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Collection Overview
Title: Students for a Democratic Society Records, 1956-1969
ID: WUA/05/wua00190
Primary Creator: Students for a Democratic Society - Washington University in St. Louis
Extent: 14.5 Linear Feet
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into the following two series:
Series 01: Students for a Democratic Society Material (in original order)
Series 02: Publications Collected by Terry Koch and other Personal Materials (Arranged by type of material, with publications described in a separate document.) Series 02 is divided into eight sub-series:
Sub-Series 02.01 Publications: American (by title)
Sub-Series 02.02 Publications: United States (by title)
Sub-Series 02.03 Publications: St. Louis (by title)
Sub-Series 02.04 Publications: St. Louis (oversized)
Sub-Series 02.05 Publications: Washington University in St. Louis (by title)
Sub-Series 02.06 Publications: International (by country, then by title)
Sub-Series 02.07 Publications: Students for a Democratic Society, National (by title)
Sub-Series 02.08 Personal materials of Terry Koch
Languages: English, French, Spanish;Castilian, Vietnamese
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The collection contains Washington University Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) material, including information from conferences and meetings, newsclippings, publications, membership lists, minutes of meetings of St. Louis chapter, and unclassified letters, as well as various publications collected by Terry Koch.
Collection Historical Note
The Washington University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society was formed in June 1965. In their formation statement, the Society stated “We share with the national organization the definition of our organization as ‘an association of young people on the left, [seeking] to create a sustained community of educational and political concern; one bringing together liberals and radicals, activists and scholars, students and faculty. We maintain a vision of a democratic society where at all levels the people have control of the decisions which affect them and the resources on which they are dependent. We seek a relevance through continual focus on realities and on the programs necessary to effect change at the most basic levels of economic, political and social organization. We feel the urgency to put forth a radical democratic program…’” They also stated “we seek power for the students, education of them, and action by them, in order to establish a democratic society at Washington University.”
Membership in the Society was open to any student of Washington University and to any other person approved by the members.
Administrative Information
Repository:
WUA University Archives
Accruals:
Accruals are interfiled with the collection.
Access Restrictions:
Open
Use Restrictions:
Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies.
Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University.
If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or spec@wumail.wustl.edu. (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)
Acquisition Method:
Material in Series 01 was donated to the University Archives by Terry Koch, Washington University Students for a Democratic Society Treasurer on October 28, 1966 with additional material added in subsequent years.
Material in Series 02 was donated to the University Archives by Terry Koch on June 12, 2009.
Preferred Citation:
[Item description]. From the [collection title, series, box, folder]. University Archives, Washington University in St. Louis.
Processing Information:
Processed by Rachel Wigen-Toccalino, Adam Rothman, and Sonya Rooney in September 2008. Series 02 processing by Elizabeth Baldwin in April 2011 and Ashley Eckhardt in May 2011.
Finding Aid Revision History:
This finding aid was entered into Archon by Hannah Barg in August 2012.
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[Series 1: Students for a Democratic Society Material],
[
Series 2: Publications Collected by Terry Koch and Other Personal Material],
[
All]
- Series 1: Students for a Democratic Society Material

- (in original order)
- Box 1

- Folder 1: Unclassified letters, Dec. 1966 - Aug. 1968

- Includes: Mainly political and radical group material, letters informing recipients of convocations, rallies, demonstrations and election campaign arrangements. Some sample literature is also included.
- Folder 2: Letters from SDS National and Regional chapters, May 1966 - Jan. 1968

- Similar in content to previous folder.
- Folder 3: National SDS Election, ca. 1966

- Includes: Flyers, political attacks on George Wallace and Warren Hearnes, advice on writing for SDS membership referendum and various background working papers concerned with the SDS and Vietnam activities.
- Folder 4: National SDS, Vietnam War

- (2 folders) First part contains material in chronological order from April 1, 1965 to May 1, 1968 and includes copies of Congressional Record, flyers, leaflets, information on teach-ins, seminary and actor groups, essays, newspaper articles and various newsletters, all concerned with the Vietnam War. Second part contains similar material which is not possible to date. There is no material or correspondence relating to St. Louis SDS.
- Folder 5: DuBois Club, St. Louis

- Includes: DuBois Club newsletter May 1956, a flyer of a speech by Dr. James O'Conner, and a flyer of a rally for freedom of opinion/expression.
- Folder 6A: SDS National Organization

- Includes: Memoranda and lists of various SDS members and council members, National convention agendas and resolutions, and program proposals including proposal on the National Political Committee.
- Folder 6B: SDS National Organization

- Contains similar material as previous folder which is impossible to date.
- Folder 7: SDS National Labour Movement, 1963-1968

- Includes: Newsletters, essays, policy statements, and strategy proposals. The first half of the folder is in date order, the second half contains similar material that is undated.
- Folder 8: National SDS Meeting and Rally, Dec. 1968

