The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Social justice

EarthAction

EarthAction Records

1992-2008
26 boxes 39 linear feet
Call no.: MS 562

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

Established by Lois Barber in Amherst, Mass., in 1992 with their first campaign at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, EarthAction has been organizing international campaigns ever since. As the world’s largest action network, the group’s campaigns address a variety of global issues from climate change and nuclear weapons to children’s rights and empowering women to protect the land. With a mission both to inform people about pressing problems facing the world and to move them to action, EarthAction creates and distributes information kits aimed at different audiences: individuals and groups, policymakers, and journalists.

The collection includes administrative files that illustrate the process of building a campaign, financial records, and publications, as well as action, legislative, and media kits created for many of the group’s international campaigns.

Gift of Lois Barber, 2008-2017

Subjects

Environmental justiceEnvironmentalismPeace movementsSocial actionSocial justice
Ebert, George

George Ebert Papers

1972-2018
90 boxes 135 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1049

Since the early 1970s, George Ebert has been a significant national figure in the anti-psychiatry and psychiatric survivors’ movements. Radicalized by three periods of involuntary incarceration, Ebert founded the Mental Patients Liberation Alliance in 1978 as a self-help, mutual support, human rights, and advocacy organization, and he has spoken out consistently against all forms of coercive psychiatry, including electroconvulsive therapy and forced drugging. While serving as director of the Mental Patients Alliance of Central New York, Ebert has also been active in Activists for Alternatives and the Network Against Coercive Psychiatry.

A significant collection for study of the psychiatric survivors’ movement, Ebert’s papers contain a wealth of correspondence from activists throughout the United States and abroad, along with notable runs of newsletters and periodicals from many early ex-patient groups that are now defunct, photographs of demonstrations, and organizational materials relating to the Mental Patients Liberation Alliance.

Gift of George Ebert, Aug. 2018

Subjects

AntipsychiatryEx-mental patientsPeople with disabilities--Civil rightsPeople with disabilities--Legal status, laws, etc.Psychiatric survivors movement

Contributors

Mental Patients Liberation Alliance

Types of material

Photographs
Economic Research and Action Project (New Haven, Conn.)

Economic Research and Action Project (New Haven, Conn.) Records

1965
1 box .05 linear feet
Call no.: MS 949
War on Poverty Cartoon from ERAP Newsletter
War on Poverty cartoon from New Haven ERAP Newsletter, July 23, 1965

The Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP) was a community organizing project sponsored by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). It began in 1963, with SDS activists working in low-income urban neighborhoods to help residents come together to identify and agitate for shared needs. While practical goals included education and advocacy for welfare rights, youth programing such as free school lunches, and increasing minority participation in local politics, the program as a whole had grand aspirations of abolishing poverty and ending racial inequality through an interracial and community organized movement of the poor in America. The largest and longest lasting projects were located in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and Newark, but multiple cities had ERAP groups. While none achieved an ongoing interracial movement of the poor, all had lasting effects in bringing minority and urban resident voices to the SDS platform, in teaching the skills, obstacles, and possibilities of community organizing, and in encouraging individuals, both from SDS and local neighborhoods, to participate and engage with diverse people in seeking social change.

New Haven ERAP Records are a small but rich collection, mainly consisting of three summer of 1965 issues of the ERAP Newsletter from the New Haven Project. Additional materials include a clipping from the April 30, 1965, Life issue featuring photographs of New Haven ERAP members working in a “slum called The Hill”; two printed photographs from Life not used in the article; and a written report and supporting research interview on the failure of the New Haven corporation Community Progress, Inc., to provide good services and comply with the requirements of the Economic Opportunity Act and the Community Action Program Guide.

Gift of Liz Blum, November 2016

Subjects

Activists—United StatesCommunity development, Urban -- United StatesSocial service—United StatesStudent movements – United StatesStudents for a Democratic Society (U.S.)

Contributors

Economic Research and Action Project

Types of material

NewslettersPhotographs
Econosmith

Econosmith Collection

1969-2019
1 box, digital files 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: PH 089
Depiction of Pete Seeger, 2006
Pete Seeger, 2006

A wife and husband team of photographers based in Provincetown, Mass., Maxine Smith and John Economos, known collectively as Econosmith, are photographers of the folk music scene, social action, and the landscape and people of outer Cape Cod. Social activists themselves, the Econosmiths were photographers for Pete Seeger during the last decade of his life and headed up the photography team at the Clearwater Festival, giving them unusual access to dozens of performers.

With compelling images of musicians in performance, the Economsmith collection is a rich visual record of the contemporary folk scene, with a special focus on Pete Seeger and the Clearwater Festival (also known as the Great Hudson River Revival). Over 90% of the images were born digital, with the remainder split between color negatives and 35mm. slides. The collection also includes photographs of antiwar demonstrations sparked by the Iraq War and images of the scenery and people of Provincetown and outer Cape Cod.

