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Register of the Boyte Family Papers, 1941-1981

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Descriptive Summary

Title
Boyte Family Papers, 1941-1981
Creator
Boyte Family
Extent
14.8 Linear feet
ca. 11,100 items
Repository
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Durham, North Carolina 27708-0185
Language
English.
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Administrative Information

Access Restrictions
A portion of the Harry C. Boyte Series is restricted until August 16, 2002.
In addition, patrons must sign the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this collection.
Also, all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.
Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
The copyright interests in the Boyte family papers have not been transferred to Duke University. For further information, see the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Special Collections Department.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Boyte Family Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.
Provenance
The Boyte family papers, 1941-1981, were donated to the Special Collections Department from 1967-1982 by Harry C. Boyte and Sara Evans Boyte.
Processing Information
Processed by Denise Dolan
Completed October 29, 1991
Encoded by Alvin Pollock
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
            

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Biographical Note

Harry C. Boyte

Harry G. Boyte

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Collection Overview

The Boyte Family Papers, 1941-1981 (bulk 1968-1977), chiefly contain printed material, including photocopies produced for meetings, conventions, and other group activities; periodicals, flyers, brochures, pamphlets, posters and booklets; correspondence; and reports, minutes, notes and other organizational records. Also included are drafts of essays and articles, photographs, notebooks, and audio tapes. While useful for a study of political and social activism and community organizing in post-World War II United States at local, regional and national levels, the collection contains little on the personal lives of the Boyte family. The collection focuses on the careers of Harry C. Boyte, political organizer and writer, in the 1960s and 1970s, and to a lesser extent his father, Harry G. Boyte, in the 1950s and 1960s. Social action organizations represented prominently in the collection include the New American Movement (NAM), the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Harry C. Boyte was involved in the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and New American Movement, a national socialist organization with a Chapel Hill-Durham, North Carolina chapter. He was a member of the National Interim Committee for NAM, a steering committee for local groups. Literature from these and other groups with which Harry C. Boyte was affiliated, such as ACT in Durham, the New University Conference, the Southern Student Organizing Committee and Students for a Democratic Society is located in the Subject Files of the Harry C. Boyte Series. Together with publications in the early 1970s from other groups in the Printed Material subseries, these files represent issues including the Vietnam War and conscientious objection, socialism, feminism, labor rights, civil rights, gay and lesbian rights and the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon.
Harry C. Boyte wrote regularly for NAM and other socialist publications on socialist theory and organization. Drafts of some of his articles, along with correspondence containing critiques by his associates can be found throughout the NAM and DSOC files in the Harry C. Boyte Series. Correspondence in those files and in the National Democratic Left Relations folder between Boyte and his associates contains discussion of the implementation of socialist theories in contemporary American society. These exchanges were conducted more formally through Discussion Bulletins, contained in the files.
Papers in the Harry C. Boyte Series also relate to local organizing efforts in Chapel Hill and Durham, N.C., concerning health care, welfare, industrial safety and inflation. The information is contained in folders titled ACT, Health Care, Occupational Health, People's Association for a Cooperative Commonwealth, Utilities and Tenants' Rights. A small amount of material relates to student activism at Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
There is some material on the women's movement and the career of Boyte's wife, Sara Evans Boyte, who received a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and became a professor of women's history. She was involved in a Chapel Hill women's group called Lollipop Power, a folder for which exists in the Harry C. Boyte Series. There is also material scattered through the NAM files about the Charlotte Perkins Gilman chapter, a socialist feminist group. Examples of feminist literature can be found in the Printed Material subseries and in the Robert P. McMahon Series.
Harry C. Boyte's father, Harry G. Boyte, left the American Red Cross to work in race relations. Eventually he was appointed the first white man on the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under Martin Luther King, Jr. Boyte's job search is documented by correspondence in the Harry G. Boyte Series. Contacts included the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League, SCLC, the Southern Conference Education Fund, and the Southern Regional Council. The letters provide background information on Boyte's previous experience in Civil Rights projects. While on the staff of SCLC, he headed Operation Dialogue. There is material in the Correspondence and SCLC files of this series about this program intended to foster interracial communication.
Correspondence in the Harry G. Boyte Series also covers the later years of Boyte's Red Cross career and his initial involvement in desegregation efforts in Atlanta. He served as chairman of HOPE, Inc. (Help Our Public Schools) and as Executive Director of the Greater Atlanta Council on Human Relations. He was also instrumental in organizing an Atlanta chapter of the Unitarian Service Committee. The bulk of the Education files of this series is comprised of material relating to Harry G. Boyte's work for the American Friends Service Committee.
There is material in the Clippings, Correspondence and Racial files of the Harry G. Boyte Series regarding civil unrest in Monroe, N.C., in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During his short stay there, Boyte and his family hosted Freedom Riders and lent support to local NAACP leaders. Racial files include material relating to other Civil Rights programs and events in North Carolina and Georgia conducted by groups such as the Southern Regional Council, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and SCLC. There is also some literature from CORE in a separate folder.
Robert McMahon was associated with Harry C. Boyte after becoming a member of the Chapel Hill-Durham chapter of NAM. He was also involved in the local chapter of the New University Conference and the Chapel Hill Peace Center. While a student at the University of Virginia, McMahon served as President of the Newman Student Federation, and as Chairman of the Southern Student Organizing Committee between the years 1967-1968. The Robert P. McMahon Series contains information on the organization, planning and programs of these two groups. Some documentation of his political involvements can also be found in the Harry C. Boyte Series.
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Subject Headings

These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
  • Boyte, Sara Evans.
  • Social action.
  • College students--Political activity--North Carolina.
  • College students--Political activity--Virginia.
  • New American Movement (organization).
  • Democratic Socialist Orgnizing Committee (U.S.).
  • ACT (Durham, N.C.).
  • Students for a Democratic Society (U.S.).
  • New University Conference.
  • Southern Student Organizing Committee.
  • American Friends Service Committee.
  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
  • Socialism--United States.
  • Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975.
  • Conscientious objectors.
  • Civil rights.
  • Women's rights.
  • North Carolina--Race relations.
  • Segregation--Virginia.
  • Political participation.
  • Community organization.
  • Boyte, Harry Chatten, 1945-
  • Boyte, Harry G., 1911-
  • McMahon, Robert Patrick.
List of Series in Collection
Harry C. Boyte, 1959-1981 and undated (bulk 1968-1976).
Harry G. Boyte, 1944-1975 and undated (bulk 1962-1965).
Robert P. McMahon, 1965-1975 and undated
Oversize Materials
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Detailed Description of Collection

Harry C. Boyte, 1959-1981 and undated (bulk 1968-1976).

Arranged in Subject Files and Printed Material subseries. About one-half of the Subject Files consists of files, 1970-1982, on the New American Movement. This section consists primarily of typed correspondence and printed material, in equal amounts. Printed material includes drafts of published and unpublished articles, political statements, Discussion Bulletins, booklets, pamphlets and flyers. Also includes organizational records in the form of reports, resolutions, minutes, newsletters, meeting and discussion notes, announcements, agendas and convention packets. Other materials include several notebooks, loose notes, and training manuals. The remainder of the Subject Files consist mainly of a wide variety of printed material produced by left-wing political groups such as flyers, newsletters, typed copies of articles and speeches, fact sheets, booklets, pamphlets, reprints, conference information and reports. Correspondence, mostly to and from Boyte, is scattered throughout. Serials are filed in the folder of the producing organization if a folder exists.
The remainder of the serials are arranged alphabetically by title in the Printed Material subseries. General printed material is arranged chronologically. A portion of this series is restricted until August 16, 2002.

Subject Files
Box 1
ACT, 1968-1971, undated   (2 folders)
Africa, 1964-1975, undated
American Friends Service Committee, 1959-1975, undated
Asia, 1975-1976
Billy Graham Day, 1975
Boyte, Sara Evans, 1966-1975
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, 1962-1973, undated
Box 2
Chapel Hill-Durham, 1969-1976, undated
Chapel Hill Peace Center, 1973-1975, undated
Christian-Marxist Dialogue, 1961-1968, undated
Conference on Radicals in the Professions, 1967
Correspondence, 1971-1979, undated   (2 folders)
Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, 1973-1976
Box 3
Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, 1977-1982, undated   (6 folders)
Box 4
Draft, 1965-1975, undated
Duke University, 1964-1975, undated
Economics, 1963-1975, undated
Election Laws, 1971-1974
Energy, 1973-1974, undated
Farmers, 1973
Grape-Lettuce Boycott, 1965-1972, undated
Gulf and Shell Boycotts, 1973
Health Care, 1971-1975, undated
Housing, 1960
Human Rights Party, undated
Indians, South Dakota, 1973-1974
July 4th Coalition, 1976
Latin America, 1965-1975, undated
Legal Defense Fund, 1969-1971, undated
Legal Papers, 1972
Lollipop power, 1970-1974
Box 5
Midwest Academy, 1974- 1979, undated
National Campaign to Impeach Nixon, 1973-1974
National Democratic Left Relations, 1972-1979, undated
National Interim Committee for a Mass Party of the People, 1973-1975
New University Conference, 1968-1970
New American Movement, 1970-1972, Apr.   (3 folders)
Box 6
New American Movement, 1972, May-Dec.   (5 folders)
Box 7
New American Movement, 1972-1973, Aug.   (6 folders)
Box 8
New American Movement, 1973, Sept.-1974, Mar.   (7 folders)
Box 9
New American Movement, 1974, Apr-Dec.   (6 folders)
Box 10
New American Movement, 1974-1975, Aug.   (6 folders)
Box 11
New American Movement, 1975, Sept.-1976   (6 folders)
Box 12
New American Movement, 1976-1979   (6 folders)
Box 13
New American Movement, 1980, undated   (6 folders)
Box 14
New University Conference, 1968-1971   (5 folders)
Box 15
New University Conference, 1972, undated   (2 folders)
Occupational Health (NAM), 1971-1973, undated
Peoples Alliance for a Cooperative Commonwealth, 1975-1979, undated
Pictures, 1951, undated
Box 16
Radical Historians' Caucus, 1969-1977, undated
Radicals in The Professions Conference, undated
Record, "Crisis in the Nation," 1960s
Southern Conference Educational Fund, 1963-1975, undated
Southern Organizer's Conference, Greenville, S.C. (Sept. 4-5, 1971), 1971, Mar.-Sept, undated
Southern Student Organizing Committee, 1963-1967, Apr.   (3 folders)
Box 17
Southern Student Organizing Committee, 1967, May-1969, undated   (3 folders)
Students for a Democratic Society, 1962-1968
Box 18
Students for A Democratic Society, 1969, undated
Tenants Rights, 1972-1973
Union for Radical Political Economics, 1972-1974
University of N.C. Student Strike, May, 1970
Utilities, 1972-1976, undated
Vietnam, 1965-1975, undated   (3 folders)
Welfare, 1971-1975
Youth, 1961-1969, undated

