Summary Information
Pamela P. Allen Papers
1964, 1967-1980
Mss 327; Audio 542A; PH 6486
1.4 c.f. (4 archives boxes), 2 tape recordings, and 3 photographs (1 folder); plus additions of 2.0 c.f.
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of a feminist writer and lecturer active in a number of radical women's liberation groups, who changed her name from Pamela Allen to Chude Pamela Allen. The collection contains correspondence, writings, tape recordings of a 1971 Chico State College Teach-in, and subject files on a number of groups in which Allen participated. The correspondence includes discussion of the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, the Bridal Fair action of 1969 (and 3 related photographs), a Miss America Pageant demonstration, International Women's Day, and Sudsofloppen, a small feminist group in San Francisco. Also included are materials related to Allen's civil rights work in Mississippi in 1964 and her work with the Women's Alliance to Gain Equality (W.A.G.E.).
There are restrictions on use of this collection; see the Administrative/Restriction Information portion of this finding aid for details.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00327
Biography/History
Pamela P. Allen, a founder of the radical Women's Liberation Movement, was born in Pennsylvania in 1943. In 1965, she received an undergraduate degree in religion from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. While in college Allen joined Students for a Democratic Society, and spent the summer of 1963 working in a day camp in a northern Philadelphia ghetto. For one semester of her junior year, in 1964, she was an exchange student at Spelman College, a Black women's school in Atlanta, Georgia. From Spelman College, Allen was recruited as a freedom school teacher in Mississippi. After graduation from Carleton, Allen accepted a position with a private child-services agency in New York City as a caseworker responsible for placement of foster children. In the fall of 1967, Allen and Shulamith Firestone organized the women's group, Radical Women. Shortly after the group's formation, members attended planning sessions for the Jeannette Rankin Brigade action, which culminated in the group's participation with 5,000 others in a march for peace in January 1968. Early in 1968 Allen worked for the newsweekly, The Guardian.
In August 1968, Ms. Allen moved to San Francisco and became involved with the city's first women's liberation small group, Sudsofloppen. On the basis of the group's experiences, she wrote Free Space: A Perspective on the Small Group in Women's Liberation (Times Change Press, 1970). She also collaborated with her husband, Robert L. Allen, on The Reluctant Reformers: The Impact of Racism on American Society Reform Movements and completed two videotape scripts, Could We Be Heard and The Uprising of the 20,000. Another script dealing with Ida B. Wells and the Anti-Lynching Campaign was never produced. Her shorter writings include “The Small Group Process,” a group of Guardian letters and editorials, and papers for women's seminars and conferences.
As a lecturer, Ms. Allen spoke on women's struggles and provided the impetus for two women's seminars in the San Francisco area. In the fall of 1970, she helped to organize Breakaway, a women's liberation educational project, and taught a seminar on institutional racism. In 1971, she proposed and taught a similar series of classes sponsored by the YWCAs of the Bay area. Allen also participated in an October 1971 conference at Chico State College, Chico, California, as well as a Child Conference sponsored by the Welfare League of America. Allen's other activities include participation in International Women's Day, action with Women, Inc. in labor protests against Fibreboard Corporation, participation in the Bridal Fair Action of 1969, and general promotion of the radical arm of women's liberation. Chude Pamela Allen has centered her teachings not only on the radical women's liberation movement, but she has also fought racism and discrimination of all kinds. Frequently, she has acted with her husband, Robert L. Allen, who is Black and the author of several books dealing with racism, capitalism, and similar concerns of the 1960s.
Arrangement of the Materials
This collection was received in multiple parts from the donor(s) and is organized into 5 major parts. These materials have not been physically interfiled and researchers might need to consult more than one part to locate similar materials.
Related Material
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.
Administrative/Restriction Information
COPYRIGHT RESTRICTION: Persons quoting from her papers are requested to notify Chude Pamela Allen in advance.
Presented by Pamela P. Allen, Sausalito and San Fransisco, California, 1971, 1975, 1984-1986. Accession Number: M71-394, M75-015, M84-370, M85-013, M85-125, M85-587, M86-075
Original Collection processed by Patricia Bjorling, 1975, and Robert Burk and Joanne Hohler, 1979.
Contents List
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Mss 327
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Part 1 (Mss 327, Audio 542A, PH 6486): Original Collection, 1967-19741.4 c.f. (4 archives boxes), 2 tape recordings, and 3 photographs (1 folder) The collection contains correspondence, writings, seminar and class outlines, conference agenda, clippings, newsletters, and miscellaneous materials relating to women's liberation, including two tapes from the Chico State teach-in during the fall of 1971. Papers are divided into three general categories: Correspondence, Writings, and Activities, followed by Tape Recordings and Photographs. Pamela Allen's CORRESPONDENCE, 1967-1971, includes discussion of activities such as the Jeannette Rankin Brigade and the Miss America Pageant demonstration, as well as general organizational concerns, the development of the small group, and objectives for radical women's liberation. Later correspondence concerns Allen's teaching and writings, International Women's Day, coordination of a national radical women's conference, and San Francisco women's issues. Correspondence relating to the Sudsofloppen group is also found in this series. Notable among the WRITINGS of Pamela Allen is the pamphlet Free Space. Rough drafts and a copy of the first edition are included, as well as a rough draft of The Reluctant Reformers, by Robert L. Allen. Ms. Allen served as research assistant and collaborator for the work and wrote the book's fifth chapter, “Women Suffrage: Women's Rights and White Supremacy.” Miscellaneous writings of Pamela Allen from 1967-1971 cover the small group, the direction of women's liberation, day care, the YWCA, and drafts of two plays, The Uprising of the 20,000 and Could We Be Heard. This series also contains collected newsletters; a manuscript of the first English translation of Cuban Women Now, given to Ms. Allen by the author, Margaret Randall; an interview with Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and feminist and author of The Second Sex; and miscellaneous women's liberation poetry, songs, and bibliographies. The ACTIVITIES of Ms. Allen are documented in a series of activity files arranged in rough chronological order. Notable in this group are materials relating to the Breakaway conferences of 1970 and 1971 and the various seminars on women and racism conducted for the San Francisco area YWCAs.
