Title: Madison Measure for Measure Records
Inclusive Dates: 1965-1977

Creator:

• Madison Measure for Measure

Call Number: Mss 493; Tape 782A

Quantity: 1.0 c.f. (1 record center carton) and 2 tape recordings

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of Madison Measure for Measure, a Madison, Wisconsin organization (1965-1976) which provided economic assistance for Southern Blacks during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Included are correspondence, minutes, financial records, clippings, publicity, and sound recordings. The collection documents fundraising activities in Madison and contacts with civil rights leaders in Mississippi and Arkansas such as Fannie Lou Hamer, L.C. Smith, and Lee Bankhead. Particularly extensive is the correspondence with Lee Thornton of the North Bolivar County Farm Cooperative. The tape cassettes are of two speeches given in Madison in 1976 by Mrs. Hamer under the sponsorship of Measure for Measure.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00493

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Measure for Measure (M4M) was an independent Wisconsin corporation with local organizations in several communities which provided economic assistance to Southern Blacks during the late 1960's and early 1970's. The Madison group was formed as the result of trips to the South made by several residents in 1964 and 1965. Convinced of the necessity of a permanent organization to provide substantive, ongoing assistance, they contacted Milwaukee Measure for Measure and incorporated in May 1965.

Although Madison Measure for Measure stressed the importance of economic self-help and community development, by necessity many of its early activities were in the nature of traditional charity. Its first project in 1965 provided books and clothing for a West Helena, Arkansas, Freedom School as part of SNCC's Arkansas Summer Project. Later it provided emergency funds for Mississippi Freedom Union strikers. In 1968 Madison Measure for Measure honored the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., with funds for food stamp purchases in Sunflower County, Mississippi. In response to the racial unrest of that year, the organization also sponsored “Project Understanding,” which brought underprivileged Southern Black youth to Wisconsin. Ultimately, however, its main support (over $250,000 and over 30 tons of clothing, books, household goods, and medical supplies) went to two Mississippi agricultural cooperatives, the North Bolivar County Farm Cooperative in Mound Bayou and Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Cooperative in Ruleville.

Throughout its early years, Madison Measure for Measure raised funds through individual efforts such as garage sales, clothing drives, and cocktail parties. Beginning in 1969 it joined with the American Foundation for Freedom from Hunger to sponsor Walks for Development in several Wisconsin communities. As a result, truly significant amounts were raised and Measure for Measure was able to provide funds for the cooperatives for land acquisition and equipment purchases. After this success, however, Madison Measure for Measure declined, and by the late 1970's it was reported moribund.

Although only a small collection, the records of Madison Measure for Measure form a useful source for studying the response of a predominantly white, Northern, middle-class community to racial injustice in the South. The collection include minutes of the board of directors, correspondence, financial records, clippings, and sound recordings documenting the organization's history from its beginnings in 1965 to its end in 1976. Minutes of the board of directors meetings are fairly complete and provide the best overall documentation of the group's history. In addition to sources in the archival collection, copies of the M4M newsletter in the Historical Society Library (catalogued under the title Measure for Measure) also provide documentation of the organization's history and activities.

The collection also documents well the financial and fundraising activities of Measure for Measure. Included are annual financial reports, financial journals, and correspondence concerning fundraising activities.

Correspondence files which concern the group's contacts in the South include several letters from Fannie Lou Hamer and other civil rights activists in Mississippi and Arkansas such as Lee Bankhead and L.C. Smith. There are also some letters from Robert Kastenmeier and Carl Braden. For the 1970's the correspondence from Lee Thornton of the North Bolivar Farm Cooperative is especially extensive and detailed.

Also in the collection are publicity materials; Xeroxed newspaper clippings; and sound recordings of speeches in Madison in 1976 by Fannie Lou Hamer.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Madison Measure for Measure, Inc., via Jean Sweet and Sarah and Jeff Goldstein, 1976-1977; by Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruleville, Miss., January 29, 1976; by Margaret Bogue, Madison, Wisconsin, February 9, 1976; and by Nancy Taylor, McFarland, Wisconsin, January 10, 1985. Accession Number: M76-35, M76-36, M76-37, M77-132, M85-137

Processing Information

Processed by Amy Peterson (archives student, 1979), Scott Breivold (archives student, 1986), and Carolyn J. Mattern.

Mss 493 Box   1 Folder   1	Organizational materials, articles of incorporation, by-laws, tax exempt status material, 1968-1972
Box   1 Folder   2-5	Minutes of Board of Directors meetings, 1965-1974
	Fund raising files
Box   1 Folder   6	Mailings, special projects, 1968-1975
Box   1 Folder   7	Church affiliations, 1968-1977
Box   1 Folder   8	Clothes to Mississippi, undated
Box   1 Folder   9	Hike for Humanity, 1973
Box   1 Folder   10	Miscellaneous fundraising projects, 1974-1977
Box   1 Folder   11	Sponsors and membership lists, undated
Box   1 Folder   12	Milwaukee hike, garage sales, Plows Against Hunger, 1972-1975
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   13-16	General, 1965-1976
Box   1 Folder   17	Freedom Farm, 1971-1977
Box   1 Folder   18-19	North Bolivar Farm Cooperative, 1972-1976
	Press and publicity
Box   1 Folder   20	Publicity, 1965-1969
Box   1 Folder   21	Clippings, 1965-1971
Box   1 Folder   22	Newsletter preparation material, 1965, 1975
	Financial records
Box   1 Folder   23	Annual reports, 1965-1975
Box   1 Folder   24	Financial journal, 1965-1975
Box   1 Folder   25	Expense journal, 1965-1975
Box   1 Folder   26	Income journal, 1965-1975
Box   1 Folder   27	Miscellaneous records, 1966-1973
Tape 782A	Sound recordings
No.   1	Speech by Fannie Lou Hamer at the University of Wisconsin, January 29, 1976 Scope and Content Note: Compares race relations in the North and South and presents general comments on the condition of American society. Side 2 is largely a question-and-answer session.
No.   2	Remarks by Fannie Lou Hamer at the 11th anniversary reunion of Madison Measure for Measure, January 30, 1976