]
]
This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Portions of this collection have been digitized as part of "Content, Context, and Capacity: A Collaborative Large-Scale Digitization Project on the Long Civil Rights Movement in North Carolina." The project was made possible by funding from the federal Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 332.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 187000 items) |
| Abstract | The North Carolina Fund, an independent, non-profit, charitable corporation, sought and dispensed funds to fight poverty in North Carolina, 1963-1968. Governor Terry Sanford and other North Carolinians convinced the Ford Foundation to grant $7 million initial funding for a statewide anti-poverty effort aimed at rural and urban communities. This money--plus additional funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation; the U.S. Dept. of Labor; U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare; U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development; and the Office of Economic Opportunity--enabled the Fund to support a broad program of education, community action, manpower development, research and planning, and other efforts to fight poverty. The collection consists of administrative and financial records (about 32,000 items), including policy statements; Board of Directors minutes and other records; correspondence, speeches, and other files of Executive Director George Hyndman Esser (1921- ) and other staff members; records of meetings and conferences; proposals and grants; materials documenting the Fund's relationship with the Ford Foundation, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Foundation for Community Development, the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation, and other organizations; subject files; clippings, audit reports; and financial correspondence and other financial records. There is also material about Congressmen Jim Gardner and Nick Galiafianakis's 1967 attacks on Fund activities in Durham, N.C., and earlier controversies over political activity of staff members in areas served by Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development and Craven Operation Progress. Other material relates to "How North Carolina Whites and Blacks View: Each Other, Government and Police, Housing, Poverty, Education, and Employment," an opinion poll conducted by Oliver Quayle & Company in 1968. Also included are proposals and grant applications for housing, education, community development, job training, leadership, and rural development programs; the North Carolina Voter Education Project; proposals from the State of Franklin Health Council Inc.; and audiovisual material created by the Public Information Department, including social welfare documentary films and audio recordings of interviews, board meetings, and radio shows. |
| Creator | North Carolina Fund. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Linda Sellars, with the assistance of Rebecca Blackmon, LeeAnne Britt, Nicole Byers, Cara Cardellino, Kate Harris, Culley Holderfield, Lisa LaCosse, Abigail Peoples, Alicia Reeves, Susie Sharp, Jennifer Smith, Julia Smith, Ami Tadlock, Katie Tyson, and Jennifer Warren 1995
Additions processed by Meaghan Alston and Nancy Kaiser, September 2021
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Nancy Kaiser and Patrick Cullom, September 2021
Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, July 2023 (added statement about "Croatan")
NOTE: Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
NOTE: "Croatan" (or "Croatoan") is an identity term that was used by the Indigenous peoples of the Hatteras and Roanoke Islands in the late 16th century. In subsequent centuries, the Indigenous peoples of Sampson, Craven, Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland counties in North Carolina were thought to be the descendants of the Croatan Indians and were so called by North Carolina state officials; however, many tribal nations existed and exist now in this area who prefer to use their own identity terms, including the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina, and others.
In 2023, archivists examined the use of "Croatan" in Wilson Library archival collections and decided to leave this term in places where it refers to the Indigenous peoples of the Hatteras and Roanoke Islands, is part of a title, or is the proper name of a geographic feature or location. We have replaced "Croatan" with the appropriate identity term for materials that refer specifically to the groups noted above. When we are unable to make a determination, we use "Indigenous peoples." We recognize the complexity of this issue and welcome feedback on this decision at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
This collection was processed with support, in part, from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Preservation and Access.
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Subject Headings
The 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.
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Related Collections
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Historical Information
The North Carolina Fund was incorporated in July 1963 as an independent, non-profit, charitable corporation to seek and dispense funds to attack the cycle of poverty in North Carolina. At the instigation of John Ehle, Governor Terry Sanford had met in New York with representatives of the Ford Foundation, which was funding model anti-poverty programs. Early in 1963, Ford Foundation leaders toured communities in North Carolina and met with leaders of grassroots organizations. After six months of negotiations, the North Carolinians convinced the Ford Foundation to fund its first statewide anti-poverty project, one which would be aimed at rural as well as urban communities. The Ford Foundation provided initial funding of $7 million for a demonstration program, with the condition that the program would be dissolved after five years.
In its five years, the North Carolina Fund received and spent more than $16 million in what director George Hyndman Esser (1921- ) described as a "quest for new ways to enable the poor to become productive citizens, to encourage self-reliance, and to foster institutional, political, economic, and social change designed to strengthen the functioning of democratic society." Funding from the Ford Foundation, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Office of Economic Opportunity enabled the Fund to support a broad program of manpower development, community action, education, research and planning, and other efforts to fight poverty.
