Summary Information
Robert Pickus Papers 1947-1969
Mss 547; Micro 825; PH Mss 547; PH Mss 547 (5)
0.6 c.f. (2 archives boxes), 15 reels of microfilm (35mm), 32 photographs, 1 negative, and 22 pieces of ephemera
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of peace advocate Robert Pickus, primarily concerning two groups in which Pickus was a leader: the California-based Acts for Peace and its successor, Turn Toward Peace, a national organization. Included are personal and organizational correspondence, speeches and writings, biographical information, and organizational papers such as minutes, financial records, position papers, clippings, publicity, reports, flyers, memoranda, research material, a wide variety of publications, forms, ephemera, and photographs, including images of demonstrations, parades, and displays. The collection relates to a host of activities including education and public witness projects with churches, students and children, politicians, community peace centers (especially well documented are the Marin and Seattle Peace Centers), and conscientious objectors. Although Pickus is well known for his critique of the New Left during the anti-Vietnam War era, this aspect of his career is not well documented in the collection. English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00547 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Peace advocate Robert Pickus was born October 31, 1923, in Sioux City, Iowa. Not long after enrolling at the University of Chicago, his studies were interrupted by military service with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. After the war he returned to the university and in 1946 completed his undergraduate degree in political science. From 1949 to 1950 he studied at the University of London on a Fulbright Scholarship, and later, after an additional year's study, received an M.A. in political science from the University of Chicago in 1957.
Beginning in 1950 Pickus became increasingly involved with the peace movement and from that point on his life has been focused on the ideas that contribute to peace and on making those ideas part of public policy. From 1951 to 1955
he was Chicago peace secretary of the American Friends Service Committee and he also served of AFSC's national staff. In 1958 he wrote the widely-circulated Speak Truth to Power. In addition, during the 1950's he was a founder of the Youth Council of Chicago and midwestern director of the Council for Cooperative Development, which sought to strengthen the urban cooperative movement.
Much of Pickus' activity with the AFSC focused around the question of what effect an individual might have on furthering the cause of peace. In 1958 his ideas on the subject led Pickus to initiate Acts for Peace, a northern California organization which coordinated the activities of ten regional peace groups and which was the first attempt in the country to build a coordinated peace organization. From its founding, Pickus served as executive secretary of the Berkeley-based group. In 1961 he assisted many national peace movement leaders in expanding AFP's education and action efforts into national perspective. He served as a national coordinator and west coast director of this new group known as Turn Toward Peace which succeeded Acts for Peace. In 1965 Turn Toward Peace reconstituted itself as the World Without War Council, and Pickus became its president.
Pickus has written extensively about his ideas. In addition to Speak Truth to Power, he authored the pamphlet Peace Politics, and New Left, and the Pity of It All (1966), which presented his controversial critique of New Left politics during the Vietnam War era. Other titles include The ABM and a World Without War (1969) and To End War (1970). He has also served as associate editor of Liberation and as a regular commentator on KPFA radio.
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of some personal papers, together with papers pertaining to several organizations which Pickus was instrumental in founding: Acts for Peace, Turn Toward Peace, and the World Without War Council. The papers are arranged into two main sections: 1) correspondence and general papers, which include Pickus' personal mail and some organizational correspondence and which provide a chronological approach to research and 2) organizational files, which offer subject-oriented access. Types of documentation present include correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, speeches and articles, clippings, publicity, and a wide variety of publications and forms. A final category consists of photographs and ephemera.
Unfortunately the collection is not particularly revealing with regard to certain aspects of Pickus' career. Very little material pertains to his work in Chicago with the AFSC and though several items point to his differences with the majority of the anti-Vietnam War movement, there is little concerning his important thought in that regard. Internal evidence suggests that a fairly sophisticated organizational scheme existed for the records while they were stored in the AFP/TTP office in Berkeley. Unfortunately during initial processing in 1970 this order was destroyed and when work resumed later a new arrangement had to be imposed on the collection.
CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL PAPERS form almost half of the collection, with the majority of the items occurring during the period 1958-1963. Though the correspondence is incomplete even for that period, it provides good material on the establishment and operation of Acts for Peace and on the cross-currents within the California peace movement.
Of the ORGANIZATIONAL PAPERS, about one-third concern Acts for Peace, one-third concern Turn Toward Peace, and the remainder concern the World Without War Council, the American Friends Service Committee and the Fallout Suits of which Pickus was a committee member. For AFP and TTP the files contain a great deal of similar documentation, particularly publications, and parallel arrangement schemes have been used for both. Administrative papers of Acts for Peace include incorporation papers, minutes, reports, and financial records. The affiliated peace center files contain material sent to AFP's Berkeley office and as a result are not complete. Of special note here is a house-to-house survey of peace attitudes in Palo Alto. Under the publications heading is a wide variety of printed matter, ranging from completed meeting report forms to press releases and publicity. Project files are arranged into two sequences: short term projects and on-going, undated efforts. Both types contain a variety of documentation including press releases, clippings, flyers, memoranda, and related printed matter distributed by AFP. Noteworthy among these projects are completed conscientious objector interview forms and reviews of current literature.
The Turn Toward Peace files divide into three sections: internal administrative files of the Pacific Central Office, which Pickus headed, material received from the national office concerning projects with which Pickus was directly concerned, and material received from various local and regional TTP offices. As might be expected, the first category contains the more valuable and unique documentation.
Administrative files of the Pacific Central office include minutes, reports, and financial records. Of the files on the local California affiliated centers, those on the Marin Peace Center are fairly extensive, even including some minutes and financial records, Project files indicate a continuation by TTP of many of the same efforts begun by AFP and much the same types of material are present.
For a detailed study of the national history of Turn Toward Peace, the researcher should consult the files at the Bancroft Library (a temporary folder listing for which is located in the Pickus case file in the Archives Division). Because of this collection, only national materials of particular research value or items with which Pickus was directly involved have been retained: a fairly complete set of minutes; files on early organizational matters and drafts of TTP policy statements; a copy of a Handbook for Community Centers and Peace and the American Community, a manual for peace instructors; and files on the youth arm of TTP, which organized the February 1962 Washington Project.
Among the local and regional affiliates the files pertaining to the New England and the Northwest office (and the Seattle Peace Center) are most complete. These include correspondence and printed matter. Material about the World Without War Council is rather fragmentary, consisting only of a few printed items deposited by Pickus, to which has been added items from the Social Action vertical file. The AFSC material consists of flyers and bulletins prepared and distributed by Pickus as head of the peace education program and a few internal administrative memoranda. About the other group with which Pickus was involved, the “Fallout Suits,” which was an attempt to prevent international nuclear testing by litigation, there are form letters, press releases, clippings, and legal documents.
MISCELLANY includes some correspondence of uncertain provenance (outgoing letters of Irving Laucks, a California activist); items which could not be identified by organization such as mailing lists, copies of literature distributed, and material relating to office operations; and research files. The research files, which have been sorted by subject, and the mailing lists were not suitable for microfilming. With these exceptions, the entire collection was filmed and then destroyed because of the deteriorated condition of the paper.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Robert Pickus, Berkeley, California, with portions presented by Robert Freeman, 1968. Accession Number: M68-23, M68-62, M68-296
Prepared for microfilming by Carolyn J. Mattern, August 1980.
