Title: Cadmus Allen Samples Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1965-1967

Creator:

• Samples, Cadmus A.

Call Number: Mss 294

Quantity: 0.4 c.f. (1 archives box)

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 Cadmus Samples, a black pastor involved with civil rights, anti-poverty, and political organizations in Atlanta, Georgia. Correspondence and subject files contain constitutions, minutes, printed matter, membership lists, reports, affidavits, and letters detailing the problems of poor blacks in that city.

Note:

There is a restriction on access to this material; see the Administrative/Restriction Information portion of this finding aid for details.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00294

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The Reverend Cadmus Allen Samples, black pastor of New Hope Church in the northwest section of Atlanta, Georgia, became involved in many civil rights organizations in Atlanta during the mid-1960s. He served as Public Program Coordinator and a member of the Acting Advisory Council of the Northwest Community of Atlanta; as Executive Secretary of the Scott Crossing Civic League; and as an advisor to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Atlanta Project, the local PTA, and several city commissions. He was involved in the Atlanta Grass Roots Crusade, an informal group of people from low-income housing seeking more participation of the poor in programs affecting them. On several projects he worked closely with Ortelus Shelmon, an Atlantan active in civil rights since the early 1920s.

Reverend Samples believed in the dignity and worth of the individual and strove to instill this feeling in the poor of Atlanta both through one-minute radio sermons and through his involvement in programs affecting them. He believed that the poor should have a voice in structuring the policies they had to live with, and consequently he protested against the all-white power structure of Economic Opportunity Atlanta and other poverty programs. In early 1967 he became an outspoken critic of the war in Viet Nam because he felt the money being spent there could be better used to feed the poor in America and because he felt it was a white man's war being fought by blacks.

In the summer of 1966 Samples felt called to run for the seat of the 134th Georgia House District. The Democratic Party refused to qualify him, stating that he had a criminal record. Samples protested against these false charges and petitioned to run, but the petition was disallowed for petty reasons. As a result Samples and other Democrats started a grass roots party with a people's platform.

The collection consists of miscellaneous papers concerning the activities of Reverend Samples between 1965 and 1967. All correspondence to and from him is arranged in one chronological order, with the remainder of the collection divided by organization, and the papers arranged chronologically within each folder. The folders include such materials as constitutions of the organizations, newsletters, correspondence, minutes, handbills, news releases, membership lists, affidavits, and reports. Of note in the Atlanta Grass Roots Crusade folder is correspondence in support of Adam Clayton Powell and Julian Bond; other material on Bond is in the folder labeled “Political statements and handbills.” The Scott Crossing Civic League folder contains, in addition to other materials, the will, autobiography, and testimonial of Ortelus Shelmon. Case files assembled by Shelmon and Samples about insurance claims, housing evictions, prison treatment, parole, etc., are also in the collection.

Besides providing information on Atlanta civil rights activities, the Samples Papers are significant because of the great amount of information they provide on poverty in a major American city. The problems of poor people in Atlanta emerge in detail.

Access Restrictions

Until 2067, researchers must obtain the written permission of Cadmus A. Samples or his heirs to use this collection.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Reverend Cadmus A. Samples, Atlanta, Georgia, July 5, 1967. Accession Number: M67-485

Processing Information

Processed by archives students and Elizabeth Maule, April 22, 1974.

	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	Jan. 1965-June 1966
Box   1 Folder   2	July 1966-July 1967 and undated
Box   1 Folder   3	Economic Opportunity Atlanta, Inc., 1965-1967 and undated
Box   1 Folder   4	Atlanta Grass Roots Crusade, 1965-1967 and undated
Box   1 Folder   5	Northwest Community of Atlanta, 1965-1967 and undated
Box   1 Folder   6	Scott Crossing Civic League, 1965 and undated
Box   1 Folder   7	Miscellaneous papers of other civic clubs in Atlanta, 1965-1966
Box   1 Folder   8	Ad Hoc Summit Committee on Poverty, 1965 and undated
Box   1 Folder   9	Case files
Box   1 Folder   10	Political statements and handbills, 1965-1966 Scope and Content Note: Includes materials on Julian Bond, 1966 local elections, Write-In-Georgia, and anti-Vietnam War statements.
Box   1 Folder   11	SNCC, 1966 and undated
Box   1 Folder   12	Miscellaneous, 1965-1967 and undated Scope and Content Note: Includes an ADC pamphlet; clippings and handbills on police brutality, civil defense, and local schools; and addresses.