Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Wednesday's Wonderful Collection - The Women's Emergency Committee Collection

The Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools was formed in Little Rock in September 1958. It was established in response to the closing of Little Rock's four public high schools by Governor Orval Faubus. The organization was founded by a group of women led by Adolphine Fletcher Terry, a member of a prominent Little Rock family. Mrs. Terry, Vivion Brewer, and Mrs. J.O. Powell organized the first meeting, which fifty-eight women attended. The stated purpose of the Committee was to inform the people of Little Rock, and the state of Arkansas, of the need for public education and of the price of not having public schools. After the schools were reopened in September 1959, the name was changed to the Women's Emergency Committee (WEC). The membership of the WEC eventually grew to over 1,600 women. In the five years of its existence, the WEC opposed Governor Faubus and his forces on numerous occasions. The most successful confrontation for the WEC was the Little Rock School Board recall election in May 1959, in which three Faubus-supported segregationists were removed from the board. They also succeeded in defeating Amendment 52, which would have abolished the constitutional guarantee of free public schools in November 1960. The WEC was also involved in school board and political contests through much of its history, principally the Joe Hardin-Faubus race in 1960 and the Sid McMath-Faubus race in 1962.

This collection contains correspondence, membership lists, information on other organizations interested in maintaining public schools, and other material related particularly to the issues of public education, civil and voting rights, and the economic effect of the school crisis. Additionally, there are booklets, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers concerning these important issues of the time period.
  • 1. History (Reel MG00496)
  • 2. Membership lists; prospects
  • 3. Membership: Night group
  • 4. Anonymous members
  • 5. Committees
  • 6. Member surveys
  • 7. Finances
  • 8. Finances
  • 9. Volunteers
  • 10. Disbandment
  • 11. Minutes, 1958-1963
  • 12. Fliers and handbills
  • 13. Legislative action
  • 14. WEC newsletter
  • 15. Public education, laws
  • 16. Public education, laws (Reel MG00497)
  • 17. Public statements
  • 18. Letters 1958
  • 19. Letters 1959
  • 20. Letters 1959
  • 21. Letters 1959
  • 22. Letters 1959
  • 23. Letters 1959
  • 24. Letters 1959
  • 25. Letters 1959
  • 26. Letters 1959
  • 27. Letters 1959
  • 28. Letters 1960
  • 29. Letters 1960
  • 30. Letters 1961 (Reel MG00498)
  • 31. Letters 1962
  • 32. Letters 1963
  • 33. Letters 1964
  • 34. AAUW (American Association of University Women)
  • 35. American Friends Service Committee
  • 36. Arkansas Committee for Public Schools
  • 37. Arkansas Council on Human Relations
  • 38. Commission on Civic Unity
  • 39. Committee for the Peaceful Operation of Free Public Schools
  • 40. Interracial committee
  • 41. Labor unions
  • 42. League of Women Voters
  • 43. Ministerial Alliance/Ministers' Pledge to Preservation of Public Schools
  • 44. Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
  • 45. Foreign Policy Association (Reel MG00499)
  • 46. Foreign visitors
  • 47. Fund for the Republic
  • 48. Moral Re-Armament
  • 49. National Citizens Council for Better Schools
  • 50. Southern Education Reporting Service
  • 51. Stanford University, Institute of International Relations: African student tour
  • 52. ABLE (Alabamians Behind Local Education), Mobile, Alabama
  • 53. HOPE (Help Our Public Education), Atlanta, Georgia
  • 54. Save Our Schools, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • 55. Virginia Committee for Public Schools
