UMarmot » Massachusetts (West)

Construyamos Juntos

rscox — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:28:56 +0000

In May 1985, a group of activists in Western Massachusetts opposed to the interventionist U.S. foreign policy of the Reagan era formed a construction brigade to assist with basic human needs and express solidarity with the people of Central America. Modeled on the Venceremos Brigade, Construyamos Juntos, Building Peace of Nicaragua, raised over $20,000 for construction supplies in addition to funds for individual travel. Between January and March 1986, the 17 activists joined a smaller brigade from West Virginia in constructing the Carlos Armin Gonzales elementary school in San Pedro de Lovago. During their first month in Nicaragua, they witnessed a Contra assault on the town that left one assailant dead and two residents of the town wounded.

This exhibit includes 55 mounted images and 99 35mm slides taken during the brigade’s time in Nicaragua, documenting the brigade’s construction work and providing a valuable visual record of life in Nicaragua during the Contra war. Used in public talks about Contruyamos Juntos, the collection includes exhibit labels that explain the purpose and activity of the brigade, the history of Nicaragua, and the Contra attack in January 1986.

Henderson, Elizabeth, 1943-

rscox — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:33:53 +0000

A farmer, activist, and writer, Elizabeth Henderson has exerted an enormous influence on the movement for organic and sustainable agriculture since the 1970s. Although Henderson embarked on an academic career after completing a doctorate at Yale on the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1974, by 1980, she abandoned academia for Unadilla Farm in Gill, Mass., where she learned organic techniques for raising vegetables. Relocating to Rose Valley Farm in Wayne County, NY, in 1989, she helped establish Genesee Valley Organic CSA (GVOCSA), one of the first in the country, and she continued the relationship with the CSA after founding Peacework Organic Farm in Newark, NY, in 1998. Deeply involved in the organic movement at all levels, Henderson was a founding member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) in Massachusetts, has served on the Board of Directors for NOFA NY, the NOFA Interstate Council, SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) Northeast, and many other farming organizations at the state, regional, and national level, and she has been an important voice in national discussions on organic standards, fair trade, and agricultural justice. Among other publications, Henderson contributed to and edited The Real Dirt: Farmers Tell about Organic and Low-Input Practices in the Northeast and co-wrote Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (1999, with Robyn Van En) and A Manual of Whole Farm Planning (2003, with Karl North).

Offering insight into the growth of the organic agriculture movement and the organizations that have sustained it, the Henderson Papers document Henderson’s involvement with NOFA, SARE, and the GVOCSA, along with her work to establish organic standards and promote organic practices. Henderson’s broad social and political commitments are represented by a rich set of letters from her work educating prisoners in the late 1970s, including correspondence with Tiyo Atallah Salah El and John Clinkscales, and with the American Independent Movement in New Haven during the early 1970s, including a nearly complete run of the AIM Bulletin and its successor Modern Times.

Olver, John

rscox — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:12:25 +0000

John Olver served as representive from the 1st Congressional District in Massachusetts for over two decades. Born in Honesdale, Pa., on Sept. 3, 1936, Olver began an academic career at UMass Amherst shortly after earning his doctorate in chemistry at MIT in 1961. In 1969, however, he resigned his position to pursue a career in politics. Winning election to the Massachusetts House in 1969 as a Democratic representative from Hampshire County, Olver went on to the state Senate in 1973, and finally to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1991, where he followed 17-term Republican Congessman Silvio O. Conte. Olver was a progressive voice for a district stretching from the Berkshire Hills through northern Worcester and Middlesex Counties, enjoying consistently strong support from his constituents for his support for issues ranging from national health care to immigration reform, regional economic development, human rights, and opposition to the wars in Iraq. A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he held seats on the Appropriations Committee and subcommittees on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, Energy and Water Development, and Homeland Security. With the redistricting process in Massachusetts in 2011, Olver announced that he would not seek reelection in 2012.

The Olver papers contain thorough documentation of the congressman’s career in Washington, including records of his policy positions, committee work, communications with the public, and the initiatives he supported in transportation, economic development, the environment, energy policy, and human rights. Material in the collection was drawn from each of Olver’s three district offices (Holyoke, Pittsfield, and Fitchburg), as well his central office in Washington.

