UMarmot » African American

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.

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.

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.

Tillis, Frederick, 1930-

rscox — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:46:30 +0000

A composer, performer, poet, educator, and arts administrator, Fred Tillis was one of the major influences on the cultural life at UMass Amherst for forty years. Born in Galveston, Texas, in 1930, Tillis began playing jazz trumpet and saxophone even before his teens. A product of segregated schools, he graduated from Wiley College at the age of 19, and received his MA and PhD in music at the University of Iowa. As a performer and composer of unusual breadth, his work spans both the jazz and European traditions, and he has written for piano and voice, orchestra, choral pieces, chamber music, and in the African American spiritual tradition, drawing upon a wide range of cultural references. After teaching at Wiley, Grambling, and Kentucky State in the 1960s, Tillis was recruited to UMass in 1970 by his former adviser at Iowa, Philip Bezanson, to teach music composition and theory. Earning promotion to Professor in 1973, Tillis was appointed Director of the Fine Arts Center in 1978, helping to jump start some of the most successful arts initiatives the university has seen, including the the Afro American Music and Jazz program, the New World Theater, Augusta Savage Gallery, Asian Arts and Culture Program, and Jazz in July. Upon retirement from UMass in 1997, he was appointed Emeritus Director of the Fine Arts and remains active as a musician and poet.

The Tillis papers document an extraordinary career in the arts, focused on Fred Tillis’s work as a composer. Consisting primarily of musical scores along with an assortment of professional correspondence relating to his publishing and miscellaneous notes, the collection offers insight into the evolution of Tillis’s musical vision from the 1970s into the new millennium.

Bey, Hanif Shabazz

dkovacs — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:44:52 +0000

Hanif Shabazz Bey is one of the “Virgin Island Five” accused and convicted of murdering eight tourists at a golf course in the U.S. Virgin Islands on September 6, 1972. The murders occurred during a turbulent period of rebellion on the Islands, a time when a movement to resist colonial rule was growing in the U.S. occupied Virgin Islands and elsewhere. The reaction to the crime, which was rapidly characterized as racially and politically motivated, from the authorities was both swift and revealing: over a hundred Black activists were picked up for interrogation and the island of St. Croix was put under martial law. Beaumont Gereau (Hanif Shabazz Bey) was one of five men apprehended and charged with the attack; each of the men accused was a known supporter of the Virgin Island independence movement. Detained and subjected to torture, the five men ultimately confessed to the crime and were tried for murder. Despite the many indications that the subsequent trial was profoundly flawed, the men were found guilty and sentenced to eight consecutive life terms.

“The Beginning of Hell” is a typed memoir by Hanif Shabazz Bey, a prisoner from the Virgin Islands held in the U.S. Written sometime after 1985, the memoir provides a personal account of Bey’s childhood in the Virgin Islands, his service in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, and the social and political conditions of the Islands during the early 1970s that led up to his arrest and conviction for the murder of eight tourists in 1972. Bey details the torture and other harsh interrogation tactics employed by prosecutors, the trial, and its aftermath, including his confinement to prisons first in Puerto Rico and then the U.S. In prison, Bey chronicles inhumane treatment and conditions, his conversion to Islam, and his efforts to seek assistance to reduce his sentence.