  • 56. STOP (Stop This Outrageous Purge) campaign
  • 57. STOP (Stop This Outrageous Purge) campaign
  • 58. STOP (Stop This Outrageous Purge) campaign
  • 59. STOP: Role of NEC
  • 60. STOP membership lists
  • 61. STOP workers (Reel MG00500)
  • 62. STOP campaign: Voters contacted
  • 63. STOP newsletter
  • 64. STOP recall petitions
  • 65. Elections, Pulaski County 1958
  • 66. Hays-Alford campaign 1958
  • 67. Elections 1960
  • 68. Elections 1962-1964
  • 69. Election returns 1960-1962
  • 70. Election: Judges and clerks
  • 71. Election: Judges and clerks
  • 72. Election: Judges 1960, unfriendly
  • 73. Elections: General
  • 74. Hardin campaign: MoCaBen contract
  • 75. Hardin campaign: Nursing homes
  • 76. Hardin campaign: Racing Commission
  • 77. Hardin campaign: General
  • 78. Hardin campaign: Volunteers
  • 79. Williams-Alford campaign 1960 (Reel MG00501)
  • 80. Brandon-Oates campaign 1960
  • 81. Brandon campaign: Volunteers
  • 82. Amendment 52 of 1960
  • 83. Amendment 52 of 1960
  • 84. Amendment 52 of 1960
  • 85. Amendment 52 of 1960
  • 86. Amendment 52 of 1960
  • 87. Amendment 50 of 1962
  • 88. Arkansas Legislature
  • 89. Arkansas Legislature
  • 90. Arkansas Legislature
  • 91. McMath campaign: Advertising
  • 92. McMath campaign: Bank deposits issue
  • 93. McMath campaign: County chairmen
  • 94. McMath campaign: Federal county road money issue
  • 95. McMath campaign: Individual letters
  • 96. McMath campaign: Itinerary
  • 97. McMath campaign: Meeting at Terry house
  • 98. McMath campaign: Planning
  • 99. McMath campaign: Points for consideration (Reel MG00502)
  • 100. McMath campaign: Press releases
  • 101. McMath campaign: Questions
  • 102. McMath campaign: Radio advertising
  • 103. McMath campaign: Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot
  • 104. McMath campaign: Speakers Bureau
  • 105. McMath campaign: Speeches
  • 106. McMath campaign: Transportation
  • 107. McMath campaign: General
  • 108. McMath campaign: Highway Commission investigation
  • 109. School elections: Referendum, September 1958
  • 110. School elections: 1958 December
  • 111. Recall election: 1959 May
  • 112. School elections: 1959 December (Reel MG00503)
  • 113. School elections: 1960
  • 114. School elections: 1961
  • 115. School elections: 1962
  • 116. Schools: Chronology, 1957-1959
  • 117. Little Rock School Board/teachers 1959
  • 118. Little Rock School Board/teachers 1960
  • 119. Little Rock School Board/teachers 1961-1962
  • 120. School closing
  • 121. Private schools, Little Rock: 1958-1959
  • 122. Schools: Statistics
  • 123. School accreditation regulations
  • 124. Lawsuits: Garrett v. Faubus, Cooper v. Aaron, and Dollarway School District
  • 125. Little Rock School District legal fees
  • 126. Proposed desegregation plan
  • 127. Little Rock School District: General
  • 128. Pulaski County schools
  • 129. Letters to newspapers
  • 130. Newspaper articles: Arkansas press
  • 131. Newspaper articles: Out-of-state press
  • 132. Political cartoons
  • 133. Magazine articles/reprints
  • 134. Newsletters
  • 135. Newspaper ads (Reel MG00504)
  • 136. Newspaper articles: Original
  • 137. 'Little Rock Report - The City, Its People, Its Business, 1957-1959'
  • 138. 'Little Rock Report': Publicity, orders
  • 139. School closing publicity
  • 140. Little Rock school crisis publicity
  • 141. Publicity: Television
  • 142. Publicity: Loretta Young Show
  • 143. WEC publicity: General
  • 144. Hate and crank mail
  • 145. Hate and crank mail
  • 146. White Citizens' Council (Reel MG00505)
  • 147. John Birch Society
  • 148. Ed I. McKinley
  • 149. Winthrop Rockefeller
  • 150. "Operation Abolition" (film)
  • 151. Anti-Semitism
  • 152. Anti-Communism