- Includes: Material from the Dec. 1968 SDS Convention and other conventions including one in Cleveland in 1965, which includes essays, policy statements, draft resolutions, questions and polemical tracts. Mostly undated.
- Folder 9A: National SDS propaganda & news materials, 1962-1968

- Includes: Newsletters, essays, notes on conferences, newspaper clippings, quotes from Mao Tse Tung, leaflets on strategy after the King assassination, summer research projects, an editorial opposing SDS from WILs radio of Lansing, Michigan, an SDS literature list, solidarity appeal with the French students.
- Folder 9B: National SDS propaganda and news materials

- Contains similar but undated material.
- Folder 10: Mid City Community Congress, 1968

- Includes: Curriculum of organizers school of National County Union, MCCC press releases concerning police brutality in St. Louis. Undated material includes Nothing magazine, instructions from "St. Louis Committee on a New Party" on how to vote in 1968, and a flyer welcoming members to the Human Relations Club of Clayton High School.
- Folder 11: Journal of YMCA (the Bear) Journal of Young Republicans, Journal of Young Democrats (Washington University)

- Folder 12: Recruitment on campus (WU) by the Dow Chemical Co. Feb. 14 1968 and subsequent reaction

- Includes: Petition draft article for New Left Notes and SDS and flyer for a November 1968 rally.
- Folder 13: Radical Organization Committee

- Includes: Two letters to Terry Koch dated Aug. 10 and 16, 1968 containing flyers on the Radical Organizing Committee and others concerning strategy in connection with the Democratic Party Chicago Convention.
- Folder 14: National Mobilization Committee, April 1968 - June 1969

- Includes: Responses to October 1968 in Chicago, a call to come to Washington, June 18-20, 1969, letters and information on demonstrations.
- Folder 15: Student Mobilization Committee

- Includes: Letter, January 1967 and flyers; Convention flyers, undated
- Folder 16: Spring Mobilization Committee

- Includes: Flyers from the Spring Mobilization Committee on the war in Vietnam and similar letters dated March 24, 1967. Similar flyers and letter (progress report), May 5, 1967. Motions and resolutions approved at the final plenary session of Spring Mobilization Committee, National Workshop Conference, Washington, D.C., May 20-21, 1967 and a resolution on Puerto Rico
- Folder 17: St. Louis Citizens for Peace in Vietnam

- Includes: Flyers from June 1965 and Feb. 1966
- Folder 18: New Left Federation & Notes, Miscellaneous papers of SDS, 1965-1966

- Includes: new left notes, newsclippings, and miscellaneous flyers
- Folder 19: Membership list of SDS on Wash U, 1965-1966

- Folder 20: Student Peace Union, 1966-1967

- Includes: Newsletters, pamphlets, flyers, letters to Terry Koch, copies of Draft Action News, referendum on dissolution of SPU. Most chronological, some undated.
- Folder 21: Financial record of SDS (National), 1965-1966

- Includes: Balance sheets, budget, debt.
- Folder 22: SNCC, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

- Includes: SDS resolutions, SDS position paper on the indivisible struggle against Racism, Apartheid and Colonialism. Citizens Amicus Brief in support of H. Rap Brown appeal for his bail restriction and communique.
- Folder 23: Civil Rights and Racism (Wash U), 1967-1968

- Includes: Various flyers and pamphlets distributed by SDS On Washington University campus
- Folder 24: Rally and meeting petition, 1964-1968

- Includes: Petitions and notices of meetings 1966-1968. Various statements, including Preliminary Statement "Toward an experimental American unity"
- Folder 25: Vietnam War, 1964-1966

- Includes: Vietnam War examination, Demonstration against VP Humphrey, Essays, Newsclippings
- Folder 26: The Spark SDS journal, 1966-1967

- Folder 27: Curriculum and Student Affairs

- Includes: Flyers explaining how to vote on University Propositions; Material regarding student affairs
- Folder 28: Aims of SDS at Wash U, 1965-1968

- Includes: Statement of formation, 1965; KMOX TV editorial; Clipping from National Guardian; Resolution on Oct. 21, 1967 mobilization, handwritten; Minutes, flyers, open letters to the faculty; Washington University SDS Constitution
- Folder 29: SDS. Regional Office

- Includes: Flyers from S.F. Mime Troupe; 1965 flyer from action committee to increase opportunities for Negroes; 1968 "Save our City" coalition flyer
- Folder 30: Vietnam Summer, 1967

- Includes: National contact list as of July 5, 1967; PR material: "How To" sheets, instructions for organizations; Questionnaire; Lists of trade union schools; Clipping from "The Christian Century" on Vietnam summers; Vietnam reading list
- Folder 31: New University Conference, Chicago, 1968

- Includes: Flyers; Registration form
- Folder 32: Personal record of Terry Koch, 1964-1968

- Includes: Receipts; Personal letters; Minutes of SDS 1965-1968; Notes and newsclippings
- Folder 33: News, materials - personal, 1964-1968

