Title: Sally Belfrage Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1962-1966

Creator:

• Belfrage, Sally, 1936-

Call Number: Micro 599

Quantity: 2 rolls of microfilm (35 mm)

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, 1962-1966, of Sally Belfrage, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worker in Mississippi, including a draft of her book Freedom Summer, an index to the draft, her diary and notes, voter registration information, and an extensive file of reports of progress and of harassment of SNCC activities.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0599

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Sally Belfrage, author and former civil rights worker, was born in Hollywood, California in 1936. Her parents, Cedric and Mary Belfrage, were British writers; Cedric wrote for the National Guardian. Belfrage lived in England and Moscow, and in 1959 wrote A Room in Moscow, which was well received by the critics. In 1964 she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and participated in the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project; she was librarian at the Greenwood, Mississippi SNCC headquarters. Her book, Freedom Summer, published in 1965, details the project and her participation in it. Belfrage presently lives in New York City.

The Mississippi Summer Projects were designed by SNCC and COFO (Council of Federated Organizations) to improve the depressed conditions of Mississippi blacks through political channels. The projects were divided into four areas of concentration: voter registration, six week freedom schools, the operation of community center programs, and research in Mississippi law. Training periods for the six hundred participants were held at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. For further information, see Mary R. Aickin's 1968 University of Washington M.A. thesis, “Black and White Together: Northern Volunteers and the Southern Freedom Summers” (SC 632).

The Sally Belfrage Papers mainly concern the Mississippi Summer projects, and include a manuscript draft of her book, Freedom Summer; an index to the manuscript draft (the book was published without an index); her diary and notes concerning her summer 1964 experiences in Mississippi; voter registration reports and list from March to August 1963; miscellaneous COFO and SNCC newsletters and ephemera; a transcript of a 1966 radio program “This Little Light,” aired over station WBAI in New York City concerning the 1964 summer project; and a location file. The location file forms the bulk of her collection and documents project activities in thirty-three local areas in Mississippi; there are reports of harassment of project volunteers and local blacks and progress reports on various voter registration drives. Belfrage relied heavily on her own collection for source material for Freedom Summer, which includes most of the information in these papers.

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 Sally Belfrage, New York, New York, January 1, 1967 and January 31, 1967. Accession Number: M67-039, M67-039-1

Processing Information

Processed by Susan Sharlin, January 26, 1976.

Micro 599	Manuscript of Freedom Summer, circa 1965
Reel   1	Pages 1-175
Reel   1	Pages 176-335
Reel   1	Index to manuscripts of Freedom Summer, circa 1965
Reel   1	Diary and notes, 1964 June-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1	Voter registration reports, 1963 March-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1	Miscellaneous COFO and SNCC material, 1963-1964, undated Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1	“This Little Light” - transcript of radio program, 1966 Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
	Location file
Reel   1	Batesville, 1964 June-July Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1	Biloxi, 1964 July-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1	Canton, 1964 August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   1	Carthage-Harmony, 1964 July-August
Reel   1	Charleston, 1964 August
Reel   1	Clarksdale, 1964 June-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Cleveland, 1964 July
Reel   2	Crenshaw, 1964 July
Reel   2	Columbus, 1964 June-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Flora, 1964 July
Reel   2	Greenville, 1964 June-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Greenwood, 1963-1964, undated
Reel   2	Hattiesburg, 1964 July-August, undated
Reel   2	Hollandale, 1964 July
Reel   2	Holly Springs, 1963 May, 1964 June-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Indianola, 1962, 1964, undated
Reel   2	Issaquena, 1964 July Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Lauderdale-Meridian, 1964 July-August
Reel   2	Laurel, 1964 August
Reel   2	McComb, undated
Reel   2	Mileston, 1964 July
Reel   2	Moss Point, 1964, undated Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Mound Bayou, 1964 July-August
Reel   2	Ocean Springs, 1964 August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Pascagoula, 1964 July-August Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Philadelphia, undated
Reel   2	Ruleville, 1962-1964, undated Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Reel   2	Shaw, 1964 July-August, undated
Reel   2	Starksville, 1964 July-August
Reel   2	Tchula, 1963-1964, undated
Reel   2	Vicksburg, 1964, undated
Reel   2	West Point, 1964, undated
Reel   2	Yazoo City, undated