Mississippi Freedom Project

Scope and Contents Arthur Gatti is an author and poet with a long history of involvement in activism and community organizing. In the interview, he discusses his life growing up in Queens, NY in an Italian American household and how he gained political consciousness and awareness through his experiences and the influence of his friends. One friendship he talks about at length is his relationship with Mario “Bob” Savio who later became known for his leadership role in the Free Speech Movement which originated...

Abstract The Arthur Gatti Collection contains newspaper clippings, publications, documents, correspondence, fliers, posters, photographs, scrapbooks, and memorabilia documenting Gatti’s political and social activism at Queens College in the early-to-mid 1960s. Materials are from both Gatti’s direct experience and the activities of several major activist organizations in the national political and social landscape of the 1960s. The collection also documents the political career and personal life of...

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The Barbara (Jones) Omolade Collection documents civil rights activism on the Queens College campus during the 1960s, including the Freedom Week Events of 1964. This collection also provides material pertaining to the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964 and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Scope and Contents Dorothy “Dottie” Zellner (born in 1938) discusses growing up in Manhattan as the daughter of immigrants in a Left, Jewish family in Manhattan. She recalls being a young child during the second World War, when Nazi hatred of Jews and the potential for Germany to attack the United States were experienced as imminent threats. Zellner discusses how McCarthyism affected her family in the late 1940s through the 1950s, and her experience at Music and Art High School, which she attended from...

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The Elliot Linzer Collection consists primarily of near-print materials such as handbills, mimeographed flyers, and pamphlets documenting the activities of New York City chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights organization, during the early 1960s. Elliot Linzer is a Queens College alumnus and former member of CORE.

Abstract The George Albertz Papers (1964-2011) document Albertz’s stay and arrests in Greenwood, Mississippi during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer, a national campaign to register black voters in Mississippi. The collection also covers his involvement in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a civil rights party that challenged the whites-only Democratic Party in Mississippi. Included are articles on the deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, who were murdered on...

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This letter, to Mississippi Freedom Summer Project volunteer Anne Koeppicus, is from her Mississippi host Johnnie Mae Walker, a field secretary for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The letter describes life in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. A newspaper article about Koeppicus, a photo of Koeppicus, a published autobiography of Walker, and transcript of the letter are also included.

Abstract The Mark Levy Collection documents the volunteer experiences of Mark Levy and his wife, Betty Bollinger Levy, in the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. Most items date from June to August 1964, including correspondence, photographs, curriculum, lesson plans, student essays and newsletters, printed materials, clippings, and ephemera. There are binders of preparatory training materials and memorandums for accepted applicants. Photographs document orientation at Western College for...

Abstract The Michael Wenger Collection documents the Student Help Project and other activism on the Queens College campus during the 1960s. The Student Help Project was initiated by Queens College students, including Michael Wenger, and Queens College Education Department professors Dr. Rachel Weddington and Dr. Sidney Simon. This project brought tutoring services to under-served children in South Jamaica, Queens and Prince Edward County, Virginia. Wenger chaired the organization in 1964, but the...

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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.