Title: Peter Nemenyi Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1952-1979

Creator:

• Nemenyi, Peter

Call Number: Mss 509; PH Mss 509

Quantity: 1.0 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 9 photographs (1 folder)

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 a social activist. A large portion deals with Nemenyi's work for the Council of Federated Organizations in Laurel, Mississippi; his interest in securing educational and employment opportunities for young blacks; and his subsequent political disagreements with college administrators at the University of North Carolina and at Virginia State College. Later files cover a wide range of liberal and radical topics. Personal correspondence and papers document his views on many of the above topics as well as his blood relationship to Bobby Fischer. Photographs include images in and around Laurel, Mississippi, 1968.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00509

Peter Bjorn Nemenyi was born April 14, 1927 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Hungarian parents. When Peter was six years old, the family left Germany, and settled among refugee groups living in Denmark and England. In 1945 Peter came to the United States, where he was educated. He attended Washington State College from 1945 to 1946 (where his father, Paul, taught mathematics), and then served in the U.S. Army for one year before resuming his studies at the University of Wisconsin and graduating from Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Following two years of graduate work in mathematical statistics at Princeton University, 1950-1952, Nemenyi was employed in New York as an actuarial and medical statistician. In 1957, he married Velia Torres, a teacher and secretary. The couple had no children and were divorced in 1961 or 1962.

Early in the 1960's Nemenyi turned to college teaching, and during the following two decades served on the faculties of Hunter College, New York; Tougaloo Southern Christian College, Mississippi; Oberlin College, Ohio; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Virginia State College, Petersburg; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While a professor at Tougaloo, Nemenyi became active in local civil rights work and was a volunteer in Laurel, Mississippi, for the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). After he moved to North Carolina in 1965, the focus of his efforts was directed increasingly toward helping minority high school and college students secure educational and job opportunities, particularly in computer- and medical-related areas. Eventually Nemenyi's political views and volunteer work eclipsed in importance his academic duties and he devoted less time to teaching; this led to disagreements with college administrators. In the fall of 1979 Nemenyi left teaching and the United States and went to Nicaragua with the intention of helping the new government.

The papers have been arranged in two series: Personal Papers and Correspondence, and Issues and Activities. Within PERSONAL PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE is found a small amount of Nemenyi's general personal correspondence and a few financial records, and correspondence with government officials regarding racial discrimination and other violations of civil rights laws, as noted by Nemenyi. The papers regarding civil rights matters are particularly valuable as they reveal both Nemenyi's views, and the events occurring in and near Laurel, Mississippi, in 1965 and 1966. Letters to and from Regina Fischer about her son, Bobby, the internationally known chess player, reveal that Paul Nemenyi was Bobby's father. At the time of Paul's death in 1952, Bobby was unaware of his relationship to Peter, and the correspondence deals with financial arrangements and the best way to break the news to Bobby. Letters from Gustav Heckmann are in German, and pertain to new books and translations.

The series ISSUES AND ACTIVITIES incorporates material, both created and collected by Peter Nemenyi, pertaining to his many interests. Much of the material from the 1960's deals with Mississippi, COFO and Peter's work with the Laurel chapter, self-help and improvement groups, elections and poll-watching, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Three folders contain his correspondence, notes and fliers regarding educational and job opportunities for young blacks. His papers from the institutions where he taught, as well as the file on the dismissal of Virginia State College Professor Filimon D. Kowtoniuk, reveal Nemenyi's political opinions and conflicts with administrators, but do little to illuminate his teaching career or professional work. The later papers in this series cover a wide range of liberal and radical subjects and issues. These generally pertain to his opposition to any form of political repression, and his support for the rights of minorities or oppressed peoples. Files on farm workers, prisoners, blacks, and Indians in the United States, and political prisoners in Chile, South Africa, and Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, are included. Nemenyi was an active member of various groups, as seen in his papers; among them were the American Statistical Association, Amnesty International, and Madison (Wisconsin) Student Coalition Against Racism. Newsclippings composed a large proportion of Nemenyi's records from the 1970's. Most of these were general articles from newspapers available at the Historical Library or University Archives, such as the New York Times, Milwaukee Journal, Madison Press Connection, Militant, and Daily Cardinal, and thus the original clippings have been discarded.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Peter Nemenyi, Madison, Wisconsin, 1975, 1979.

