The Bowman Papers center on Mitzi and Pete Bowman’s antinuclear activism, dating from their first forays with STOP in the mid-1970s through the growth of opposition to Vermont Yankee in the approach to 2010. The collection offers a valuable glimpse into the early history of grassroots opposition to nuclear energy and the Bowmans’ approach to organizing and their connections with other antinuclear activists and to the peace and environmental movements are reflected in an extensive series of notes, press releases, newsclippings, talks, ephemera, and correspondence. The collections also includes extensive subject files on radiation, nuclear energy, peace, and related topics.

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

A wide ranging and highly diverse collection, the Kleckner Papers document a life in art and activism. The diaries, letters, notes, and essays in the collection are augmented by hundreds of photographic prints and artwork in a variety of media.

The Delevingne collection includes remarkable visual documentation of the antinuclear movement of the 1970s and beyond, including some of the its most iconic images. Beginning with coverage of the Seabrook occupation, Delevingne covered the movement as it spread throughout the northeastern U.S. and internationally. The collection includes exhibition prints, prints for publication, and digitized images ranging in date from the mid-1970s through 1990s. Copyright in the images has been retained by Delevingne.

The records of the Peace Development Fund consist chiefly of grant-making files documenting the many organizations that submitted and received awards. Also included is a nearly complete run of PDF’s annual reports, newsletters, and other publications, which together offer a full picture of the foundation’s funding and programmatic history. Exchange Project files record PDF’s efforts to provide training, not just money, to organizations lacking the skills necessary for effective fund-raising, strategic planning, instituting sound organizational structures, and dismantling racism.

Background on Peace Development Fund

First conceived in 1980, the Peace Development Fund (PDF) was founded by a small group of activists and donors with a vision: to raise money to fund grassroots organizations promoting peace, global demilitarization, and non-violent conflict resolution. During the foundation’s first funding cycle, PDF awarded 19 grants to projects designed to increase understanding of the arms race; some to organizations as nearby as Deerfield and Northampton and others to organizations as far away as California. With the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, PDF changed focus. Instead of thinking of peace as the absence of war, the Foundation began to see peace as “the presence of equitable relationships among people, nations, and the environment.” Since that time, PDF has developed a new perspective on peacework, one centered on fostering social, environmental, and economic justice.

During the past thirty years, the Peace Development Fund has provided over $26.7 million in program services, including $19.8 million in direct grants, to more than 3,300 peace and social justice organizations in the United States and internationally.

Contents of Collection

The records of the Peace Development Fund consist chiefly of grant-making files documenting the many organizations that submitted and received awards. Also included is a nearly complete run of PDF’s annual reports, newsletters, and other publications, which together offer a full picture of the foundation’s funding and programmatic history. Exchange Project files record PDF’s efforts to provide training, not just money, to organizations lacking the skills necessary for effective fund-raising, strategic planning, instituting sound organizational structures, and dismantling racism.

Inventory of Collection

Art work, advertisements, peace memorabilia	undated		2001-052
Exchange project files, groups trained A-L	1985-1993		2001-052
Exchange project files, groups trained L-Z	1985-1993		2001-052
Exchange project files, newsletters	undated		2001-052
Includes print out of databases of groups and other miscellaneous files.
Exchange project files, PDF training materials	undated		2001-052
Exchange project files, workshops	1984-1988		2001-052
Exchange project files, workshops	1990-1992		2001-052
Exchange project files, workshops	1995-1996		2001-052
Grant-making files	1982-1986	9 boxes	2001-052
Grant-making files	1984-1996		Box 9
Grant-making files	1987	2 boxes	2001-052
Grant-making files	1988-1989	5 boxes	2001-052
Grant-making files	1988-1990		2001-052
Grant-making files	1990	4 boxes	2001-052
Grant-making files	1991		2001-052
Grant-making files	1991-1997	6 boxes	Box 1-6
Grant-making files	1992		2001-052
Grant-making files	1993-2004		Box 10
Grant-making files	1994-1995		2001-052
Grant-making files	1998	2 boxes	Box 7-8
Grant-making files	1999-2000	3 boxes	Box 13-15
Newsletters, annual reports, publications	1981-2001		2001-052
Organizational files	1991-1997		Box 12
Program files	undated	4 boxes	Box 16-19
Publications	2000-2010		Box 11

Provenance

Acquired from the Peace Development Fund, 2001 and 2011.

Processing Information

Processed by Dex Haven, March 2011.

