Summary Information
Walter Tillow Papers
1962-1966
Mss 412
0.2 c.f. (1 archives box)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Walter Tillow, a civil rights and anti-war activist. The collection primarily consists of correspondence with union officials and other activists written as a member of the Atlanta office of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and later as a member of the Pittsburgh Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Also included are memoranda, minutes, news releases, position papers, policy statements, broadsides, circular letters, agenda, mailing lists, and clippings.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00412 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Walter Tillow was an active figure in the civil rights movement in the South during the period of intense civil rights activism from 1963 to 1965. He later played a prominent role in the antiwar movement in the Pittsburgh area and more recently has worked as an organizer for various labor unions in western Pennsylvania. Tillow was born on January 12, 1940 in New York City and graduated from William Howard Taft High School in the Bronx. He attended Harpur College of the State University of New York at Binghamton and received a degree in economics in 1961. During the academic years 1961-62 and 1962-63 he studied in the graduate schools of the University of Washington and Cornell University.
Tillow became involved in civil rights activities as an undergraduate and participated in picketing campaigns against corporations which operated segregated facilities in the southern states. He first went South in April, 1963 to attend a conference hosted by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating committee (SNCC) and then returned to spend the summer working as a SNCC “field secretary” with the Somerville Movement, a voter registration and education project in Fayette County in southwest Tennessee. In the fall of 1963 Tillow joined the staff of SNCC, first as a researcher and later as manager of the Atlanta office. In December, 1963 he was named to the board of directors of Operation Freedom, an organization which was based in Cincinnati and concerned with desegregation and voter registration, mainly in southwest Tennessee.
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and its challenge to the Democratic National Convention at Atlantic City were Tillow's chief concerns through most of 1964. He remained a member of the SNCC staff but was assigned to work with the new Mississippi party. In May he moved from Atlanta to Washington where he set up an office with the purpose of lobbying in Congress to gain support for the MFDP. During the summer he attended state Democratic conventions in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota to urge passage of resolutions supporting the MFDP. At the Democratic National Convention Tillow was in charge of Atlantic City arrangements and accommodations for the Mississippians.
Tillow returned to Atlanta and continued to work with SNCC until mid-1965 when he resigned and moved to Pittsburgh, where he has remained. He has worked for a series of labor unions, and between 1965 and 1967 he was prominent in the Pittsburgh Committee To End The War In Vietnam.
Scope and Content Note
The Tillow papers are confined mainly to the years 1963 - 1966 and are divided into two groups: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Pittsburgh Committee To End The War In Vietnam (PCEWV). The first provides documentation and insight into one of the most important civil rights organizations of the 1960's during the period of its greatest vitality. The materials relating to the PCEWV illustrate the antiwar movement on a local level and trace some of the activities of one of the affiliates of the National Coordinating Committee To End The War In Vietnam during the early period of opposition to the war.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee papers consist primarily of correspondence of SNCC's Atlanta office during the period 1962 - 1965 and are arranged chronologically. A few memoranda, news releases, and minutes of meetings are interfiled with the correspondence. The letters are limited mainly to matters handled by Walter Tillow and do not represent the total correspondence of the office. Chief correspondents include officials of a variety of labor unions and several civil rights organizations including: Council of Federated Organizations, Operation Freedom, Fayette County Project, and the Southern Conference Educational Fund. The papers also include a two page autobiographical statement by James Forman who was executive secretary of SNCC from 1961 until 1965.
The Pittsburgh Committee to End the War in Vietnam papers are arranged in four folders: 1) general antiwar correspondence, 2) records of the committee including position papers, policy statements, press releases, broadsides, agenda and mailing lists, 3) records relating to the November, 1965 regional conference at Pittsburgh of the National Coordinating Committee To End The War In Vietnam, and 4) newspaper clippings. Within each folder all materials are arranged chronologically.
Mimeographed materials representing early organizational activities of the National Coordinating Committee To End The War In Vietnam, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Operation Freedom and the Southern Students Organizing Committee were removed from the collection and transferred to the Contemporary Social Action File. Other printed or near print materials concerning the following organizations were also filed, by organization, in the Contemporary Social Action File: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Fayette County Project, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, W. E. B. DuBois Clubs, Operation Freedom, Council of Federated Organizations, the Peacemaker Movement, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Related Material
The Wisconsin Historical Society Archives holds typescripts and tapes of an interview with Walter Tillow conducted by Anne Romaine at Highlander Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, September, 1967 (Tape 498A). The Archives Division also has manuscript collections relating to both the civil rights and the antiwar movements, including the papers of leaders and of organizations such as CORE, MFDP, SDS, the National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the Vietnam Moratorium Committee. The Library has microfilm copies of the SNCC newsletter, The Student Voice.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Walter Tillow, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1966-1967. Accession Number: M66-472, M67-125
Processed by D. G. Kinnett (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, October 5, 2007.
Contents List
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Box
1
Folder
1-2
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Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Correspondence, 1962, April - June; 1963, September - 1965, January
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Pittsburgh Committee to End the War in Vietnam
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Correspondence, 1965, August - 1966, February
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Records, 1965, August - 1966, September
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Regional Conference Records, 1965, November
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Box
1
Folder
6
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Newspaper Clippings, 1965, January - 1966, January
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