The early emphasis of the North Carolina Fund program was on education. Two million dollars of the original Ford Foundation grant went to the state Department of Public Instruction to improve elementary schools. The Fund's focus then shifted to community action and manpower development programs. The Fund supported eleven community action agencies across the state--in the mountains, in the Piedmont, and in coastal counties. Of these, ten are still in operation. Other organizations created under the Fund's aegis included the Foundation for Community Development, the North Carolina Low Income Housing Development Corporation, and the Manpower Development Corporation (now known as MDC Inc.).
An overview of the funds received, the distribution of funds by percentage, and a list of the major programs supported follows:
SOURCES OF FUNDS
Ford Foundation $7,000,000
Zachary Smith Reynolds Foundation (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1,625,000
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 875,000
U.S. government (contracts and grants from the Office of Economic Opportunity; U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development; U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare; U.S. Dept. of Labor) 7,042,753
FUNDS EXPENDED
Manpower Development 43.7%
Education 21.0%
Grants to Communities for Administration of Projects 15.1%
Research and Planning 7.3%
Housing 5.3%
Motivation and Community Development 4.7%
Human Relations in Law Enforcement 1.5%
Health and Welfare 0.9%
Legal Services 0.4%
Day Care 0.1%
Total 100.0%
MAJOR PROGRAMS
North Carolina Volunteers. Summers 1964 and 1965. Recruited 327 college students, who were trained and placed in service jobs working with anti-poverty agencies throughout the state. Funded by $49,835 from the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, $274,316 from the Office of Economic Opportunity, and $85,444 from the North Carolina Fund.
Community Action Technicians (CAT). 1964-1967. Recruited and trained 105 people from all economic levels to fill crucial manpower gaps in community action programs. Graduates of the program served as neighborhood workers, supervisors of Headstart and Neighborhood Youth Corps programs, and in other positions in community action agencies and anti-poverty institutions. Funded by $379,049 from the Office of Economic Opportunity and $65,502 from the North Carolina Fund.
VISTA Training. 1965-1966. Classroom and field training and instruction to 220 members of the federal Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) program. Funded by $261,161 contract with Office of Economic Opportunity.
Community Action Interns. 1967. Trained 30 college students in the basics of community organization and placed them in five North Carolina communities where local groups had requested summer assistance. A follow-up phase offered undergraduate courses in community organization to students at Catawba College, Livingstone College, and Shaw University. Funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity.
Foundation for Community Development (FCD). Founded 1967. Non-profit corporation working with the poor in eleven geographic areas in North Carolina in leadership development and training, community organization, and economic development. Its assistance to United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI) in Durham resulted in the establishment of United Durham Inc., a group of poor people that established businesses owned and operated by the poor. Initially funded by a grant from the North Carolina Fund of $263,838; subsequent grants from the North Carolina Fund of $8,093, $241,625, and $210,000. Other support came from the Office of Economic Opportunity--a special impact grant of $900,000 for economic development paired with a $60,000 grant from the Economic Development Agency (EDA). Smaller amounts of support came from a variety of other sources.
Community Action Programs. Eleven programs in eleven North Carolina communities over a five-year period with grants of $30,000 to $40,000 annually for administrative support, plus a total of 82 special grants varying from $3,000 to $150,000 for innovative experimental programs not fundable by federal sources. Among other projects, special grants financed the Winston-Salem Police Department's specially-trained community services squad for low-income neighborhoods; a mountain community action program's plan for making small incentive grants to neighborhood councils; and a three-year development program for enabling low-income farmers to grow, process, and market truck crops.
Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE). 1965-1967. Established field offices in three eastern North Carolina areas and sent out field workers to find the unemployed and underemployed, analyze total family problems, and assist families in meeting their employment and other family needs by using local resources. Contacted 10,000 families. Funded through a $1.8 million contract with the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
Mobility. Established 1965. Recruited unemployed rural people in coastal and mountain counties, developed jobs for them in industrial areas of the state, and assisted them in moving and adapting to new job and living environments. Relocated 1,136 families, 1965-1968. Funded by a $628,248 contract with U.S. Dept. of Labor. Later operated by North Carolina Manpower Development Corporation.
Manpower Development Corporation. Established 1967. Planned and operated statewide manpower programs. Lobbied for establishment of a state manpower council.
Survey of Low-Income Families. 1965-1968. Gathered data on 12,000 families living in 11 areas served by community action programs. Measured attitude, values, wants and needs of family members, as well as income, education, housing, health.
