Summary Information
R. Hunter Morey Papers
1962-1967
Mss 522; Audio 787A
2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes) and 2 tape recordings
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of R. Hunter Morey, a civil rights activist associated with the Council of Federated Organizations as legal coordinator for the state of Mississippi (1964-1965), organizer for the Young Democratic Club of Mississippi (1964-1965), and administrative assistant for the Child Development Group of Mississippi (1966-1967). Pertaining to all of the above duties are correspondence, minutes of meetings and other administrative records, Morey's notes and reports, printed flyers and reports, and news clippings. Also present is a small file of Morey's personal correspondence, papers, and calendar (1962-1963), and scattered records of his work with the Congress of Racial Equality in North Carolina, and his involvement with the Student Peace Union, the Socialist Party, and the Young People's Socialist League. On tape is a 1965 interview with a Mississippi farmer.
There is a restriction on use of this material; see the Administrative/Restriction Information portion of this finding aid for details.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00522 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Civil rights activist Robert Hunter Morey was born May 17, 1940 in Evanston, Illinois. As a young man, Morey was active in the YMCA, and the choir and youth group of the local Congregational church. While a student at Princeton University, Morey founded the university's Student Peace Union chapter and the Civil Liberties Committee. He graduated in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and politics.
During the summers of 1960 and 1962, Morey worked with the American Friends Service Committee civil rights programs, including a voter registration project in Jackson, Tennessee. He then attended New York University Law School on a scholarship, but left after one semester to join the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Sent to High Point, North Carolina, Morey worked there until June 1963, when he asked for a transfer to Mississippi. When CORE officials refused on the grounds that it was too early for whites to work in Mississippi, Morey joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was assigned to Greenville, Mississippi, as a field secretary.
In April 1964 he was appointed to the newly created position of Mississippi legal coordinator for the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a job which he held for about a year. He then worked full-time as an organizer of the Young Democrats of Mississippi. The Young Democratic Club of Mississippi (YDCM) had splintered over racial issues in 1962, and had lost its national charter; Morey helped reorganize the YDCM in an attempt to regain national recognition. In 1966 and 1967 Morey worked as administrative assistant in the field operations section of the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), a federally-funded Head Start program.
At various times during the 1960s Morey was also a member of or active in Student Peace Union (he was a National Council member in 1963), Fellowship of Reconciliation, American Civil Liberties Union, Students for a Democratic Society, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Socialist Party/Social Democratic Federation, and the Young People's Socialist League.
Scope and Content Note
The papers of R. Hunter Morey have been arranged into four series, reflecting the various organizations and groups with which he was associated. The series are: Child Development Group of Mississippi Records, Records of the COFO Legal Coordinator, Young Democratic Club of Mississippi Records, and Other Papers.
Records of the CHILD DEVELOPMENT GROUP OF MISSISSIPPI include Morey's files kept while administrative assistant to the associate director of the field operations division, area administration section, Jesse Paris. Organized during the summer of 1965, CDGM was a federally-sponsored program designed to feed, educate, and generally improve the condition of underprivileged young black children throughout the state, while providing employment and training for local poor people. A number of other centers operated on a voluntary basis under CDGM direction, but with no federal funding. According to CDGM statistics, as of June 1966, 2272 employees worked with 12,145 children in 121 centers in the state. Many of the records in this series are administrative in nature, such as the correspondence and internal memoranda, records of CDGM centers, requisitions for food supplies, staffing and personnel, and transportation and travel records, although Morey's handwritten notes may be found throughout the files. Additional information about the goals and work of the Group is located in Morey's notes as well as in the typewritten minutes of meetings of the administrative staff, administrators of the various CDGM divisions or areas within the state, the board of directors and executive committee, and other committees. Criticism of CDGM's financial operations and effectiveness, particularly by Mississippi and Southern congressmen and legislators, led to a curtailment and cut in funds by the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1966. A detailed funding proposal prepared for OEO in response to the criticism, plus a folder of history and fact sheets, and the program reports of the management firm of Klein and Saks, Inc., provide a view of the internal structure and weaknesses of CDGM.
