffior an educa tional program for civil wights workers,whws^xg
Between meetings, and at their conclusion, Miss ^erritt, Mr. Stafford, and I worked ihdlvidually on different parts of the program. Miss Merritt and Mr. Stafford made field trips to - 2 - various civil rights projects in the state, and to the state-wide Freedom School convention held in Meridian. Their main purpose was to fcalk to young Ka Mississippi Negroes about the work-study programs beginning this fall, and to recruit students for these programs. I worked on maiaxiaxa^ittxkaxBSHatxii reading materials to be used both in the Institutes, and in field situations through the year. During August, from the date when a group of Freedom Schools were established in Jackson atnthe beginning of the month, I taught in the Pifatt Memorial ^reedom School. I worked with teen-agers, roughly from fourteen to nineteen years of age, teaching Negro history, American government, and var i oust opics in s ocial science, with the subject matter for the day often determined by that morning's newspaper. While I did not hesitate to spend five minutes or so getting certain information across, or clarifying a particular point, I avoided lecturing, and tried instead to let information and ideas come out of a §iSn^^a£g&ftaft&9 often playing devil's advocate in, ord^erijg, force s tudents to deal with tough a arguments1.0 Jv^^$e morning, an editorial In the "ackson Clarion-Ledger charging civil rights workers with advocating violations of law, was used as a means of bringing out the distinctions between state law and federal law, between statutory law and constitutional law and "natural" lawj It was also used to initiate a heated debate on the problem of civil disobedience. Another morning, I reported on my visit to the Neshoba County Fair and the s peeches I heard there,and before the discussion was over,somehow we were going over the content of the 13th, lkth, and lj?th Amendments and discussing the Supreme Court decision on school prayers. Another day students read speeches and documents of Negro leaders UakQaHxixwasx the Reconstruction Period. One afternoon I took them to Federal District Court in Jackson to listen in on a suit to desegregate the state Coliseum.
When I was not teaching, I spent my time interviewing other Freedom School teachers about the teachng methods they used, the materials they employed, the reactions they got from the students, the kidd of classes that were s uccessful, and the kind that appeared to be failures. I have incorporated many of my findings in an article on the Freedom Schools and their Implications for American education, which JreygfrgrfrVyfefrar orBCRHtqpc I hope eventually to publish, and a copy of which is available on request. An accounting of my #800 grant follows: Trip to Knoxville for meeting $127.00 Trip to Washington for meeting kk.00 Travel to Mississippi g^d back to Boston, and inside Mississippi 312.00 Lodging and Food 218.00
$' 7OLOO Remaining,£BE to be used for further expenses in planning 99.00 October Institute Total «00.00 I «h«%"ifi 1 iirn • tn make the following recommendation: that, if possible, the ^leanor Roosevelt wemorial Foundation, should make a grant which would enable some properly cp. al if led person to serve as teacher-administrator £e*-a-£»ll~y-ea3P-feeg4jmiHg-Ge#©fee3?-l&fc- for thexfldfcrcfci civil rights educational program in the South for a full year beginning October 1st. While Miss Carole Merritt, in her capacity as educational director for jilPher^fSfi job Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, has undertaken^to admin ister the program, she isfeery muc h in need of help. As presently constituted, the program involvest 1. Continuing and expanding the work-study groups which were initiated last year and are continuing this year at Miles College and Tougaloo College; and supervising these programs. 2. Planning and running the month-long Institutes which will serve the work-study people during the study phase of their year, as well the civil rights professionals who leave the field to attend the Institutes. 3. Following up on the Institutes by seeing to it that educational work continues out in the field, that field people read and hold discussions, that graduates of the Institutes carry on adult education in their various communities, that work-study people use their learning to the best advantage in the field. Clearly, such a program, in order to cover roughly the one hundred and fifty full-time civil rights workers in the deep South as of last spring, and an additional l£0 or 200 summer volunteers who are s taying on for this coming academic year, requires at least one more full-time person. Such a person should kaxet have the educational background of a young faculty member or a graduate student, with broad training in the social sciences and humanities, with demonstra ted skill in ±hac teaching, with the Mind of social commitment that matches the spirit of the civil rights movement, and aa* ±hax the purposes of the Ejg anor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, It requires a rare combination of intellectual u*JJljgyj'^ -fa**-/ communication skills, and an ability to relate principles and ideas to the day-to-day problems of the civil rights movement . I believe the educational advisory board mentioned in the Institute plan (Dr. Coles, Dr. Lynd, Prof. Erikson, myself) would be happy to help in finding such a person if Foundation help is available to finance him. In conclusion, let me tsftwgxtaxtaecx offer deep thanks to the Ele anor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, for myself and Carole Merritt and Walter Stafford, for your generosity in giv ing us grants, and for the spirit which accompanied it. All of us will continue to work along the lines begun this past s ummer. Sincerely, r— SafH- \XW1
Dear Prof. Clark: The Student Nonviolent Coordina ting Committee jfcxxgixx has begun to plan a series of Educational Institutes for full-time civil rights workers in the South. We are now assembling a Board of Consultants, consisting of people both in and out of the academic world,"TD wfe«»*«tf*. help us In our educational activities, and wonder if you would be willing to serve on this Board, fit is not expected that you will be ^aSlosd, [^•""Si to come to meetings in. the. normal course of events, or to take an important segment of time out of your regular work. There is no specific commitment of time or work Involved at this point. We simply would like to know that we can call on you from time to time (understanding that an affirmative reply is always conditional on your other commitments)for advice, x or to spend a day or wo^^^ne of the Institutes, or to help an some other way. If you have any questions, I will be happy to try to answer them. Do write to me as soon as you can.