Gift of John Economos and Maxine Smith, April 2019

Subjects

Cape Cod (Mass.)--PhotographsClearwater Festival--PhotographsDemonstrations--New York (State)--New York--PhotographsDemonstrations--Washington (D.C.)--PhotographsFolk musicFolk musicians--PhotographsIraq War, 2003-2011--Protest movements--PhotographsPeace movements--PhotographsSeeger, Pete, 1919-2004--Photographs

Contributors

Economos, JohnSmith, Maxine

Types of material

Photographs
Famous Long Ago Archive

Famous Long Ago Collection

ca.1960-2005
Depiction of The barn, Montague Farm Photo by Roy Finestone, Oct. 1976
The barn, Montague Farm Photo by Roy Finestone, Oct. 1976

Ray Mungo’s Famous Long Ago (1970) and Steve Diamond’s What the Trees Said (1971) are classic visions of late 1960s counterculture and of life in New England communes. The communes on which Mungo and Diamond settled, Packer Corner and the Montague Farm, became the center of what might be considered a single extended community, embracing the Wendell Farm and Johnson Pasture and Tree Frog Farm in Vermont. The Farmers themselves were, and remain, a diverse group, including photographers, novelists, and poets, artists, actors, and activists.

An umbrella collection, the Famous Long Ago Archive contains a growing number of collections relating to the communes at Montague Farm, Packer Corners, Johnson Pasture, Wendell Farm, and Tree Frog Farm. These range from the papers of Steve Diamond, Raymond Mungo, and Jonathan Maslow to Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner (the latter of whom lived at Montague Farm), the records of the Liberation News Service, the Alternative Energy Coalition, and Musicians United for Safe Energy, to the photographic collections of Roy Finestone and Stephen Josephs. View all the Famous Long Ago Collections.

Collections include:

Subjects

Antinuclear movement--MassachusettsCommunal living--MassachusettsCommunal living--VermontJohnson Pasture Community (Vt.)Montague Farm Community (Mass.)Packer Corners Community (Vt.)Political activists--Massachusetts
Fay, Ted

Ted Fay Papers

ca. 1960-2019 Bulk: 1980-2008
28 boxes 35 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1103

Dedicated to a broad range of social justice and human rights issues, Theodore “Ted” Fay is a leading national and international activist, advocate, and scholar on the integration and inclusion of athletes with disabilities into mainstream sport. His focus on exposing practices of exclusion, inequity, and marginalization in sport faced by individuals based on race, gender, and disability—and his unique perspective on this intersectionality—would serve as the basis of most of his scholarly work including his 1999 doctoral dissertation. Fay played a key role in creating Project Interdependence (1981-1987), a one-of-a-kind statewide training program sponsored by the California State Departments of Rehabilitation and Education, as well as in the creation of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team (USDST) and the effort to integrate the USDST into the U.S. Ski Team in 1986. Involved in the founding and development of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), he served in multiple capacities related to Nordic skiing from 1988 until 2010. Fay also helped draft Article 30.5 of the 2007 United Nations Convention on the Human Rights for Persons with a Disability (CRPD) and, in 2013 and 2019, contributed to revisions of Acts of Congress concerning the inclusion and equitable treatment of students with disabilities and the integration of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. With degrees from St. Lawrence University, the University of Oregon, and UMass Amherst (Ph.D. 1999), Fay retired as a Professor Emeritus of Sport Management in 2018 after a distinguished two-decade career at the State University of New York at Cortland.

Chronicling a personal story of more than five decades of activist work while highlighting Fay’s 40-year involvement in more than ten Paralympic and Olympic Games and four U.S. Olympic/Paralympic Bids, the Fay Papers include correspondence, scholarly articles, research and background materials, drafts, writings, reports, student papers, photographs, scrapbooks, and memorabilia.

Gift of Ted Fay, October 2019

Subjects

Athletes with disabilitiesParalympic GamesPeople with disabilities--Civil rightsSkiers with disabilities

Contributors

International Olympic CommitteeInternational Paralympic Committee

Types of material

Administrative reportsCorrespondenceDrafts (documents)PhotographsPostersPrinted ephemeraRealiaScrapbooks
Feinberg, Kenneth R., 1945-

Kenneth R. Feinberg Papers

1980-2019
356 boxes 395 linear feet
Call no.: MS 755
Depiction of Ken Feinberg at JFK Library
Ken Feinberg at JFK Library

One of the most prominent and dedicated attorneys of our time, Kenneth R. Feinberg has assumed the important role of mediator in a number of complex legal disputes, often in the aftermath of public tragedies. Frequently these cases necessitate not only determining compensation to victims and survivors but also confronting the very question of the value of human life. A native of Brockton, Massachusetts, and a graduate of UMass Amherst (1967) and New York University School of Law (1970), Feinberg served as a clerk to Chief Judge Stanley H. Fuld, as a federal prosecutor, and as Chief of Staff for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. After acting as the mediator and special master of the high-profile Agent Orange settlement, he administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Virginia Tech’s Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, and the BP Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF). Feinberg has taught at several law schools; is the author of the books What is Life Worth? (the basis of the film Worth) and Who Gets What and numerous articles; and is a devotee of opera and classical music. He practices law in Washington, D.C., and continues to be guided by a commitment to public service.

The Feinberg Papers contain correspondence, memos, drafts, reports, research files, and memorabilia. The collection is arriving in stages and is being processed. Some materials will be restricted.