Analysis of the Community Action Process. 1965-1968. Examined the relationship between communities and community action agencies, analyzing general patterns in which communities make decisions, formulate goals, and resolve conflicts.
Learning Institute of North Carolina (LINC). 1964-1969. A private, non-profit corporation providing leadership, technical assistance, and information to improve public education in North Carolina. The North Carolina Fund joined Duke University, the Consolidated University of North Carolina, the State Board of Education, and the State Board of Higher Education in financial support of LINC. North Carolina Fund share of support totaled $362,473.
Comprehensive School Improvement Project (CSIP). 1964-1965. Joint effort of North Carolina Fund and State Board of Education. Experimental programs in 228 schools reached more than 25,000 children from kindergarten through third grade. Total cost was $2.9 million, 55% from state government and 45% from North Carolina Fund.
Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC). Established 1967. Private, non-profit corporation with a small staff of experts who assisted North Carolina communities in developing privately-sponsored, low-income housing. LIHDC also explored solutions to the problems of building decent, but economical new housing to enable home ownership by low-income families. Began operation with grants of $133,530 from the North Carolina Fund and $497,535 from the Office of Economic Opportunity.
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Scope and Content
Records of the North Carolina Fund, primarily the files of the central office staff, are organized by program. Also included are files of the field offices of the Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE) Program and audiovisual material made by the Public Information Department.
North Carolina Fund records include those of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee; the Executive Director; the Special Projects, Training, Community Affairs (also known as Community Development, Community Support, and Community Organization), Research, Planning and Program Development, and Public Information departments; programs funded by the North Carolina Fund; and various study committees staffed and supported by the Fund.
Among the programs operated by the North Carolina Fund documented in these records are the North Carolina Volunteers program; training of community action technicians to work in North Carolina and with Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA); a summer internship and curriculum development program; and research on poverty in North Carolina, community problems in areas served by community action programs, the community action process, and manpower and economic development.
Also documented are the eleven community action agencies funded by the North Carolina Fund and the projects they operated. There are also files relating to two grassroots organizations which received financial support from the North Carolina Fund: United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI) in Durham and the People's Program on Poverty (PPOP) in the Choanoke area (Northampton, Bertie, Hertford, and Halifax counties). Other programs documented include the Comprehensive School Improvement Project (CSIP), Learning Institute of North Carolina (LINC), Youth Educational Services (YES), community service consultants, Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE), Mobility, Manpower Development Corporation (MDC), Foundation for Community Development (FCD), and the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC).
The collection also contains audiovisual material made by the Public Information Department. These materials consist of audio recordings of interviews, board meetings, and radio shows, including the Public Information Department's weekly radio show, "New Voices in Carolina," as well as motion picture films that consist mostly of social welfare documentary films about the North Carolina Fund. The collection also contains related materials that correspond to the motion picure film and audio recordings found in the collection, including scripts of the films, slide shows, and transcripts of the radio shows.
The collection is organized into series that were established by the North Carolina Fund staff. Each series contains the records of a department or function of the North Carolina Fund. Series were established during processing. Many of the original file folder titles were retained, but some files were combined, divided, or renamed for clarification purposes during processing. The order of the series and of the files within the series has been changed somewhat in order to put the most general files first and move from the general to the specific. Thus, the first series, Administration, contains the records likely to give the broadest overview of the organization's operation. Most series are organized so that policies, reports, and other documents that show the purpose and scope of the program are placed first, followed by files on specific programs or participants. For Series 4, Community Action Programs, the original order was retained--programs are arranged by geographic location across North Carolina from west to east.
Note that some series have abstracts and lists of subject headings that relate to the materials included in those specific series in addition to or instead of scope and content notes. Because the abstracts serve not only to provide information at the series level, but also as the basis for records in the Library's online catalog, there may be some redundancy between abstracts and notes.
There are two small additions of miscellaneous administrative records of Carroll H. Leggett and Billy E. Barnes, the Director of Public Information for the North Carolina Fund. These materials can be found in Series 8A, 8.3.1A, and 10A. Of note are reports, newsletters and other printed materials, transcripts of interviews from the "New Voices from Carolina" radio series, and recordings of meetings with John Ehle, Floyd McKissick, Howard Fuller, and Terry Sanford.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Administration, 1963-1968.