Sincerely,
i .do ware 2k G-eorge St. Newton 58, Maaa. ^U^JL COAJW C ^T^' Afi
September 30, 1964
Miss Carole 2. Merritt c/o Educational Committee SM3C 6 Raymond St,, K.W, Atlanta 14, Ga. Dear Miss Merritt: I am sorry that I had no chance to reply to your letter of September 22 before this; it was sent to the main campus in Hew Brunswick and had to be re-routed to me here in Camden. I finally received it this afternoon. Let me begin by saying that I strongly applaud© the Idea of these Institutes, and that I would very much like to participate as a member of th© Board of Consultants. Thank you for asking, and do count me in. The only question remaining is that of scheduling. I got a letter from Howard Zinn on September 25 suggesting that I come to Atlanta for th© program on November 5 through 7. I have already written him in the affirmative. How 1 must admit that his selection of dates suits my over-all commitments better than does the period Ubvember 19 through 25 which you propose. I can appreciate the problems your group faces in adjusting times for numerous participants, and considering the purpose of the trip I have no Inclination to make an issue of the time factor. May I simply say, then, that you can count on my coming; that I would prefer the earlier period suggested by Howard (if still possible); that yithln the later period, November 19-25, I would strongly lean to a three or four day period overlapping a week-end: say, for example, Thursday the 19th-Sunday the 22, or Saturday the 21^ through Wednesday the 25th, Pleas© let me know what wi can work out. In any ©vent, count on my coming and give me some idea about accomodations and about anything you may wish me to bring. Yours for freedom,
Robert L, Zangrando Acting Chairman, History Department Camden Campus Rutgers cot Howard Zinn. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL FOUNDATION 13 EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, NEW YORK, N. Y. 10001 • PHONE: 212 • LW 4-0440 Honorary Jrustees
President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson President* and Mrs. John F. Kennedy President and Mrs. Harry S Truman Hoard of Jrustees October 1, 1964
Adlai E. Stevenson CHAIRMAN Philip M. Klutznick NATIONAL CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN Robert S. Benjamin EXECUTIVE VICE-CHAIRMAN Marian Anderson Ralph J. Bunche George Meany Professor Howard Zinn, Mrs. Agnes E. Meyer Walter P. Reuther 24 George Street, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Newton 58, Massachusetts VICE-CHAIRMEN Mrs. Anna Rosenberg Hoffman SECRETARY Dear Professor Zinn: Jesse W. Tapp TREASURER Bernard M. Baruch I can't tell you how much all of William Benton us connected with the Eleanor Roosevelt Memor Jacob Blaustein Chester Bowles ial Foundation enjoyed reading your full and Henry Crown stimulating report. Of particular interest were Richardson Dilworth David Dubinsky your enlightened methods of instruction which I Abraham Feinberg feel might well be adopted by teachers of the so Myer Feldman Mrs. Marshall Field cial sciences throughout the nation. Your tenta Arnold M. Grant tive plan of operation seems extremely sound Armand Hammer, M.D. Arthur Hanisch and we will certainly give consideration to your John R. Heller, M.D. request for an additional grant. Dr. Theodore M. Hesburgh Mrs. Thomas B. Hess Joseph D. Keenan In the meantime, my congratu Mrs. Trude W. Lash Mrs. Albert D. Lasker lations on all you are doing to make our democ Herbert H. Lehman* racy grow in spirit and in fact. I feel certain Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman Archibald MacLeish Mrs. Roosevelt would have looked upon the Charles W. Mayo, M.D. John J. McCloy efforts of you and your two young associates Ralph McGill with keen appreciation. Henry Morgenthau, III Jubal R. Parten Franklin D. Roosevelt, III Dr. Abram L. Sachar Dore Schary erely yo Mrs. Stephen E. Smith Herman W. Steinkraus Roy Wilkins Whitney M. Young, Jr. Adlai E. Stevenson Ex-Officio Trustees Chairman
Mrs. Anna R. Halsted James Roosevelt Elliott Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. John A. Roosevelt AES.-jl
Orin Lehman DIRECTOR
Michael M. Nisselson CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT
"She wou\d rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.' The October institute M Tentative Plan
First .Week; RACE. How does the role of the Negro in the -noveraent for equality today compare with his role during slavery, in the abolitionist movement, during the Reconstruction /eriod, in the days of the VJashington-QuBois controversy? What do cultural anthro pology and social psychology have to say about the possibility of whites and Negroes living in amicable intor-racial relations in America? What are the experienees of Latin i—rrloa» and of other parts of the world, In inier-racial living? Is there a specifically Negro culture, and what is. its relation, and what should be its relation, to the total American culture? Teachers to be invited or this topicj^Prof. St_« .Clalr , Roosevelt University j ftpof n Robert Zangrando, RuTf B*Jt+t, J^c7o"2veTsityj Pr-of. Howard Zinn, Boston TJnTirarsi1^rT~7S!oT. Tom >o»0l» It^^fip. au^i' grew, Harvard University. Resource persons: Mr. " see, Miss Carole Merritt. James Porman* Second Week: ECONOMICS. How equitable is the existing distribu tion of income In the United Spates -•- in relation to the American past, in relation to other countries in the world, in comparison with the national wealth. BOM much lias been accomplished to create a more .just allocation of resources — by federal programs result ing from reform ..ov orients j by the trade -unions? "/hat would be an effective program for the rural poor, both white and ...eoro? What would, be an effective program for dealing with the Harlem-type slum-ghetto? What are some alternative economic sjstems? Can a rational and just economy be created within the . .vork of the profit motive? Is national economic planning compatible with freedom and justice? Teachers to be invited for this toplejt Mr« David Bazelon, autnor of The Paper Economy; - -. -;ieha^,-jUMre.L^freft^--ftttthor of. ThS Qthe»^Ak^^lca; Mr. ^eo|uftev-?;e:pl l , economist j Mr#-^Boafe Burl- agt, economist# H' Resource persons: iG&JoaBe Morris* Mr. Jack Minnis, Mrs, Pannie Hamer# AW/ Third Week: POLITICS. Can social justice be achieved by the p"o er of the ballot? What part does voting play In the s tructure of guiOiinoant in the United States? 'Wo,, what extent is political power, national and local, based on economic power. Cm parties like the Freedom Democratic Part", based on the history of third party movements in the United States, play a more constructive role inside or outside the %raditional two-party system? How can groups of people without political or economic pacer affect the decision-makers of the nation? What is the relationship bet ween law and politics in the United States? Teachers to be invited for this topicI Prof. Vivien Hend erson, Mills aps Colljgge; pvot, Clyde Ferguson, Howard University; Prof. Jeaee-MaeOregoa s, IIMTMI— (Tiflj iiiM , Prof. H.F. "./iison, Princeton Universit . ">aac^Gp*J V^*WJU**-^^|^L I4*«-W/ pla^JctM-diy Resource persons: Mr. Lawrence Quyot, Miss Marian Wright* Octoberlnstitute - 2
Fourth Week; SOCIAL CHANGE. Can the just • ociety be achieved nonvioien'feiy in the United States? What are some of the hist* arieal experiences with revolutionary change? Hou much reform has been achieved in the United States through nonviolent reform movements? How does the nonviolent movement in this country comp are with the Gandhian movement In India? How do the results of" change In Algeria and in Nigeria (among Otter possible paired examples) reflect the differences In t e method of change? Are there limits to nonviolence as a theory of ethics Inaocial change? i Teachers to be invited for this topic: Prof. Srik Erikson, Harvar I University; Prof. St aught on %nd, Yale UniversilGyftJs*. . William V/orthy, journalist; Jffrsal—,ilfm im.sf novelist. .'- Resource persons: Mr. ¥1nn^nt Warding. HonnenltO minister and historian; Mr. C.T.Vivian, S.C.X*G* T^ vc_ HojkAA&^a- " Q ^^i i \ 4oyxe^
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6 Raymond Street, N.W. Atlanta 14, Georgia 688-0331 Ocfabcr KG1/
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TO: ALL STATT ':E*:Ur.PS
RE: STAFF RETREAT
By now you have probably received the announcement of a staff retreat called to discuss some questions crucial to tie future cf SNCC. The retreat is to be held fror> November 5th until the 9th at:
QuXESIDE rETPODlST CITUnCii V&VELAN'D, MISSISSIPPI The church is 27 miles from Culfport at Bay St. Louis on Highway 90.
Ml SNCC staff members are expected to attend and to arrive on the evening of the 5th.
If there are any ruest ions or tonics you want raised at the meeting; any reports you want to Tear, *>3ease notify Harbara Jones in the Atlanta SNCC office. Could you also nlease send your posi tion papers in as soon as nossihle so they can he distributed to the rest of the staff before the meeting?