Printed Material
Box 19
General, 1955-1972   (5 folders)
Box 20
General, 1973-1979, undated   (6 folders)
Box 21
Serials, A-G   (5 folders)
Box 22
Serials, H-Pe   (5 folders)
Box 23
Serials, Pf-Z   (5 folders)

Subject Files: Restricted
Box 24
Cooperative Commonwealth Project, 1980, undated
Correspondence:
1971-1980, undated
(Private), 1971-1978, undated   (2 folders)
Human Rights, 1974-1976, undated
New American Movement, 1971-1973
Box 25
New American Movement, 1974-1975, undated
Unity, 1976-1978, undated   (2 folders)
Miscellaneous, 1972-1979, undated

Harry G. Boyte, 1944-1975 and undated (bulk 1962-1965).

Chiefly Subject Files. Contains typed reports, correspondence to and from Boyte, clippings, speeches of Civil Rights leaders, press releases, a small amount of legal papers, and printed material. Printed material includes newsletters, brochures, booklets, announcements, annual reports, typed essays and information produced for meetings and conferences. Administrative records consisting of memos, minutes, agendas, budgets and correspondence which passed through the Atlanta SCLC office. Some correspondence is addressed to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Arranged chronologically in Correspondence files and alphabetically in Subject Files.

Correspondence
Box 26
1944-1968, undated   (4 folders)

Subject Files
American National Red Cross, 1946-1959, undated
Appalachia, 1964-1975, undated
Biographical sketch, 1963, undated
Clippings, 1942-1968, undated
Box 27
Congress of Racial Equality, 1961-1965
Education, 1954-1966, undated   (4 folders)
Legal papers, 1955-1969
Pictures:
Harry G. and Janet Chatten Boyte with American Red Cross and Family, 1945-1950, undated
March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including Martin Luther King, Jr., undated
Box 28
Racial, 1957-1975, undated   (6 folders)
Box 29
Racial, undated
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1957-1966, undated   (5 folders)
Miscellaneous, 1945-1959, undated

Robert P. McMahon, 1965-1975 and undated

Includes records of the Newman Student Federation in the form of correspondence to and from McMahon, notes, position papers, and printed material such as reprints, pamphlets, newsletters, reports and resolutions. Several notebooks with personal and organizational notes. Arranged alphabetically by subject.

Subject Files
Box 30
Newman Student Federation, 1966-1968, undated   (3 folders)
Notebooks, 1967-1973
People's Party, 1971-1974, undated
Pitt County Movement, 1971
Prisons and Prisoners, 1972-1976, undated
Miscellaneous, 1965-1975, undated   (2 folders)

Miscellaneous, 1955-1981 and undated
Box 31
Audio Tapes, undated
Pictures, 1963, undated
General, 1955-1981, undated   (2 folders)
Clippings, 1960-1976, undated   (2 folders)

Oversize Materials


Harry C. Boyte Series
Oversize Cabinet  OC:1:8:  Subject Files:
Chapel Hill-Durham, 1974, undated
Gulf and Shell Boycotts, 1973
Health Care, 1972
July 4th Coalition, 1976
Latin America, 1974
National Campaign to Impeach Nixon, 1974
New American Movement, 1972-1975, undated
New University Conference, 1969-1972
Southern Student Organizing Committee, 1966-1971, undated
Students for a Democratic Society, 1966, undated
Utilities, 1972-1975
Vietnam, 1967, undated
Printed Material:
General, 1967-1969, undated
Serials, 1966-1973
   Oversize Folder 2
Subject Files (in OC:II:4): Latin America
Printed Material: General
Ovsz. Box 66
Printed Material:
General, 1969-1976, undated
Serials
A-Gra   (3 folders)
Ovsz. Box 67
Gre-Mr   (3 folders)
Ovsz. Box 68
Mo-New Sol.   (3 folders)
Ovsz. Box 69
New York-Z   (5 folders)

Harry G. Boyte Series
Oversize Cabinet  OC:I:8:  Subject Files:
Racial, 1966, undated
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1965
Oversize Cabinet  OC:II:4:  Miscellaneous, 1972

Miscellaneous Series
Oversize Cabinet  OC:I:8:  1971-1973, undated