UMarmot » Social justice

Bishop, Sam

rscox — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:09:42 +0000

A new medical waste incinerator for New York city hospitals became the focal point of drawn-out controversy in the 1990s. After proposals to place the facility in Rockland County and downtown Manhattan were scotched, a site in the South Bronx was selected. Even before it opened in 1991, the Bronx-Lebanon incinerator touched off fierce opposition. Built to dispose of up to 48 tons per day of medical waste gathered from fifteen regional hospitals, the incinerator was located in a poor and densely populated area, and worse, raising charges of environmental racism. Making matters worse, during its years of operation, it was cited for hundreds of violations of state pollution standards. A coalition of grassroots organizations led an effective campaign to close the facility, and in June 1997 the plant’s owner, Browning Ferris Industries agreed. In an agreement with the state two years later, BFI agreed to disable the plant and remove the emission stacks.

Gathered by an environmental activist and consultant from New York city, Sam Bishop, this collection documents the turbulent history of public opposition to the Bronx-Lebanon medical waste incinerator. In addition to informational materials on medical waste incineration, the collection includes reports and legal filings relative to the facility, some materials on the campaign to close it, and a small quantity of correspondence and notes from activists.

Roxbury Action Program

rscox — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:24:28 +0000

The Roxbury Action Program and Black Panther Party of Boston were both founded in the Roxbury section of Boston following the riots of 1968. RAP pursued community revitalization through Black self-determination and enjoyed success in its housing initiatives and in providing social services ranging from support for Black businesses to Black draft counseling, health and legal referrals, a Black library, and community awareness program.

Although the exact provenance of this small collection is uncertain, the materials appear to have been collected by an individual, possibly a woman, associated with the early days of the Roxbury Action Program and Boston branch of the Black Panther Party. Steeped in Black Power ideology, the collection includes publications of the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and other organizations, as well as an insightful series of transcripts of Roxbury Action Program meetings held during its first few months of operation.

Background on Roxbury Action Program

The social and political tumult experienced in Boston during the early 1960s came to a head in 1968 when Roxbury erupted in riots for the second time in a year following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Galvanized by the effects of segregation in housing and schooling, racism, inequality, and poverty, members of the local community began to pursue a radical agenda of community defense and revitalization, fueled by the Black Power movement.

Two organizations stood out in leading the way: the Roxbury Action Program and the Boston branch of the Black Panther Party. For several years, the American Friends Service Committee had operated a program in Roxbury to address housing needs and tenants’ rights, but responding to the post-riot demands of the Black community for local leadership and control, the AFSC spun off this program in November 1968 to create the Roxbury Community Committee, which was incorporated as an independent organization, the Roxbury Community Program (RAP), on Dec. 28, 1968. Though fully independent, RAP received a significant boost from the New England branch of the AFSC, which raised $92,000 to fund the first two years of its activities in revitalizing the Highland Park neighborhood.

Under its founders George J. Morrison and Lloyd King, RAP focused on the housing and educational needs of the Highland Park community, seeking to revitalize the neighborhood by promoting economic self-development and “helping the people themselves to understand the political significance of their plight.” Central to their philosophy was the idea of Black self-determination, consciousness raising, and community control, by which they would build “the authority and skills” within the community “to immediately proceed in the solution of its own problems and in the determination of its own goals.” RAP assisted in securing land control and stabilizing and renovating structures, and they provided social services ranging from support for Black businesses to Black draft counseling, health and legal referrals, a Black library, and community awareness programs. They were instrumental, as well, in securing a new community college for the area (Roxbury Community College).

Contemporaneous with the organization of RAP, Delano Farrar and other radicals formed the Boston branch of the Black Panther Party at 375 Blue Hill Ave., Roxbury, which shared the same broad agenda as RAP. Building on the ten point plan of the national Party, the Panthers organized successfully within the community for housing, health care, political education, and employment, though within a year, the revolutionary, a Marxist-Leninist faction displaced the chapter’s early leaders and pursued an agenda dedicated more specifically to class struggle.

Contents of Collection

In keeping with the philosophy of RAP and the Black Panthers, the collection also includes materials on Black history and culture and materials relating to the Black community in Boston, most notably a notice of the imposition of a “general state of emergency” in 1968. Several works specifically address the Black woman’s role in the revolution.