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tt \Jne I flan, LJne Vote If near Following the staff retreat there will be a study institute beginning the afternoon of November 11 and ending the afternoon of November 21. The institute, which will also be held at the Gulfside Methodist Assembly in Faveland, Mississippi, is open to all staff and to students enrolled in the Tougaloo College and Miles College ^ork-Study Programs. Tougaloo Work-Study people are reouired to attend and all staff are strongly urged to spend from 5 to 11 days at the institute. The purpose of such an instiutte is to stimulate study of political, economic and social issues - a clear understanding of which is necessary in order to develop and carry out effective programs of change for our society. Developing and carrying out effective programs of voter registration or convention and Congressional challenges, or knowing what program to carry out reouire clarification and definition of the political issues involved - that is - an understanding of which political or economic forces create and maintain the unjust conditions that need to be changed; how these forces do it and why. It is the job of an educational program to stimulate people to see these issues, not as defined by the news media and the political campaigns, but as they really are - effecting, determining, influencing the lives of everyday people. The issues which could be discussed at the Insitute are many. However, a few questions have been selected to which we might direct our attention. An outline of these questions and their tentative schedule is attached. Essentially, the question is the participation or lack of it that Black Belt Negroes have in making decisions, and what can be done about it. A good starting point night be an examination of the situation as it exists on the local level - with which staff and work-study people are familiar and can dravf upon their own experience. Then the local situation could be viewed in light of the larger issues which are shaped by national structures and institutions which operate on more thatn the local level. In other words, the county sheriff, the farmers leagues, the Negro sharecropper and their roles in the local community cannot fully be understood unless there is an understanding of the activities of the Federal Government, big business, labor, etc., which interact \\'ith these local people to influence and reinforce them. And also there must be thought about creating programs which will change the situation and enable people to participate fully in decis ion-making. At the Institute there will be stimulation and guidance for reading and discussion ( in groups of about 15) of the issues raised. Discussions will be led by staff people and outside resource people. Guyot, Forman, Samstein, Morris, Jesse Harris, Moses, Frank Smith, jack Mennis, Dave Dennis, Gerry Wilson, Casey Hayden, Dick Jewett are some of the staff who have agreed to help in the discussion groups. Ella Baker,Howard Zinn, Staughton Lynd, Myles Morton, Bob Coles, Charles Hamilton ( Professor of Political Science at Lincoln University) and Pobert Zangrando ( Professor of History at Rutgers ) are some of the resource people that will be at the institute. The materials to be used will be magazine articles,pamphlets, specially prepared material, tapes, films - and if they arrive in time from the publishers - paperback books by Richard Wright, DuBois, Baldwin and others. The Gulfside Methodist Assembly where the staff retreat and institute are going to be held has a variety of recreational facilities - a tennis court, volley ball court, football field, the Gulf of Mexico for swimming, a snack bar. The Free Southern Theater will perform for us on the 18th and 19th of November. The institute is not intended to be a comprehensive study of vital issues. The time is too short, the turnover of discussion leaders is high, and planning and carrying out such programs require the full-time energies of more people. The institute this time will be primarily exploratory - exploring a wide range of issues and exploring ways to examine these issues. Hopefully these sessions will stimulate thinking about important auestions and stimulate thought about this kind of educational program. What should be its content? Study of issues in the social sciences and humanitites? Training in basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, typing, community organization, etc.? For how long should the institute be held? When should it be scheduled to best work with programs in the field? How should the educational programs best relate to other programs? What emphasis should be placed on this kind of program? Lets discuss these auestions and others at the staff meeting and at the Institute. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
6 Raymond Street, N.W. Atlanta 14, Georgia 688-0331
November 1, 196lf.
Dear Howard: I'm enclosing a numher of things. First there is the material that went to staff and work-study people about the Institute - a general statement and the questions. Theft there is a carbon of the letter that went to Dorothy Height Inviting her to be a membeVof the Board, plus the tentative set of questions for, the month-long institute, (^^ftu^ t* l ^ *- U. tk £\~V£A, \eV&*>* ^\Au>l u^e-u^- trL/JT\ Then the Work-Study statement which has been given to Tougaloo Work-Study people and Lincoln University people who might have a work-study program this year. It will also be distributed at the staff meeting. And last, and maybe least, there is Billy's statement for the Leadership Training Institute for which New World is holding up stecaiJSHx making a decision about until it is rewritten. I think that it should be redone, too - as I guess all of them should be. I'll call you tomorrow- or the next day.
Sincerely,
u Caro %
» L/ne Mian, \Jne vote Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
6 Raymond Street, N.W. Atlanta 14, Georgia 688-0331
Dear Friend: Enclosed is a general statement about the Study Institute which will be held from November 11th through November 21st - right after the staff meeting - also at the Gulfside Methodist Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi. A proposed schedule of questions which might be raised for discussion is also enclosed.
Since the success of the Institute depends upon the participation of the staff, I hope that all of you plan to spend sometime, if not all, at i:c.w
See you in Waveland.
Carole Merritt
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1 fF.C 2. ! L-)v* (V) W_ WORK-STUDY PROGRAM I• Purpose of the Program The Work-Study Program is designed to give a group of college students an opportunity to participate in one of the great social movements of American history, while continuing academic study, and directly linking this study with research and 'wofk in the SautHern community. For one year, the participating students would alternate field work and month-long study institutes. It is hoped that the experience would constitute that union of moral commitment, social action, and intellectual inquiry which education should give. Following the year of work and study, the students would enroll full-time with scholarship aid at the participating institution. II. Background The Work-Study Program began in the fall of 1963 with ton students each from Tougaloo and Miles Colleges participa ting. This year, as these twenty students return to full- time study, forty-two students at these same colleges will take part in the program for 1964-1965. For the year 1965-1966, the program will be expanded to include students from other colleges. The experience of the Tougaloo program in 1963 has shown the great difficulties in trying to combine work and study in the same time period. This year, the thirty Tougaloo students and the twelve Miles students will meet in November in Atlanta, Georgia, for a month of study in the humanities and social sciences. The study institute will be conducted by civil rights workors, professors, and specialists in such fields as economics, politics, and history. Following the institute, the students will be given assignments in the field on programs of voter registration, adult education, community centers, research, and freedom schools. Other institutes are tentatively scheduled in Atlanta, Georgia, for February and May, 1965. Work-Study (2) III. The Work Phase The administration of the work program in Mississippi with prospective Tougaloo students will be separate from the wbrk program in Alabama. Students working in Mississippi will be under the direction of Mr. Jesse Morris, director^ of the Jackson, Mississippi office of the Council of Federated Organizations, whose responsibility it will be to assign each student to a project in the state. In Alabama, a Miles College professor will supervise the work projects in Jefferson and two adjoining counties in Alabama. Work assignments will be made not only in consideration of the student's interest and the personnel demands of the field, but also with the intention of involving the student in a meaningful program of action to complement his theoretical studies. Working on voter registration and voter education in a Black Belt county would give meaning to what had been discussed at the institute about the political structure of a Southern community, the participation of Negroes in the operation of that structure, and the relation of local politics and national political power. Research into the records of Jefferson County, Alabama, for the last half of the Nineteenth Century would make more real the study of Reconstruction history and the place of the Negro in that history. Attempting to have Various federal programs implemented in a Southern Black Belt community would give insight into the actual contribution of the Federal Government to. the rural economy of the South, and the Negro farmer's share of that contribution. Work-Study students teaching in freedom schools, mass meetings, citizenship classes, and community centers provides not only an educational opportunity for the citizens of the community, but also a learning experience for the teachers who would be called upon to impart what they had learned to others. IV. The Study Phase The following is a rough breakdown of the general areas of study and the issues which would be dealt with at the institutes. 