Kaplan, Sidney, 1913-

rscox — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:50:38 +0000

An eminent scholar of African American history and activist, Sidney Kaplan was raised in New York City and graduated from City College in 1942. After wartime service as a Lieutenant in the Army, Kaplan returned to his education, completing an MA in history from Boston University (1948) and PhD at Harvard (1960), taking up the study of African American history at a time when few white scholars showed interest. Joining the English Department at UMass in 1946, Kaplan’s influence was widely felt at UMass Amherst and in the local community: he was among the founders of the Department of Afro-American Studies, a founder of the UMass Press, a founder and editor of the Massachusetts Review, and he was the editor of Leonard Baskin’s Gehenna Press. Over more than thirty years at UMass, he worked on diverse projects in history, literature, and the arts, often in partnership with his wife Emma Nogrady, a librarian at Smith College whom he married in 1933, ranging from studies of Poe and Melville to a biographical dictionary of African Americans and a study of Shays’ Rebellion. In 1973, they were co-authors of the first comprehensive study of depictions of African Americans in the visual arts, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution (based on an exhibition planned for the National Portrait Gallery), and in 1991, the UMass Press published a collection of Sidney’s essays, American Studies in Black and White. A Fulbright lecturer in Greece and Yugoslavia and exchange Professor at the University of Kent, Kaplan was the recipient of the Bancroft Award from the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History for best article of the year in the Journal of Negro History, and he was awarded the UMass Amherst Chancellor’s Medal in 1979, one year after his retirement. Sidney Kaplan died in 1993 at age 80 and was followed by Emma in 2010.

The Kaplan Papers document a long career devoted to the study of African American history and life. The extensive correspondence, research notes, and drafts of articles and other materials offer important insight into the growth of African American studies from the 1950s through 1970s as well as the growth of UMass Amherst into a major research university.

Stokes, Daniel M. J.

rscox — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:45:27 +0000

From 1987 through early 1988, Daniel and Joyce Stokes published Into the Night, “a newsletter for freedom for political prisoners held in the United States.” Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., this simply-produced publication offered updates and commentary on Americans imprisoned for politically-motivated acts. Reflecting both the legacy of 1960s radicalism and the resurgent activism associated with U.S. imperialism in Central America, Into the Night offered news on the Ohio 7 sedition trial, the MOVE organization, and the fate of Plowshares war resisters.

The Stokes collection contains correspondence from subscribers and supporters of Into the Night, fleshing out their political philosophy and the conditions of imprisonment. Drawn from groups including the MOVE organization, the United Freedom Front, Black Liberation Army, and Plowshares, the correspondents include Ramona Africa, Alberto Aranda, Philip Berrigan, Marilyn Buck, Carl Kabat, Ray Luc Levasseur, Ruchell Cinque Magee, and Carol Manning. The collection also includes copies of other radical publications and a complete run of Into the Night itself.

Historical Note

A poet and writer, Daniel M. J. Stokes was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 27, 1950, the son of Ervin William and Elizabeth (Ray) Stokes. A former editor of the East River Review, Stokes has contributed work to a number of magazines and published several books of poetry, beginning with Wired/LSD: Poems (New York: Culture Review Press, 1974) and including The World and Other Places (Cambridge, Mass: Chthon Press., 1975), Poems from Mexico (Mexico City: s.n., 1987), and Poems on the Run, 1984-1988 (Mexico City: In Exile Press, 1995).

From 1987 through early 1988, he and his wife, Joyce, published Into the Night, “a newsletter for freedom for political prisoners held in the United States.” Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., this simply-produced publication offered updates and commentary on Americans imprisoned for politically-motivated acts. Reflecting both the legacy of 1960s radicalism and the resurgent activism associated with U.S. imperialism in Central America, Into the Night offered news on the Ohio 7 sedition trial, the MOVE organization, and the fate of Plowshares war resisters.

Sent free of charge, the newsletter reached an audience of prisoners convicted of draft resistance, antinuclear protest, and anti-racist and anti-imperialist revolutionary activity, and it was read by others who had become radicalized during their imprisonment. From the outset, Into the Night generated significant resistance from prison authorities, and for unclear reasons, it appears to have ceased publication after its fifth number in March 1988.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Centered around the newsletter Into the Night, the Stokes Papers contains correspondence from a range of self-identified political prisoners, accompanied by an interesting, but ultimately miscellaneous suite of publications from the radical press. As small and tightly focused as it is, the collection provides a valuable window into the radical edge of the late 1980s political spectrum, and particularly the conjunction of antiracist and anti-imperialist groups within the prison system.