Duckert, Audrey R.

rscox — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:54:52 +0000

Trained as a linguist, Audrey R. Duckert was a pioneer in the study of American regional English. Born in the small town of Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, Duckert took up the study of dialect while a student at the University of Wisconsin during the 1940s, and after completing her doctorate in linguistics at Radcliffe College in 1959, she joined the faculty at UMass Amherst, where she remained until her retirement forty years later. Among the highlights of her career, Duckert was a founding member of the Dictionary of American Regional English in 1965 and she became the first UMass woman admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. In addition to her linguistic work, Duckert developed an avid interest in local history and she was involved with a number of local historical organizations, including the Swift River Valley Historical Society in New Salem. On September 6, 2007, Duckert died in Hadley, Mass., at the age of 80.

The Duckert oral history collection consists of a series of 53 audiocassette tapes containing oral history interviews with persons displaced when the Swift River Valley was flooded in 1939 to create the Quabbin Reservoir. The histories include rich recollections of life in the towns of Greenwich, Enfield, Dana, and Prescott, with village life, education, family, and the changes that accompanied the inundation of the region. The original cassette tapes are the possession of the Swift River Valley Historical Society, which has allowed us to digitize the contents.

Foster, Nancy E.

rscox — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:13:52 +0000

For the better part of four decades, Nancy E. Foster was active in the struggle for social justice, peace, and political reform. From early work in civil rights through her engagement in political reform in Amherst, Mass., Foster was recognized for her work in the movements opposing war, nuclear power, and the assault on civil liberties after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Locally, she worked with her fellow members of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst and with interfaith coalitions to address problems of hunger and homelessness.

Centered in western Massachusetts and concentrated in the last decade of her life (2000-2010), the Nancy Foster Papers includes a record of one woman’s grassroots activism for peace, civil liberties, and social justice. The issues reflected in the collection range from the assault on civil liberties after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to immigration, hunger and poverty, the Iraq Wars, and the conflict in Central America during the 1980s, and much of the material documents Nancy’s involvement with local organizations such as the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst. The collection also contains a valuable record of Nancy’s participation in local politics in Amherst, beginning with the records of the 1972 committee which was charged with reviewing the Town Meeting.

Background on Nancy Foster

A committed advocate for peace and social justice, Nancy Foster spent decades working through, and sometimes against, the political system to effect positive social change. Born in Duluth, Minn., on Dec. 24, 1928, Nancy Elizabeth (Abbott) Foster was raised in the small town of Warwick, New York. The middle of three daughters born to Frank and Lorena Abbott, her political views were shaped by the hardships of the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, and the Second World War, and by her father’s faith that it was possible for government to help ordinary people.

A superior student, Nancy was keenly attuned to current events from an early age, writing her senior thesis in high school on the atomic bomb and delivering a valedictory address in 1946 where she called for keeping atomic energy under the control of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. One year after graduating from Swarthmore with a degree in economics and political science (1950), Nancy married her college classmate, John Foster, and moved to Cambridge, Mass. While John pursued graduate study in biochemistry at Harvard, followed by a postdoctoral position at MIT, Nancy was employed in local social agencies, studied in the School of Social Work at Boston University, and gave birth to the first of the couple’s two children. When their lives were uprooted after John was ordered to Japan to fulfill his military service, Nancy remained busy. While overseas, she carried out the research for her master’s degree in social work, collecting material on marriages between U.S. servicemen and Japanese women, and she gave birth to the couple’s second child.

The Fosters returned to Massachusetts in 1958, settling in Needham. It was there that Nancy’s activism quickened. Energized by local protests against housing discrimination, Nancy volunteered for the Needham Fair Housing Committee, just the second such organization in the Commonwealth, and she was appointed secretary after attending only her first meeting. Just as significantly for the future course of the Fosters’ activism, Nancy and John found themselves deeply impressed by the commitment to social justice exemplified by the Unitarian minister at the First Parish in Needham, sparking what would become a lifelong religious affiliation.

