CR. Civil Rights and Social Justice
Collecting Area
Identifier: CR
Queens College students and faculty have a rich history of participation in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as well as other struggles for social justice. Starting in 2009, Special Collections and Archives (SCA) began collecting materials from alumni, faculty, and community members involved in these movements. The collections document projects like Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964 and the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project in 1965, as well as local and campus chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). SCA also has smaller quantities of materials related to McCarthyism and LGBTQIA activism. SCA continues to incorporate a broader array of voices, organizations, and eras in this collecting area.
Found in 38 Collections and/or Records:
Radical America (Publication)
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0108
Scope and Contents
Near complete run (123 issues) of the journal Radical America, spanning from 1967 to 1992.
Dates:
1967 - 1992
Robert Masters Papers
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0058
Abstract
Robert Masters graduated from Queens College in 1966; at age 20 he spent seven weeks in Greenwood, Mississippi as a volunteer in the Freedom Summer of 1964. The collection includes newspaper and magazine articles, color snapshots, letters in which Masters describes his work in Greenwood, and artifacts.
Dates:
1963-1967; Majority of material found in 1964 - 1964
Robert Rygor Papers
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0059
Abstract
Robert Rygor worked as a community, LGBT rights and AIDS activist in and around his neighborhood of Greenwich Village for the majority of his adult life. Graduating from New York University in 1976 with an MBA in Finance, he worked briefly for Morgan Stanley (1972-1976) and then for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (1982-1990). He organized support on a wide variety of issues and participated in several organizations, including Villagers Against Crime (1984-1988), the...
Dates:
1953-1994, bulk 1988-1993
Rosalind (Silverman) Andrews Papers
Collection — Box 1
Identifier: SCA-0060
Abstract
Rosalind Andrews (then Rosalind Silverman) was a Queens College student who volunteered with the Student Help Project, tutoring under-served children in both Queens and Virginia. In the summer of 1963, she and the other members of the project traveled to Farmville, Virginia, to spend six weeks teaching the African American children of Prince Edward County. These children had been denied formal education since 1959, when the county defunded and closed its public schools rather than comply...
Dates:
1963-1964
Sid Simon Photographs
Collection — Box 1
Identifier: SCA-0063
Abstract
Sid Simon was the Queens College professor and faculty advisor for the student groups who wanted to volunteer in civil rights initiatives in the South. In 1965, Simon traveled twice to Mississippi to help rebuild churches that were burned down by the Ku Klux Klan. The first group traveled in February; the second during Easter recess. The photos in this collection depict students participating in the February construction projects, as well as scenes of the region in which the volunteers...
Dates:
1965
Stan Shaw Papers
Collection — Box 1
Identifier: SCA-0064
Abstract
Stan Shaw was Chairman of the Student Help Project at Queens College from January 1963 through January 1964. The Student Help Project provided free tutoring services to schoolchildren in South Jamaica, Queens (circa 1962-1968) and Prince Edward County, Virginia (summer of 1963). In South Jamaica, Queens College volunteers assisted children functioning below grade level. In Prince Edward County, they tutored African American children who had been denied formal schooling since 1959, when...
Dates:
1963-1976
Susan Nichols Papers
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0065
Abstract
Susan Nichols was a volunteer in the Mississippi Freedom Project in 1964-1965. A graduate of Southern Illinois University, (B.A. in Psychology, 1983) and Boston University (Masters in Social Work, 1984). She worked for civil rights and social justice organizations, such as the Freedom Democratic Party, Caesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, Let Cuba Live, Cuba Solidarity and Pastors for Peace. The collection contains incident reports and affidavits on violence, memos, institutional...
Dates:
1960-1989
Underground Newspapers Microfilm Collection
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0109
Scope and Contents
Microfilmed newspapers cover a diverse range of movements such as the anti-Vietnam War movement, civil rights, women’s
rights, gay rights, American Indian issues, Black power, Eastern spirituality, the New Left, and the youth and counterculture of the 1960s-1970s.
Publications are individually cataloged in two places: first, as catalog entries in OneSearch (use keyword "underground newspaper collection", then...
Dates:
1963 - 1973