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Series: Correspondence
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Box
1
Folder
1-5
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General, 1967-1971
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Box
1
Folder
6
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Sudsofloppen, 1968-1971
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Series: Writings
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Free Space
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Box
2
Folder
1
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Rough drafts, 1969 April
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Box
2
Folder
2
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First edition, 1969 April 19
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Box
2
Folder
3
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Correspondence and articles, 1969 October-1974 April
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Box
2
Folder
4
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“Racism and Women's Rights in the Early 19th Century,” 1971 Spring
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Miscellaneous writings of Pamela Allen
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Box
2
Folder
5
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circa 1967-1971
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Box
2
Folder
6
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1972-1973
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Reluctant Reformers
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Chapters 1-3, 1971 February-June
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Box
2
Folder
8
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Chapter 4, 1971 July 28
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Chapter 5
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Box
2
Folder
9
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1st draft, 1972 February
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Box
2
Folder
10
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2nd draft, circa 1972
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Box
2
Folder
11
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3rd draft, circa 1972
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Box
3
Folder
1
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Final revision, 1973 July 31
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Box
3
Folder
2
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Chapters 6-7, 1971 April
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Box
3
Folder
3
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Chapter 8, circa 1972
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Box
3
Folder
4-6
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Cuban Women Now, circa 1974
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Box
3
Folder
7
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Interview with Simone de Beauvoir, 1967 May
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Box
3
Folder
8
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Our Families: Ten Profiles, 1970-1971 Winter
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Box
3
Folder
9
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Susie Goes to College, undated
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Newsletters
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Box
3
Folder
10
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Bay Area Women's Liberation, 1970 November-1971 January
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Box
3
Folder
11
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National Organization for Women, 1970 Winter
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Box
3
Folder
12
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San Francisco Women's Liberation, 1970 May 20-1971 June 13, undated
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Box
3
Folder
13
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Miscellaneous poetry and songs, undated
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Box
3
Folder
14
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Miscellaneous writings, undated
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Box
3
Folder
15
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Bibliographies of women's liberation literature, 1969-1971
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Series: Activities
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Box
4
Folder
1
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Jeannette Rankin Brigade, 1968 January-April
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Box
4
Folder
2
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Miss America Pageant demonstration, 1968 Fall
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Box
4
Folder
3
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1st National Women's Conference, 1968 October-December
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Box
4
Folder
4
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Bridal Fair demonstration, 1969 February 15
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Box
4
Folder
5
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Women's Liberation Conference, Berkeley, California, 1969 August 15-17
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Box
4
Folder
6
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Women, Inc., 1969 October-1970 February
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Box
4
Folder
7
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International Women's Day, San Francisco, California, 1970 March
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Box
4
Folder
8
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Symposium: On the Eve of Becoming, Southern Methodist University, 1970 March 31-April 1
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Box
4
Folder
9
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Breakaway conferences, 1970-1973
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Box
4
Folder
10
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YWCA activities, 1971 July-December
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Box
4
Folder
11
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Project Dialogue, 1973 January
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Box
4
Folder
12
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Teach-In, Bakersfield College, 1973 April 28
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Box
4
Folder
13
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San Francisco Women's Union, 1974 March 8
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Box
4
Folder
14
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Miscellaneous women's liberation activities, 1969 January-1972 February
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Audio 542A
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Series: Tape Recordings
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542A/1-2
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Chico State College (California) Teach-In, 1971 Fall
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PH 6486
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Series: Photographs
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M84-370
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Part 2 (M84-370): Additions, 1964
0.1 c.f. (1 folder)
: Correspondence, diaries, speeches, and some published material related to Allen's civil rights work in Mississippi in 1964.
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M85-013
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Part 3 (M85-013): Additions, undated
0.4 c.f. (1 archives box)
: Papers on the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
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M85-125
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Part 4 (M85-125): Additions, 1973-1974, undated
0.1 c.f. (1 folder)
: Correspondence with Peggy Cleveland, Joreen Freeman, Margaret Randall, and others (1973-1974); address by Allen's grandfather about her Mississippi experience; and Asian Women, a journal containing collected writings on the women's movement.
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M85-587
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Part 5 (M85-587): Additions, 1964: All or part has been digitized and is available online: Folder 1, Folder 2 and Folder 30.4 c.f. (1 archives box) : Newspaper and magazine clippings, newsletters and reports, and 1964 correspondence between her parents and political figures concerning the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
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M86-075
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Part 6 (M86-075): Additions, 1977-1980
1.0 c.f. (1 record center carton)
: Additions, 1977-1980, relating primarily to Allen's work as editor of the Union W.A.G.E. (Women's Alliance to Gain Equality) newsletter. Included is correspondence, clippings, broadsides, poetry and words to union songs, speeches, newsletters, position papers and statements, minutes, buttons, an index to Union W.A.G.E. newspaper (1972-1978), and other items. Literary rights for a chapter about the group from a Ph.D. dissertation by Diane Balser are retained by Balser. Also included are a few files from Jean Maddox, founder of W.A.G.E.
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