The Wilcox Collection
The preservation of one of our most basic freedoms, freedom of speech, was a primary motivation in the formation of the Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements. The collection is nationally recognized for its documentation of the political thought and activity of the American Left and Right. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1960s to the present and is national in its coverage, representing 8,000 individuals and organizations. Included are more than 10,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals, 800 audio tapes, 73 linear feet of manuscript materials and nearly 85,000 pieces of ephemera, including flyers, brochures, and clippings.
The Wilcox Collection began during the turbulent 1960s. Political and social change was the order of the day and, providentially for researchers interested in the period, Laird Wilcox, a University of Kansas student and member of the Students for a Democratic Society, was collecting the printed record as the events were occurring. The collection (then four file drawers of material) was acquired from him by the Libraries in 1965 and he has continued as the major donor to the collection. In the 1960s Mr. Wilcox was himself active in civil rights movements and involved with local events as publisher of the Kansas Free Press, an independent progressive journal, and as chairman of the University of Kansas Student Union Activities Minority Opinions Forum. An avid believer in free speech, Mr. Wilcox is a long-time student of the psychology of political movements.
One of the largest collections of its type in the nation, the Wilcox Collection is noted for its broad coverage of both political extremes. The left wing is represented by such organizations as the American Civil Liberties Union, Women Strike for Peace and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s have been well documented through the acquisition of thousands of newspapers such as The Berkeley Barb, Albatross, and Kaleidoscope. The opinions voiced by members of the right wing are also represented by publications of the John Birch Society, the Christian Nationalist Crusade, Young Americans for Freedom, and the National States Rights Party. Notable individuals whose writings are included in the collection are Phyllis Schlafly, Father Coughlin, Phoebe Courtney, and Willis Carto.
In 1985 the Kansas Collection was awarded a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education to catalog the periodicals and ephemeral materials in the Collection. The cataloging records produced through the grant project are accessible in the University Libraries online catalog and on the OCLC Online Union Catalog.. Access to the books in the collection is through a separate card catalog.
In our efforts to preserve these materials and make them available, we face major challenges. Most of the items are printed on poor quality paper, particularly the newspapers and paperback books. The ephemera files, made up of items on equally poor paper, include posters and other oversized pieces which have been weakened or damaged by folding, faded mimeographed sheets, and highly acidic newspaper clippings. The oversized materials are stored flat in folders and map cases, other contents of files are placed in archival folders and boxes, and the newspaper clippings are photocopied on acid-free paper.
The items chosen for the exhibition can only suggest the range of diverse viewpoints and beliefs represented.
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46. Students for a Democratic Society. Miscellaneous flyers from the 1960s.
The Students for a Democratic Society originated as a college division within the League for Industrial Democracy and split off from the parent body in 1958. This coalition of liberals and radicals became the most widespread and influential of student protest groups in the 1960s. The SDS became increasingly militant and splintered into three rival factions at the Chicago convention in 1969. Weatherman, later known as Weather Underground, continued its violent activities into the early 1970s.
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One of the few women leaders in the Black Power movement, Angela Davis gained national attention when she was charged with conspiracy, kidnapping and murder. In 1972, she was acquitted of all charges and became active as a speaker and co-chair of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression. She also ran as the Communist Party USA's vice-presidential candidate in 1980 and 1984.
47a. Free Angela and all political prisoners. Newsletter of the San Francisco Committee to Free Angela Davis and the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis, Aug. 1971.
47b. Free Angela Davis, Doc Bryant, Ronald Williams & all political prisoners! March and rally in Birmingham Saturday, Sept. 25 [1971]. Flyer from the Birmingham Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners.
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48. La Raza, Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 1970.
La Raza served as the voice of the La Raza Unida Party, formed in Texas in 1969. Their goals included national support and recognition as an independent political party and bringing education and unity to Chicanos.
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49. Betty Millard, Women on Guard: How the Women of the World Fight for Peace, New York: New Century Publisher, 1952.
Millard served as a member of the Secretariat of the Women's International Democratic Federation in the early 1950s. This federation of women's organizations fought "for the recognition of women's dignity, and to win, extend, put into practice and defend their fundamental rights." Besides this pamphlet, she also wrote Women Against Myth, published in 1948.
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50. National Committee to Abolish HUAC, Let's Speak Out About the House Un-American Activities Committee, Los Angeles: n.d.
Organized in the Los Angeles area in the late 1950s, members of the National Committee to Abolish HUAC worked to combat the House Committee on Un-American Activities. After political pressure and the reorganization of the House of Representatives, the House committee ceased to exist in 1975.
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51. John George and Laird Wilcox, Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1992.
This thoroughly documented and detailed tour of political extremism has recently won an award for the authors from the Gus Davis Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States. Mr. Wilcox publishes the annuals Guide to the American Right and the Guide to the American Left. The Kansas Library Association and Social Issues Resources Series, Inc. have chosen Mr. Wilcox as the 1994 recipient of their Freedom of Information Award.
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52a. Billy James Hargis, We Have Been Betrayed, text of an address delivered by Billy James Hargis at the Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, D.C. on April 20, 1961, Tulsa, Okla.: Christian Crusade, [1961].
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52b. Fernando Penabaz, Crusading Preacher from the West, Tulsa, Okla.: Christian Crusade, 1965.
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53a. Elizabeth Dilling, The Roosevelt Red Record and its Background, Kenilworth, Ill.: Elizabeth Dilling, 1936.
53b. Round Table Letter, March 21, 1941. Chicago: Patriotic Research Bureau.
One of the most colorful of the early anti-Communists, Elizabeth Dilling became a strident voice in America during the 1930s. A pre-war isolationist, she wrote several books including The Roosevelt Red Record, in which she attacked Franklin Roosevelt as a Communist sympathizer. She was also director of the Patriotic Research Bureau through which she published the Dilling Bulletin from the 1940s until her death in 1966.
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54. Phoebe Courtney, Gun Control Means People Control, Littleton, Colo.: The Independent American Newspaper, 1977.
Phoebe Courtney was managing editor of the Independent American, a national conservative newspaper which was published from 1955 until it ceased in 1991. She is the author of many books and publishes a series of pamphlets called TAX FAX. Millions of the pamphlets have been distributed, covering such topics as sex education, illegal aliens, free trade, gays in the military, and fluoridation.
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55. Isabel Moore, The Day the Communists Took Over America, New York: Wisdom House, 1961.
This novel of political intrigue was published in 1961 not long after the McCarthy anti-Communism hearings of the mid-1950s. The author specialized in the study of Communism and spent several months in the Soviet Union in 1959.
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56. Gene Grove, Inside the John Birch Society, Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, 1961.
Probably the most successful far Right organization, the John Birch Society was established in 1958 by Robert H. W. Welch, Jr., reached its height in the mid-1960s, and has steadily declined in membership since. The John Birch Society was named for a young Baptist preacher who was killed by Chinese Communists soon after the end of World War II.