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Size | 5.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 3000 items) |
Abstract | Thomas Augustus Fraser Jr. (1915-1989) was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1941 and served the ministry until 1982 when he retired as bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of North Carolina. The collection contains papers of Thomas Augustus Fraser Jr. chiefly generated during the years of his ministry. Included are letters and other materials concerning his election and consecration as bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of North Carolina; his later activities as bishop of the Diocese; personal and family matters; a 1975 controversy involving the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Charlotte, N.C.; and other topics. Also included are materials, 1969-1974, relating to a grant from the General Convention Special Program to Malcolm X Liberation University in Durham, N.C. |
Creator | Fraser, Thomas Augustus, 1915-1989. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Jennifer Thompson, January 2010
Encoded by: Jennifer Thompson, January 2010
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Thomas Augustus Fraser Jr., son of Thomas Augustus Fraser and Lena Lee Connell Fraser, was born in 1915 in Atlanta, Ga. He earned a B.A. from Hobart College in 1938 and a B.D. from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1941, at which time he was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church. In 1942, Fraser entered the priesthood and became a missionary in the Diocese of Long Island, later serving as secretary and chaplain to the Long Island bishop. In 1943, he married Marjorie Louise Rimbach with whom he had two children, Thomas III and Constance. From 1944 to 1951, Fraser served as rector for Saint Paul's Church in Alexandria, Va., and, in 1951, he began a nine-year posting as rector of Saint Paul's Church in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of North Carolina in 1960 and began his tenure as bishop in July 1966. Fraser retired in 1982 and died in 1989.
Back to TopThe collection contains papers of Thomas Augustus Fraser Jr. chiefly generated during the years of his ministry. Included are letters and other materials concerning his election and consecration as bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of North Carolina; his later activities as bishop of the Diocese; personal and family matters; a 1972 controversy involving the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Charlotte, N.C.; and other topics. Also included are materials, 1969-1974, relating to a grant from the General Convention Special Program to Malcolm X Liberation University in Durham, N.C.
Back to TopOriginal file folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.
Folder 1-7
Folder 1Folder 2Folder 3Folder 4Folder 5Folder 6Folder 7 |
Bishop Coadjutor: Congratulations, 1960 |
Folder 8-10
Folder 8Folder 9Folder 10 |
Bishop Coadjutor: Consecration, 1960 |
Folder 11 |
Bishop Coadjutor: Consecration: Clippings, 1960 |
Folder 12 |
Bishop Coadjutor: Insurance, 1960-1962 |
Folder 13-16
Folder 13Folder 14Folder 15Folder 16 |
Bishop: Installation, 1966 |
Folder 17-21
Folder 17Folder 18Folder 19Folder 20Folder 21 |
Bishop: New Bishop Coadjutor: Election, 1977-1980 |
Folder 22 |
Bishop: Twenty-year commemoration, 1980 |
Folder 23-24
Folder 23Folder 24 |
Bishop: Retirement, 1982 |
Folder 25 |
Caldwell, R. Martin, 1975 |
Folder 26 |
Christmas, 1973 |
Folder 27 |
Correspondence, 1948-1949Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 28 |
Correspondence, 1955-1959Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 29 |
Correspondence, 1960Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 30 |
Correspondence, 1960-1961Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 31 |
Correspondence, 1965Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 32 |
Correspondence, 1967Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 33 |
Correspondence, 1970-1971Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 34 |
Correspondence, 1972Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 35 |
Correspondence, 1973Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 36 |
Correspondence, 1974-1976Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 37 |
Correspondence, 1977Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 38 |
Correspondence, 1980-1982Mixture of personal and professional letters. |
Folder 39-40
Folder 39Folder 40 |
Correspondence, 1987-1989Chiefly letters to Fraser about his ill health (addition of 2002). |
Folder 41-42
Folder 41Folder 42 |
Correspondence, 1989-1990Chiefly letters to Fraser's family after his death in 1989 (addition of 2002). |
Folder 43 |
Hospitalization, 1977 |
Folder 44 |
MiscellaneousIncludes event programs, notes, clippings, and a few photographs. |
Folder 45 |
Morrison, Paul, 1978-1981 |
Folder 46 |
Piedmont Crescent Commission, 1964-1965 |
Folder 47 |
Pike, James, 1961Bishop of California. |
Folder 48-50
Folder 48Folder 49Folder 50 |
Sabbatical, 1972 |
Folder 51-53
Folder 51Folder 52Folder 53 |
Speeches, addresses, sermons |
Folder 54 |
Stuart Sailfish Club, 1955 |
Folder 55 |
Thomas, Henry, 1967-1969 |
Folder 56-63
Folder 56Folder 57Folder 58Folder 59Folder 60Folder 61Folder 62Folder 63 |
Waller, Harcourt, 1972Materials relating to controversy about dissolution of the pastoral relationship between the Charlotte, N.C., Christ Church parish and Waller, who served as rector. |
Arrangement: Roughly sorted.
