Boyte Family papers, 1941-2018

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Summary

Creator:
Boyte family
Abstract:
The Boyte Family Papers 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. 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.
Extent:
14.9 Linear Feet
Language:
English.
Collection ID:
RL.00138

Background

Scope and content:

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. He wrote regularly for NAM and other socialist publications on socialist theory and organization. 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.

Biographical / historical:
Harry C. Boyte
Date Event
1945, April 26
Born, Washington, D.C.
1963-1964
Founder, Duke-Durham chapter of Congress of Racial Equality
1964-1965
Field Secretary for Southern Christian Leadership Conference in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida
1966, June 5
Married Sara Margaret Evans of McCormick, S.C.
1967
Received B.A. with distinction in Psychology from Duke University, Durham, NC
1967-1968
Attended University of Chicago Divinity School
1968-1970
Community organizer, Operation Breakthrough, Durham, N.C.
1970-1971
Editor, ACTION newspaper
1971-1975
Member of the founding body and National Interim Committee of the New American Movement
1976-1981
Member of the National Board and Executive Committee of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee
1977-1978
Program advisor, Field Foundation
1978-1979
United States correspondent, Tempo magazine
1980
Published The Backyard Revolution: Understanding the New Citizen Movement
1980-1981
Senior Neighborhoods Policy Analyst, New Careers Training Laboratory, City University of New York
1981-
Director, Citizen Heritage Center

Mr. Boyte, a freelance writer, has one son, Craig and one daughter, Rachel. He is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and books about left wing political and social concerns.

Harry G. Boyte
Date Event
1911, June 26
Born Charlotte, N.C.
1936
Married first wife, who died the same year
1942-1944
Served abroad as Assistant Field Director, then Field Director for American Red Cross Foreign Service
1944, Jan.
Married Janet Chatten in Evanston, Ill.
1944-1945
Assistant Chief of Personnel Administration for Red Cross Service to U.S. Armed Forces in Washington, D.C.
1946
Executive Director of American Red Cross of Greater Atlanta
1948-1959
Manager, Atlanta chapter of American Red Cross
1959-1962
Involved with civil rights organizations in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia
1962
Directed community relations project for school desegregation in Prince Edward County, Va., for American Friends Service Committee
1963-1965
Employed as Special Assistant to Martin Luther King, Jr. for Southern Christian leadership Conference in Atlanta, Ga.
1965
Director of "Operation Dialogue" program for SCLC
1966
Employed as Technical Assistance Officer, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Atlanta, Ga.

Mr. Boyte is a member of the Society of Friends. He has one son, Harry Chatten Boyte, and one daughter.

Acquisition information:
The Boyte family papers, 1941-2018, were donated to the Special Collections Department from 1967-2018 by Harry C. Boyte and Sara Evans Boyte.
Processing information:

Processed by Denise Dolan

Completed October 29, 1991

Encoded by Alvin Pollock

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

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.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Boyte Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.