Part 1 (Mss 343, Audio 824A, Micro 803): Original Collection, 1957-1979
Physical Description: 3.6 c.f. (9 archives boxes), 12 tape recordings, and 1 reel of microfilm (35 mm) 
Scope and Content Note

Part 1 consists of correspondence, research materials and drafts of Adams' writings, clippings of articles and newspaper reports, papers on organizations with which Adams worked, and other papers. Part 1 is organized into three series: GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, SUBJECT FILE, and NEWS CLIPPINGS.

The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE is arranged by month and consists primarily of exchanges with friends, most of whom also were working for social change. Brief correspondence with others in adult education, government officials, foundation executives, organizations, and others is also present. Correspondents include Anne Braden, Ted Carpenter, Steve Dawson, W.W. Finlator, Bob Hall, May Justus, Louis Kools, Herman and Betty Liveright, Buck Maggard, Jennifer Miller, John Ohliger, Sue Thrasher, and Peter Wood. Additional correspondence is grouped by subject and filed in the Subject File.

The SUBJECT FILE is arranged alphabetically by topic and contains various types of documents concerning the activities mentioned in the biography and others, such as Adams' work with the East Ghent Neighborhood Association in Norfolk (1961-1963), planning for urban higher education Field Study Centers (1966-1967), and consulting work (1978-1979) with Bertie Industries, a worker-owned garment factory. Especially complete are the files on the Highlander Center. Drafts of some of Adams' writings, clipped articles (except for hid in the biography and others, such as Adams' work with the East Ghent Neighborhood Association in Norfolk (1961-1963), planning for urban higher education Field Study Centers (1966-1967), and consulting work (1978-1979) with Bertie Industries, a worker-owned garment factory. Especially complete are the files on the Highlander Center. Drafts of some of Adams' writings, clipped articles (except for his newspaper reporting), and tape recordings and other research materials are included in this series.

The NEWS CLIPPINGS consists of articles by Adams, primarily from his work as a reporter in St. Petersburg and in Norfolk. A few articles from 1973 and 1977 come from The Virginian-Pilot and from In These Times.

Series: General Correspondence

1957-1979, undated

Series: Subject File

Adult Education Association meeting, 1974

Agriculture Department, Young executives report articles, 1972-1973

Antioch-Putney graduate study

Correspondence and miscellaneous, 1964-1966

Final independent study report, 1966

Area foundation study of Reynolds Homestead Learning Center, 1978

Assemblies

Gates County Assembly, 1973-1979

North Carolina Community Development Organization, 1973-1975

Virginia Community Development Organization, 1971-1976

Bertie Industries, 1978-1979

Black colleges (article for Change and In These Times and proposal to Southern Exposure), 1978-1979

Black School Board Members' meetings, 1975

Central Vermont and Washington County Community Action committees, 1966-1967

Cobbler's Shop articles, 1976-1979
Note: See also Audio 824A/8.

Dayton, Ohio: regarding Journal Herald and Moving Ahead Together (MAT), 1965-1966

Dombrowski biography

Correspondence, 1977-1979

Tape-recorded research interviews
Note

Almost all interviews begin and end in mid-sentence.

Audio 824A/1-7 and 10 were transcribed and the transcriptions filed in Box 15 in Part 2 of this collection. The original 8 tape recordings are no longer in the Archives' custody.

Adams interviewing Lewis Jones, undated
Scope and Content Note: Includes accounts of Eleanor Roosevelt at Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) meetings in Nashville and Birmingham, other “legends,” and discussion of Myles Horton, Virginia Durr, Clark Foreman, Aubrey Williams, Lyndon Johnson, and Dombrowski.

Adams interviewing an unidentified black woman in South Carolina, undated
Scope and Content Note: Woman discusses Dombrowski and some of her experiences. Adams discusses the Gates County activities which have grown out of his shoe shop.

Adams interviewing E.D. Nixon, undated
Scope and Content Note: Brief discussion of Dombrowski but more extensive information on Nixon's role in the Montgomery Improvement Association, other civil rights experiences, non-violence, and Aubrey Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., and A. Phillip Randolph.

Adams interviewing Modjeska Simkins, undated
Scope and Content Note: Discusses Dombrowski, red-baiting, the racial atmosphere of the 1940s, a Birmingham meeting where Dombrowski and Glenn Taylor were arrested, and some of her own experiences.

