The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Activist women in Boulder County

Repository: Boulder Public Library. Carnegie Branch Library for Local History

Collection Description (CRHP): The following interviews are particularly relevant:

OH1233 Betty (Elizabeth) Ball: discusses childhood experiences with civil rights issues, attending George Williams College on the South Side of Chicago in the 1960s, work at Hull House in Chicago in 1968-69, The Boulder Communication Center (alternative resource center for hippies and transients), National Conference of Christians and Jews, The Panel of Americans (anti-racism program in Denver), environmental work in California, political philosophy of "one struggle, many fronts", return to Boulder in 1998 to work on non-violence education, the Safety Net program and pesticide issues.

OH 1241: Malaika Pettigrew talks about her formative experiences as an African American woman growing up in California in the 1950s and 1960s; her study of transpersonal psychology and African spiritual beliefs; racist attitudes encountered by her and her children in the Boulder Schools; The Institute for African American Leadership, which provides leadership training for Boulder's African American students, and the cultural diversity class that she teaches at Naropa University.

Collection Description (Extant): The Activist Women of Boulder Oral History Project was part of a Women's Studies class taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder, by Anne Marie Pois in 2003. Students interviewed twenty-four women from four significant community organizations that include the Boulder Valley Women's Health Center (BVWHC), Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN), MESA (Moving to End Sexual Assault) and the YWCA. [. . . ] Students also interviewed activists with a variety of community affiliations, but which we grouped under the general rubric "Peace and Justice." The interviewees had strong connections with the Rocky Mountain Peace Center, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) or Naropa University, as well as other local groups.

This collection covers a number of topics:

The activists' understanding of social justice, activism, feminism, peace, anti-racism, and/or meeting women's needs by creating social change.

How the activists became involved and descriptions of their own work as well as the organization, mission, and functions of the groups listed above.

The people and personalities of those involved in the above groups and in social justice work in general.

The general historical context of local Boulder reform endeavors and of the more general U.S. second wave feminist and social justice movements.

Access Copy Note: Audio and transcripts/abstracts for most interviews are available online.

Collection URL: http://www.boulderlibrary.org/oralhistory/

Date(s): 2003

Digital Status: Born-digital

Extent: CDs; transcripts

Finding Aid: PDF of collection abstracts is attached as an upload; for fuller descriptions, also search library catalog (Entire FLC Collection) with interviewee name and

Language: English

Related Archival Items: Biographical information and papers written about interviewees are available in the oral history file.

Interviewees: Betty (Elizabeth) Ball, Malaika Pettigrew

Rights (Extant): All interviews are copyrighted to The Maria Rogers Oral History Program. Researchers may quote portions of interviews in non-commercial projects, unless otherwise noted. Proper credit should be given (for format, see Copyright). No part of the interviews

Subjects:

African Americans--Civil rights--Texas
Civil rights movements--Colorado
Peace movements
Race relations
Racism in education
Segregation
Social settlements
Women civil rights workers
YMCA of the USA

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings