Research
Researchers interested in human rights material may also want to consult the broad spectrum of holdings documenting social activism and social justice that may be found in other RBMSCL research centers. Research guides for African American material can be found on the John Hope Franklin Collection website, and guides for women's material are available through the Sallie Bingham Center.
Library of Congress Subject Headings for Human Rights Material
Researchers can use the following list of LC headings to perform subject-based queries for human rights material in all library catalogs.
General:
- Archive for Human rights (Duke University)
- Human rights
- Human rights advocacy
- Human rights--Government policy--[country]
- Human rights movements [may subdivide geographically]
- Social movements
For documentation:
- United Nations. General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Human rights--Case studies [use for general studies with examples]
- Human rights--Cases [use for the judicial cases]
- Civil rights--Case studies
For activists:
- Human rights workers
- Women human rights workers
- Human rights advocacy
For organizations:
- Non-governmental organizations
- Human rights -- Societies, etc.
For Truth and Reconciliation commission-type work and results:
- Truth commissions
- Reconciliation
- Restorative justice
- Justice, Administration of
- Reparations for historical injustices
- Social justice
- Social integration
For abuses by governments:
- State-sponsored terrorism
- Victims of state-sponsored terrorism
- Disappeared persons--[country]
- Crimes against humanity
Human Rights Collections: Manuscripts and Archives
Human rights collections at Duke range from the papers of individuals (e.g. Peter Storey papers) to the records of organizations (e.g. The Center for Death Penalty Litigation records). They include local North Carolina based groups as well as organizations operating on a transnational and international scale. Latin America is particularly well-represented by such collections as the Marshall T. Meyer papers (Argentina) and The Center for International Policy records (Columbia, Cuba, drug trafficking), and the Coletta Youngers papers (Peru and the Andean region). Other regions such as South Africa (the Peter Storey papers) and the Middle East (the Marty Rosenbluth papers) are also documented.
To ensure access to material, collections receive a catalog entry immediately upon accessioning. Digital finding aids are produced after processing and are accessible on-line through the Duke Libraries catalog. Researchers can find additional related material by navigating via subject headings in the collection's catalog entry as well as those included in the finding aid.
Human Rights Abuses, War, and Hate
Key words:
- Genocide
- Iran Hostage Crisis
- Ku Klux Klan
- War atrocities (World War I, World War II, Jewish holocaust)
- War crimes & criminals
- White supremeacy
The Special Collections library has a significant number of holdings that contain documentation on human rights abuses wrought through war, genocide, and organized violence.
Restorative Justice
Key words:
Several collections contain important material on restorative justice and truth and reconciliation efforts from across the globe such as CONADEP (Argentina), the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and The International Criminal Tribune in the Hague.
Labor and Labor Rights
Key words:
RBMSCL has a strong collection of labor and labor rights related material. The scope of material ranges from early 20th century mill workers, to mid-century labor organizers, to immigrant farmworkers. Below is a selection of manuscript collections relating to labor and labor organizing. In addition to archival collections, the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library holds numerous labor-related print items, including pamphlets, books, and some newspapers and broadsides. The Perkins Library of Duke University is a Federal depository and so has many resources about government and labor.
Alliance for Guidance of Rural Youth. A pioneering organization in the area of vocational guidance, AGRY focused on occupations for southern women and rural youth. This collection documents the organization from its inception in 1914 to the death of its founder Orie Latham Hatcher in 1946; as such it precedes the records for the same organization found in the Warburton papers.
Arthur, Chester A. Arthur was an outdoor sign painter and a union activist. His papers are particularly strong in documenting the struggles of the Virginia Federation of Labor in the 1940s.
Boyte Family. Chiefly papers of father and son activists from the 1950s-1970s. The elder Boyte's papers contain information on the civil rights movement and school desegregation, while the younger Boyte's papers reflect his activism on the Duke campus in the 1960s and his continued involvement in socialism, the Vietnam War and conscientious objection, civil rights, women’s rights, and labor rights.
Congress of Industrial Organizations ("Operation Dixie") and the Lucy Randolph Mason Papers. These two collections document the attempts of the CIO to organize workers in the South in the 1940s. Lucy Randolph Mason was a Virginian who led the effort. The original papers are held in Special Collections, and a microfilm of the two collections called "Operation Dixie" is available in Perkins' Newspapers and Microforms Department. These records are also useful in conjunction with the study of labor relations in the papers of Cannon Mills and Erwin Mills, two North Carolina textile companies whose records are part of Duke’s collections.
Cowper, Mary Octavine. Cowper was a Durham activist interested in women's issues and rights of labor. The papers span 1895-1969 and include series on women's suffrage, industrial labor concerns, and social legislation.
DeVyver, Frank Traver. DeVyver's papers span 1914-1975 and reflect his roles as Duke University professor of economics, vice president of Erwin Mills, Inc., labor arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, and a number of other positions related to labor history. There are many clippings and much printed material, including such items as two volumes in comic book format: The Bible and the Working Man and Joe Worker and the Story of Labor. The collection for the most part reflects the history of labor in the South.
Durham Central Labor Union. Records, 1921-1971. Minutes, financial records, correspondence, memorabilia, and other materials from various Durham labor unions and their local umbrella organization, the Durham Central Labor Union. The individual unions include: Tobacco Workers International Union Local 183; International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Iron Workers Local 636; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 553; United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 522; Painters and Decorators Local 678; Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 585, Office Employees International Union Local 84; International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, and Helpers Local 81; and Bricklayers, Masons, and Plasterer’s International Union Local 10.
Goldberg, Louis P. Goldberg was a New York attorney and Socialist Party leader whose papers document his stands on a number of issues, among them a case in 1935 when a group of Italian youths painted Yankee Stadium with Fascist slogans. Guthrie, Milo. Graphic artist and political activist Guthrie donated his collection of printed materials from the American political left from the 1960s-1980s. They represent a range of issues including civil rights, feminism, environmental defense, nuclear freeze and disarmament, gay and lesbian rights, Latin American politics, labor issues, and various political parties and candidates.
Henderson, David Martin. Papers, 1963-1985. Miscellaneous pamphlets, leaflets and broadsides concerning student organizations at Duke, UNC-CH, and Harvard. Much of the material was circulated by the Students for a Democratic Society and its affiliates at Duke, the Student Liberation Front and its sucessor, Praxis. The papers concern such topics as race relations, the Reserve Officers Training Corps, labor unions, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. Also included are items concerning the Southern Students Organizing Committee; two copies of the Socialist Worker, the newspaper of the North Carolina Socialist Union, for which Henderson was an editor; typed and mimeographed papers of the North Carolina Socialist Union which was succeeded in Durham by the Progressive Workers Committee; the first issue of Proletarian Cause and draft articles for that publication, personal correspondence; and printed material and correspondence concerning a number of organizations, parties, and conferences, among them the North American Congress on Latin America (1967-1974), the Progressive Labor Party (1973-1976), and other organizations advocating communism and opposing U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and elsewhere.
Kress, Melville L. Papers, 1947-1981. AFL-CIO union organizer in eastern Tenn. and other southeastern states from 1946 until his retirement in 1971. The Kress collection is divided into two categories: papers and printed materials. The papers include flyers, newsletters, and other miscellaneous papers, many of which were used in organizing unions in plants in the Southeast during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Also included are anti-union materials. The printed materials include various AFL and CIO publications. Some are of a general nature (i.e. booklets on conducting meetings), while others relate to several of the unions previously mentioned. Letters and reports (1946-1963) from Kress to his director, Paul Christopher, can be found in the CIO Tennessee Organizing Committee Papers.
Matthews, J.B. Matthews was a communist sympathizer in the 1930s who did an about-face and became an opponent of many leftist causes and organizations in the 1940s-1960s. He was affiliated with the House Un-American Activites Committee and Joseph McCarthy. His papers contain voluminous files on individuals and organizations that were being documented and watched for subversive activities. As such, they are a source of information on many activists and organizations in the mid-twentieth century.
Mitchell, George Sinclair. This collection contains significant newspaper clipping files on union activities in the South, especially in the 1930s in Alabama and North Carolina. The textile, steel, iron, and coal industries are represented, along with information about the strikes in Gastonia and Marion, NC in 1929-1930.
