The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Carl Oglesby papers

Repository: University of Massachusetts Amherst. Special Collections & University Archives

Collection Description (Extant): Reflective, critical, and radical, Carl Oglesby was an eloquent voice of the New Left during the 1960s and 1970s. A native of Ohio, Oglesby was working in the defense industry in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1964 when he became radicalized by what he saw transpiring in Vietnam. Through his contacts with the Students for a Democratic Society, he was drawn into the nascent antiwar movement, and thanks to his formidable skills as a speaker and writer, rose rapidly to prominence. Elected president of the SDS in 1965, he spent several years traveling nationally and internationally advocating for a variety of political and social causes.

In 1972, Oglesby helped co-found the Assassination Information Bureau which ultimately helped prod the U.S. Congress to reopen the investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A prolific writer and editor, his major works include Containment and Change (1967), The New Left Reader (1969), The Yankee and Cowboy War (1976), and The JFK Assassination: The Facts and the Theories (1992). The Oglesby Papers include research files, correspondence, published and unpublished writing, with the weight of the collection falling largely on the period after 1975.

Date(s): 1924-2005

Digital Status: No

Existing IDs: Collection number: MS 514

Extent: 63 boxes (32.5 linear ft.

Finding Aid URL: http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/umass/mums514.html

Language: English

Interviewees: Carl Oglesby

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

Subjects:

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963--Assassination
Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968--Assassination
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968--Assassination
Students for a Democratic Society (U.S.)
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements

Genres:

Interviews
Lectures
Manuscripts
Photographs
Sound recordings
Speeches