From Needham, John went on to work for two and half years with the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., and characteristically, Nancy became active in the local community. Working as a counselor in a clinic for pregnant teenagers, Nancy was witness to some of the early civil rights riots in the city and during Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, she worked a tent on the Mall dispensing “soul help.” By the time the Fosters returned to Massachusetts in 1969, settling in Amherst, Nancy’s involvements seemed only to increase. As a member of the League of Women Voters, she helped to organize a study of the executive branch of town government, leading her in turn into a stint on Town Meeting that eventually extended fourteen years. When the nuclear freeze movement took hold in the Pioneer Valley in the early 1980s, she took up the challenge of organizing against nuclear escalation; in particular, leading local resistance to Reagan-era plans for the mass relocation of urban residents to small towns in the event of nuclear war. Her efforts to raise the issues before the Amherst Select Board and local citizenry resulted in the Board voting against town participation in the project, and her methods for raising awareness served as a model for other towns across the country.

Her highest profile work during this period centered on opposition to the Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN), which was intended to serve as a military communications system in the aftermath of a nuclear war. When Nancy learned that the Air Force was planning to build a GWEN communications tower in Amherst in 1985, she invited the colonel in charge of the program to address the town and explain the reasons for the project. Despite the skepticism of the Select Board, Nancy raised the issue in Town Meeting and publicly presented the counterpoint to the colonel’s presentation. Working closely with her colleague Lois Barber, and with the support of local Republican representative Silvio Conte, Nancy saw opposition to the GWEN system spread widely in New England and the mid-Atlantic states, eventually leading Congress to force the Air Force to suspend the program until a thorough study of the impact of electromagnetic radiation on the public was completed.

In later years, Nancy continued to press for social justice locally and regionally, working closely with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union, and with local activist organizations such as SAGE and the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst. Her antiwar work accompanied work on a host of related issues ranging from hunger and economic inequality to opposing the Patriot Act and the erosion of civil liberties in the years following the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. A regular presence at the Amherst July 4th parades, she was noted for carrying placards promoting civil liberties, earning a senior activist award from the Amherst Human Rights Commission. In addition to her social and political activism, Nancy was a beloved family member and the center of a large circle of friends. She died in Amherst on June 24, 2010, and was survived by her John and children.