Inventory of Collection

Adefunmi, Oserjeman, An African marriage. Harlem, N.Y. : Yoruba Temple	ca.1969		Box 1: 1
African American history and culture quiz	1944		Box 1: 2
African Nationalist Union, The Blackman, vol. 4:1 (photocopy)	1972 Aug.		Box 1: 3
American Oil Co., American traveler’s guide to Negro history, 3d ed. Chicago, Ill.: American Oil Co.	1967		Box 1: 4
Art Ad Corporation (letter of solicitation)	ca.1970		Box 1: 5
Black Community of Boston, General State of Emergency	1968		Box 1: 6
Black Panther, vol. 2:25	1969 Mar. 9		Box 1: 7
Black Panther, vol. 2:26	1969 Mar. 16		Box 1: 8
Black Panther, vol. 2:27	1969 Mar. 23		Box 1: 9
Black Panther, vol. 2:27	1969 Mar. 31	2 copies	Box 1: 10
Black Panther, vol. 2:30	1969 Apr. 20		Box 1: 11
Black Panther, vol. 3:2	1969 May 4		Box 1: 12
Black Panther, vol. 3:4	1969 May 19	2 copies	Box 1: 13
Black Panther, vol. 3:5	1969 May 25		Box 1: 14
Black Panther Party, Black Panther Community News Service (Roxbury, Mass.), vol. 1:2, 3 (two variant copies)	1969		Box 1: 15
Black Panther Party, Precautions for tear gas and mace	ca.1969		Box 1: 16
Black Panther Party, Questionaire for Black Panther Party	ca.1969		Box 1: 17
Black Panther Party, Ten Point Program of the Black Panther Party	1966		Box 1: 18
Black Panther Party of Boston, Black Panther Party of Boston presents 2 movies “Off the pig” and “Huey”	1969 Feb. 16		Box 1: 19
Black Students of Boston College, Black Students of Boston College and the Congress of African People present Immamu Baraka (broadside)	1973 Mar. 9		Box 1: 20
Black Students Union, Legal first aid for students	ca.1969		Box 1: 21
The Black woman in the home-family	ca.1974		Box 1: 22
Black Workers Congress, From protest to resistance: the case of Black draft resisters in New Orleans	1971		Box 1: 23
Blackness Unlimited: Circular letter offering products, including sample of decal, “Symbol of Black dignity”	1969		Box 1: 24
Browne, Robert S., “The case for Black separatism”	ca.1970		Box 1: 25
Can you relate to this? If not, call 445-9711 for draft counseling (broadside)	ca.1970		Box 1: 26
Chandler, Dana, Dana Chandler (Akin Duro) Artist in Residence, Northeastern University (signed by the artist)	1976		Box 1: 27
Code words (used in community defence)?	ca.1969		Box 1: 28
CORE booklists (list of publications)	ca.1969		Box 1: 29
Cox, Donald Lee (Field Marshall D.C.), What is ultra democracy?	ca.1969		Box 1: 30
Douglas, Emory, Revolutionary student posters (man and woman with gun)	ca.1970	2 posters	Box 1: 31
Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Cooperatives: Power for poor people. Atlanta, Ga. : Federation of Southern Co-ops	ca.1970		Box 1: 32
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 1 : Toussaint L’Ouverture	1966		Box 1: 33
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 2 : The saga of Harriet Tubman, “The Moses of her people”	1967		Box 1: 34
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 3: Crispus Attucks and the minuteman	1968		Box 1: 35
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 4 : The life of Benjamin Banneker	1968		Box 1: 36
Hamilton, Ernest, Black Power: what is it? S.l. : Scoham Publication	1966 July		Box 1: 37
Hammer: the Voice of United Community Construction Workers, vol. 1:6 (photocopy)	1973 June		Box 1: 38
Ifco News, vol. 5: 1	1974		Box 1: 39
Johnson, Edwina Chavers, Calendar of Afro-American contributions to America	1963		Box 1: 40
Khadijah, Sister, The Republic of New Africa	1969		Box 1: 41
Kilson, Martin et al., Black studies: myths and realities. New York : A. Philip Randolph Education Fund	1969 Sept.		Box 1: 42
Leader, vol. 2:24, 28, 32	1969		Box 1: 43
Lee-Smith, Hughie, To my Black sisters (A Freedomways greeting card). New York : Freedomways Magazine	1971 Freb.		Box 1: 44
Minstrels, Gr’ezi wohl, Frau Stirnimaa! (45 rpm recording). EMI	1969		Box 1: 45
Morey, James L. and Mel Epstein, Housing development: A tool for community economic development in low-income areas. Cambridge, Mass. : Center for Community Economic Development	1971 Oct.		Box 1: 46
Movement, vol. 5:3, 4	1969 Apr.-May		Box 1: 47
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 8:29	1969 Apr. 4		Box 2: 1
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 12:20	1973 Jan. 26		Box 2: 2
