Students for a Democratic Society Records, 1956-1969 | WUA University Archives

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Collection Overview

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Collection Historical Note

Administrative Information

Box and Folder Listing

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