1. Politics: the problem of true democracy in the American political system. The theoretical structure of national and local politics might be discussed in relation Work-Study (3) to the real problem of how people in an actual community-- people who are poor, uneducated, intimidated, or psychologically alienated from the society --participate in the political process, and the implications of this in evaluating American democracy. The question occupying many sociologists and political scientists today - of elitism and popular participation could also be studied. 2. Economics: How does the American economy operate? The theoretical operation of the economy might be juxtaposed with its actual operation. Income distribution in the United States and the problem of poverty would be one crucial aspect of this. Some of the recent studies of poverty might be used -- studies by Leon Keyserling and Michael Harrington. The problem of the private sector and the public sector, and the whole question of rational use of our economic resources could be dealt with, reading provocative works such as David Bazelon's The Paper Economy, John Galbraith's The Affluent Society, Robert Theobald's Free Men and Free Markets, with perhaps Robert Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosopher's as a historical starting point. Farm problems would be an obvious concern -- why there is a farm problem; the paradox of oversupply; the attempts to meet this before, during, and after the New Deal; the specific problem of the sharecropper,and the social setting of the rural South. Labor, labor organization, and its failures in the South would be other important topics. 3. Social Movements in America: a survey of social movements in the American past, up to and including the present civil rights movement, with a discussion of the strategy and tactics of such movements. The aboli tionist movement, the farmers' movement, the labor upsurge, the Negro revolt might be compared to glean lessons for today which might be applied. 4. The History of the Negro in the United States: his place in the history of the nation during slavery, in the abolitionist period, and during Reconstruction. 5. World Affairs: the relationship of nonviolence theory to the problem of war, peace, and disarmament; the relation of the African and Asian nationalist movements of this century to the Negro movement. 6. Race: What do cultural anthropology and psychology have to say about the possibility of whites and Negroes living in amicable interracial relations in America? The experiences of Latin America and other parts of the world in interracial living could be examined. Work-Study (4) A study of Negro literature, music, art, and society would raise the question of a specifically Negro culture, and its relation to the total American culture. V. Financing the Program The Field Foundation made a grant of $40,000 for the 1964-1965 Tougaloo Work-Study Project.This sum provides for the maintenance of thirty students for a year while alternating work and study, and a $1,000 scholarship for each student enrolling full-time at Tougaloo for the 1965-1966 school year. The Field Foundation also made a $20,000 grant to Miles College for the maintenance and scholarship aid of twelve students. The work-study proposal and the request for funds must be submitted directly to an interested foundation by the college. VI. Selection of Students Selection of the students can be done either by the college or the Education Committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, on the basis of ability and interest. Those selected need not be students currently enrolled in the institution, but could also be those out of college vrho meet the admission requirements of the institution. Institute for In-Service Education of cIvil Rights Workers Purpose; To provide an intellectual and educational experience For civil rights workers who, because of their full-time Involve ment in the field, aredeprived of the opportunity fo3? formal education; also, to service college students who are engaged in year-long work-study programs in the South, Sc heduling: Such Institutes would each last for a month, and would be held two or three times in the course of a year. The first Institute is scheduled for October, 1961$., and another in fB 1965. If a third is held, it will probably be in February, 1965. Location: The Educational Cornittee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ia arranging to rent, for the year beginning In October, a building — or several adjoining houses — probably in Atlanta or on the outskirts of Atlanta, which would house approximately 75 people during the institutes and could also be used for other educational activities in between. Administration; Hiss Carole ilerritt, Educational Director for the Student nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who MM a grantee of 1: anor B©< sevelt Memorial inundation this past summer, will undertake, with the aid of another oerson, to administer the Institutes. Mr, Jesse --orris, of the Council of Federated Organ izations staff, will help xjith the placement of work-study le in the field after .heir first institute is completed* Stex* Is an advisory educational board co. sis ting of; Dr. Icobert Coles, Harvard university; 0vm Staughton iynd, Yale University; Prof, Ik Erikson, Harvard University; Dr, Howard Sinn, Boston Univ ersity, -acuity: teachers will be drawn fron both the academic world and from the field, G-enerally, they will be 1 nvited for a period of seve al days to a week, when bhat topic of inter-t I i them is being discussed. Curriculum: The broad aim is to provide the kind of intensive study in. the humanities and social sciences lfeieh will enable the civil rights worker to carry on his field activity with a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions involved in his work, the historical data pertinent to ib* the economic and political issues connected with it, etc. it is expected that the student will broaden his perspective in these Institutes, in orde- to see problems of race, political democracy, economic op-orb nity, and social change ln an international setting. It is also hoped that the Institutes will provde an occasion for so:-ie k ind of stimulating contact with literature andthe arts. In all our planning, we have stressed that such an Institute calls for something different than the traditional teaching methods U3ed in academic situations, yant to teal with social issues in a profound way, and yet make them intelligible to the average civil rights worker whose motiv ation Is Strong but whose formal academic background may bo poor. This requires the pursuit of knowledge in the form of seeking answers to questions which are intimately related to the problems of the contemporary world and to the life of the student. The work will be done on one g-.neral "level", for all participants in the Institute, but there will be individual and small-group - 2 - help for those who need it. And flor some who may want to pursue some questions more Intensively, there will be opportunity for extracurricular reading and discussion. Materials: Paperback books will be used as much as possible. They can than remain In the ossession of the student for him or her to take back to the field. For each topic, an attempt will' be made to secure books which bridge the gulf between the academic and the popular; novels and plays will be used as much as possible, as will provocative magazine articles. Films w 111 be used extens ively. The in,stit,utei Student as Ccxmaunlty Teacher: One of the hyrtheses "ox"this" educational' program is that 'the'motivation for 1 earning is considerably heightened when the student knows from the start that he will be expected to transmit xihat he learns to others, when he has left the Institute, Gur aim is to send out into the field people vfao will carry to other-s the facts and ideas they have observed in the institute. The civil right* movement has always proceeded on the assumption that a process of educatL on is involved, both for the Begre community an the wrhite community; with the work of these Institutes we hope to sharply Improve the quality and quantity of this community education, and to carry it forward in a .tore; systematic way. Mass meetings in the South can become educational forums, and community centers can become centers of . As p«p| of the work of the Institute, students will practice writing and speaking, with clarity and cogency, to bring data and ideas to the communities where they will work. Tentative Dally ^chedule: Institute students, after breakfast, will hoar a brief Intro-auction to the* day's topic, and a guide to their reeding, generally given by the guest teacher. They wflL then spend the morning reading. After lunch, there will be three hours of discussion, first in lonary session, then in smaller groups* There will b e a free period of about two hours in late afternoon just beiore dinner, Evenings will be devoted to films, poetry and play readings, and m ck mass meetings in whihh students will practice giving educational talks to "the community", followed by general critique. The October Institute: Specific plans for this Institute were worked out at a series of meetings held at Tougaloo College In »sekson, Iiisslssip^i, during August, 1964, attended by members of the educational advisory board and of sKCC's educational committee. All details are subject to change, depending on how they work out in the actual operation of the Institute, The October institute will be devoted to four topics, each of which will be the focus of concentration for oneveek. An overall theme for the month will be: How Can We Create a Just and Free Society? The four t opics are: Sees, Economics, Politics, Social Change, Succeeding Insti tutes will pay more attention to international affairs and to prob lems of civil liberties* TENTATIVE PLAN - NOVEMBER INSTITUTE November 5-11.