  • 153. Washington, District of Columbia schools
  • 154. Women in Community Service
  • 155. U.S. Supreme Court
  • 156. Urban League
  • 157. Southern Regional Council
  • 158. Churches
  • 159. Central High School
  • 160. Little Rock City Manager
  • 161. Little Rock Board of Directors
  • 162. Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs
  • 163. Arkansas Student Human Relations Conference
  • 164. Desegregation references (Reel MG00506)
  • 165. Desegregation references
  • 166. Community Conference on Education
  • 167. Community Leaders Conference
  • 168. Civil Service
  • 169. Race relations
  • 170. Sit-ins
  • 171. Voting/Voting rights
  • 172. School prayer
  • 173. Congressional records
  • 174. Court rulings, briefs
  • 175. AIDC
  • 176. Bond issue proposal 1961 (Reel MG00507)
  • 177. Brown v. Board of Education
  • 178. Civil rights bill
  • 179. Economic impact
  • 180. Hatch Act
  • 181. Jury panel lists
  • 182. Motor pools
  • 183. Poll tax drive
  • 184. Press
  • 185. Publications
  • 186. Southern Conference Educational Fund
  • 187. Visual aids
  • 188. Miscellaneous
  • 189. New South, 1956 March-1964 March (Reel MG00508)
  • 190. Southern Regional Council special reports
    • "Albany" by Howard Zinn
    • "A Background Report on School Desegregation for 1959-60"
    • "The Freedom Ride, May 1961"
    • "The Louisville School Story"
    • "Lunch-Counter Desegregation in Corpus Christi, Galveston and San Antonio, Texas" by Kenneth Moreland
    • "Plans for Progress: Atlanta Survey"
    • "Sanctuaries for Tradition: Virginia's New Private Schools" by Mary Ellen Goodman
    • "Southern Justice: An Indictment"
    • "Some General Observations in the Negro Community of Little Rock, Arkansas"
    • "The Student Protest Movement, Winter 1960"
    • "The Student Protest Movement: A Recapitulation, September 1961"
    • "Toward a Solution of the Sit-In Controversy" by Margaret Price
    • "School Desegregation: Old Problems Under a New Law"
    • "The Washington School Story"
  • 191. Southern Regional Council Reports, 1959 July-1963 August
  • 192. Southern School News, 1959 March-1963 December (Reel MG00509)
  • 193. "Action Patterns in School Desegregation" by Herbert Wey and John Corey
  • 194. "An Analysis of Arkansas School Districts, 1958-1960"
  • 195. "Can We Afford to Close Our Public Schools?"
  • 196. "Close Our Schools?"
  • 197. "Crisis in Norfolk" by Jane Reif
  • 198. "The Economic Effect of School Closing" by Jim Montgomery
  • 199. "Education in a Transition Community" by Jean D. Grambs
  • 200. "If the Schools are Closed" by Donald Ross and Warren Gauerke
  • 201. "The Louisville Story" by Omer Carmichael and Weldon James
  • 202. "Mansfield, Texas: A Report of the Crisis Situation Resulting from Efforts to Desegregate the School System" by John Howard Griffin and Theodore Freedman
  • 203. "Miracle of Social Adjustment: Desegregation in the Washington, D.C. Schools" by Carl F. Hansen
  • 204. "Modern Education and Better Human Relations" by William H. Kilpatrick
  • 205. "Observations on Desegregation in Baltimore: Three Years Later" by Harry Bard
  • 206. "Parent Action in School Integration" by Gladys Meyer
  • 207. "Psychiatric Aspects of School Desegregation"
  • 208. "Questions and Quotes About School Integration and Your Child"
  • 209. "Saint Louis Integrates its Schools"
  • 210. "Sturgis, Kentucky: A Tentative Description and Analysis of the School Desegregation Crisis" by Roscoe Giffin
  • 211. "Teachers College Record: Desegregation - A Six-Year Perspective"
  • 212. "Toward Greater Opportunity" (Reel MG00510)
  • 213. "The Truth About Desegregation in Washington's Schools"
  • 214. "What's Happening in School Integration?" by Harold C. Fleming and John Constable
  • 215. "When a City Closes its Schools"
