Title: Lee Bankhead Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1962-1971

Creator:

• Bankhead, Lee, 1936-

Call Number: Mss 303

Quantity: 0.6 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 Lee Bankhead, a civil rights worker in Bolivar County, Mississippi, who served as local head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and as a staff member of the Tufts-Delta Health Center. In the collection are biographical materials, general correspondence, newsletters, and a variety of materials on the above two organizations and on other groups such as the North Bolivar County Farm Cooperative with which she had some interest or involvement.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00303

Lee Bankhead was born in Critten County, Arkansas, on November 12, 1936, the daughter of an organizer for the C.I.O. From 1965 until 1969, the period of most of the documents in this collection, she was involved in civil rights work in Bolivar County, Mississippi. From 1965 until 1968 she served as local project director for SNCC, and also for a time as a teacher in the Head Start Program. In 1967, Bankhead joined the staff of the Tufts-Delta Health Center, an experimental clinic that was being established in Bolivar County under the auspices of Tufts University. In 1969, Bankhead came to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin.

Most of the Lee Bankhead Papers are Xerox copies documenting the particular organizations and aspects of the civil rights movement in which Ms. Bankhead was involved. (At her request, the originals of these documents have been returned to her.) The collection has been divided into four small series: Background; Organizations and Activities; Newspapers and Newsletters; and Miscellaneous.

The Background material is contained in four folders. In folder 1 are personnel forms, job applications, and other material that provide information about Lee Bankhead's life. Folder 2 contains Bankhead's general correspondence. In folder 3 are maps and other material that describe the physical and social environment of Bolivar County. Folder 4 has material documenting Black political activity in Bolivar County from 1962 to 1971.

Folders 5-17 of box 1 and folders 1 and 2 of box 2 contain materials relating to the organizations and civil rights activities in which Bankhead held membership or was interested. The material in this part of the collection has been arranged according to the chronological order of Bankhead's involvement with the various organizations and activities. The documentation is most complete for the 1968-1969 period when she was working at the Tufts-Delta Health Center. In 1968 the Health Center encouraged the organization of the North Bolivar County Farm Cooperative, an attempt to help the poor and unemployed of Bolivar County to grow vegetables for the market and for their own use. Although Bankhead does not appear to have been directly involved with the Co-op, there is much information about it in the collection.

The Newspapers and Newsletters filed in folder 3 of box 2 relate to the Mississippi civil rights movement. Folder 4 of box 2 contains miscellaneous documents, brochures, bulletins, articles and memos of civil rights concern.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Lee Bankhead Larsen, August 14, 1969, and February 3, 1972. Accession Number: M69-231; M72-32

Processing Information

Processed by S. Sargent (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, July 8, 1974.

	Series: Background
Box   1 Folder   1	Biographical data, 1968-1969
Box   1 Folder   2	Correspondence, general, 1966-1971
	Bolivar County, Mississippi
Box   1 Folder   3	General information, circa 1965-1967
Box   1 Folder   4	Political activity, 1962-1971
	Series: Organizations and Activities	⇧
Box   1 Folder   5	SNCC, 1965-1967
Box   1 Folder   6	SCLC, 1967
Box   1 Folder   7	Head Start, 1965
	Labor Activities
Box   1 Folder   8	General, 1965-1967
Box   1 Folder   9	Caesar Scott Case, 1966
	Tufts-Delta Health Center
Box   1 Folder   10	General history, 1968
Box   1 Folder   11	1968-1969
Box   1 Folder   12	, Undated material
Box   1 Folder   13	Mound Bayou Community Hospital, undated
Box   1 Folder   14	Measure for Measure, 1968
Box   1 Folder   15	Hunger, material on, 1968-1969
Box   1 Folder   16	North Bolivar County Farm Cooperative, AAL, 1968-1969
Box   1 Folder   17	Mississippi Conference on Social Welfare, 1969
Box   2 Folder   1	Demonstrations at Delta State College, 1969
Box   2 Folder   2	Miscellaneous organizations, 1964-1968
Box   2 Folder   3	Series: Newspapers and Newsletters, 1968; 1971-1972	⇧
Box   2 Folder   4	Series: Miscellaneous, 1965-1969	⇧