Contents List
Micro 825
Reel
1
Frame
1
|
Series: Biographical Material, 1961, undated
|
|
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Series: Correspondence and General Papers
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Reel
1
Frame
22
|
1947-1959, April
|
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Reel
2
|
1959, May-1960, February
|
|
Reel
3
|
1960, March-December
|
|
Reel
4
|
1961, January-June
|
|
Reel
5
|
1961, July-1962, August
|
|
Reel
6
|
1962, September-1963, December
|
|
Reel
7
|
1964, January-1966, undated
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
578
|
Series: Speeches and Writings, 1950-1966
|
|
|
Series: Organizational Papers
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
699
|
Subseries: American Friends Service Committee, Peace Education Program, 1951-1955
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
783
|
Subseries: Fallout Suits, 1957-circa 1962
|
|
|
Subseries: Acts for Peace
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
918
|
Incorporation papers, 1960
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
926
|
Advisory Council, 1959-1960
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
956
|
Minutes, 1958-1962
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
1051
|
Administrative reports, 1959-1961
|
|
|
Affiliated peace centers
|
|
Reel
7
Frame
1091
|
Campus Peace Center (Berkeley), 1959-1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
1
|
Chico, 1959-1960
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
23
|
Marin Peace Information Center (San Rafael), 1959-1960
|
|
|
Peninsula Peace Center (Palo Alto)
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
66
|
General papers, 1959-1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
84
|
House-to-house survey, undated
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
147
|
San Jose Peace Center, 1959-1960
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
211
|
San Francisco, undated
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
217
|
Clippings, 1959-1961
|
|
|
Financial records
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
237
|
Bank statements, 1959-1962
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
294
|
Disbursements, 1958-1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
421
|
Weekly treasurer's reports, 1958-1962
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
634
|
Miscellaneous financial records, 1958-1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
726
|
Miscellaneous financial forms, 1960-1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
743
|
Membership lists, by community, undated
|
|
|
Publications and forms
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
857
|
Discussion leaders meeting reports, 1959-1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
918
|
Displays, 1960-1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
942
|
Material kits, 1961
|
|
Reel
8
Frame
1092
|
Meeting report forms, 1959-1961
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
1
|
Miscellaneous forms, undated
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
72
|
Penny Pages for Peace, undated
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
88
|
Press releases, 1958-1961
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
115
|
Recruiting literature, 1958-1962
|
|
|
Projects
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
194
|
1959, May 17, Students Speak for Peace
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
227
|
1959, Proposed peace film script
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
245
|
1959, ROTC
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
281
|
1960, January, Walk for Peace
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
289
|
1960, October 29, Campaign for Disarmament Rally
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
297
|
1960, November, San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
356
|
1961, September, Russian bomb testing
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
363
|
1961, Cuban missile crisis
|
|
|
Undated projects
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
382
|
Campus peace programs
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
411
|
Children
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
455
|
Churches and synagogues
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
504
|
Civil defense and disarmament
|
|
|
Community peace centers
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
569
|
General papers
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
615
|
Forms
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
636
|
Conferences
|
|
|
Conscientious objectors
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
661
|
General papers
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
717
|
Interview reports
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
817
|
Films
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
939
|
High schools students
|
|
|
Literature
|
|
Reel
9
Frame
956
|
Reviews
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
1
|
Forms
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
114
|
Mass media
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
135
|
Peace interns
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
172
|
Political activities
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
185
|
Public witness projects
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
208
|
Social Responsibility in Science
|
|
|
Subseries: Turn Toward Peace
|
|
|
Pacific Central Office
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
224
|
Minutes, 1961-1966
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
393
|
Council members, undated
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
417
|
Administrative reports, 1962-circa 1965
|
|
|
Affiliated peace centers
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
486
|
Campus Peace Center, 1962-1965
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
518
|
Diablo Valley Peace Center (Walnut Creek), 1962-1965
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
602
|
Haight-Ashbury, 1962
|
|
|
Marin Peace Center, 1962-1965
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
628
|
General papers
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
962
|
Minutes
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
996
|
Financial records
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
1047
|
Membership lists
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
1088
|
Miscellaneous centers, undated
|
|
Reel
10
Frame
1100
|
Monterey Peninsula Peace Center, 1963-1964
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
1
|
Peninsula Peace Center, 1962-1963