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 13:3	1974 Apr. 12		Box 2: 3
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 14:42	1975 June 27		Box 2: 4
Muhammad, Elijah, Progress	ca.1969		Box 2: 5
Mumininas of Committee for Unified Newark, Mwanamke mwananchi (the nationalist woman). NewArk, N.J. : Mumininas of CFUN	1971		Box 2: 6
Myers, Robin, Black craftsmen through history. New York : Institute of the Joint Apprenticeship Program	1970		Box 2: 7
The NAACP life membership story (offprint). Ebony Magazine	1967 Mar.		Box 2: 8
National Commission for Resources on Youth, You’re the tutor. New York : National Commission on Resources for Youth	1970		Box 2: 9
New African, vol. 2:1	1969 Apr. 20		Box 2: 10
New Urban League of Greater Boston, Community Survival Fund	1970		Box 2: 11
New Urban League of Greater Boston, Survival Magazine, vol. 1:3	1970 Feb.		Box 2: 12
The Onyx (fragment)	1973 Apr. 16		Box 2: 13
Path Finder Press catalog and flier	1973		Box 2: 14
Payton, Gloria, Is political freedom dead at Brandeis?	1969		Box 2: 15
People have a right: The report of the First National Conference on Rural Housing. Washington, D.C. : National Conference on Rural Housing	1969		Box 2: 16
Photograph: African American man laying wreath at statue of the Minuteman, Concord, Mass.	ca.1970		Box 2: 17
Plainfield Joint Defense Committee, Special Independence Day Issue	1971 July		Box 2: 18
Potemkin Collective, Radicals words (or) you can’t tell the revolution without a dictionary. Newport, R.I. : Potemkin Collective	1970		Box 2: 19
Potemkin Military Legal Aid Project, Little red book of military law. Newport, R.I. : Potemkin Collective	1972		Box 2: 20
Real Paper, vol. 2:36	1973 Sept. 5		Box 2: 21
Rogers, J. A., 100 amazing facts about the Negro, with complete proof, 23d ed. New York : Helga M. Rogers	1957		Box 2: 22
Rollins, Bryant, Poetry for my friends. Harlem, N.Y. : s.n.	1973		Box 2: 23
Roxbury Action Program (statement of purpose and objectives)	ca.1969		Box 2: 24
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session 1 (manuscript)	1969 Mar. 20		Box 2: 25
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session con’t #1 (typescript)	1969 Mar. 20		Box 2: 26
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session II (manuscript)	ca.1969		Box 2: 27
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session? (manuscript)	1969 Apr. 3		Box 2: 28
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session? (manuscript)	ca.1969		Box 2: 29
Roxbury Action Program, Finch, Arthur (typescript)	1969 Mar. 24		Box 2: 30
Roxbury Action Program, Group discussion (typescript)	ca.1969		Box 2: 31
Roxbury Action Program, Orientation, George Morrison (manuscript)	1969 Mar. 10		Box 2: 32
Roxbury Action Program, Orientation, George Morrison (typescript)	1969 Mar. 10		Box 2: 33
Roxbury Action Program, Section reading list	ca.1969		Box 2: 34
Roxbury Action Program, Session on roles and tools: Ed McClure (typescript)	1969 Mar. 27		Box 2: 35
Roxbury Action Program, Stationery	ca.1969		Box 2: 36
Roxbury Poor People’s Movement, An appeal for public support by the Roxbury Poor People’s Movement	ca.1969		Box 2: 37
Rustin, Bayard, Three essays by Bayard Rustin. New York : A. Philip Randolph Education Fund	1969 Sept.		Box 2: 38
Service Remembering and Resurrecting (memorial service for Martin Luther King, Franklin Park, Mass.)	1969 Apr. 04		Box 2: 39
Sisters of BCD, Black woman’s role in the revolution. Newark, N.J. : Jihad Productions	1969		Box 2: 40
South Vietnam in Struggle, no. 24	1968 Dec. 20		Box 2: 41
Southern Conference Educational Fund, Protest the jailing of Walter Collins and the situation of black draft resisters	1971		Box 2: 42
Southern Education Program, Teach a Brother! (broadside)	1969		Box 2: 43
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth (magazine), vol. 2:1	1970		Box 2: 44
Tenants’ rights. Boston, Mass.? : s.n.	ca.1970		Box 2: 45
We will be closed Friday Feb. 21, 1969. Malcolm X (broadside)	1969		Box 2: 46
Welty, Joel, Meeting people’s housing needs (offprint). Ottawa, ON : Canadian Cooperative Digest	1969		Box 2: 47
Workers Monthly: Organ of the Independent Trade Union Action Council, vol. 2: 2 (photocopy)	1972 Dec.		Box 2: 48
Yazid: How to oppress people in 13 easy lessons	ca.1969		Box 2: 49