Contents of Collection

Inventory of Collection

Amherst, Mass. Select Board	2007	Box 4
Amherst, Mass. Select Board: letter on torture	2005	Box 4
Amherst, Mass. Select Board: Resolution to Restore the Rule of Law	2005-2006	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Civil liberties	2002	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Civil liberties	2003-2005	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Civil liberties	2004-2005	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Human Rights Commission	2002-2003	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Human Rights Commission	2008	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Jones Library rules	2005	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Jones Library Trustees (Patriot Act)	2003	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Jones Library: Patriot Act	2002-2003	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2007-2008	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2002	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2003	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2004	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2005	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2006	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2008	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade	2009	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade.: posters	2003	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade: chronology	2005	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: July 4 parade: op ed	2008	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: League of Women Voters	2008	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: questions for Town Manager	2005-2006	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Rules and orders regulating the use of the Town Common and/or paved areas	2006	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Town Meeting Study Committee	1972-1974	Box 5
Amherst, Mass.: Town meetings	1972	Box 5
Amherst, Mass.: Town meetings	2008 Fall	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Town meetings	2008 Spring	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Town meetings	2009	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Town meetings (newsclippings)	1972	Box 5
Amherst, Mass.: Town meetings comprehensive planning	2002-2006	Box 4
Amherst, Mass.: Town meetings Handbook	2007	Box 4
Civil Liberties Restoration Act	2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: 9/11 Commission bills	2003-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Academic Freedom HR 3077	2003-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: ACLU	2009	Box 5
Civil liberties: ACLU Conference: Lobbying congress	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: ACLU: Conference	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: ACLU: Fund appeals	2002-2005	Box 1
Civil liberties: ACLU: internet articles	2002-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Amherst, Mass.	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: calling torturers to account	2009	Box 5
Civil liberties: CLEAR act	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: Bill of Rights Defense Committee	2002-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: civil liberties	2002-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: civil liberties miscellaneous	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: clippings	2003-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: Magna carta	Undated	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: Massachusetts ACLU	2002-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: meeting with John Olver	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: Patriot Act, citizens’ rights	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Clippings and basic documents: petitions to Congress	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: concerns for Barack Obama	2009	Box 5
Civil liberties: Congressional correspondence	2001-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.	Undated	Box 1
Civil liberties: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: amending FISA	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: clergy participation	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: consults DOVER/SAGE	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: co-sponsors	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: flyer, handouts, program	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: literature for forum	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: literature for forum	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: Magda Ahmad’s folder with questions turned in	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: money	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: notes, correspondence	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: panelists	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: panelists	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: possibilities for panel	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: public schools in Amherst	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: publicity	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Civil Liberties: videotaping	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on film	2004-2006	Box 1
Civil liberties: Forum on Film: Unconstitutional	2005	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: ACLU Conference	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: ACLU Conference notes	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: changing standards for asylum	2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: civil liberties handouts	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: Federal, state, and local cooperation with the Immigration and Naturalization Service	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: N-Seers	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: Patriot Act	2001-2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: police surveillance, CAT eyes program	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: Total Information Awareness Act	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: treatment of detainees	2002-2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: treatment of immigrants	2002-2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Immigrants and detainees: treatment of protesters	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Miscellaneous	2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Northampton Action: Bill of Rights Defense Committee National Conference	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Northampton Action: civil liberties resolutions, other towns	2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Northampton Action: Greenfield Community College Conference	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Northampton Action: Northampton resolutions	2002	Box 1
Civil liberties: Patriot Act II: background	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Patriot Act II: Victory	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Patriot Act Section 215: defeat	2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Patriot Act: bills to reprint	2003-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Patriot Act: historical parallels	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: Police involvement in immigration law: background	2002-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: Press Freedom	2003	Box 1
Civil liberties: SAFE act	2003-2004	Box 1
Civil liberties: The War on Terror and the Constitution	2008	Box 5
Civil liberties: Thoughts on civil liberties; know your rights	2002-2003	Box 1
Correspondence: Carson, James E. and Jean	1989-2005	Box 2
Correspondence: Guevara, Jose	1995-2001	Box 2
Correspondence: Hennessey, Rich and Ann	2004	Box 2
Correspondence: Leonard, Marcia	2001-2005	Box 2
Correspondence: Morey, Susan	2001-2003	Box 2
Correspondence: Tillman, Ina	2000-2001	Box 2
Cuba	1998	Box 2
Disaster relief: Afghanistan relief (Oxfam)	2001	Box 3
Disaster relief: African AIDS service	2001	Box 3
Disaster relief: El Salvador (earthquake)	2001	Box 3
Disaster relief: Haiti (flooding)	2004	Box 3
Disaster relief: Honduras (Hurricane)	1998	Box 3
Disaster relief: Honduras (Hurricane) press coverage	1998	Box 3
Disaster relief: Hurricane	1998	Box 3
Disaster relief: Hurricane Mitch	1999	Box 3
Disaster relief: India (earthquake)	2001	Box 3
Disaster relief: Tsunami	2004-2005	Box 3