- RACE: How does the role of the Negro in the movement for equality today compare \tfith his role during slavery, in the abolitionist movement, during the Reconstruction Period, in the days of the Washington-DuBois controversy? What do cultural anthropology and psychology have to say about the possibility of whites and Negroes livipg In amicable interracial relations in America? What are the experiences of Latin America, and other parts of the world, in interracial living? Is there a specifically Negro culture? What Is its relation and what should be its relation to the total American culture? November 12-18 - ECONOMICS: How equitable is the existing distribution of income in the United States in relation to the American past,in relation to other countries in the world, in comparison with the national wealth? How much has been accomplished to create a more just allocation of resources by federal programs resulting from reform movements; by the trade unions? What would be an effective program for dealing with the rural poor, Negro and white? What program would effectively deal with the Harlem-type slum-ghetto? What are some alternative economic systems? Can a rational and just economy be created within the framework of the profit motive? Is national economic planning compatible with freedom and justice? November 19-25 - POLITICS: Can social justice be achieved by the power of the ballot? What part does votinp play in the structure of government in the United States? To what extent is political power, both national and local, based Upon economic power? Can political parties like the Freedom Democratic Party, based on the history of third party movements in the United States, play a.more constructive role inside or outside the traditional two-party system? How can groups of people without political or economic power effect the decision-making of the nation? What is the relationship between law and politics in the United States? November 26-December 2 j SOCIAL CHANGE: Can the just society b,e. achieved npnyiolently in the United States? What are some fel^tfSeymsffeilfcal-*expediences 'with revolutionary change? How much reform has been achieved in the United States through nonviolent reform movements? How does the non violent movement in the U.S. compare with the Gandhian movement in India? How do the results of change in Algeria and in Nigeria (among other possible paired examples) reflect the difference in the method of change? Are there limits to nonviolence as a theory and as a technique in social chance? )(\^ PROPOSED OUTLINE OF STUDY INSTITUTE - NOVEMBER 11 through 21 Gulfside Methodist Assembly Waveland, Mississippi JOVEMBER 11 through 13 - HOW DO PEOPLE IN THE BLACK BELT PARTICIPATE IN THE DECISION MAKING WHICH EFFECTS THEM POLITICALLY, ECONOMICALLY, AND SOCIALLY? What decisions are Black Belt Negroes able or unable to make with regard to the election of local officials, passage of local laws, controlling the local school system, etc.? What share does the Black Belt Negro have in the wealth available in his area? in the nation? What is his potential for borrowing money, buying land, planting cotton, finding a job? Who makes the decisions on these local issues? What power lies in the hands of the county sheriff, the mayor, the local judge, city attorney, the local bank, the district congressman, the white minister, the Negro minister, the Negro undertaker, the Negro grocer, the Negro teacher, etc.? Why do certain oeoole have power? NOVEMBER 14 through 16 - "NAT KIND OF INTERACTION IS THERE BETWEEN POWER ON THE LOCAL LEVEL AND POWER ON THE. NATIONAL LEVEL? Whose interests are represented and how are they represented by the election of Congressmen, the President? by the selection of Cabinet members and Federal Judges? What decisions of the Federal Government, big business, and labor effect local situations? What Federal programs are carried on in local areas? What business interests do national corporations have in local areas? What is the potential of the labor movement in the Black Belt? How do the Federal Government, big business, and labor unions relate to the Black Belt power structure on the issue of civil rights? What influences this relationship? Study Institute (2) NOVEMBER 17 through 20 - HOW CAN YOU GET PEOPLE LIKE THE BLACK BELT NEGRO WHO IS POOP. AND VOTELESS TO PARTICIPATE IN DECISION MAKING WHICH EFFECTS HIM? Can this change be brought about by the freedom Democratic Party? What would be the most constructive way for the FDP to operate? Within or without the National Democratic Party? What kind of change was accomplished by the Atlantic City Convention? What kind of change can be expected from the Congressional challenge? How can an organization like SNCC help people participate in decision making? What does One Man, One Vote mean? Is true democracy possible in this country, or are there natural limits to democracy? How and around what programs do people need to be organized to bring about change? What role does education play in getting poor,voteless people to change their situation? Can an organization like SNCC provide the materials and programs for the education that is needed? How does an organization like SNCC structure itself to do the job? Should SNCC operate on the principle of One **an, One,Vote? Can true democracy be achieved in SNCC? What has been the experience of other organizations and movements for change? What were there goals, programs, and technics? How did they structure themselves to do the job? What did they achieve? NOVEMBER 21 - EVALUATION September 28, 1961; Miss Dorothy I.Height, President National Council of Negro Women 200 West 57th Street New York, New York Dear Miss Heights The Education Committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is planning a series of month-long study institutes In Atlanta, Georgia, for civil rights workers in the South, The institutes are tentatively scheduled for November, 196U., February and May, 1965, The purpose Is to provide a meaningful educational ex- p erlence for those who have interrupted their formal training to involve themselves full-time in the movement for social change in the South. The broad aim is to provide the kind of intensive study in the humanities and social sciences which will ehable the civil rights worker to carry on his field activity with a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions involved in his work, the historical data pertinent to it, and the larger economic and political issues related to It, Enclosed is a tentative plan for the issues to be dealt with at the November institute. We are forming a Board of Consultants to help us in the planning of these activities and would like very much for you to be a member. Yoti would not be expected to devote a laege segment of your time, but would be asked to serve as advisor or as a visiting teacher at the institute for a day or two at your convenience. / / Would you let us know as soon as possible your Interest in becoming a member of the Board? We look forward to hearing from you and working with you. Sincerely, Carole E. Merritt Education Committee,SNCC Robert Moses, Chairman Ella Baker Courtland Cox Carole Merritt Howard Zinn Enc. C^{shlfa&^^ (T) \ow*^'^^^ . ^ ^^n^ /S) G^w p^b w * ^ s*-y Uu*-v- PROJECT PROPOSAL AMD GRANT REOUEST STUDENT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE Submitted to: Submitted by: Mr. Vernon Eagle Lewis W. Jones, Coordinator The New Morld Foundation Race Relations department 475 Riverside Drive American Missionary Associati New York 27, New York Fisk University n This proposal provides for the organization and administration of the five-day institute described belox* as projected by Walter Stafford, Educational Director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the grant request is for the sum of $7,000, to be used as detailed in t budget statement. The Race Relations Department of the American Missionary Associati at Fisk University assumes responsibility for the conduct of the instit with the following understanding: 1. It is to focus on the intellectual development of student leadership. 2. The institute is designed to stimulate student intellectual leadership to study, analyze and interpret economic, social and political processes influencing American society. 