Among those who did field work in Hazard in the summer of 1964 was Peter B. Wiley, a graduate of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, who was about to enroll at the University of Wisconsin. Wiley was the donor of his own papers relating to the Appalachia Conference and the Appalachian Summer Project, and the records of the Committee for Miners. The Wiley Papers and those of the committee have been organized here as one collection.
The papers include correspondence from March 1963 to May 1965 carried on between personnel in the New York office and miners in Kentucky, field workers in Hazard, and various committee members in other cities. Because the miners enlisted the aid of labor and social action groups, there is correspondence with individuals such as Rennie Davis of SDS's Economic Research and Action Project and Carl and Anne Braden of the Southern Conference Educational Fund. While the correspondence reveals the ways in which the committee was trying to help the miners financially, reports from field workers in Hazard also show the problems encountered in trying to bring economic and social aid to the area.
Included with the correspondence and reports are minutes, plans, progress reports, and budgets of the Committee for Miners; material concerning the Appalachian Conference of March 1964; and Wiley's notes, writings, and a diary. There is an extensive microfilmed clipping file for 1963 to 1965, covering the trial of the accused miners, conditions in the Hazard area, and problems of Appalachia and the miners, and miscellaneous records of the Appalachian Committee for Full Employment and the Appalachian Economic and Political Action Conference are also present. Also included are photographs (35 mm negatives and contact sheets) likely taken during the trial.