Nathans, Sydney. Material collected by Duke professor Nathans concerning the 1979 clash between the Communist Workers Party and the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro.
Payton, Boyd Ellsworth. Payton was a union organizer whose papers span from the 1920s to the 1960s. He was a local union president and Southern Director of the Textile Workers of America. In the collection are scrapbooks of clippings related to union activities and strikes, particularly the southern textile workers' strikes of 1929.
Sheldon, Bob. Material related to Sheldon's political activities as a draft resister, supporter of the Communist Workers Party in the 1970s and the Green Party in the 1980s, and advocate of union organizing in the South. He was proprietor of the Internationalist Book Store in Chapel Hill.
Socialist Party of America. Special Collections holds the vast archives of the Party, which are particularly numerous from about 1918 to the 1960s. The papers cover many social and labor issues of the twentieth century and are organized into national files, state and local files, and the Youth and Young People's Socialist League divisions. There are also many serial publications. This collection is available on microfilm in Perkins' Newspapers and Microforms Department.
Southeast Women's Employment Coalition. The files in this collection document the organization's attempts to challenge institutional discrimination, open up jobs for women and people of color, support women organizing to improve working conditions, and help women develop the skills necessary to control their own economic circumstances.
Warburton, Amber (Arthun). An economist and sociologist long associated with labor issues, Warburton studied labor conditions in many areas. Among the organizations documented in this collection are the Southern Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1927-1935), the Institute of Social and Religious Research (focusing on coal mining villages in 1929), several New Deal organizations studying living conditions during the Depression, and the Alliance for Guidance of Rural Youth, for which Warburton was Director of Research from 1947-1963. Some of the areas studied are Harlan County, Ky., Green Sea, S.C., and Belle Glade, Fla.
Rosenbluth , Marty Papers. An Amnesty area specialist for Israel/Occupied Territories during the 1980’s, as well as independent documentary film-maker, Marty collected a variety of material including materials from Palestinian trade unions and United States-based solidarity groups.
Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) Records . Established in the 1970’s, Student Action with Farmworkers is a non-profit whose programs are designed to bring students and farmworkers together to learn about each other’s lives, share resources and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change. SAF works with farmworkers to address their concerns through documentation of human rights violations, grassroots education and mobilization, leadership development of young people, policy advocacy, and support of labor organizing.
Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean
Key words:
- Search by region (e.g. Central, South, or Latin America)
- Search by specific nation (e.g. Peru, Honduras, Chile)
Defensor del Pueblo Republica de Bolivia records, 2004: Established in 1997 by legal decree 1818, Defensor del Pueblo Republica de Bolivia is a state run organization formed to ensure the implementation of citizens’ rights in relation to the state, defend against government abuses, and to promote and defend human rights in general. Collection (2007-0008) contains printed material published by the organization: booklets, pamphlets, and fliers. Topics covered in the material include workers’ rights, sexual workers, youth rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, domestic and family violence, and rights education.
Asamblea Permanente de los Derechos Humanos de Bolivia records, 2003-2005: Founded in 1976 in La Paz, Bolivia, APDHB works towards the diffusion, education, and protection of human rights in Bolivia. Collection (2007-0007) consists of printed material generated by APDHB: posters, books, reports, pamphlets, and fliers. Topics covered in the material include women’s rights, children’s rights, victims’ right, rights education, the state of human rights in Bolivia, state-sponsored torture and kidnapping, government corruption, the massacres of Amayapampa and Capasirca, and political violence in Bolivian history.