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
52
|
Sacramento Peace Center, circa 1961-1965
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
166
|
San Jose Peace Center, 1962-1965
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
171
|
San Francisco, 1961-1962
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
199
|
Clippings, 1961-1965
|
|
|
Financial records
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
214
|
Contributors, 1962-1963
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
232
|
Weekly treasurer's reports, 1962-1963
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
292
|
Miscellaneous financial records, 1962-1964
|
|
|
Publications and forms
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
408
|
General, undated
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
518
|
Displays, undated
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
522
|
Handbook drafts, undated
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
653
|
Miscellaneous forms, undated
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
720
|
Press releases, 1962-1965
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
752
|
Recruiting material, 1962-1963
|
|
|
Projects
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
773
|
1962, Peace candidates
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
813
|
1963, Peace Mailbox
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
829
|
1965, Cross-country Run for Peace
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
922
|
1966, April, Voluntary Organizations and a World Without War conference
|
|
Reel
11
Frame
1067
|
1966, Political Focus
|
|
|
Undated projects
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
1
|
Children
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
32
|
Churches
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
57
|
Community Canvass
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
83
|
Community peace centers
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
185
|
Conferences
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
205
|
Conscientious objectors
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
273
|
Films
|
|
|
Literature
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
294
|
General
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
326
|
Reviews
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
400
|
Membership surveys
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
594
|
“Opinionmakers”
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
616
|
Peace interns
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
678
|
Political questionnaires
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
713
|
Roster project
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
748
|
Vietnam
|
|
|
National Office
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
831
|
Incorporation papers, undated
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
847
|
Affiliated organizations, undated
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
874
|
Early organizational and policy material, 1961
|
|
|
Minutes
|
|
Reel
12
Frame
934
|
1961-1963, December 10
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
1
|
1963, December 11-1966
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
113
|
General papers, 1961-1965
|
|
|
Publications
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
494
|
General, undated
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
578
|
Forms, undated
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
593
|
Miscellaneous mailings, undated
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
748
|
Recruiting material, undated
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
759
|
Handbook for Community Centers, 1962
|
|
Reel
13
Frame
931
|
Peace and the American Community, 1963
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
1
|
Voluntary organizations conference, 1963
|
|
|
Youth Council
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
117
|
Minutes, 1962-1964
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
132
|
General papers, 1961-1964
|
|
|
Washington Project, February 1962
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
199
|
Policy statements
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
217
|
Logistics
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
233
|
Publicity
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
285
|
Clippings
|
|
|
Regional and local affiliated centers
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
320
|
Albuquerque Peace Information Center, 1964-1965
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
329
|
Chicago Regional Office, 1961-1966
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
509
|
Denver Regional Office, 1962-1963
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
541
|
Eugene Peace Information Center, 1961-1962
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
565
|
Greater Hartford Community Peace Center, 1963
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
581
|
Miscellaneous centers, undated
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
625
|
New England Regional Office, 1962-1965
|
|
|
Pacific Northwest Regional Office and Seattle Peace Center
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
593
|
Minutes, 1962-1965
|
|
|
General papers
|
|
Reel
14
Frame
955
|
1961-1964
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
1
|
1965-1966
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
271
|
Tucson Peace Center, 1963-1964
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
288
|
Washington Peace Center, 1961
|
|
|
Subseries: World Without War Council
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
309
|
General papers, 1965-1969
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
507
|
KOAP-TV Series, 1966
|
|
|
Series: Miscellany
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
554
|
Laucks, Irving, correspondence, 1959-1961
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
656
|
Literature distributed, undated
|
|
Reel
15
Frame
1172
|
Lyttle, Brad, correspondence, 1954
|
|
Mss 547
Box
1
Folder
1
|
Mailing lists, undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2-3
|
Notes, undated
|
|
Micro 825
Reel
15
Frame
1180
|
Office procedures, undated
|
|
Mss 547
|
Research material, undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
Conscientious objectors
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5-7
|
Miscellany
|
|
Box
1
Folder
8
|
Nuclear disarmament
|
|
Box
2
Folder
1
|
Nuclear disarmament
|
|
Box
2
Folder
2-3
|
Peace
|
|
Box
2
Folder
4
|
Religion
|
|
Box
2
Folder
5
|
Vietnam
|
|
PH Mss 547
|
Series: Photographs and Ephemera
|
|
PH Mss 547 (5)
|
Oversize Ephemera
|
|
|