Title: Lucile Montgomery Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1963-1967

Creator:

• Montgomery, Lucile

Call Number: Micro 44; SC 662; Audio 425A

Quantity: 0.1 c.f. (1 folder), 3 reels of microfilm (35 mm), and 8 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:

Papers, mainly 1964 and 1965, of Lucile Montgomery, a patron of the civil rights movement. Included are correspondence, notes, circulars, press releases, project plans, and reports relating to the Highlander Research and Education Center, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and various Mississippi civil rights groups and activities. On tape are several Freedom School workshops and a Chicago meeting addressed by James Bevel and Martin Luther King Jr.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0044

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Lucille (Lucy) Montgomery, one of the most active northern white women committed to the Civil Rights movement, is a southerner by birth. Born in North Carolina and graduated from Salem College for Girls, she was a case worker and county welfare administrator in her home state before going to Washington, D.C. in the early years of the Depression. There she joined the League of Women Shoppers in New Deal days, and had her first experiences with picketing.

After her second marriage, she moved to Winnetka, Illinois, with her husband, Kenneth L. Montgomery, a corporation lawyer. Her four children are now grown, and she lives in the suburban community of Northbrook, near Winnetka, where in the past few years she has given benefits to aid various projects in which she believes. Her financial resources are reported to come in part from the Post cereal fortune.

In the Chicago area, Lucy Montgomery has worked with the League of Women Voters, has been on the board of SANE, helped to establish the Henry Horner nursery school in Chicago, was one of the founders of Women for Peace, and joined the Winnetka Associates of the Women's Board of the Chicago Art Institute. She is greatly interested in African art and culture, and she and her husband have sponsored several African students in America. In 1963, Mrs. Montgomery made eight trips to the Dominican Republic to work among the poor, trying to develop a government-sponsored crafts project, a plan that failed with the overthrow of Juan Bosch.

It was the need for involvement, and her interest in the problems of literacy and poverty, that led her into the Civil Rights movement, to which she has given generously of her time, energies, and money. She began her association with SNCC in 1964, after attending a conference in Atlanta. In cooperation with SNCC she has directed or participated in Freedom Workshops and Citizenship Workshops in the South, including direction of a Freedom School Workshop at Highlander Education and Research Center, Knoxville, Tenn. She serves on the board at Highlander also. In 1964, she helped train college volunteers for the Mississippi Summer Project, took part in “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” and attended the Hampton (Va.) Institute on problems of the South. She has consistently tried to help the poor of the South develop their building trades training program.

The bulk of this collection are microfilmed files but also present is one folder of paper documents and eight tape recordings. The microfilmed files consist of correspondence, Mrs. Montgomery's notes, circulars, news releases, project plans, and reports that she has accumulated during the past three years of activity in the Civil Rights movement. Although the inclusive dates are from 1963 to 1966, by far the largest number of items date from 1964 and 1965.

The following list of microfilmed files represents folder titles used by Mrs. Montgomery or her secretary. The filmed material is in this order. Mrs. Montgomery's general correspondence (#30 on the list) has been organized chronologically. The materials relating to Highlander Center (#7 and 8) and to SNCC (#44-54) are arranged by months. Because all other folders each contain such a small amount, sometimes not dated, no attempt has been made to organize their contents. Some correspondence may be found in folders that are not necessarily marked “correspondence.”

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

Original papers and tape recordings loaned for copying by Lucy Montgomery, 1967. Folder presented, 1966. Accession Number: M66-450, M67-103

Processing Information

Processed by Margaret Hafstad, June 1967.