The records of the COFO LEGAL COORDINATOR contain correspondence, memoranda, reports, and printed material dealing with the efforts of Morey and other COFO staff members to provide legal services in preparation for the Freedom Summer of 1964. COFO, SNCC, and CORE offices were staffed by a volunteer corps of lawyers and law students, who served on a rotating basis throughout the summer while gathering evidence, doing research, and ultimately, providing legal advice and representation for civil rights workers arrested in Mississippi. The legal coordinator's office coordinated their efforts, and also maintained records of incidents of harassment, intimidation, and violence; prepared a number of legal rights manuals; worked with members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in preparation for its election challenges of 1964 and 1965; and with various legal organizations in the north. Volunteer attorneys were affiliated with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., National Lawyers Guild, and the Law Student Civil Rights Research Council. Their files contain correspondence and other papers regarding arrangements between COFO and the legal groups. General information about the work of COFO and the legal coordinator may be found within the administrative and official records and reports (see especially Morey's report of July 6, 1964, Box 3, Folder 1); correspondence, both general and with other organizations; minutes of the COFO legal advisory committee; and the legal rights manuals. Copies of legal cases filed by or for COFO members are also present, as are a few papers dealing with MFDP and Mississippi Freedom Labor Union matters.
The YOUNG DEMOCRATIC CLUB OF MISSISSIPPI RECORDS include some administrative material such as address, mailing and membership lists; and membership applications, but of greater interest may be the correspondence and related material, and the records of the YDCM charter applications and rejections, and conventions and reorganization. These files contain correspondence, notes, minutes of meetings, constitutions and by-laws and drafts, YDCM printed statements, and newsclippings. The original Club lost its charter in 1962, and in 1964 and 1965, various groups attempted to gain national recognition; one of which was led by Morey and his associates. Differences between individuals and groups led to a split between the COFO and MFDP Young Democrats and the more moderate Mississippi Democratic faction, which culminated in a walk-out by the moderates and an open breach at the state convention in August 1965. The Freedom Democrats were unsuccessful in several attempts to gain the charter and open the way for recognition of the FDP as the official state Democratic party. Further accounts of this struggle may be found in the folder on YDCM conventions and reorganization, and on a tape recording of the August 14, 1965 convention session. See especially a newspaper article written by Hodding Carter III, an anti-FDP leader (The Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, Mississippi, August 17, 1965).
The OTHER PAPERS in the collection primarily contain correspondence relating to Morey's service with CORE in High Point, North Carolina in 1963, membership in the Socialist Party, Young People's Socialist League, and Student Peace Union, and fragmentary printed SNCC records. There is also a file of personal correspondence and papers, which includes two small undated notebooks, and a 1962-1963 assignment and date calendar covering his semester in law school, and early civil rights work.
Related Material
A number of collections documenting the activities of civil rights organizations may be of further interest, particularly the records of the Child Development Group of Mississippi, 1965-1967, which give an overall view of the Group's work (Micro 92, Audio 435A).
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
When reference to this collection is made in written works, the names of both the donor and organization represented are to be cited.
Presented by R. Morey Hunter, Jackson, Mississippi, 1967. Accession Number: M67-488
Processed by Menzi Behrnd Klodt, March 1980.
