The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Papers of the Youth Project of Vermont

Repository: University of Vermont Libraries. Special Collections

Collection Description (CRHP): The Youth Project of Vermont, 1968-1970 was an important intercultural exchange between New York City Mayor John Lindsay and Vermont Governor Philip Hoff in response to the 1968 Kerner Commission report.

Collection Description (Extant): Collection includes correspondence, reports, minutes of meetings, questionnaires and evaluations of participants, tape recordings, films, newspaper clippings, and other records, of a non-profit corporation working in corporation with Youth Service Agency of New York City to bring black teenagers from New York City to Vermont to join in academic, cultural, and recreational projects during the summer. Persons represented include Benjamin M. Collins, director of the project, and Philip H. Hoff, Governor of Vermont.

Date(s): 1968-1970

Digital Status: No

Extent: 11 ft.

Finding Aid URL: http://voyager.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?db=LOCAL&BBID=2010577

Language: English

Related Archival Items: See the Vermont Civil Rights Collection of the Vermont Historical Society, a record of which is in this database, for more information about this program. The University of Vermont Special Collections also has other papers dealing with civil rights including the Winston L. Prouty Papers, Benjamin M. Collins Papers, Vermont Political Oral History collection, and Vermont in Mississippi Collection (see the database records on the latter three items). It contains the George Aiken Papers and Philip Hoff Papers. The WCAX You Can Quote Me radio series collection may deal with civil rights, and the Kake Walk collection and related 1962 videorecording of the Kake Walk deal with race relations in Vermont. See the other records attached to the Vermont Historical Society entry in this database. Also, the Vermont Historical Society has 2 films are referenced in the collection VHS Audio Tape M-61, dated 1989, that deal with race relations. That has been cataloged. 'The First Step,' [videorecording] narrated/hosted by Lorne Greene; no date, but appears to be the first event of the New York City-Vermont Youth Project, circa 1968. B&W film, approx. 30 min. Professionally done. The second is: 'We Are Not Afraid,' [videorecording], a B&W film by Wayne Klug, 1970, approx. 52 min. It has elements of 'experimental' filming. No one is identified. There are various scenes, two in particular that feature the aftermaths of run-ins between whites and blacks: the 'n' word is used concerning an incident between kids, and there is one where a very angry young Black woman is really mad at Wayne and what he filmed without permission. The other scenes are White men pontificating to the youths about the youths' way of thinking about society. These articles on Wayne Klug may be of this filmmaker: http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/19/us/at-college-reunion-60-s-nonconformity-lives-on.html; http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=soldiers-who-have-taken-a-life; http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3417867/.

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African American students
African American youth
Civil rights movements--Vermont
United States. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
Vermont--Politics and government

Genres:

Manuscripts
Sound recordings
Videorecordings