El Salvador newsclippings	1980-1981	Box 5
El Salvador: Amherst Committee	1981	Box 5
El Salvador: correspondence with politicians (Silvio O. Conte, Paul Tsongas)	1981-1983	Box 5
El Salvador: Ecumenical memorial service, Amherst, Mass.	1981	Box 5
El Salvador: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee	1981	Box 5
Elderhostel: Central Europe	2000	Box 2
Elderhostel: record of trips	2000	Box 2
Elderhostel: Sicily	1999	Box 2
Elderhostel: Spain, part 1	1997	Box 2
Elderhostel: Spain, part 2	1997	Box 2
Elderhostel: Turkey	2001	Box 2
Foster, Nancy. Resume of political activities	2007	Box 5
Host family application	1997	Box 2
Hunger: Bread for the World	1999-2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World	2004-2005	Box 4
Hunger: Bread for the World	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Africa: background	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Africa: background from Frank Holmquist	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Africa: Hunger to Harvest	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Africa: Hunger to Harvest materials	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Africa: updates	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: AIDS in Africa	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Congressional resolution (Jim Stipe)	2001-2002	Box 2
Hunger: Bread for the World: Drop the debt	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Interfaith Committee	2001	Box 2
Hunger: Bread for the World: interfaith meeting	2001	Box 2
Hunger: Bread for the World: Massachusetts Annual Gathering	2001	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: meetings with John Olver	2000	Box 3
Hunger: Bread for the World: Project Bread	2001	Box 2
Hunger: Bread for the World: Senate Bill 583 (Kennedy-Specter) Nutritional assistance for working families and seniors	2001	Box 3
Hunger: debt (master copies)	1999	Box 3
Hunger: Debt relief Amherst	1999	Box 3
Hunger: debt relief handouts	1999	Box 3
Hunger: debt relief legislation	1999	Box 3
Hunger: debt relief talk (with Carmen Diana Deere and Jim Stipe)	1999	Box 3
Hunger: Food bank, Bread for the World pamphlets	1999	Box 3
Hunger: Hunger and debt relief legislations	2000	Box 3
Hunger: Interfaith Committee for Forgiveness of Global Debt	1999-2000	Box 3
Hunger: Lay Academy for Oecumenical Studies	2000	Box 3
Hunger: Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst offerings of letters and service on debt relief	1999-11	Box 3
Hunger: Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: Offering of letters	2001-10	Box 3
Hunger: Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: Offering of letters	2001-05	Box 3
Hunger: Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: Offering of letters	2001-04	Box 3
Impeachment	2006-2008	Box 5
Interfaith Coalition	2002-2003	Box 4
Iraq sanctions protest	1999	Box 4
Iraq talk	2001	Box 3
Iraq War mobilization	2002-2003	Box 4
Iraq War: articles	2002-2003	Box 4
Iraq War: letters to Congress	2002-2003	Box 4
Iraq War: MoveOn.org	2002	Box 4
Iraq War: opposition to invasion	2002-2003	Box 4
Iraq War: PTSD	2009	Box 5
Iraq War: response to terrorism	2001-09	Box 4
Israeli-Palestinian conflict	2002	Box 4
La Paz Centro Sister City Project	1999-2001	Box 3
Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections	2002-2003	Box 3
Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections	1999-2000	Box 3
Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections	2001	Box 3
Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections: Question 2 letters to the editor	1998	Box 3
Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections: Question 2 literature	1998	Box 3
Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections: Question 2 press coverage	1998	Box 3
Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections: Question 2 workshops	1998	Box 3
Nuclear war pamphlets (includes photo of Nancy Foster, 2001)	1982	Box 5
Peace: Israeli-Palestinian peace	2002-2003	Box 3
Peace: Vigil for Peace: 9/11/2002	2002	Box 4
Randall Forsberg for Senate campaign	2002	Box 4
SAGE meetings	2007-2009	Box 5
SAGE meetings	2004-2005	Box 4
SAGE meetings	2002	Box 4
SAGE meetings	2003	Box 4
SAGE: opposition to tax breaks to millionaires	2004	Box 4
SAGE: table on the Town Commons	2005	Box 4
Sojourner’s Magazine, Moral Response to Terrorism	2001	Box 4
State and local political: charter change	2002	Box 2
State and local political: nuclear arms under Bush	2002	Box 2
State and local political: Robie Hubley for Select Board	2003	Box 2
Torture: articles of interest (including Christopher H. Pyle)	2004-2009	Box 5
Torture: letters to John Olver and letters to the editor	2009	Box 5
Torture: Pyle, Christopher H. talk (Tyll Van Geel)	2009	Box 5
Torture: Pyle, Christopher H.: writings	2004-2007	Box 5
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee	Undated	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2007-2009	Box 5
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2004-2005	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	1999-2000	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002-11	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002-10	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002-09	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002-05	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2003-05	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002-04	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2003-04	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002-03	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002-02	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2003-02	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2001	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2002	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee	2003-01	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: activities	2000-2004	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: activities	2003	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: agenda	2002-01	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: annual reports	2002-2008	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: civil liberties	2002-2003	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: civil liberties	2002	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	1996-1997	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	1997-1998	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	1998-1999	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	1999-2000	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	2000-2001	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	2001-2002	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	2003-2005	Box 4
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Cot shelter	2006-2007	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: dialogue on the war on terrorism	2002	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Environmental Action Group	2002-2003	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Iraq messages	2002	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: meet with legislators	2005	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: minutes	2003-2004	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: minutes	2005-2006	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: minutes	2006-2007	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: social justice on war	2003	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: Survival Center	2000-2004	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee: welcoming congregation	2001	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst meetings	2005-2006	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst ministers	2005	Box 2
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst stationery	Undated	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: by-laws	2001	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: Guide for facilitators	1999	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: leadership skills	2001-2002	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: minister	2002-2004	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: rules or order	1997	Box 3
Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst: social justice service	2001	Box 3
Welfare Reform (CPPAX): Downsizing of America	1994	Box 2
Welfare Reform (CPPAX): handouts and clippings	1994	Box 2
Welfare Reform (CPPAX): living wage	1994	Box 2
Welfare Reform (CPPAX): Massachusetts	1994	Box 2

Provenance

Gift of John Foster, October 2012.

Processing Information

Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, October 2012.

Related Material

Foster worked in close concert with other local activists and organizations, many of which are represented in SCUA collections, including Lois Barber (the founder of 20/20 Vision and EarthAction), Mass. Voters for Clean Elections, and CCPAX. Foster’s work is also reflected in the papers of Congressmen Silvio O. Conte and John Olver.

Materials relating to Foster’s work on the GWEN project are located in the Peace Collections at Swarthmore College (Call no. DG 202).

Bibliography

Foster, Nancy E., “Citizens jam nuclear radio network,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 44 (1988): 21-26.

Cite as: Nancy E. Foster Papers (MS 753). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Pledger, Lynne

rscox — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:12:14 +0000

Lynne Pledger became active in waste management issues when Casella Waste Systems, a New England-based landfill company, applied to expand operations in Hardwick, Mass., potentially threatening the public water supply. Organizing a grassroots campaign, Pledger succeeded in getting Casella to drop plans to rezone the landfill in 2007, after the company failed to garner the necessary support in town meeting. Pledger has remained active in zero waste and waste reduction efforts, serving on the Zero Waste Committee for the Sierra Club, on the Clean Water Action Campaign, on the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Solid Waste Advisory Committee, and co-founding Don’t Waste Massachusetts, an alliance of 25 environmental organizations supporting waste reduction measures.

This small collection contains documentation of grassroots opposition to the expansion of the landfill at Hardwick, Mass. Collected by Pledger, the material includes environmental and site reports, some filings, background information on the site and landfills, and some correspondence relating to the controversy.

WFCR (Radio station : Amherst, Mass.)

rscox — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:09:47 +0000

The first public radio station in western New England, WFCR Five College Radio has provided a mix of high quality, locally-produced and nationally syndicated programming since May 1961. In 2012, the station reached over 175,000 listeners per week, with a mix of classical and jazz music, news, and entertainment.

The WFCR Collection contains nearly 4,500 reel to reel recordings of locally-produced radio programs, reflecting over fifty years of the cultural and intellectual life of western Massachusetts. Drawing upon the talents of the faculty and students of the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and UMass Amherst), the collection offers a remarkable breadth of content, ranging from public affairs to community and national news, cultural programming, children’s programming, news and current events, scholarly lectures, classical music, and jazz.