- Includes: Mainly journals such as Independent Social Newsletter; Letter from China Challenge, China Report
- Box 2

- Folder 1: Periodicals and publications, 1964-1968

- Includes: PEL magazine (in English and Spanish); El Malcriado (the voice of the farm worker, English edition); New Politics News and Monthly Review; Flyers and pamphlets and newsletters published by various SDS chapters in the USA; Copies of the working papers from the "University and the Military" conference held Nov. 1967 at University of Chicago and issued by the Radical Education Project of Ann Arbor, Michigan); Membership cards and Vietnam information; Newsletters; Statement of the Tricontinental Committee of Support to Vietnam on the International Campaign of Unity with Vietnam
- Box 3

- Folder 1: Civil rights

- Includes: Material relating to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Minutes of first meeting of Washington University Friends of SNCC; Flyers; Special Report of SNCC on the new voting bill, 1965
- Folder 2: Mailing stickers and telephone lists

- Folder 3: Current bulk literature, flyers etc., 1965

- Folder 4: File copies of everything printed up, sent out from Saint Louis office (SNCC)

- Folder 5: Newspaper clippings on books Negroes, trading, Shanpsek

- Folder 6: Press release (SNCC St. Louis)

- Folder 7: Clothing pick-ups

- Folder 8: St. Louis Friends of SNCC. Committees, Sept. 1965

- Folder 9: Volunteer workers. SNCC

- Folder 10: Correspondence with Southern projects. SNCC

- Folder 11: Lobbying correspondence - governmental personnel, SNCC

- Includes: Letters personally signed by Gov. Wallace, Tom Curtis (Missouri Congressman in Washington), and John Doar
- Folder 12: Financial obligations, SNCC, 1965

- Folder 13: Fundraising memos and ideas, SNCC, 1965

- Folder 14: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, MFDP challenge, 1965

- Folder 15: Correspondence with Atlanta 1965 concerning meaning of St. Louis office and replacement for D. Finke, Saint Louis office manager

- Folder 16: MFLU Mississippi Freedom Labor Union Cotton Workers Strike

- Includes: Flyers, memos and one letter of thanks to Finke
- Folder 17: Bail

- Includes: Memos to Northern SNCC offices to set up procedures for creating bail funds
- Folder 18: J.P. Coleman Appointment, SNCC background

- Folder 19: SNCC lists of staff rallies in outfits in Saint Louis eg. JCCA, YNCA etc. plus lists of source members

- Folder 20: Photos

- Folder 21: Lists of projects and personnel in other areas

- Folder 22: Report of the Adhoc Committee on Student Conduct, Berkley, 1964

- Folder 23: Follow up

- Folder 24: Open House preparations

- Includes: List of participants, SNCC, 1965
- Folder 25: Real Estate

- Includes: Correspondence dealing with office properties
- Folder 26: Voting and economic statistics, SNCC

- Includes: Mainly of SNCC and others; Letter from John Doar to Joyce Ladner at Washington University regarding Selma, May 1965
- Folder 27: Special reports

- Includes: Flyers, "The Student Voice," and citizenship pamphlets
- Folder 28: Unplaceable civil rights flyers

- Folder 29: WATS incident summary reports. #125-168, July-Sept. 1965

- Folder 30: Memos from Atlanta to Friends of SNCC and Northern SNCC offices

- Folder 31: WU Correspondence, 1964-1965

- Includes: Correspondence; Canadian SNCC newsletter; Flyers for funds; SNCC buttons; WU SNCC newsletter
- Folder 32: Vicksburg Citizen's Appeal - newspaper, March-June 1965

- Folder 33: Unsorted flyers, leaflets, etc.

- Includes: Flyers; Leaflets; Petitions; Newsclippings relating to SNCC 1965 Selma campaign and subsequent problems
- Folder 34: Freedom Driver flyers

- Folder 35: SDS convention material delegates folder, 1967

- This file has been rehabilitated but has no particular order
- Folder 36: Miscellaneous mail/flyers, 1967-1968

- Mostly concerned with draft counseling draft evasion and Canadian immigration
- Folder 37: Miscellaneous mail/flyers, 1967-1968

- Similar to Folder #36
- Folder 38: New Left notes, 1966

- Folder 39: 3rd world

- Includes: Including grape strike; Letters, pamphlets, congressional record, Chinese publications including bills, 1964-1968
- Folder 40: Selective service, 1965-1968

- Includes: Draft advice, pamphlets, literature lists etc. alternatives to military service
- Folder 41: Media

- Includes: Bills for books
- Folder 42: SDS-Wash U Chapter Publications

- Includes: Student's Life articles about URAP
- Folder 43: Ephemera - Freedom Driver Buttons

- 23 buttons in total
Browse by Series:
[Series 1: Students for a Democratic Society Material],
[
Series 2: Publications Collected by Terry Koch and Other Personal Material],
[
All]