Manuscript Collections consist primarily of unpublished documents such as literary manuscripts, letters, diaries, cartoons, photographs, architectural drawings, and organizational, church and governmental records. Also included are some printed material, microforms, audio recordings, films and other items. Atkins Library's Manuscript Collections focus on materials related to the people and history of the greater Charlotte region, with particular attention to the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area.
More information about the materials held in Special Collections is available through the Library Catalog, which can be accessed from the Atkins Library home page, and the the Special Collections website.
Manuscript Collections Related to this Course
Below you will find manuscript collections in Atkins Library Special Collections that relate to 20th century social movements. Most of the titles link to the finding aid where you can find out more about the collection. For additional manuscript collections related to this class, please see the Manuscript Collections and University Archives research guide, which includes a list of our manuscripts related to Civil Rights and Social Activism.
Women's Suffrage/Women's Movement
Papers of a Gaston County resident, including broadsides (ca. 1917) published by the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina and the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, Inc. and correspondence and printed material (1931-33) concerning activities of the League of Women Voters, including its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. Also contains items relating to politics in North Carolina, to the paternity of Abraham Lincoln, and to Presbyterian missions in Asia and Africa.
Women Executives is an organization based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that formed in 1977 to serve as a support group for women as they entered the male-dominated business world. As the 1970s were years of change in American society and business, women encountered a variety of obstacles in their efforts to ascend the ladder of corporate success; and this organization served as a networking tool for women in business. According to its first mission statement, WE organized in order to "Bring together business and professional women in mid and upper management, and to provide opportunities for professional sharing and development." It also intended to draw its membership from a variety of types in businesses in the Charlotte area. Thirty years after its establishment, WE is still and vital and active organization for Charlotte business women.
UNC Charlotte Women's Association/Distaff Club
The UNC Charlotte Women's Association began as the Distaff Club of Charlotte College and later of UNC Charlotte. The records include the constitution, officers' duties, financial reports and activities. The organization disbanded in 2002.
Ladies Auxiliary to South Piedmont Chapter, Professional Engineers of North Carolina
The Auxiliary was created to promote the professional engineer and the engineering profession.
Charlotte Chapter National Organization for Women Records
Records of the Charlotte and Metrolina chapters of the National Organization for Women, and date from 1972 to 2009. The collection contains files that were produced as a result of the chapters' organizational functions, and also concern issues of interest to the chapter; key among them was the Equal Rights Amendment, and abortion rights.
Labor Movement
Primarily material relating to the involvement of this Textile Workers Union of America official in a strike at Harriet-Henderson Mills in Henderson, N.C. (1958-61), his conviction and subsequent imprisonment amidst allegations of a state-supported frame-up, and his eventual pardon. Includes correspondence, transcripts of radio broadcasts, clippings, audio-visual material, and manuscripts of his book, Scapegoat (1970).
Papers of a co founder of the Communist Labor Party and the Communist Party, USA (Majority Group), who later became an avid anti-Communist. Consists predominately of printed material dating from 1949-65, but also includes correspondence, speeches, writings, research notes, and financial records from all periods of his life.
Pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, and other printed items published by various radical groups based largely in the Midwest, especially Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Material addresses such issues as the Vietnam War; United States political involvement in Latin America and other regions; civil rights, racism, and black power; socialism and communism and their relevance to the United States; economics and labor; and women's liberation.
Civil Rights
Frederick Douglas Alexander Papers
Public papers of a Charlotte politician and civil rights leader. Primarily material created and received by Alexander as the first African-American member of the Charlotte City Council in the 20th century (1965-74) and as a North Carolina state senator (1975-80). Includes minutes and other papers relating to council and senate activities; material on campaigns and voter registration drives; files on the local, state, and national Democratic Party; correspondence; speeches; clippings; photographs; and some personal and business material. Also includes extensive files of the numerous organizations and businesses in which Alexander was active, e.g.: Charlotte Area Fund, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Charlotte- Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, Governor's Committee on Law and Order, Johnson C. Smith University, Mecklenburg County Board of Public Welfare, Mint Museum, Model Neighborhood Commission, NAACP, Charlotte-Mecklenburg and North Carolina councils on human relations, North Carolina Good Neighbor Council, North Carolina Human Relations Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Act Advisory Council, People's Hospital, Southern Regional Council, C. D. Spangler Construction Company., United Community Services, and Wachovia Bank and Trust Company. Photographs include views of Double Oaks and Newland apartment complexes, which Alexander managed; a 1954 Shriners parade; and the funeral (1955) of his father, Zechariah Alexander.
