Title: Brian L. Peterson Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1963-1970

Creator:

• Peterson, Brian L., 1942-

Call Number: Mss 498

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes)

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:

Papers of Brian Peterson, a political activist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, consisting of correspondence, notes, writings, and collected papers. Included are files on his participation in the Teaching Assistants Association, the History Students Association, and other campus organizations involved in anti-Vietnam War activities. Also present is a folder of recollections of work as a SNCC volunteer in Mississippi in 1964.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00498

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Brian Peterson was an active participant in many of the political and social action movements of the 1960s and early 1970s. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, he studied at Drake University in Des Moines, and received an M.A. (1965) and a Ph.D. (1976) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He spent a freedom summer in McComb, Mississippi, in 1964, as part of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) volunteer effort. At the University of Wisconsin, Peterson worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of History, and was active in the Teaching Assistants Association (TAA) and in the TAA general strike of 1970. He was also an active member or a supporter of other social action and radical groups, among them the History Students Association, Student Civil Liberties Coordinating Committee (SCLCC), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America.

The collection includes Peterson's personal papers relating to his activities and interests, consisting of his correspondence and writings, as well as printed material and papers collected by him. The material is arranged alphabetically by activity, organization, or subject. Much of the printed material regarding civil rights in Mississippi has been separated to the Social Action Vertical File.

Most of the papers deal with the events occurring on the University of Wisconsin campus during the late 1960s and early 1970s. There are files concerning the anti-Vietnam war movement, student demonstrations against the Dow Chemical Corporation (manufacturers of napalm for the Vietnam war effort), the local and national chapters of the W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America, the TAA and its general strike of 1970, and the History Students Association. Included are general records of the TAA, such as policy statements, printed memos, notes and writings of Peterson's, material on contract negotiations, and instructions to striking TAs.

His fragmentary notes on political activities at the University of Wisconsin, 1966-1969, also deal with anti-war and other efforts. Peterson's interest in other radical groups is illustrated by files on SNCC, SDS, SCLCC (including records of the Provisional Student Civil Liberties Coordinating Committee), and socialist groups in Wisconsin and Iowa.

Writings by Peterson describe his reactions to the situations in Wisconsin and in Mississippi. Also included are notes, bibliographies, drafts, and a final version of an article written by Peterson for the journal Radical America about Communism in the West and the New Left.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has one of the richest collections of Civil Rights movement records in the nation, which includes more than 100 manuscript collections documenting the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964. More than 25,000 pages from the Freedom Summer manuscripts are available online as the Freedom Summer Digital Collection.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Brian and Joyce Peterson, Madison, Wisconsin, 1965-1967, 1969, 1972. Accession Number: M65-64, M66-390, M67-198, M69-334, M72-332

Processing Information

Processed by Menzi Behrnd Klodt, September 1979.

Mss 498 Box   1 Folder   1	Anti-War Material
Box   1 Folder   2	Correspondence, 1963-1966
Box   1 Folder   3	Demonstrations Against Dow Chemical, 1967 October
Box   1 Folder   4	History Department Student-Faculty Committee - Minutes, 1968-1969
Box   1 Folder   5	History Students Association - Papers, Minutes, Handouts, 1968-1970
Box   1 Folder   6	Miscellaneous
Box   1 Folder   7	“Notes on Political Activities at the University of Wisconsin, 1966-1969”
Box   1 Folder   8	Other Writings
	Radical America
Box   1 Folder   9	Notes and Prospectuses for Articles, 1970
Box   1 Folder   10-11	Writings for Article Re: Communism in the West and the New Left
Box   1 Folder   12	Socialism Files
Box   1 Folder   13	Student Civil Liberties Coordinating Committee - Records, 1963
Box   1 Folder   14	Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Activities, McComb, Mississippi, 1965
	Students for a Democratic Society
Box   1 Folder   15	Papers and Printed Material, 1965-1966
Box   1 Folder   16	Economic Research and Action Project and Radical Education Project - Papers
Box   1 Folder   17	Teaching Assistants - Salaries, Benefits, and Regulations, 1968-1970
	Teaching Assistants Association
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Records - General and Re: Strike of 1970, 1966-1970, undated
Box   2 Folder   3	Innovations in Teaching, 1969
Box   2 Folder   4	TAA and Labor Organization, 1970
Box   2 Folder   5	W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America, 1964-1965
Box   2 Folder   6	Writings on Mississippi Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.