Provenance

Gift of Ken Gloss, January 2013.

Processing Information

Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, January 2013.

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Cite as: Roxbury Action Program Collection (MS 765). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Lerner, Steve, 1946-

rscox — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:41:08 +0000

For decades, the writer Steve Lerner has been a significant contributor to public awareness of the issues surrounding environmental justice. Immersed in the environmental movement through his work as research director at Commonweal, a health and environment research institute founded with his brother Michael in 1976, Lerner earned wide recognition for his first book, Eco-Pioneers (1998), about “practical visionaries” who developed pragmatic solutions to environmental problems. In two subsequent books, Lerner turned to an examination of the impact of environmental toxins and industrial pollutants on low-income communities and people of color and the rise of grassroots opposition within those communities. In Diamond (2006), Lerner explored the impact of a Shell Chemical plant in Louisiana as a microcosm of the broader environmental-justice movement, and more recently, Sacrifice Zones (2010) traced the organization and resistance against industrial and chemical pollutants in a dozen communities in the eastern United States. In 2007, Lerner left his position at Commonweal, but continues his research and writing on environmental issues.

The research notes, interviews, photographs and other documentation comprising the Lerner collection form the basis for Lerner’s three major books.

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.

Feinberg, Kenneth R., 1945-

rscox — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:42:44 +0000

One of the most prominent and dedicated attorneys of our time, Kenneth R. Feinberg has assumed the important role of mediator in a number of complex legal disputes, often in the aftermath of public tragedies. Frequently these cases necessitate not only determining compensation to victims and survivors but also confronting the very question of the value of human life. A native of Brockton, Massachusetts, and a graduate of UMass Amherst (1967) and New York University School of Law (1970), Feinberg served as a clerk to Chief Judge Stanley H. Fuld, as a federal prosecutor, and as Chief of Staff for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. After acting as the mediator and special master of the high-profile Agent Orange settlement, he administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Virginia Tech’s Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, and the BP Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF). Feinberg has taught at several law schools; is the author of the books What is Life Worth? and Who Gets What and numerous articles; and is a devotee of opera and classical music. He practices law in Washington, D.C., and continues to be guided by a commitment to public service.

The Feinberg Papers contain correspondence, memos, drafts, reports, research files, and memorabilia. The collection is arriving in stages and is being processed. Some materials will be restricted.

Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage

rscox — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:51:49 +0000

Organized at the New England Peace Pagoda in Leverett, Mass., the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage was a twelve-month walk through the eastern United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, West Africa, and South Africa in 1998-1999, reversing the direction of the Middle Passage symbolically and geographically. A “living prayer of the heart, mind, and body for the sons and daughters of the African Diaspora,” the Pilgrimage was intended by the participants to contribute to a process of healing the wounds inflicted by hundreds of years of slavery and racial oppression. Along the way, participants visited sites associated with the history of slavery, from slaves quarters in Virginia to stations on the Underground Railroad and villages that had been raided in Africa, offering prayers for those who had suffered under slavery and commemorating the dignity of those held in bondage and those who resisted.