Although some of the correspondence is at best mundane — mostly requests for subscriptions — several prisoners provide compelling analyses of their political views and the conditions of imprisonment. Most correspondents are represented by only one or two letters, however the Ohio 7 “seditionists” (Ray Luc Levasseur and Carol Manning), the MOVE organization (Ramona Africa and William Phillips Africa), and members of the Black Liberation Army are somewhat better represented.

Among other noteworthy items in the collection are letters from Chicano revolutionaries Alberto Aranda and Alvaro Hernandez, including protests filed with the Texas Department of Corrections regarding the decision to deny Aranda access to Into the Night, and two lengthy letters from Aranda discussing political prisoners. Marilyn Buck’s letters provide a sharp analysis of the need for political ideology along with a copy of court proceedings filed by her and Mutulu Shakur (see also the folder relating to the Resistance Conspiracy Case). Several African American revolutionaries discuss their political motives and life in prison, including Ramona Africa (filed under MOVE), John Albury (Born Allah), Anthony Bottom (Jalil Muntaqim), Eric Clemmons-Bey, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad Jenkins, Ruchell Cinque Magee, and Richard Williams.

Finally, the collection includes a small number of radical antiwar and antinuclear resisters, most notably Philip Berrigan, Carl Kabat, George Ostensen, and Gillam Kerley.

While editing Into the Night, the Stokes kept copies of other radical publications, many intended for political prisoners or fellow revolutionaries, the more uncommon of which have been retained within the collection, which also includes an apparently complete run of Into the Night, including paste-ups of four of the five extant issues.

Information on Use

Terms of Access and Use

Restrictions on access:

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Daniel and Joyce Stokes Papers (MS 661). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

History of the Collection

Acquired from Robinson Street Books, 2010.

Processing Information

Processed by Dex Haven, July 2010.

Additional Information

Language

English

Contents List

Albury, John (a.k.a Born Allah)	1987-1988	3 items	Box 1:1
On Black consciousness, becoming a revolutionary

Anarchist Black Cross	1988		Box 1:2

Arafat, David	1988		Box 1:3

Aranda, Alberto	1987-1988		Box 1:4
On political prisoners, politicization behind bars, Alvaro Hernandez.

Barnes, Bill	1996		Box 1:5

Berrigan, Philip	1987		Box 1:6
Information flyers on Plowshares.

Bibliography and notes	1988		Box 1:7

Bottom, Anthony L.	1987		Box 1:8
On the definition of political prisoner.

Breakthrough: Political Journal of Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, no. 14, 1	1990 Winter		Box 1:9
Includes an article on victory in the Ohio 7 sedition trial.

Brock, Melvin	1988		Box 1:10

Buck, Marilyn	1988		Box 1:11
On ideology and sustaining a revolutionary consciousness; brief filed with Mutulu Shakur on status of political prisoners.

Clemons, Darryl	1987		Box 1:12

Clemons-Bey, Eric D.	1988		Box 1:13

Committee for Justice to Stop the McCarran Act Deportations	1987		Box 1:14
Includes issue no. 1 of Call for Justice, the Committee’s newsletter.

Community Church of New York. Social Action Committee, We Want Peace: People of Nicaragua	1986	2 items	Box 1:15

Crossroad: A New Afrikan Captured Combatant Newsletter, Vol. 1:1, 2:4	1987-1989		Box 1:16

Dandar, George	1987		Box 1:17

Dysentery: Red Balloon Magazine, no. 23	1992		Box 1:18

Ebner, Jerry	1987		Box 1:19

Fellner, Gene, John Brown and the Issue of Terrorism, GLF Occasional, no. 2	1987 Summer		Box 1:20

Gaye, David	1987		Box 1:21

Gelabert, Ana Lucia	1987-1988		Box 1:22
On her near disappearance as a prisoner; willingness to be exchanged to Cuba.

Gilbert, David	1987-1988	3 items	Box 1:23
On his political history and involvement in the “Brinks case.”