Contents List
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Mss 522
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Series: Child Development Group of Mississippi Records
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Box
1
Folder
1-3
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Correspondence and Internal Memoranda, 1966-1967
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Field Operations
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Box
1
Folder
4
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General Records of Centers, Lists of Centers, 1966
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Lists of Centers Ready and Opened, 1966
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Box
1
Folder
6
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Lists of Centers and Code Sheets; Children's Names, 1967
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Box
1
Folder
7
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General Records, 1967
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Box
1
Folder
8
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Forms, 1967, undated
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Box
2
Folder
1
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Funding Proposal to the Office of Economic Opportunity, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
2
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History and Fact Sheets, 1966-1967
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Box
2
Folder
3
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Lists of CDGM Workers to be Bonded, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Medical Department Records, 1966-1967
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Minutes
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Administrative Staff Meetings, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
6
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Area Administrators' Meetings and Workshops, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Area Staff Workshops, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
8
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Board of Directors and Executive Committee Meetings, 1966-1967
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Box
2
Folder
9
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Community Organizers Workshops, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
10
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Other Groups and Committees, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
11
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Miscellaneous
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Box
2
Folder
12
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Mississippi Action for Progress, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
13
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Program Reports (Prepared by Klein and Saks, Inc., Management Consultants), 1966-1967
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Box
2
Folder
14
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Requisitions for Food Supplies, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
15
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Staffing and Personnel Records, 1966-1967
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Box
2
Folder
16
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Transportation and Travel, 1967
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Series: Records of the COFO Legal Coordinator
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Box
3
Folder
1
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Box
3
Folder
2
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Box
3
Folder
3
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Box
3
Folder
4
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Box
3
Folder
5
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COFO Legal Advisory Committee Minutes, 1964
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Box
3
Folder
6
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Financial and Fund-Raising Records, 1963-1965
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Box
3
Folder
7
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Box
3
Folder
8
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Box
3
Folder
9
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Box
3
Folder
10
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Box
3
Folder
11
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Box
3
Folder
12
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Box
4
Folder
1
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Box
4
Folder
2
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Box
4
Folder
3
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Mississippi Freedom Corps Proposal
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Box
4
Folder
4
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Box
4
Folder
5
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Mississippi Freedom Labor Union Records, 1965, undated
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Box
4
Folder
6
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Box
4
Folder
7
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Box
4
Folder
8
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Box
4
Folder
9
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Box
4
Folder
10
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Voter Registration Materials
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Series: Young Democratic Club of Mississippi Records
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Box
4
Folder
11
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Address, Mailing, and Membership Lists, 1965, undated
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Box
4
Folder
12
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Correspondence and Related Material, 1964-1965
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Box
4
Folder
13
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Financial Records, 1965
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Box
4
Folder
14
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Membership Applications, 1965
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Box
4
Folder
15
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Miscellany
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Box
4
Folder
16
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Mississippi Democratic Conference, 1965
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Box
4
Folder
17
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Mississippi Politics - General
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Box
5
Folder
1
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Newsletter, 1965
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Box
5
Folder
2
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Young Democratic Club of America Convention Material, 1964-1965
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Box
5
Folder
3
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Young Democratic Club of Hinds County, Mississippi, Records, 1965
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Box
5
Folder
4
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YDCM Charter Applications, Rejections, and Associated Material, 1964-1965
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Box
5
Folder
5
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YDCM Conventions and Reorganization, 1964-1965
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787A/1
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Tape recording of session of the state YDCM convention, 1965 August 14
: Included are the opening of the convention, election of chairman, speeches and discussion, exclusion of blacks for inappropriate dress, internal dissension, removal of the chairman, and remarks by Hodding Carter III. The sound on the tape is inconsistent.
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Mss 522
Box
5
Folder
6
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Other Young Democratic Clubs - Constitutions and By-Laws
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Series: Other Papers
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Box
5
Folder
7
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Congress of Racial Equality, High Point, North Carolina - Correspondence and Records, 1963
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Box
5
Folder
8
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Education on Africa Program of MFDP, 1966
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Box
5
Folder
9
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Personal Correspondence and Papers of Morey, 1962-1967, undated
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Box
5
Folder
10
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Socialist Party and Young People's Socialist League, 1964
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Box
5
Folder
11
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Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Records, 1965
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Box
5
Folder
12
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Student Peace Union, 1963
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787A/2
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Tape recording of interview with Ben Seligman, Shaw, Mississippi plantation owner, 1965
: Regarding agricultural practices, local economy and society, Negroes, and other topics. Sound is good.
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