3. To provide institute trainees with experiences to prepare them to conduct study groups and workshops for students to consider the intellectual and social framework of social actio 5. Such an institute is felt to be an urgen need by some students who feel that better intellectual grounding of student leaders is imperative. The plan submitted to the Race Relations Department is herewith transmitted to the Foundation with the understanding that it is the basis for planning of the institute and is Subject to further specifica- *nd modification in planning conferences between the Race Relations De partment and the student committee. INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF PROJECTED ISSUES IN CIVIL RIGHTS, AND INTERRELATED PROBLEMS Submitted by Walter Staff to Race Relations Institi Fisk University Background Improvements to social problems are made once projected solutions alternatives are presented for action. Most problems faced by persons a superficial simplicity, and persons seeking solutions limit the scopi because of their desire to achieve immediate gains. The past five years of civil rights has primarily awakened the consciousness of persons. The tangible gains in jobs, education, and < goals presented by society as ends have gone to those with the means fi achievement — the Negro middle-class. With the support of a growing r liberal element, leadership from these two groups worked towards the e of an "opening society" where abstractly the Negro would have equality is, if he was prepared. The leadership was thus provided by groups th; were interested themselves in upward mobility in the social structure, who thus were spokesmen for a self-interested group. For leadership development it will be necessary and essential to focus the developing issues and multiplier effects as problems of magnf and to indicate the dangers involved in limiting the scope of pertinent issues . Theoretical Basis The Theoretical basis is a modification of the "reference group" theory developed by Robert K. Merton. The theory indicates that perso* in groups strive and pattern their actions according to groups they as to join. As indicated in the background, the development of leadership thu far In the protest movement has been leadership that could benefit by their self-interest gains. Their patterns of behavior, and the demand that they projected concluded the patterns that they sought. The lead themsleven limited their objectives and narrox-jed the scope. Realizing these factors, and that the Institute is for potential leaders, it is not the purpose of the Institute to limit goals, and th - 2 by limit potential, but to project issues that will develop in the futv given certain conditions. And once given the alternatives, hox* and by what methods does one insure that the conditions do or do not exist. The rationale for using this theoretical guide is because educatic programs usually dictate what goals should be reached, by the participar and thereby offer short range goals that do not stimulate thinking and program development, but actually limit the scope of the participants. Also, offering short range objectives does hot stimulate critical viewpoints of the membership groups of the participants to becbme aware of their limitations. The end result of the Institute using the theoretical basis is to channel thinking towards the conditions needed to influence changes, wl programs are needed for this change, and what leaders finally must deme for these changes. Persons Attending As nearly as possible a cross-section of Negro and white students, SNCC staff, and members of other civil rights organizations with potent leadership should attend. The number should be limited to twenty or thirty students, and these persons selected on the basis of recommendat and observation of youth presently involved in civil rights. Sit* The Race Relations Department of Fisk University is experienced in conducting educational programs. Nashville would serve as a central sit for all the persons attending, and the campus and the city can provide the necessary housing. Time Period The Institute would last for five days, beginning on Monday and ending on Friday afternoon at time convenient to trainees. Consultants Certain requirements are made of consultants to the Institute, and these are that they primarily be persons who have dealt with the projec tion of issues, which is the objective of the seminars. Seminars * i" i ii (a) The consultant will present the topic and the issues involved i his particular endeavor, and then project the issue given certain condi tions exist or do not exist in the ensuing years. (b) The discussion period will focus upon the alternatives and solutions to the problem and what programs will be needed to bring about these solutions. - 3 The following suggested topics and discussants may require adjust ment but indicate the level and quality of discussions planned. (a) "The Cybernated Era" — Robert Thebboldj Leon Keyserling, Don aid Michaels. The issue of jobs, who will -rovide woifk, and the role of government i providing every man a certain standard of living; (b) "The Party Structure and its Adminsitration" — MarcUs Raskir (c) "The Needed Action Programs" — Bayard* Riistih, Robert Moses, James Forman . , What programs will be needed given certain conditions follow; What pi grams are needed given the fact that civil rights is taoving towards a class struggle. (d) "The Southern City: Security or Illusion?" — Lewis Jones Redistricting and other issues. (e) "Projections of the Southern Economic Structure, and Its rel? tionship to equality of income in the nation" -- Vivian Hendc Publication The most feasible manner in which to reach those persons who cou" not attend is through the publication of the projections, and solution provided by the persons attending the Institute, and the consultants, booklet would be distributed on campuses, and used for other educatioi purposes. - 4 BUDGET This budget is developed for the instrudtion of 25 trainees for the period of five days. Vouchers and full accounting of the use of the funds will be made to the New World Foundation* Travel and Maintenance of Trainaes $275C Travel @ $50. per trainee $1250.00 Food and lodging @ $12. per taainee 1500.00 $180? Instructional Costs 5 Consultants outside of Nashville Travel @ $150. each $750.00 Honoraria @ $75. per day, 2 days each 750.00 2 Local consultants @ $50. per day, 3 days 300.00 Adminstration $65? Director (Lewis W. Jones) $250.00 Coordinator (Walter Stafford) Travel and Honorarium 400.00 Miscellaneous $180 Materials, supplies, and stenographic help, telephone, postage $800.00 Overhead $1000.00 TOTAL: $70C 1•I. Student Action Movement (S.A.M.) 64 Marlborough Street, Boston, Mass. 02116 CO 7-6730 Peter Steineau (B.U.) Coordinator Barry Ormeland Publicity Gwen Drum (Garland) Program Nancy Bradshaw (Garland) Membership William Cooper (Graduate) Treasurer Vivian Bradley Secretary Gerald Krick, Executive Advisor WOULD YOU LIKE TO: work in a settlement house help a foreign student tutor negro children •C/M7 Vf&tvet^r work with mental patients tutor a convict in prison assist an ex-convict volunteer in a general hospital work in a pfe jUj^yuf iMiir CJ>V -SA) cc. reform school assist a public school teacher in a slum area work with blind children help a delinquent visit the aged assist in voter registration help admini strate S.A.M. drives: blood and united fund Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 6 RAYMOND STREET, N.W., ATLANTA 14, GEORGIA • 688-0331 156 FIFTH AVENUE, N EW YORK, N EW YORK 1001 0 • YU 9-1313 ^.^ ^W c?/*^ 4U «J*~L »^/-A»-«^ y ^vW/y »lJL 'U*Jf ^fj^v^y^ ' y T) w V) 9// " ^— KJ'ne Iflan, L/ne Vote , *j _/. oVwi . /uat^~^ Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 6 RAYMOND STREET, N.W., ATLANTA 14, GEORGIA • 688-0331 156 FIFTH AVENUE, N EW YORK, N EW YORK 1001 0 • YU 9-1313 9.^f-e^{ Vw J. / y- ' -y^> ^H0y-/o ^ /L _&to>Jj £<- J**s/- <* 'far e~^t -/efy fa&fa/CcJi) yJne iVIan, CJne Vole ^ u/\^XHi 6^? ^ "iff, ougtZ^*- J&jQ ^e*^f ^f3^ A C>^+-i- CLt^oP g^t^Jl&tHsLA** , /Ce^f ^U^ £-£<2*i /-*•-*% tfv ^ /#->/ §&c, too CO^K HOWARD N. MEYER ATTORNEY AT LAW 50 BROAD STREET >, NEW YORK 4. N. Y. O'DWYER 8t BERNSTIEN BOWLING GREEN 9.3939 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE 6 Raymond Street, N.W. Atlanta 14, Georgia WORK STUDY PROJECT THE REASONS FOR A "WORK STUDY" PROJECT The Work Study project was devised to provide a meaningful solu tion to the conflict which now exists between the inclinations of young people to continue their education and to become involved in the civil rights movement, with its pressing needs for manpower. The program seeks to resolve this conflict by integrating the two activ ities of field work in civil rights, and academic training In the form of study led by graduate students and other well qualified people. Many who would otherwise have taken a year out of school to work in the movement have not been willing to do so because of their fear of losing scholarships or not being able to earn money for the following year's tuition. For this reason the program also offers scholarships to its participants in order that they might be assured the following year's tuition. OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT PROGRAM: There are several very positive aspects of the project as it has operated so far. Close observers can testify to the growth of the participants in the program. They are much more resourceful and responsible as workers than they were at the beginning of the program. They show initiative and can be relied on to begin and carry through projects. One of the most impressive aspects of growth has been in their ever-increasing ability to express themselves concerning the current political, social and economic issues. The project has been unquestionably successful in its ability to supply the civil rights movement with additional staff to carry out its activities. The par ticipants themselves speak of having a new incentive for continuing their higher education. Taken together these achievements of the program add up to the beginning of a new value and concept in our society; that of the creation of a more meaningful form of education which does not separate the practical and the theoretical, but rather realizes that for study to have meaning and pertlrance it must grow out of and remain close to the real life, field situation. PLANS FOR AN EXPANDED PROGRAM: This coming academic year SNCC would like to expand the program in order to reach many more students and involve more Negro colleges across the nation. A. Work program: The participants would be divided into teams in order to man various SNCC projects across the South. B. Study Institutes: They would come together for four study insti tutes to be planned by the SNCC educational staff. CURRICULUM FOR THE STUDY INSTITUTES: An example of a particularly stimulating group of discussions in this year's program were those centered around the issue of Free Speech. Mr. J.R. Actermann, of the Tougaloo History Department, and Mendy Samstein, who has an M.A. in history from Cornell University, led discussions of the history of Free Speech in Europe. Oscar Chase, graduate of Yale