Guerre, Brian	1987		Box 1:24

Harden, Donald Sanga	1987	2 items	Box 1:25
On attempting to be classified as a POW

Hernandez, Alvaro L.	1987	10 items	Box 1:26
On Prisoners United for Revolutionary Education; copy of Arm the Spirit, vol. 1:1 (newsletter of PURE); “The Prisoners Defense Committee report on brutality and torture in Texas Department of Corrections;” background to becoming a political prisoner while imprisoned

Into the Night, no. 1	1987 Sept. 24	5 copies	Box 1:27
Articles: “United States at war with innocent Palestinians,” Palestine, captive Iranian sailors, Philip Berrigan and Plowshares, Soviet Union and human rights, Alvaro Hernandez.

Into the Night, no. 1: paste-up	1987 Sept.		Box 1:28

Into the Night, no. 2	1987 Oct. 24	6 copies	Box 1:29
Articles: Escape of Assata Shakur; MOVE, Brian Wilson, Ramona Africa on “Long live John Africa! Long live John Africa’s revolution!”

Into the Night, no. 3	1987 Dec. 14	4 copies	Box 1:30
Articles: updates on MOVE and other political prisoners, “The Government calls it conspiracy — we call it resistance” (on the Ohio 7), Ray Luc Levasseur on “VVAW article,” “Kazi Toure: Community threat?”

Into the Night, no. 3: paste-up	1987 Dec.		Box 1:31

Into the Night, no. 4	1988 Jan. 29	11 copies	Box 1:32
Articles: “The crime is treason the punishment” (on Felipe Noguera’s testimony regarding the Ohio 7 Sedition trial), Gillam Kerley on “Political oppression and the struggle against the draft.”

Into the Night, no. 4: paste-up	1988 Jan.		Box 1:33

Into the Night, no. 5	1988 Mar.	6 copies	Box 2:1
Articles: “For freedom, nothing less,” on the spirit of Malcolm X and John Brown and Mutulu Shakur and Marilyn Buck, “State of California trying to silence Ruchell Cinque Magee,” on censorship of Into the Night, Ray Luc Levasseur’s “Memere” (poem), Ray Luc Levasseur on “Free the Ohio 7.”

Into the Night, no. 5: paste-up	1988 Mar.		Box 2:2

Into the Night: Miscellaneous	ca.1987-1988		Box 2:3

Into the Night: subscription requests	1987-1988		Box 2:4

Jenkins, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad	1987 Sept. 8		Box 2:5
On unjust conviction, racial disparities in prison system, revolution.

Jonah House	1987		Box 2:6

Jones, Ted	1988 Oct. 9		Box 2:7

Kabat, Carl	1988-1989		Box 2:8
Circular letters on political prisoners.

Kerley, Gillam	1987		Box 2:9
Committee Against Registration and the Draft

Kirklin, Andrew	1988		Box 2:10

Krueger, Jack	1988		Box 2:11

Levasseur, Ray Luc	1987-1988		Box 2:12
On Ohio 7 sedition trial; Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Libertad: Official Organ of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War, vol. 9:3	1988 Mar.		Box 2:13

Magee, Ruchell Cinque	1987-1988		Box 2:14
Copies of three legal briefs, letters, “Black August,” Kazi Toure.

Manning, Carol Saucier	1989		Box 2:15

Miscellaneous	ca.1987-1988		Box 2:16

Mordechai Vanunu Legal Defense Fund	1987		Box 2:17

MOVE	1987-1989		Box 2:18
News releases from Ramona Africa and Wiliam Philips Africa.

Nuclear Resister	1987 Sept.		Box 2:19

Ogun, Iyapo Olugbala	1990		Box 2:20

Ohio 7	1987-1988		Box 2:21
Transcript of testimony of Felipe Noguera, Sedition Committee updates, posters and publicity

Oluyomi, Geoffrey	1987		Box 2:22

On Gogol Boulevard, vo. 1:1-2	1987		Box 2:23

Ostensen, George	1987		Box 2:24

Palestine Focus, no. 22	1987		Box 3:1

Palestine Solidarity Committee	1988		Box 3:2

Peltier, Leonard	1989-1991		Box 3:3

Perotti, John	1988		Box 3:4
Appeal for help from “IWW union organizer and jailhouse lawyer.”