Copyright and Use (More information)

Cite as: Peace Development Fund Records (MS 427). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

]]> http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?feed=rss2&p=4195 0 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1896 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1896#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:29:36 +0000 rscox http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1896 A lifelong activist for social and environmental justice, Kevin McVeigh was among the founders of two prominent antinuclear and environmental organizations in Northern California, the Pelican Alliance (1978) and Interhelp (1981). After relocating to Massachusetts, he continued in environmental activism, founding the Green River Center in Greenfield in 1987, but in response to the intense public health crisis, he gradually shifted his focus to become an advocate for persons with HIV/AIDS. As a founder of the AIDS Community Group of Franklin County (Mass.), he has coordinated AIDS services for Tapestry Health, a not-for-profit organization providing affordable health care to in Western Massachusetts.

The McVeigh Papers document a career as a committed antinuclear activist and advocate for persons with HIV/AIDS. The collection includes organizational materials from each of the groups McVeigh helped found: The Pelican Alliance, Interhelp, the Green River Center, the AIDS Community Group of Franklin County, and Tapestry Health, as well as correspondence, newspaper clippings, journals and magazines related to the issues concerning, notes from HIV/AIDS caregivers’ conferences, materials relating to men’s support groups, and other material related to environmental protection and anti-war activism. Finally, the collection includes audio files of an oral history (approximately two hours) conducted with McVeigh in July 2010, and a small collection of antinuclear books from small publishing houses.

]]> http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?feed=rss2&p=1896 0 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1338 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1338#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:45:27 +0000 rscox http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1338 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

Related Material

A number of collections in SCUA contain materials on political prisoners and political trials in the United States, including:

• Ray Luc Levasseur Trial Transcript Collection, 1989 (MS 334)
• Christina Ryan Collection, 1978-1995 (MS 523)
• Tiyo Attalah Salah-El Papers, 1890-2006 (MS 590)

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

]]> http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?feed=rss2&p=1338 1 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1014 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1014#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:42:12 +0000 rscox http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=1014 A theoretical physicist at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Paul Halpern is the author of a dozen popular books on science and dozens of scholarly articles. After spending his undergraduate years at Temple University, Halpern received a doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook, and has since written on complex and higher-dimensional solutions in general relativity theory and the nature of time as well as the history of the modern physical sciences. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

The hundreds of ephemeral publications, fliers, and handbills in the Halpern Collection provide a window into political and social activism in Philadelphia during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The content ranges widely from publications produced by peace and disarmament groups to the literature of anti-imperialist (e.g. CISPES), antinuclear groups (SANE and post-Three Mile Island mobilization), radical political parties, and religious organizations including the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology.

]]> http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?feed=rss2&p=1014 0 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=968 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=968#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:59:26 +0000 rscox http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=968 As a member of the Montague Farm community, Anna Gyorgy became a leader in the movement against nuclear energy. In 1974, she helped organize the Alternative Energy Alliance in Montague, Mass., and two years later, she was part of the coalition that founded the Clamshell Alliance. An author, ecofeminist, and peace activist, she has lived In Ireland, West Africa, and Germany since 1985 and remains deeply involved in international movements for justice and peace.

Tightly focused on Anna Gyorgy’s activism from the mid-1970s through late 1980s, the collection contains important documentation on the early antinuclear movement in western Massachusetts with some material on the international movement in the 1980s. In addition to a small run of correspondence, the collection includes writings, news clippings, publications, and ephemera relating to antinuclear activism during the 1970s and 1980s and to other related causes, including the Rainbow Coalition and Jesse Jackson’s run for the presidency in 1984. The balance of the Gyorgy Papers are housed at Smith College.

]]> http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?feed=rss2&p=968 0 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=792 http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=792#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:10:12 +0000 rscox http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=792 In the mid-1970s, Western Massachusetts was a hotbed of antinuclear activism, sparked both by the proposal to build a nuclear power plant in Montague, Mass., and by the construction and operation of plants nearby in Rowe, Mass., and Seabrook, N.H. A group of activists associated with the Liberation News Service and Montague Farm commune, including Anna Gyorgy, Sam Lovejoy, Harvey Wasserman, Steven Diamond, Chuck Light, and Dan Keller, were instrumental in organizing popular opposition to nuclear power and they helped establish several antinuclear organizations, ranging from the Alternative Energy Coalition to the Renewable Energy Media Service, Clamshell Alliance, and Musicians United for Safe Energy.

The Antinuclear Activism Collection contains the results of the grassroots opposition to nuclear power in Western Massachusetts. The bulk of the collections consists of a variety of publications produced by or collected by a group of antinuclear activists in Franklin County, Mass. In addition to a large number newspapers (e.g. Clamshell Alliance News) and pamphlets, the collection includes t-shirts and bumper stickers, ephemeral publications, notes, sporadic correspondence, and other information collected both for research purposes and to aid in their public campaigns. Of particular interest are a set of early minutes of the Clamshell Alliance Coordinating committee (1977-1978), and information on protests at the Seabrook and Rowe nuclear facilities and the proposed facility at Montague. The collection is part of the Famous Long Ago Archive.

]]> http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?feed=rss2&p=792 0