Malcolm X Liberation University opened in Durham, N.C., on a part-time basis in April 1969 under the guidance of a group of Duke University students and other educators and activists who wanted to create a Black studies program that connected with the Black community of Durham outside of the white power structures of traditional universities. They intended to teach history courses that spoke to the Black experience and instill pride and strength for self-determination. The curriculum would cover existing structures of state and local government, shared histories of oppression, the relationship between capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy, and how to organize for change. Malcolm X Liberation University would not be accredited and it would not confer degrees.
Later that year Malcolm X Liberation University sought funding for full-time operation from the national Episcopal Church General Convention Special Program, whose mission was to support disenfranchised communities seeking a voice in decisions which affected their lives. After review by the national screening committee and the North Carolina Episcopal Diocese's Urban Crisis Advisory Committee, led by Rev. E. N. Porter, an initial emergency grant of $15,000 was awarded, with a recommendation for an additional $30,000.
Howard Fuller, at one time a community organizer for the North Carolina Fund and the Foundation for Community Development, served as director of Malcolm X Liberation University. When the second grant was announced, Fuller described the goal of Malcolm X Liberation University in the Daily Southerner (17 October 1969) as "nation-building," developing leaders for a future independent nation in Africa. The curriculum would cover ideology in the first year and technical training in farming, house construction, auto repair, and other trades in the second year.
In October 1970, Malcolm X Liberation University moved to Greensboro, N.C., although apparently it still held land for farming near Durham. In November 1970, the Betty Shabazz Early Education Center, funded originally in November 1969 by the United Organization for Community Improvement and operating alongside Malcolm X Liberation University, also got a grant from the Episcopal Church General Convention Special Program to re-open in Greensboro.
By 1972 the Episcopal Church had grown increasingly uneasy with Howard Fuller (at that time Fuller went by Owusu Sadaukai). His open support for Black separatism and his rejection of white society and values was not new, but Church political tolerance for Fuller's positions had diminished. After struggling to arrange a meeting with Fuller to review the status of the program, the General Convention Special Program communicated that it would deny future grant funding, including $75,000 earmarked for Malcolm X Liberation University in a $300,000 grant request from the Federation of Pan-African Institutions. Malcolm X Liberation University withdrew its last grant request in the summer of 1972. A year later, Malcolm X Liberation University closed. Fuller reflected in The Greensboro Record (27 June 1973) that financial constraints and an overemphasis on the African continent doomed the revolutionary institution bent on Black separatism.
Records in this series consist of proposal materials; clippings, chiefly from 1969 and 1972 when Malcolm X Liberation University was in the news for its establishment and later for the loss of support from the General Convention Special Program; internal church correspondence concerning the grant award process, especially national versus local influence over which programs get funded, and the content of the grant made to Malcolm X Liberation University; and protest letters from inside and outside the Episcopal church.