Title: James N. Mays Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1960-1967

Creator:

• Mays, James N., 1928-

Call Number: Mss 404; PH Mss 404

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes), 18 photographs, and 12 negatives

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 James N. Mays, a civil rights activist and field representative for the National Sharecroppers Fund. Mays worked for the NSF in Mississippi and Alabama, drawing on his experience as a small farmer. His papers include typewritten and printed form letters; miscellaneous notes and speech fragments; photographs; and flyers, leaflets, and near-print material from a number of civil rights organizations in the South. Among the most interesting records are his reports as Mississippi field representative for the NSF, minutes of farmers' meetings, and his Council of Federated Organizations files on Freedom Schools. There are also a few items concerning anti-Vietnam War protest.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00404

James Nabritt Mays was born in Leslie, Georgia, on October 6, 1928. He attended Gellespie Seldon Institute High School in Cordele, Georgia, from 1942 to 1945, and then served in the U.S. Air Force until 1949. Mays was a small farmer for fifteen years, during which time he received a B.S. in education from Georgia State College. He then taught in the Georgia public school system from 1961 until 1963, when he was fired because of his civil rights activities. In 1964 Mays became a field representative for the National Sharecroppers Fund in Mississippi. During the mid-1960s, his work with the NSF also took him to Alabama. In addition, Mays was involved in the civil rights movement, community organizing, the anti-war movement, farming, and the Baptist church.

The papers have been arranged in three series: Correspondence and Notes, Organizations, and Miscellaneous Files. The collection primarily documents Mays' work as a field representative for the National Sharecroppers Fund and his civil rights activities.

CORRESPONDENCE AND NOTES include typewritten and printed form letters, miscellaneous notes, and portions of speeches, all arranged chronologically. There are letters to and from Mays while he was the Mississippi representative of NSF, and a representative of the CORE Scholarship, Education, and Defense Fund and the South Carolina Council on Human Relations. Also included is a form letter from April 1965, signed by Martin Luther King, Jr., requesting money on behalf of the Workers Defense League. The notes and speech drafts contain notes from meetings in several southern towns, research for speeches, and other material on civil rights, community action, and cooperatives.

Records of ORGANIZATIONS are arranged alphabetically by title of the group or activity. Included are the Committee for Non-Violent Student Action, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, peace movement miscellany, Community Action Programs, Congress of Racial Equality, Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Mississippi Freedom Information Service, Manpower Development and Training Act, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Sharecroppers Fund, Poor Peoples March, Southern Regional Council, and War Against Poverty. Within the Freedom Information Service files are records of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service.

Such organizational files generally include flyers and near-print material concerning the group and its activities. Within the COFO files are a “Comprehensive Report: Overall Economic Development Program, Madison County, Mississippi” (1962); and information relating to the Jackson, Mississippi Freedom School. These latter files contain general data, sample classroom schedules from Carstens (or Carstons) Elementary School, and from a Detroit public school; and teaching materials, including radio plays, coloring assignments, and tests. Mays' NSF file includes memos, minutes of farmers' meetings, his reports as Mississippi field representative, a 1962 report by Fay Bennett on “The Condition of Farm Workers in 1962,” and a few applications for the Farm Labor Counseling Program.

Mays' MISCELLANEOUS FILES consist of alphabetically-arranged subject files on such topics as civil rights; community newsletters; conferences, including speeches, reports, and agenda; cooperatives and farming cooperatives; farming and farm labor; loans to rural groups; Medicare and Social Security; South Africa; and voting, voting rights, and political organizing. Most of the files are quite fragmentary. There is also one file of general civil rights and anti-war newspaper clippings. Photographs include images of a group of African-Americans gathered in front of a church, probably for a voter registration drive, and images probably of the Mays family.

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 and loaned for copying by James N. Mays, Jackson, Mississippi, 1967. Accession Number: M67-463, M67-489

Processing Information

Processed by Erika Thickman (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, 1977; and by Menzi Behrnd-Klodt, 1986.

Mss 404	Series: Correspondence and Notes
Box   1 Folder   1	Correspondence, 1964-1967
Box   1 Folder   2	Notes
	Series: Organizations	⇧
Box   1 Folder   3	Committee for Non-Violent Student Action, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Miscellaneous Anti-War Materials
Box   1 Folder   4	Community Action Programs
Box   1 Folder   5	Congress of Racial Equality
Box   1 Folder   6	Council of Federated Organizations Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online.
Box   1 Folder   7-8	COFO Freedom Schools Alternate Format: All or part has been digitized and is available online: Folder 7 and Folder 8.
Box   1 Folder   9	Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Box   1 Folder   10	Mississippi Freedom Information Service
Box   1 Folder   11	Manpower Development and Training Act
Box   2 Folder   1	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Box   2 Folder   2	National Sharecroppers Fund
Box   2 Folder   3	Poor Peoples March
Box   2 Folder   4	Southern Regional Council
Box   2 Folder   5	War Against Poverty
	Series: Miscellaneous Files	⇧
Box   2 Folder   6	Civil Rights
Box   2 Folder   7	Community Newsletters
Box   2 Folder   8	Conferences
Box   2 Folder   9	Cooperatives
Box   2 Folder   10	Farming and Farm Labor
Box   2 Folder   11	Loans to Rural Groups
Box   2 Folder   12	Medicare and Social Security
Box   2 Folder   13	South Africa
Box   2 Folder   14	Voting, Voting Rights, and Political Organizing
Box   2 Folder   15	Newspaper Clippings
PH Mss 404	Photographs and negatives