Mississippi Church Rebuilding Project, 1965

One scrapbook documents Gatti’s work in Taxco, Mexico during the summers of 1963 and 1964 with the Queens College Mexico Volunteers, a student group working to improve conditions in several impoverished Mexican villages and towns. The scrapbook contains photographs, correspondence, and newspaper articles written by Gatti.

Another scrapbook contained photographs and newspaper articles documenting Gatti’s experiences in Mississippi during the spring of 1965, where he and a group of fellow Queens College students helped rebuild African American Baptist churches burned down by white supremacists during the previous year. These items have been rehoused in individual sleeves. Reference photos of the original srapbook were taken prior to deconstruction.

This series originally included a third scrapbook which was deconstructed and rehoused in folders for preservation, and integrated intellectually into Series I and Series II.