Robinson, Craig D.

rscox — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:19:23 +0000

A labor attorney and activist, Craig Robinson was born in Hartford, Conn., on August 6, 1952, and raised in Stafford. After rising tuition led him to drop out of the University of Connecticut in 1971, Robinson worked in a variety of manual jobs until he was hired by the US Postal Service in 1974. From the time of his assignment to the bulk mail facility in Springfield the next year, Robinson was an active member of the American Postal Workers Union, eventually serving as steward, vice president, and president of his Local, and his activism often created friction with management. Earning his BA at UMass Amherst (1980) and JD from the Western New England School of Law (1984), he began practicing labor law, moving to full time in 1991. Devoted to workplace justice, he served as General Counsel for the Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council and for Locals of the United Roofers Union and Amalgamated Transit Union, among others, and was a founding board member of the Western Massachusetts Coalituion for Occupational Safety and Health. Robinson died on June 17, 2007, and is survived by his wife Linda Tonoli, and son.

The Robinson papers contain a record of labor activism in the Pioneer Valley and beyond. The collection incldues retained copies of legal filings relating to arbitration and other labor-related cases, along with articles written by and about Robinson, and an assortment of other notes and correspondence.

Hawks, Alice Totman

dkovacs — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:52 +0000

Born on January 29, 1908 in Conway, Massachusetts, Alice Totman spent her early years on her father’s family farm, Page Place, before he was forced to sell it due to a labor scarcity in 1916 and moved the family to Greenfield. She graduated from Greenfield High School in 1927 and enrolled at Massachusetts School of Art in Boston. She studied there for a year and a half before marrying Hart Mowry Hawks on June 16, 1929. The couple settled in Bellows Fall, Vermont where Mowry was recently assigned a permanent post with the Boston and Maine Railroad. Tragically, over the next fifteen years, Alice experienced seven pregnancies, only one of which resulted in a healthy child, Gertrude Ann, born in 1932. Alice’s interest in her family can be traced back to the earliest days of her marriage, during which time she worked on genealogies for both the Totman and Hawks families. Eager to share the knowledge she acquired and assembled, she often found ways to update her relatives, most notably in a family newsletter called Tot-Kin that she edited and published between the years 1935-1945.

Alice Totman Hawks’s collection consists of her extensive genealogical notes and writings, including a run of Tot-Kin, correspondence and some of Alice’s sketches.

Lipshires, Sidney

dkovacs — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:15:42 +0000

Born on April 15, 1919 in Baltimore, Maryland to David and Minnie Lipshires, Sidney was raised in Northampton, Massachusetts where his father owned two shoe stores, David Boot Shop and The Bootery. He attended the Massachusetts State College for one year before transferring to the University of Chicago and was awarded a BA in economics in 1940. His years at the University of Chicago were transformative, Lipshires became politically active there and joined the Communist Party in 1939. Following graduation in 1941, he married Shirley Dvorin, a student in early childhood education; together they had two sons, Ellis and Bernard. Lipshires returned to western Massachusetts with his young family in the early 1940s, working as a labor organizer. He served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946 working as a clerk and interpreter with a medical battalion in France for over a year. Returning home, he ran for city alderman in Springfield on the Communist Party ticket in 1947. Lipshires married his second wife, Joann Breen Klein, in 1951 and on May 29, 1956, the same day his daughter Lisa was born, he was arrested under the Smith Act for his Communist Party activities. Before his case was brought to trial, the Smith Act was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Disillusioned with the Communist Party, he severed his ties with it in 1957, but continued to remain active in organized labor for the rest of his life. Earning his masters in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1971, Lipshires taught history at Manchester Community College in Connecticut for thirty years. During that time he worked with other campus leaders to establish a statewide union for teachers and other community college professionals, an experience he wrote about in his book, Giving Them Hell: How a College Professor Organized and Led a Successful Statewide Union. Sidney Lipshires died on January 6, 2011 at the age of 91.

Ranging from an autobiographical account that outlines his development as an activist (prepared in anticipation of a trial for conspiracy charges under the Smith Act) to drafts and notes relating to his book Giving Them Hell, the Sidney Lipshires Papers offers an overview of his role in the Communist Party and as a labor organizer. The collection also contains his testimony in a 1955 public hearing before the Special Commission to Study and Investigate Communism and Subversive Activities, photographs, and biographical materials.