Although only a small collection, the records of Madison Measure for Measure form a useful source for studying the response of a predominantly white, Northern, middle-class community to racial injustice in the South. The collection include minutes of the board of directors, correspondence, financial records, clippings, and sound recordings documenting the organization's history from its beginnings in 1965 to its end in 1976. Minutes of the board of directors meetings are fairly complete and provide the best overall documentation of the group's history. In addition to sources in the archival collection, copies of the M4M newsletter in the Historical Society Library (catalogued under the title Measure for Measure) also provide documentation of the organization's history and activities.
The collection also documents well the financial and fundraising activities of Measure for Measure. Included are annual financial reports, financial journals, and correspondence concerning fundraising activities.
Correspondence files which concern the group's contacts in the South include several letters from Fannie Lou Hamer and other civil rights activists in Mississippi and Arkansas such as Lee Bankhead and L.C. Smith. There are also some letters from Robert Kastenmeier and Carl Braden. For the 1970's the correspondence from Lee Thornton of the North Bolivar Farm Cooperative is especially extensive and detailed.
Also in the collection are publicity materials; Xeroxed newspaper clippings; and sound recordings of speeches in Madison in 1976 by Fannie Lou Hamer.
