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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 43 Collections and/or Records:

Political Posters

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0119
Abstract

The collection contains a diverse array of political and social issue posters, as well as several art prints, bumper stickers, and postcards from the 1960s-2020. Used as tools for community organizing, to express political and social discontent, and fight for social change, political posters offer unique insights into histories of struggles using a combination of high-contrast colors, striking images and vivid illustrations coupled with sharp slogans and descriptive text.

Dates: circa 1960s-2020

Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Ephemera

 Collection — Box 1
Identifier: SCA-0111
Scope and Contents

Ephemera documenting PSC-CUNY contract campaigns and other activities. Includes t-shirts, buttons, posters, and fliers.

Dates: 2000 - 2023

Queens College Campus Unrest Collection

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0030
Abstract: The Queens College Campus Unrest Collection contains papers, correspondence, and flyers regarding the Spring 1969 sit-in protest of the social science building by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Political Suppression. The protest was in defense of the three members of the Students for a Democratic Society who were arrested and charged for leading a protest for the removal of General Electric recruiters from QC campus. The sit-in lasted four days resulting in the arrests of thirty-eight students...
Dates: 1968-1970

Queens College SEEK Records

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SCA-0010
Abstract

This collection document the history of The Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program at Queens College from 1966 to the present. It contains administrative records, publications, photographs, ephemera, and audiovisual materials. SEEK is a higher education opportunity program that played a historic role in opening the City University of New York (CUNY) system to more diverse students populations.

Dates: 1965 - 2023

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