The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Chicago SNCC history project archives

Repository: Chicago Public Library. Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection

Collection Description (Extant): [...] The Chicago Area Friends of SNCC (CAFSNCC) was founded in January 1963 by a small group of Chicago activists interested in supporting and lending financial assistance to SNCC's work in the South through fundraising, clothing and food drives, and recruitment. Similar to other "Friends of SNCC" groups that operated mainly in the Northern and Western part of the United States, CAFSNCC held close ties with the Southern movement. The CAFSNCC differed from other "Friends of SNCC" groups in the extent of its involvement in many local Chicago civil rights struggles such as adequate and fair employment, education and housing for African Americans. They played an important role in the 1963 Chicago Schools Boycott. As part of Freedom Day activities, the CAFSNCC organized Freedom Schools for children to attend where they could learn about the history of African American freedom struggles. Autonomous in structure, the Chicago Area Friends of SNCC, unlike SNCC, was membership based. With the collapse of SNCC at the national level, the CAFSNCC ended around 1968.

[...] The Chicago SNCC History Project Archives contains the papers of the Chicago Area Friends of SNCC (CAFSNCC), SNCC-National and the Chicago SNCC History Project. The CAFSNCC records include correspondence, manuscripts, and administrative, financial and legal papers related to the group's activities. This super series also includes records and clippings of the 1963 Chicago Schools Boycott as well as materials from other Chicago-based civil rights organizations like the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO), the Chicago Urban League, the Negro American Labor Council (NALC) and the Tenants Committee for Better Education of Robert Taylor Homes. The second super series, SNCC-National, contains administrative records and correspondence from the national headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., as well as communications from various other SNCC organizing projects across the country. Also represented are manuscripts either authored by or featuring SNCC, an incomplete run of the SNCC's publication The Student Voice and photographs. Some of the manuscripts collected here are authored by individuals not connected to SNCC. The final super series documents the Chicago SNCC oral history project, including records from the 2005 Tell the Story Conference and interviews and interview transcripts from oral histories with former CAFSNCC members.

Origin Info: Donation of Fannie Rushing and Sylvia Fischer, May 2006

Date(s): 1960-2010

Digital Status: No

Existing IDs: 2006/02

Extent: 10 linear feet (18 archival boxes)

Finding Aid URL: http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/archivalcoll/sncc.php

Language: English

Related Archival Items: Related collections at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection include: the Chicago CORE Archives, the Timuel D. Black Papers, the Abdul Alkalimat Papers, the Fannie Rushing Papers, the Leonidas Berry Papers, the Path Press Archives and the Rev. Addie and Rev. Claude Wyatt Papers.

Interviewees: Bob Zellner, Sue Thrasher, Fannie Rushing, Gwen Zaharah Simmons, William Cousins, Ron Dorfman, Sylvia Fischer, Bennett Johnson, Abdul Alkalimat, Sylvia Fischer, Timuel D. Black, Brennetta Howell Barrett, Fannie Rushing, Bennett Johnson, Alfred Klinger, Lorne Cress Love, Robert (Bob) Lucas, Therese McDermott, Richard Morrisroe, Irene Nelson, Mildred (Forman) Page, Don Rose, Mel Rothenberg, Marcia Rothenberg, Rosie Simpson, Nancy Bild Wolf

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

Subjects:

African Americans--Civil rights--Illinois
Boycotts
Civil rights demonstrations--Illinois
Civil rights movements--Illinois
Discrimination in education
Discrimination in employment
Discrimination in housing
Housing
National Urban League
Negro American Labor Council
School integration--Illinois
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)

Genres:

Interviews
Manuscripts
Photographs
Transcripts
Videorecordings