The David Nolan Papers are not in a strict sense a collection of personal papers, rather they are a collection of material acquired by Nolan about organizations with which he was involved. The collection consists chiefly of minutes, position papers, memoranda, and other mimeographed administrative papers, with only a small quantity correspondence or other unique materials. As a result, only the outline of Nolan's social activism can be drawn from the collection. His files are important, nevertheless, for they contain material on several undocumented or underdocumented organizations. The files on the Virginia Student Civil Rights Committee are particularly important, as they appear to be, at least in part, the record files of that organization, one of the few southern civil rights organizations to include both black and white students. The papers also contain manuscript copies of some of Nolan's political writings; many of the journals and newsletters with which he was associated as writer and/or editor have been separated from the collection and are available in the SHSW Library. In addition, the files originally included a very large quantity of printed, research material used by Nolan for his writing and editorial work. Published material concerning China has been separated to the University of Wisconsin Memorial Library, as it is out of scope for the Historical Society. Publications concerning social activism in the United States have been separated to the SHSW Library.
The papers are primarily arranged by organizational name. The files of the U.S. CHINA Peoples FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION are most extensive and are arranged as a separate series. Other less extensively documented groups are filed together as a series entitled MISCELLANEOUS ORGANIZATIONS. The limited quantity of material about Nolan and the file of his writings has been arranged under the heading PERSONAL MATERIAL.
The U.S. CHINA Peoples FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION files include minutes, annual conference papers, committee papers, correspondence, applications for China tours and other records collected by Nolan in his capacity as a staff member of the Atlanta office and as national vice chair. These materials, which were received in considerable disorder, have been arranged functionally as administrative files, national steering committee files, correspondence, China tour files, regional and local files, and miscellany. Minutes include not only material pertaining to national conferences, but also several meetings which preceded formation of the organization. The correspondence file is correspondence of Nolan and Becky Hamilton as staffers of the Atlanta office. The tour files are quite extensive including planning information, applications containing personal information about individuals who desired to visit China, and a lengthy typed journal of Charles Zukowski concerning his 1975 tour. The regional and local files are less complete, but they give a good indication of the internal structure of these groups. Most complete are those of the Southern Region, of which Nolan was a leader, and other local offices in the South. The Southern newsletter, which Nolan edited, is available in the Historical Society Library.
The MISCELLANEOUS ORGANIZATIONS files document Nolan's affiliations with Brunswick Community Action, Inc., Our Generation, Penn Community Services, Southern Conference Educational Fund, the Southern Students Organizing Committee, and other groups. Documentation on these organizations is limited, variously including minutes, correspondence, administrative papers, and subject files. The earliest material concerns Nolan's attempt as a member of the Virginia Council on Human Relations to bring Norman Thomas and Bayard Rustin to campus in 1964. Especially interesting among the miscellaneous administrative materials on the Penn Center are correspondence with Leonard Boudin and the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee and numerous handwritten notes of Nolan and other members of the staff concerning the case of a local physician who dispensed drugs to white and black patients without proper authority.
The Virginia Students' Civil Rights Committee files contain original correspondence of staff members, staff minutes, materials concerning various county projects, photographs of staff activities, and information on the formation of VSCRC in 1964 including an incomplete history (entitled Booknotes) apparently written by Nolan. Tape recordings concerning the history of VSCRC also made by Nolan in conjunction with this project, which are alluded to in the Society's correspondence with Nolan, were not received by the Historical Society.
The SCEF files contain Nolan's correspondence with Anne Braden regarding Nolan's writing for the Southern Patriot, while the Our Generation materials contain correspondence and minutes of the editorial board. With the SSOC files is Nolan's correspondence as editor of the New South Student with writers such as Herbert Aptheker and Eugene Genovese.
The PERSONAL MATERIAL relate to correspondence, articles, and material on Nolan's own draft status and that of his friend John Buenfiel. Included in his writings are several term papers and essays that he wrote while attending the University of Virginia. Also here are notes on a KKK rally observed in 1964, a letter concerning his arrest in Miami in 1967, photographs, and a folder of clippings concerning Fifty Feet in Paradise.