Chronicling the course of the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage from conception to conclusion, this collection contains a rich textual and visual record of a spiritual approach to addressing the legacy of slavery in the Americas. The collection includes the range of materials collected by participants during the Pilgrimage, including lists of reading materials, information on the sites visited, a handful of mementoes and souvenirs, some correspondence, and notes and photographs taken along the way.

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.

Grinspoon, Lester, 1928-

rscox — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:26:05 +0000

Lester Grinspoon, the Harvard psychiatrist who became a celebrated advocate for reforming marijuana laws, was born June 24, 1928, in Newton, Massachusetts. A veteran of the Merchant Marines and a graduate of Tufts University and Harvard Medical School, he trained at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute but later turned away from psychoanalysis. Senior psychiatrist for 40 years at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Grinspoon is associate professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. In the mid-1960s, struck by the rising popularity of marijuana and its reputed dangers, Grinspoon began to examine the medical and scientific literature about marijuana usage. To his surprise, he found no evidence to support claims of marijuana’s harmful effects, and his resulting 1969 Scientific American article drew wide attention. His research ultimately convinced him of marijuana’s benefits, including enhanced creativity and medicinal uses. His own young son, undergoing chemotherapy for the leukemia that eventually took his life, found his severe nausea greatly eased by marijuana. By his 40s, Grinspoon had gained renown as an outspoken proponent of responsible adult use and legalization.

The Lester Grinspoon Papers comprehensively document Grinspoon’s advocacy and activism, including his role as a board member of NORML; his research and writing of the books Marihuana Reconsidered and Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine, numerous articles, two web sites, and more; his position as an expert witness in criminal trials; and his relationships with friends, colleagues, and many others, such as Carl Sagan, John Lennon, Keith Stroup, and Melanie Dreher. The collection comprises correspondence, research material, drafts and publications, clinical accounts, clippings, ephemera, scrapbooks, and audiovisual materials: photographs, as well as videotapes and DVDs of Grinspoon’s appearances on television and in documentary films.

d’Errico, Peter

rscox — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:11:44 +0000

With a law degree from Yale in hand in 1968, Peter d’Errico began work as a staff attorney with Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe Navajo Legal Services in Shiprock, Arizona, representing American Indian interests in the US courts. Stemming from his frustrations with a stilted legal system, however, he evolved into an “anti-lawyer,” and in 1970 returned to academia. Joining the faculty at UMass, d’Errico focused his research and writing on the legal issues affecting indigenous peoples and he regularly taught courses on Indian law and the role of the law in imposing state systems on non-state societies. His impact was instrumental in establishing the Department of Legal Studies. Both before and after his retirment in 2002, d’Errico also remained active as a practitioner in Indian law.

The d’Errico collection contains a significant record of d’Errico’s high profile legal work in Indian law, including his work with Western Shoshone land rights and on the case Randall Trapp, et al. v. Commissioner DuBois, et al. In Trapp, a long-running, but ultimately successful First Amendement case, he and Robert Doyle represented prisoners in the Massachusetts Department of Corrections seeking to establish a sweat lodge.

Meier, August, 1923-2003

rscox — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:45:50 +0000

A pioneer in African American history, August Meier was a model of an engaged academic, a prolific writer, active participant in the civil rights struggle, and staunch member of the NAACP, SNCC, and CORE. While pursuing graduate work at Columbia under Henry Steele Commager, Meier taught at a succession of Historical Black Colleges, including Tougaloo (1945-1949), Fisk (1953-1956), and Morgan State (1957-1964). His dissertation, completed in 1957, became the first of eleven books he wrote or edited, Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915 (1963), with much of later work conducted in collaboration with Elliott Rudwick and John Bracey. Meier joined the faculty at Kent State University in 1967 and remained there until his retirement in 1993. His much-anticipated monograph on the history of the NAACP had not been completed at the time of death in 2003.

The Meier collection is am exceptional assemblage of books, pamphlets, and periodicals centering on African American history and culture, the antislavery and civil rights movements, and race relations. Reflecting his research interests and personal history, the collection includes a number of first editions, signed copies, and scarce titles. Many other books and journals owned by Meier have been integrated into the general collections of the University Libraries.