Gift of Kenneth R. Feinberg, 2012-2021

Subjects

Compensation (Law)--United StatesCompromise (Law)--United StatesDamages--United StatesProducts liability--Agent OrangePublic Policy (Law)--United StatesReparation (Criminal justice)--United StatesSeptember 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001

Contributors

Feinberg, Kenneth R., 1945-

Types of material

Correspondence (letters)Legal filesVideotapes
Ferguson, Ann

Ann Ferguson Papers

1970-2007
23 boxes 33 linear feet
Call no.: FS 101

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

Ann Ferguson began her tenure at UMass as an Instructor in 1964 as she completed the last year of her doctoral work at Brown under supervision of R.M. Chisolm. With academic interests in ethics, aesthetics, women’s studies, and social and political philosophy, Ferguson has been politically engaged in human rights and social justice initiatives since the 1960s, supporting organizations such as Feminist Aid to Central America, Marxist Activist Philosophers, and the Radical Philosopher’s Association. In 1995, Ferguson accepted a three-year term as Director of Women’s Studies, describing the program as one with the “roots in political activism to fight social injustice.” Despite her 2008 retirement, Ferguson continues to teach in both Philosophy and Women’s Studies.
The Ferguson Papers document Ann Ferguson’s academic career at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as her commitment to political activism and social change. The papers include material relating to campus politics, the women’s movement and other social movements, Philosophy Department files (1971-1997) from Ferguson’s tenure as Head of the Philosophy Department, and course materials from both Women’s Studies and Philosophy. Also included among the papers are professional correspondence, feminist pamphlets (1970s-1980s), and several posters from Ferguson’s office.

Gift of Ann Ferguson, 2008-2014

Subjects

University of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of PhilosopyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Program in Women's Studies

Contributors

Ferguson, Ann
Foote, Caleb, 1917-2006

Caleb Foote Papers

1915-1996
3 boxes 4.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1013

A legal scholar and pacifist, Caleb Foote was born in Cambridge, Mass., on March 26, 1917, the son of a Unitarian minister and Quaker mother. Earning degrees in history from Harvard (AB 1939) and economics from Columbia (MA 1941), Foote was hired by the Fellowship of Reconciliation to organize their northern California office as the U.S. entered the Second World War. A committed conscientious objector, he refused assignment to a Civilian Public Service camp, arguing that the draft was undemocratic and “an integral part of the war effort,” thus earning a sentence of six months in prison. When released, Foote resumed his work with the Fellowship, opposing the internment of Japanese Americans, but ran afoul of the Selective Service a second time in 1945, earning an additional eighteen months. After a presidential pardon in 1948, Foote became Executive Director of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objection, but left after two years to return to school, hoping a law degree might aid him in the cause of addressing racial and economic injustice. He held academic positions in law schools at the University of Nebraska (1954-1956), Penn (1956-1965), and Berkeley (1965-1987), becoming well known for his opposition to a bail system that unfairly burdened the poor and falsely accused, among other causes. Foote died in Santa Rosa, Calif., in 2006, shortly before his 89th birthday.

An extraordinary archive of principled resistance to war, the Foote collection contains a thorough record of one man’s experience as a conscientious objector during the Second World War. Accompanying some of the legal proceedings associated with Foote’s refusal of assignment to Civilian Public Service is an extensive correspondence with family while imprisoned and other associated content. Foote also retained important material from his wartime work with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and later work with the CCCO. His later correspondence provides an important perspective on his developing legal career, particularly the earlier years, and an extensive series of essays and autobiographical writings provides critical personal and intellectual context for Foote’s pacifism and legal practice. The collection also includes some correspondence and writings by and about Foote’s education, his father, Henry Wilder Foote, and mother.

Gift of Robert Foote, Feb. 2018

Subjects

Central Committee for Conscientious ObjectorsFellowship of ReconciliationLawyersPacifists--United StatesWorld War, 1939-1945--Conscientious objectors

Contributors

Foote, Henry Wilder, 1875-1964
Forman, Sylvia Helen, 1944 or 1945-1992

Sylvia Forman Collection

1983-1987
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 341

Shortly after receiving her doctorate from the University of California Berkeley in 1972, the anthropologist Sylvia Helen Forman joined the faculty at UMass Amherst. A staunch feminist and activist, Forman was known for her commitment to her students and to the political life at the university, and for her engagement in the community. She died of cancer in 1992, just 48 years old.

The nine papers in this collection were the products of studies by students enrolled in Forman’s Anthropology 497 class at UMass Amherst. All are intensive analyses of issues of race, gender, and social justice in local communities, including disability, teenage pregnancy, child care, Cambodian refugees, and attitudes toward community living and community change.

Gift of Sylvia Forman, 1989.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--Social conditionsAnthropology--MassachusettsCambodians--MassachusettsChild care--MassachusettsCommunity and college--Massachusetts--AmherstDeerfield (Mass.)--Social conditionsHadley (Mass.)--Social conditionsLeverett (Mass.)--Social conditionsPelham (Mass.)--Social conditionsTeenage pregnancy--Massachusetts--Holyoke