Kelly M. Alexander Papers (Sr.)
Papers documenting Alexander's service with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, including the Charlotte branch, his presidency of the North Carolina State Conference of Branches, and his membership on and chairing of the national board of directors. Includes minutes, correspondence, reports, speeches, programs, news releases, membership records, documentation on NAACP-initiated court cases, and material on voter education projects. Also includes material on the 1965 bombing of his home, the Charlotte Area Fund, health care, school desegregation, and housing.
Papers of a Charlotte dentist, minister, and civil rights activist, who was the first African-American to run for governor of North Carolina. Consists chiefly of clippings and correspondence documenting his involvement in the desegregation of schools, public accommodations, hospitals, the North Carolina Dental Society, and the Shrine Bowl. Also includes information on voter registration projects, gubernatorial campaign files (1968 and 1972), material concerning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a dissertation about Hawkins by Dr. Gregory Davis.
Papers of Charles A. McLean primarily in his role as the president of the North Carolina branch of the NAACP from the 1950s to the 1970. Also contains additional material on the Civil Rights movement and some personal and family papers.
Papers of a Charlotte artist, poet, civil rights activist, and UNC Charlotte alumnus, highlighting his role as one of the Charlotte Three and his interest in the civil rights movement. Consists primarily of correspondence, legal documents, and other material concerning his controversial arrest, trial and conviction for arson; subsequent legal proceedings; and the activities of the North Carolina Political Prisoners' Committee. Also includes files on the Wilmington Ten, the North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, and periodicals and monographs published by left-wing and civil rights groups.
Robert Franklin Williams Collection
Declassified documents copied from Federal Bureau of Investigation records regarding Robert Franklin Williams, a civil rights leader and black revolutionary from Monroe, North Carolina. All records in the collection were acquired through the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (United States Code, Section 552).
Gay and Lesbian Rights
For a complete list of our LGBTQ-related collections, please see the list of LGBTQ Manuscript Collections in our Manuscript Collections and University Archives research guide.
Papers of a lawyer and conservative political activist, including records of his law practice in Charlotte, North Carolina and his service as an attorney at the U.S. Dept. of Education and the U.S. Dept. of Justice during the Reagan and Bush administrations. Includes correspondence documenting his involvement with various conservative political and religious groups, including the North Carolina Conservative Union, the North Carolina Fund for Individual Rights, the Southern Employees Education Fund, Young Republicans, and anti-abortion groups Birthchoice and Pro-life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians. Also includes material about his involvement with community organizations such as the Charlotte Jaycees, his unsuccessful political campaigns, and his involvement with gay conservative political organizations.
One Voice is the Gay, Lesbian and Gay-Affirmative Chorus of Charlotte. This collection includes records from its beginning to approximately 2005.
The bulk of the Barret material is publications (29 volumes), with a small component of correspondence and clippings. One folder of correspondence comprises responses to an Op-Ed piece published by Barret in the Charlotte Observer, October 1994, titled "Gay lifestyle? What do you mean?". Correspondence also includes a typed note signed by Coretta Scott King accepting Barret's invitation to speak at the Lovett School where Barret was then Dean of Students.
Conservatism
The collection concerns primarily Dr. Frank Barnes’ leadership of a conservative “watch-dog” group known as Citizens for Effective Government, in Charlotte, North Carolina, from the late 1980s to 1995. The CFEG lobbied for minimization of local government bureaucracy and taxes.
Environmental Movement
Catawba Lands Conservancy Records
Records of a land trust established in 1991 to preserve natural areas and open spaces in the Catawba River Basin and the southern Piedmont region of North Carolina. Includes correspondence, board minutes, newsletters, newspaper clippings, and newsletters of the Land Trust for Central North Carolina.