Law school, gave a quick summary of some of the more famous Free Speech eases in American History, while Dona Richards Moses, who has a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Chicago led dis cussions of the opinions of Justices Erandeis and Holmes in some of . the more relevant cases. (The last three discussion leaders mentioned are SNCC field secretaries.) In this discussion John Stuart Mill's philosophy was introduced as having been influential on the American view of Free Speech and the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. This series of classes culminated in a very successful discussion in which the group participated enthusiastically. They expressed opinions on such issues as why Freedom of Speech is desirable or crucial in a democracy. They were encouraged to explore the questions in terms of the relationship of liberty to order. Spontaneous discussions have led to the groups' awareness of some very broad and philosophical questions relevant to their lives. We hope the staff of the Institutes will develop new approaches to understanding the complex problems which face these students, (e.g. See the attached outline for classes at the Summer Freedom Schools for Mississippi.) PLANS FOR WORK PROGRAMS: The students will be divided into teams. Each team will work under the direction of an experienced SNCC field secretary. This year's participants helped organize for the Hattiesburg Freedom Day and remained there afterx^ards to continue to rally around the picket line. (The picket line still continues.) Some of the members of the broup are working to organize the Mississippi Student Union as a result of their work in Hattiesburg. Others are doing research and writing speeches and organizing for the Freedom campaigns of the candidates for the U.S. Congress and the Senate. In other words, their activities will by no means be concentrated solely around demonstrations. They will learn to be organizers for the increasingly complicated work of the civil rights movement. SOME GOALS OF TEE WORK STUDY PROJECT: In general what we are interested in doing is creating among the participants an awareness of themselves in relation to the very large complex problems of the society in which they live. Economics, Politics, Sociology and History among other things will show themslves in the form of real problems instead of as "disciplines" unrelated to life in general and more specifically, to the lives of the student workers involved. We can anticipate on the basis of this year's pro gram that our most substantial achievement will be to whet the appetite of these young people for further study, along with providing a new incentive and added meaning to the learning experience. It is for this reason and the fact that the Work Study project affords colleges involved an opportunity to become involved in the community, that Tougaloo College and SNCC initiated such a program, and that other Colleges have now expressed interest. Proposal for Scholarship Program I .The Problem Many young people who work on civil rights programs in the South have not been able to complete their formal education, either because of their full-time commitment to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or because of economic and cultural deprivation. Thare are approximately 95 full-time worker! for the Student Nonviolent Coordin ating Committee who have either not begun or not finished their under graduate training . A larger number of students who have been involved in various protest movements throughout the South are denied opportun ities for higher education because they lack money, encouragement, and adequate preparation for many colleges. Still another ^roup of young people are college students, particularly Southern Negroes, who wish to participate in SNCC's summer programs, like the Mississippi Summer Project, but are reluctant or unable to do so because summer employment is necessary to meet college costs for the coming year. The Student N nviolent Coordinating Committee realizes the importance of both practical training and formal education in the total learning experience of those who nust direct and carry out the programs for a better society in the South. SNCC feels responsible in helping to pro vide and insure educational opportunities for those who have committed themselves or are willing to commit themselves actively to civil rights work in the South. A urogram is needed, therefore, that would provide encouragement and financial assistance to help such students take ad vantage of college opportunities. II.The Summer Program . Negro College Students There is an immediate need of scholarship money for college students, who, by participating in the Mississippi Summer Project rather than getting summer employment, will be short of funds in the coming school year. In the past, many Negro college students in the South have not been able to participate actively in the civil rights movement for financial reasons. To allow this to continue is to deny the South's future leaders a very essential part of their training. These students are the very ones who will have to assume positions of leadership in the South's changing society and should have first hand, practical experience with those forces which underlie and shape a changing society. The Mississippi Summer Project calls for at least 500 workers to man comprehensive programs of freedom schools, community centers, and voter registration. Funds should be available for at least 100 Southern college students who by participating in the Mississippi Summer Project will have a gap betxreen college costs and financial resources. Appli cations are now being received and the. response from Southern appli cants is good. One staff member is currently informing Southern college students about the project and recruiting volunteers. Tx?o staff members would receive and process the applications from those students expressing financial need. The need and qualifications for aid would be determined and awards xrould be made x>rith the approval of a scholarship committee composed of trustees of the fund, if any, the executive secretary and chairmann of SNCC, and one of the SNCC advisors, The axrards, payable to the college would be about $300 each, equal to the amount that the average college student can earn toward college ( 2 ) during the summer. Ill. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Staff Scholarship funds are needed for 95 students presently working for SNCC who have not completed undergraduate training. These students did not complete their educations in many cases because they committed them selves to SNCC. The operation of SNCC's staff and program has been possible only because of their comit- ment. The present size and composition of SNCC's staff will permit some of these students to return to school full time. The nature of SNCC's programs and the greater demands on its workers to man these programs now require that all have at least undergraduate training. Community centers, freedom schools, and research programs call not 1 ue for staff who are willing to receive on-the-spot training, but also staff x*ho in an academic setting have increased their store of knowledge, re fined their skills in reading and writing, and have exposed themselves to a rigorous and meaningful exchange of ideas. Formal college training xrill serve to sharpen the xjorker's tools for analyzing the field situation and putting together, again, the necessary elements that make for a creative program of action in a chang ing society. Funds should be available for use in the '64-'65 school year for at least 30 of these staff members to return to school full time. These scholarships should attempt to meet the student's full need after the student has exhausted all means of financial support in the form of college scholarship and xrork, non-college scholarship, and family contribution. Funds would be administered by two staff members upon the approval of a scholarship committee composed of the trustees of the fund, the Executive Secretary ar>d Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. IV. The Scholarship Program The program will be directed towards southern Negro students, SNCC staff members, and the placement of Negro students in nex7ly desegregated colleges that are seekin" Negro students. First, the program should recruit or identify those students in local protest movements in the South, who should be attending college. Secondly, a comprehensive counseling and referral prcram would provide information on opportunities for college admission and financial aid; refer students to the ( 3 ) appropriate colleges and sources of aid; alert and in terest colleges in possible candidates for admission and aid. Thirdly, a fund would provide scholarships for these students who, because of their poor academic training and cultural deprivation, are not able to compete for scholar ship aid at many institutions. V. Finances 100 scholarships for Mississippi Summer Project participants @ $300 $30,000 30 staff scholarships @ $2000 $60,009 Travel to colleges and recruitment $1,000 $91,000 STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM GOALS AND NEEDS The educational needs of the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the people with whom they work re quire a comprehensive program. During the past three years, more than 200 young men and women have interrupted their education at various levels -- high scnool, college, graduate school -- to devote themselves to the task of securing basic rights for Negroes in the South. While they have been enriched by such a commitment, they have also sacrificed im portant elements of formal education. Through the efforts of these students, the barriers of a destructive educational system, maintained by the political system of the South, are beginning to break dox^n. Now a constructive program is needed to deal specifically with Southern educational