Coletta Youngers papers, 1977-2004 and undated (bulk 1983-1998): Human rights researcher and policy advocate at the Washington Office on Latin America. Collection consists of reports and scholarly research, clippings, correspondence, and government documents related to socio-political conditions and human rights issues in Perú, gathered by Youngers through her work as a researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
Center for International Policy records, 1971-2006: Non-profit organization founded in 1975, based in Washington, DC, whose chief focus is promoting changes in U.S. foreign and military policy in support of global human rights. The records of the Center for International Policy (CIP) document in detail the organization’s global activities in support of human rights as well as its internal administration, funding, and public relations outreach. CIP’s chief areas of interest lie in documenting and reforming United States foreign and military policies, including the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Specific topics covered by materials in the collection include U.S. relations with Central and South America, particularly with Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, and Cuba; demilitarization in areas of conflict; nuclear weapons and the arms race; the Cuban trade embargo; money laundering and other aspects of international finance; terrorism in various countries; and the narcotics trade. The bulk of the files take the form of administrative files and records on other organizations which contain correspondence, memos, data, reports, travel documents, and extensive files; there are also many files containing printed materials such as pamphlets, newsletters, and press releases. The bulk of the collection is taken up by the files of Robert White, President of CIP from 1989 to present (2007), and Adam Isacson, current CIP Program Director.
Marshall T. Meyer papers, 1923-2004 and undated: Progressive and activist rabbi. Meyer was particularly involved in calling attention to human rights violations and working with the victims of violent political oppression in South and Central America in the 1970’s and 1980’s and served as a member of CONADEP, Argentina’s truth commission. Collection contains personal and professional correspondence from throughout Meyer’s career as a religious leader and human rights activist; his published and unpublished writings and speeches; printed material collected by Meyer; Meyer’s working and research files organized by geography, organizations, people, and subject; personal files, including appointment books, biographical material, papers from Meyer’s school days, photographs, memorabilia, and material documenting his numerous engagements; audio tapes and cassettes of Meyer’s services, interviews, lectures, and other events; and Betacam and VHS videocassette recordings of interviews and other public appearances by Meyer.
Student Action with Farmworkers records, 1992-2005: Founded in 1992 at Duke University, Student Action with Farmworkers is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Durham, N.C., whose mission is to bring students and farmworkers together to learn about each other’s lives, share resources and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change. Collection includes subject files containing correspondence, reports, articles, course material, internship applications, and other documentation of the organization’s programs and mission, as well as posters used in protests and demonstrations. Major efforts represented in the collection include the Into the Fields Summer Internship and Leadership Development Program and Project Levante.
Global Rights Records, 1980-2006 and undated, (bulk 1991-2002): Global Rights is an international human rights advocacy organization headquartered in Washington D.C. Collection span the dates 1980-2006 and consist of correspondence, administrative, research and project files, and printed material related to the work of Global Rights (known before 2003 as the International Human Rights Law Group (IHRLG)), a human rights advocacy organization based in Washington D.C. Material in this collection documents human rights abuses in various contexts while also providing insight into the complex administrative issues facing nongovernmental organizations working to curb those violations.
Washington Office on Latin America records, 1972-2002 (bulk 1982-2000): Organizational records, approx. 300 linear feet. To be processed Fall 2008. WOLA is the leading U.S. human rights organization promoting human rights, social justice and democracy in Latin America. Policy makers, elected officials, the media and activists in both North and Latin America look to WOLA for accurate, timely analysis of U.S. policy and developments in the region. WOLA was created a year after the 1973 military coup d’etat against the Allende government of Chile, when U.S. activists, church leaders and ordinary citizens came together to push for change in U.S. policies toward Latin America. WOLA’s archives contain crucial documents in the organization’s research, advocacy and monitoring roles regarding major issues and events since the 1970s, including the Contra war in Nicaragua, U.S. funding for anti-drug efforts in the Andes, the 1980s civil war in El Salvador, and the Fujimori government in Peru.
Frederick Herzog papers, 1963-1984: Personal papers, approx. 20 linear feet. To be processed Spring 2008. Frederick Herzog (1925-1995), former faculty member at the Duke Divinity School, is well known for his work on civil rights and liberation theology. The collection provides rich documentary evidence on the historical connections between religion, the Civil Rights Movement, and human rights. The material covers specific areas in which Herzog was involved such as the Civil Rights Movement in North Carolina, Duke history, student unrest in the 1960's, and human rights issues in Peru in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The collection includes audio cassettes of lectures, minutes from Herzog's lectures and classes, several English and German manuscripts of Herzog's publications, subject files, photos, and significant correspondence.
Bibliographic Resources
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