Micro 44	Series: Microfilmed Files
Reel   1 Segment   1	Arkansas - Freedom Centers
Reel   1 Segment   2	Civil Rights Movement - Reports and Publications Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   3	Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   4	Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   5	Freedom Democratic Clubs Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   6	Hampton Institute College, Hampton, Virginia -- Southern College State Conferences
	Highlander Education and Research Center
Reel   1 Segment   7	General Correspondence, 1964-1966 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   7	Releases and Publications, 1963-1966 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   7	Board Meetings, 1964-1966 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   7	Financial Reports, 1964-1966 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
	Freedom School Workshop
Reel   1 Segment   8	Correspondence, 1964-1965 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   8	Planning, 1964 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   8	Evaluations, 1965 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   9	King, Martin Luther, 1966
Reel   1 Segment   10	McLucas, Leroy, 1966
Reel   1 Segment   11	McNamara, Robert, 1965
Reel   1 Segment   12	Meredith Rally, Chicago, 1966 July 4
Reel   1 Segment   13	Mississippi Community Centers Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   14	Mississippi Drive for Funds Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   15	Mississippi Education Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   16	Mississippi Elections Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   17	Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   18	Mississippi Freedom Project-McComb Incident Summary, Lewis Allen Case, etc. Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   19	Mississippi Freedom Schools Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   20	Mississippi, Indianola Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   21	Mississippi, Operation Buildup, alias Bootstraps Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1 Segment   22	Mississippi Students College Conference, Mary Holmes Junior College, West Point, Mississippi Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
	Mississippi Summer Project
Reel   2 Segment   23	Robert Moses, director Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   24	Student Council to Implement Learning (SCIL)
Reel   2 Segment   25	Mississippi, Tribbett and Brick Factory; “Strike City” Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   26	Mississippi Volunteers Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   27	Mississippi: Wednesdays in Mississippi Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   28	Mississippi: West Point, 1965 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   29	Mississippi: White Project Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   30	Mississippi Workshops--Miscellaneous
	Montgomery, Lucy
Reel   2 Segment   31	Contributions, 1964-1965 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   31	General Correspondence, 1964-1966
Reel   2 Segment   31	Notes Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   31	Publicity Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2 Segment   32	Muste, A. J.
Reel   2 Segment   33	NAACP Legal Defense Aid and Educational Fund Inc.
Reel   2 Segment   34	Non-violent workshops: A.F.S.C. Palatine, 1964 November 13-15
Reel   2 Segment   35	Oakland Committee, Frank Ditto
Reel   2 Segment   36	Political
Reel   2 Segment   37	Poor People's Corporation Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   3 Segment   38	Reports and releases-- Miscellaneous
Reel   3 Segment   39	Rockford Festival
Reel   3 Segment   40	Smokey Mountain Economic Education Project
Reel   3 Segment   41	Southern Conference Educational Fund, Inc. (Braden) Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   3 Segment   42	Southern Freedom Centers Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   3 Segment   43	Southern Students Organizing Committee
Reel   3 Segment   44	Students for Democratic Society (SDS and JOIN)
	SNCC
Reel   3 Segment   45	Atlanta, 1966 September
Reel   3 Segment   46	Benefits
Reel   3 Segment   47	Black power Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   3 Segment   48	Circulars, newsletters, program outlines, incidents, 1963-1966 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   3 Segment   49	College organization--Virginia--Statewide
Reel   3 Segment   50	Correspondence, 1964-1966
Reel   3 Segment   51	African American history
Reel   3 Segment   52	Notes by Lucy Montgomery
Reel   3 Segment   53	Poor People's Land Corporation
Reel   3 Segment   54	Student Voice-newsletter
Reel   3 Segment   55	Waveland
Audio 425A	Series: Tape Recordings	⇧
425A/1-4	Freedom School Workshop, Selma report: Nighttime, Parts I - IV, John Callaway, 1965 March 21 (10-12 p.m.)
	Chicago, 1966 - Freedom movement
425A/5 Side 1	Greatermont Hope Baptist Church, 1966 September 15 Scope and Content Note: First, Rev. James Bevel; Second, Dr. Martin Luther King.
425A/5 Side 2	Provident Baptist church, 1966 September 22 Scope and Content Note: First, Rev. James Jackson; Second, Rev. James Bevel on African American removal--Englewood District; Third, Dr. Martin Luther King on Grenada, Mississippi, compared with Chicago treatment of African American children.
425A/6 Side 1-2	Provident Baptist Church, 1966 September 29 and October 6 Scope and Content Note: First, Rev. James Bevel; Second, Dr. Martin Luther King on conditions that cause slums; public accomodations; housing.
	Freedom School Workshop, Knoxville, 1964
425A/7 Side 1-2	[Lucy Montgomery] Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online: Track 1 and Track 2.
425A/8 Side 1	Testimonials by Freedom School workers from Mississippi Scope and Content Note: Beaula Ayers - Holly Springs; Bob Pams - Birmingham; Christine Walker - Rosedale; Joe Harris - Lexington
SC 662	Series: Paper Documents	⇧
	Additions, 1964-1966 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online. Scope and Content Note: A 1964 Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) report to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and several items concerning activities of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)