problems. By means of such a program, SNCC would attempt to train its staff by combining social involvement and intellectual growth, and provide training and intellectual stimulation for the people in the South and their potential leaders. SNCC has received enthusiastic support in the formulation of this educational program. However funds are needed to implement such a program. The following outlines the content of the program and estimates the cost of each phase. SNCC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM - 2 THE PROGRAM I. WORK-STUDY PROJECTS In the fall of 1963, SNCC initiated work-study projects at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, and Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama. Tx^enty students took leave of absence from their college careers to participate in a program which alternated between field x^ork in the civil rights movement and a study program of readings, discussions and lectures. Unlike xiork-study plans with formal academic programs, such as the one at Antioch College, no academic credits were granted for participation in the projects. The students x^ere given subsistence pay by SNCC when working in the field. An educational grant of $30,000 was split between the two colleges, xjith $10,000 covering educational activities during this year. A $1,000 scholarship is guaranteed to each student for return to formal college training at Tougaloo and Miles in the fall of 1964. Three additional colleges wish to begin similar programs in the school year of 1964-65. Plans now call for a series of two to six week study periods during this year for work-study students. They will spend the remainder of the year working in the rural South, and will return to the colleges for formal matriculation with $1,000 scholarships in the fall of 1965. A grant of $75,000 Is needed for this educational program and for the return-to-school scholarships. SNCC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM - 3 II. FREEDOM SCHOOLS Tx^enty day schools and two resident schools are being planned for the Mississippi Summer Project. The day schools will accomodate about fifty students each, and will run for three weeks. One resident school is designed to help high school dropouts in Mississippi, and the other is for students who have shown leadership ability. Up to two hundred students will attend each six week session, to live and study in a college-like atmosphere. All the schools x of retention and concentration resulting from their usually deprived educational experiences. The total cost of the Freedom School program is $114,100. SNCC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM - 4 III. SCHOLARSHIPS Southern students who want to work with SNCC's summer program are faced x*ith the fact that they must earn between three and five hundred dollars over the summer in order to return to school in the fall. It is essential that these students be able to participate in SNCC's projects this summer, since they are the nucleus of leadership throughout the South. We cannot ask these people to xrork with us unless x^e can pro vide them xfith scholarships for their return to school in the fall. Minimum aid for 100 students will require $30,000 by September, 1964. Scholarship funds are needed for the 95 members of the SNCC staff who have been unable to begin or complete their college training. SNCC's program has been made possible because of the commitment of these students. But they must return to school for the education they need to maintain their effec tiveness. To provide full scholarships for at least 30 staff members this fall, a minimum of $60,000 is needed. Tax exempt contributions tox*ard this scholarship program can be made to SNCC through the National Council of Negro Women. IV. STATE CONFERENCES A primary goal of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is the training of young leadership in Southern communities. All too often in the.past, such potential leadership has drifted to the greater educational opportunities of the North, and has not returned to aid the people of their SNCC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM - 5 homes with their skills and knowledge. At the root of this problem is the failure of the Southern school systems to provide educational facilities for the training of Negro leadership. SNCC plans to hold three-day conferences in each state, each attended by approximately 100 students and staffed by speakers and resource personnel from college campuses, govern ment agencies x^ithin the state and policy experts. The con ference theme will revolve around "Leadership and its Responsi bilities," with emphasis on the need for graduating students to ramain and work in their own states. Cost for each conference will be $2,000; the five confer ences x*ill require $10,000. V. LEADERSHIP INSTITUTES The Leadership Institute will be an intensive seminar in specific methods of problem-solving. It x-7111 drax* people from the state conferences who show exceptional interest and ability, as well as students in the work-study program, SNCC project directors and some staff members. The number attending x^ill be limited because of the need for intensive discussion groups. Topics for discussion will include: anti-poverty programs, rural development, manpox^er training, running political candi dates, etc. Total cost of the Leadership Institute xjill be $6,700. ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF A full time staff is needed to coordinate and administer this program. It should include txjo professors who x/ill be SNCC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM - 6 responsible for program content, development of materials and training of teachers and workshop leaders. These pro fessors should receive salaries equal to those received for their previous year's teaching. Four graduate students and four teacher trainees are also needed to implement the training of the teaching staff and to lead conferences and discussion groups. Their salaries should be equal to what they would receive as graduate assistants, perhaps on the basis of scholarships for returning to school at the end of the year. Adequate secretarial staff and office space must also be acquired. Total money needed for administrative and clerical staff is $37,112. FINANCES Administrative Staff $37,112 Work-Study Projects 75,000 Freedom Schools 114,100 Scholarships 90,000 State Conferences 10,000 Leadership Institutes 6,700 $332,912 SNCC Advisory Educational Tim Jenkins - Yale ^aw School Zinn Govt. Boston University Bob Coles Psych. Harvard University Staughton Lynd Hist.Yale University Tom Pettigrew Soc» Harvard University Charles Hamilton Pol. Rutgers University St. Clair Drake Anthro.Roosevelt University Martin Kilson (Harvard - Africa) Arthur Kinoy (Law, Rutgers) Robb Burlage - Tennessee State Planning Commission David Riesman Mart in Duberman - Princeton Univ. Robert Theobald - Economist Irving Howe - Critic Robert Heilbroner, Economist Everett C. Hughes, Sociology, Brandeis Univ. C. Vann Woodward, Yale Univ. Philip Green - Pol.Sci. Haverford James Mac G. Burns - Pol.^ci. ^illiams College John K. Galbraith - Economist - Harvard Seymour Melman - Columbia Univ. Mulfoid Sibley - Univ. of Minnesota %d INVITED PANELISTS AND DISCUSSION LEADERS — 2 Robert Kastenmeier, U. S. Congress Brewster Kneen, Fellowship of Reconciliation ft Stanley Kubrick, director ^William Kunstler, attorney Lawrence Landry, Chicago Friends of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Mark Lane, attorney Willia m Livant, Mental Health Research Institute, University of Michigan Sfcaughton Lynd, Spelraan College Norman Mailer, author , Herbert Marcuse, Brandeis University Wilson C. McWilliaims, Oberlin College V Seymour Melman, Columbia University Robert Moses, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Mississippi Council of Federated Organizations A.J. Muste, Liberation Manfred Ohrenstein, New York State Legislature Robert Pickus, Turn Toward Peace Jesse Prosten, United Packinghouse Union Victor Rabinowitz, attorney Anatol Rapoport, Mental He3alth Research Institute, University of Michigan Gloria Richardson, Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee Bayard Rustin, War Resisters League William Fitts Ryan, U. S. Congress Paul Schrade, United Auto Workers George C. Soott, actor Pete Seeger, folksinger Ben Shahn, artist Mulford Sibley, University of Minnesota Hamish Sinclair, Appalachian Committee for Full Employment Robert Spyke, National Council of Churches I.F. Stone, I.F. Stone's Weekly Harvey Swados, author Paul Sweezy, Monthly Review Harold Taylor, National Research Council on Peace Strategy Ruth Turner, Cleveland Congress on Racial Equality John Ullman, Hofstra University ^Arthur Waskow, Institute for Policy Studies Dagmar Wilson, Women! s Strike for Peace Maurice Zeitlin, Princeton University Plus SDS leaders. Adds Anno Cook. South woo&laxm Action Project Andr^° Cousins. Harlcr. Education Project Martin Porotz. Harvard University J«iaroMB RE>oXrin» Inatltut« for PoUns* 6**w*4*«* INVITED PANELISTS AND DISCUSSION LEADERS (affiliations listed for identification only) Gar Alperovitz, Senatorial assistant Stanley Aronowitz, National Committee for Full Employment Joan Baez, folksinger James Baldwin, author William Barth, Center for Research in Conflict Resolution, University of Michigan >» James Bevel, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Irving Bluestone, United Auto Workers £d^ „ pA~, - >^^^y^ o -a. &*, - 1^ #*-*"*>* ^ ^ tVvT^ LlUl^ 5>C^ J^^^^^^JBU,^ V^-AAC^- 1VGw*^J^ (£a-o— £lU\ [ Li UvixMO CLAS^L* ii«»il, i*». . • • • «i»ii..i*nii .mi I'II-ii fe ooc3 oot£ -so ooa^ottir. It la. In a - ...... ,ho &B64©cb Idea to aoalal aott . . Cbo oaiciiecoo will c ttM 'i ion ol" 01 1 a .•.idfer;i, NSMl MllMk Ml a? tbo in tumi of uo M|MI to MDMMi UN ltg M &±:: ,o j? t an support will OXLoUUC t.c yo:<:-ei.u7. . 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