Plowshares-Disarmament Actions, September 1980-November 1986	1986		Box 3:5

Plowshares Newsletter, vol. 4:4, 5:1, 5:2, 5:4	1987-1988		Box 3:6
Vol. 5:2 enclosed in letter filed with Gillam Kerley.

Prison News Service, no. 21, 22	1989		Box 3:7

Progressive Periodical Directory	1987		Box 3:8

Resistance Conspiracy Case	1989		Box 3:9

Rosenthal, Harold	1987		Box 3:10

Struggle: A Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature, vol. 6:1-2	1989-1990		Box 3:11

Taylor, Brent	1987-1988		Box 3:12
Member of the Squamish Five; includes two poems.

Thomas, Martha	1993		Box 3:13

Thompson, Harold H.	1988		Box 3:14

Turning the Tide: LA Anti-Racism Newsletter	1989		Box 3:15

Williams, Richard	1988		Box 3:16
Includes update on Ohio 7 Sedition trial and information on Kazi Toure.

Woodson, Helen	1987		Box 3:17

World Socialist, no. 1	1984		Box 3:18

Year One	1987		Box 3:19

Zeller, Barbara	1988		Box 3:20

Katzman, Lillian Hyman

rscox — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:02:53 +0000

When Lillian Hyman volunteered to work with the Democratic Party in New York City in 1948, she was sent over to the office of W.E.B. Du Bois to assist him with some secretarial work. From that beginning, she was hired as a secretary, remaining in Du Bois’s employ for several years until she, regretfully, left for higher pay. Hyman later earned her masters degree and taught in the public schools in New York, starting the first class for children diagnosed with brain injury.

The Katzman Papers contains a series of letters and postcards sent by Du Bois during the early 1950s when Hyman worked as his secretary. Friendly and informal, they concern lecture tours by Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham, out west, and arrangements for his home at Grace Court in Brooklyn. The collection also includes a handful of publications by Du Bois, newspaper clippings, and some congratulatory letters to Hyman on her marriage.

UMass Amherst. Dean of Students

rscox — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:50:47 +0000

UMass Amherst. Dean of Students, 1948-1987. 27 boxes (13.25 linear feet).

The Office of the Dean of Students at UMass Amherst was established by President John Lederle in 1961 to replace the separately structured offices of the Dean of Men and Dean of Women, and to provide more effective, more flexible support for a growing and changing student body. In the 1960s, the Dean of Students had responsibility for almost all operational units related to student life, including Admissions, Records, Residence Halls, Dining Halls, Student Union, Student Activities, Placement, and Financial Aid. As the University became a statewide administrative unit with the opening of UMass Boston and the Medical School, there was an increasing conflict between the Office of the Dean of Students on the Amherst campus and the growing demands for a responsive administrative hierarchy. In 1970, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs was therefore created to provide an appropriate level of supervision for the various Student Affairs divisions with regard to budget, personnel and administration. The Office of the Dean of Students then became a student contact-based office, which cooperated and collaborated with the other divisions. The first Dean of Students, William Field came to UMass in 1951 as a guidance counselor and assistant professor of psychology. His tenure coincided with the massive expansion of campus and the turbulent years of the late 1960s and early 1970s, during which he played an important mediating role. The recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal in 1983, Field retired from office in 1988.

An important series of records documenting student life on the UMass Amherst campus, with an emphasis on the 1960s and 1970s. Among these are an extensive series of bylaws and charters for residence halls and registerred student organizations (RSOs) at UMass, as well as subject files on campus protests and demonstrations, students of color, and student groups of various sorts.

Subjects

African American students–Massachusetts.
Field, William.
Student movements–Massachusetts.
University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dean of Students.
University of Massachusetts Amherst–Students.

Call no.: RG 30/2