  • 216. "Civil Rights and Minorities" by Paul Hartman
  • 217. "Civil Rights in the Nation's Capital"
  • 218. "Crisis in Modern America"
  • 219. "Equal Employment Opportunity in Federal Government on Federal Contracts"
  • 220. "Equal Protection of the Laws in Public Higher Education I960"
  • 221. "Executive Support of Civil Rights"
  • 222. "Fear and Prejudice" by Selma Hirsh (Reel MG00511)
  • 223. "The Freeman"
  • 224. "Graduate Education and Research in Government in the South"
  • 225. "Group Dynamics and Social Action" by Kenneth D. Benne, Leland P. Bradford, and Ronald Lippitt
  • 226. "Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications"
  • 227. "Intimidation, Reprisal and Violence in the South's Racial Crisis"
  • 228. "Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder" by V.I. Lenin
  • 229. "Life in the New Newark"
  • 230. "The Negro and the Ballot in the South" by Margaret Price
  • 231. "The Negro Voter in Postwar America" by Arnold M. Rose
  • 232. "The Negro Voter in the South"
  • 233. "Nonpartisan Election: A Political Illusion?" by Marvin A. Harder
  • 234. "Prejudice and Mental Health"
  • 235. "Race and Conscience in America"
  • 236. "The Press and the Schools"
  • 237. "Racial Crisis and the Press" by Walter Spearman and Sylvan Meyer
  • 238. "Report on Registration and Voting Participation"
  • 239. "Rearing Children of Good Will" by Edith G. Neisser, Sister Mary deLourdes and Mary Fisher Langmuir (Reel MG00512)
  • 240. "The South and the Nation" by LeRoy Collins
  • 241. ".. .with Justice for All"
  • 242. "Arkansas Recorder"
    • 1960 June 3
    • 1960 July 15
  • 243. States' Rights Digest, Volume 1, Number 1
  • 244. Arkansas Statesman
    • 1963 June 21
    • 1963 June 28
    • 1963 September 6
    • 1967 March
    • 1967 May
  • 245. The Community Citizen, 1960 January 14
  • 246. Common Sense
    • 1959 January 1
    • 1959 June 1
  • 247. Your Answer, undated
  • 248. The Carolina Israelite, 1963 July-August
  • 249. Free Enterprise, 1963 March
  • 250. The Last News, undated
  • 251. The Wildcat (Searcy, Arkansas), 1963 April 13
  • 252. "America, His Hope, His Future...," The New York Times, supplement, 1960 January 17
  • 253. "Little Rock from the Inside" by Brooks Hays, Look (magazine), 1959 March 17
  • 254. "We Tell Our Children..." by Carl T. Rowan, The Saturday Evening Post, 1959 August 22
  • 255. The Saturday Evening Post
    • 1950 February 18
    • 1959 May 23
    • 1959 May 30
    • 1959 June 6
    • 1960 May 21
  • 256. Life, 1957 October 7
  • 257. Esquire, 1963 February
  • 258. Arkansas Dispatch, 1962 July 12
  • 259. "The Texas Observer"
    • a. 1962 February 9
    • b. 1962 August 24
    • c. 1962 September 7
    • d. 1962 September 28
    • e. 1963 June 14
    • f. 1963 June 28
    • g. 1963 November 29
    • h. 1963 December 13
    • i. 1964 January 10
    • j. 1964 January 24
    • k. 1964 February 21
  • 260. Time (magazine)
    • 1957 September 23
    • 1957 October 14
  • 261. Newsweek, 1957 October 14
  • 262. The Progressive
    • 1959 February
    • 1959 August
    • 1959 September
    • 1959 December
    • 1960 January
    • 1960 April
  • 263. The Reporter
    • 1957 September 19
    • 1957 October 17
    • 1957 October 31
    • 1962 June 21
  • 264. Harper's Magazine, 1962 October
  • 265. The Nation, 1958 October 11
  • 266. The New Leader, 1960 March 14
  • 267. The New Republic, 1963 October 26
  • 268. Redbook, 1962 November
  • 269. Saturday Review, 1960 December 17
  • 270. The YWCA, 1959 June
  • 271. U.S. News and World Report
    • 1957 September 13
    • 1957 September 27
    • 1957 October 4
    • 1957 October 11
    • 1957 October 18
    • 1957 October 25
    • 1957 November 1
    • 1957 November 21
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