Mss 509	Series: Personal Papers and Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	Addresses and Phone Numbers
Box   1 Folder   2	Biographical Sketch, circa 1964
Box   1 Folder   3	Financial and Insurance Records, 1967, 1970
Box   1 Folder   4	Income Tax Forms (Personal) and Associated Material, 1952-1967
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   5	Personal, 1962-1979
Box   1 Folder   6	Re: Bobby Fischer, 1952, 1957, 1959
Box   1 Folder   7	With Federal Government Officials and Agencies, 1964-1967
Box   1 Folder   8	With Gustav Heckmann Re: Leonard Nelson, 1971-1972
	Series: Issues and Activities	⇧
Box   1 Folder   9	American Indians, 1978
Box   1 Folder   10	American Statistical Association - Committee on Minorities in Statistics, 1973-1978
Box   1 Folder   11	Amnesty for Political Prisoners and Amnesty International, 1977-1979
Box   1 Folder   12	Anti-War and Anti-Draft, circa 1971
Box   1 Folder   13	Boycott - Nestle, circa 1977
Box   1 Folder   14	Chile, 1977-1978
Box   1 Folder   15	Complaint Against Masonite, Inc., Laurel, Mississippi, 1965-1967
Box   1 Folder   16	Cooperatives and Poor Peoples' Self-Help Cooperative, 1965-1975
Box   1 Folder   17	Cooperatives - Liberty House, Jackson, Mississippi, 1970-1975
Box   2 Box   1	The Death Penalty, 1977-1979
Box   2 Folder   2-4	Education and Jobs for Students, 1963-1967, undated
Box   2 Folder   5	Farm and Domestic Workers, 1965-1967
Box   2 Folder   6	Kent State, 1977-1979
Box   2 Folder   7	Kowtoniuk, Filimon D., Case, 1968-1971
Box   2 Folder   8	Laws and Legislation, 1965-1966
Box   2 Folder   9	Laws and Legislation - S-1, S-1437/HR6869, 1976-1979
Box   2 Folder   10	Madison Press Connection, 1977-1978
Box   2 Folder   11	Miscellany
Box   2 Folder   12	Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Congressional Challenge, 1965-1966
Box   3 Folder   1	National Committee on Tithing in Investment, 1965-1966
Box   3 Folder   2	National Student Coalition Against Racism and Madison Student Coalition Against Racism, 1975-1977
Box   3 Folder   3	Nuclear Energy, 1976-1979
PH Mss 509	Photographs from Laurel, Mississippi, 1968
Mss 509 Box   3 Folder   4	Poll Watchers Reports, Laurel, Mississippi, 1966
Box   3 Folder   5	Prisons, 1973-1976
	Reference Files
Box   3 Folder   6	On Desegregation, Busing, “White Flight,” and Mobility, 1966-1967, 1976-1977
Box   3 Folder   7	On Laurel, Mississippi and Laurel COFO Office, 1964-1966
Box   3 Folder   8	On Mississippi, 1964-1967
Box   3 Folder   9	Representation for District of Columbia Citizens, 1978-1979
Box   3 Folder   10	Resurrection City, U.S.A., Browns, Alabama, 1969
Box   3 Folder   11	Selma, Alabama, 1967-1968
Box   3 Folder   12	Songs for the Picket Line
Box   3 Folder   13	South Africa and Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, 1977-1979
Box   3 Folder   14	Students for a Democratic Society
Box   3 Folder   15	Sunflower County, Mississippi, and Sunflower County Improvement Association, 1966-1969
Box   3 Folder   16	Teaching Assistants Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975-1978
Box   3 Folder   17	Tear Gas
Box   3 Folder   18	Tougaloo Southern Christian College Papers, 1963-1965
Box   3 Folder   19	University of North Carolina Papers, 1966
	Virginia State College
Box   3 Folder   20	Papers, 1967-1970, 1973
Box   3 Folder   21	Student Rosters, 1971-1973