Adams conversing with several of Dombrowski's contemporaries at Emory University concerning recollections of him, 1976 October 25

Edenton, North Carolina - Negro boycott items and historical outline, 1962, undated

“Facing South”

Correspondence with Institute for Southern Studies staff, 1976-1978

Trip, 1977

Columns, notes, drafts, book material

Notebooks

Miscellaneous correspondence

Ford Foundation correspondence and reports, 1977-1978

Workshop at Highlander, 1977

Fair Housing Law Committee, Burlington, Vermont, Branch, NAACP, 1966

Field Study Centers, 1966-1967

Ford Foundation consultancy on Boston School desegregation, 1978

Frederick Douglass fellowships in journalism, 1969

Freemason Street Baptist Church, Norfolk, Virginia, undated

Gates County Arts Council, 1974-1975

Gates County Human Relations Commission, 1975-1977

Gates County Public Schools, 1972-1978

Goddard College

Adult Degree Program correspondence and study reports, 1963-1965

Miscellaneous files, 1963-1967
Scope and Content Note: Includes memorabilia, syllabi for courses Adams taught, notes, and other papers.

Colloquium and Commencement address, 1977

To Know for Real (Goddard history)

Papers, 1975-1978

Interview with Tim Pitkin by Ann Giles Benson, undated
Scope and Content Note: Pitkin talks about his youth and family, general biographical information, and the sources of his ideas.

Grimke-Brown Coalition, 1969

Highlander Research and Education Center

General correspondence with staff, 1966-1979

Staff meeting minutes, 1971-1975

Brochures and statements drafts, 1978, undated

Bicentennial Project, 1970-1974

Elderly Program, 1970-1971

Master's Program, 1973

Mimeo materials

1968, 1971-1977

1978-1979

Recording of Myles Horton speaking informally to a group in Madison, Wisconsin, 1978 November 25
Scope and Content Note: Horton talks about Highlander today and in the past, its philosophy, work with the Textile Workers Union, and the United Mine Workers.

Miscellaneous files, 1974, undated

Highlander history (Unearthing Seeds of Fire)
Note: See Box 4, Folder 13.

Correspondence with Myles Horton and Joyce Dukes, 1969-1974

Correspondence on publishing attempts, 1972-1974

Correspondence with Quadrangle and Blair, 1969-1974

“Education for Social Change,” abridged version, 1972

Harvard Educational Review article, 1972-1979

Chapter 1 design and drafts

Revised draft

Footnote drafts

Scattered revisions

Research notes

Industrial Workers of the World, 1970-1978

“Legal Aspects of Open Preservation in Vermont,” 1964-1965

National Sharecroppers Fund Executive Director position, 1978

Niggerhead Pond, 1965-1967

Norfolk, Virginia neighborhoods

Beacon Light Civic League, 1961-1964

Ghent Neighborhood League, 1962-1964, undated

East Ghent, 1963-1964

Ghent and East Ghent clippings, 1961-1964

Background materials

North Carolina Association of Volunteer Administrators (NCAVA) Conference talk, 1978

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 1973-1974

Portsmouth, Virgina, sit-in manuscript by Edward Willis Rodman, circa 1961

Prison work

Correspondence, 1973-1978

Clippings, mimeo items, etc., 1969-1977

Quaker activities

Alden Resolution, 1967

American Friends Service Committee investments study, 1967-1970, undated

Friends Committee on National Legislation Executive Council, 1967-1969

MOTSU Project, 1973

National Conference of Friends on Race Relations, 1965

Peace Bridge (medical supplies to Vietnam), 1966-1967

General, 1965-1970

Radical Education Project Urban and City Planning and History Study Group, 1966-1967

Research Triangle Park article for Change, 1978

Robeson County Indians, 1973

Southeastern Black Press Institute Conference, 1977

Southern Exposure, 1977-1979
Note: See also “Facing South.”

Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice, 1978-1979

Regarding Taxes, 1968-1977

Twin Oaks article for Change, 1973

University of Wisconsin Extension talks, 1974

Virginia Council on Human Relations, 1967-1969

Warren Wilson College, 1976-1979

Writings - miscellaneous

Printed copies of articles, book reviews, and letters to the editor, 1959-1960

Typescripts, 1957-1978, undated

Miscellaneous

Papers, 1961-1979, undated

Interview by Jim Dombrowski with Mike Ross, undated
Note: Ross was an organizer for the United Mine Workers in 1941 in Saltsville, West Virginia; Harlan County, Kentucky; and Rockwood, Tennessee.

Adams interviewing Sgt.? Brady concerning charges against her of insubordination
Note: Brady was a soldier at Fort Jackson. The reason for Adams' interest in Sgt. Brady's story is unclear.

A compiled program concerning poverty in Vermont, circa 1965?
Note: Probably a radio broadcast or the sound track of a film.
Scope and Content Note: The program consists of narration and readings by Richard Lear interspersed with interviews with several unnamed people offering perspectives on the existence of poverty in Vermont, the surplus commodities program, health care for the poor, and the problems of the poor in schools. Adams begins to read credits at the end of the program but is interrupted by the end of the tape. His connection to the program is unknown.

Series: News Clippings

1957-1964, 1973, 1977