ABSTRACT: SERIES 1. ADMINISTRATION: Administrative and financial records (about 32,000 items), including policy statements; Board of Directors minutes and other records; correspondence, speeches, and other files of Executive Director George Hyndman Esser (1921- ) and other staff members; records of meetings and conferences; proposals and grants; materials documenting the Fund's relationship with the Ford Foundation, the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the Foundation for Community Development (FCD), the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC), and other organizations; subject files; clippings; audit reports; and financial correspondence and other financial records. There is also material about Congressman Jim Gardner's 1967 attacks on Fund activities in Durham, N.C., and earlier controversies over political activity of staff members in areas served by Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development (NEED) and Craven Operation Progress (COP). Other material relates to How North Carolina Whites and Blacks View: Each Other, Government and Police, Housing, Poverty, Education, and Employment, an opinion poll conducted by Oliver Quayle & Company in 1968. Also included are proposals and grant applications for housing, education, community development, job training, leadership, and rural development programs; the North Carolina Voter Education Project; and proposals from the State of Franklin Health Council Inc.
NOTE: Original file folder titles and original folder order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Subseries 1.1. Governance, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by type of document.
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Subseries 1.1.1. Policies and Official Documents, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by subject.
Major policy statements and governing documents of the North Carolina Fund.
| Folder 1 |
History of the North Carolina Fund |
| Folder 2 |
Proposal to Ford Foundation, 12 August 1963 |
| Folder 3 |
Articles of Incorporation |
| Folder 4 |
By-laws |
| Folder 5 |
Functions, Objectives, Priorities |
| Folder 6 |
Organization |
| Folder 7 |
Administrative Manual |
| Folder 8 |
Programs and Policies |
| Folder 9 |
Community Action Agencies |
| Folder 10 |
Guidelines for Proposals to North Carolina Fund |
| Folder 11 |
Selected Facts on North Carolina Relating to the Mission of the North Carolina Fund, 30 September 1963 |
| Folder 12 |
Members of Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Staff |
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Subseries 1.1.2. Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: chronological.
Minutes and supporting materials for meetings of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Fund. Supporting materials include correspondence, policy statements, budgets, plans, grant requests and staff recommendations, departmental reports, project progress reports, reports from community action programs, and clippings.
A sound recording of a North Carolina Fund Board Meeting is located in Series 8.3: T-4710/1-2. North Carolina Fund Board Meeting, 7-8 May 1967.
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Subseries 1.2. Executive Director, 1963-1971.
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Subseries 1.2.1. Correspondence, 1963-1971.
Arrangement: chronological.
Letters and memoranda to and from George Hyndman Esser (1921- ), Executive Director of the North Carolina Fund. Beginning in October 1963, in-state correspondence is filed separately from out-of-state correspondence. For 1963 and 1964, there is a separate category of Governor's Office correspondence. The subjects and correspondents in Esser's letters and memos encompass the whole range of the Fund's programs and activities and are closely related to materials found in other series. Although many duplicates have been removed during processing, some duplicates may remain within this series and some items, no doubt, may be found in other series as well. This is particularly true of correspondence about community action agencies, manpower programs, and study committees.
In-state correspondence consists of internal memos to and from North Carolina Fund staff members as well as correspondence with members of the Fund's Board of Directors, state agency heads and staff members, and staff and board members of the eleven community action agencies supported by the Fund.
In addition to correspondence with Governor Terry Sanford, Governor's Office correspondence includes correspondence with his Special Assistants John Ehle, Joel Fleishman, and George Stephens. The 1963 correspondence is primarily concerned with start-up of the North Carolina Fund, publicity for the start-up, relations with the Ford Foundation, and the interest of local people in North Carolina Fund plans. The 1964 correspondence is mostly letters passed on from the Governor's office to the North Carolina Fund concerning people looking for jobs or communities looking for funding.
Out-of-state correspondence is comprised primarily of correspondence with federal and Ford Foundation officials. Among these were Sidney Woolner and Harold Bailin of the Office of Economic Opportunity; Richard Groner of the Office of Manpower Policy, Evaluation and Research; and Paul Ylsivaker of the Ford Foundation. Out-of-state correspondence also includes correspondence with researchers interested in poverty and community action, staff of community action programs in other states, and organizations in which Esser participated, such as the Council of the Southern Mountains, National Association for Community Development, and the Southern Regional Council.
Correspondence, 1969-1971, concerns the dissolution of the North Carolina Fund and reports on its projects and spin-offs. Esser's correspondence, 1969-1971, as Ford Foundation's Program Adviser for the South, is filed in Series 1.6.
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Subseries 1.2.2. Gardner File, 1965-1969.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence and other material kept by George Esser in a confidential file separate from his other correspondence. The name "Gardner file" apparently stems from the fact that much of the material relates to attacks on the North Carolina Fund by Congressman Jim Gardner in the summer of 1967 and the North Carolina Fund's response to those attacks. Not all of the material in these files has to do with Gardner, but most relates to charges of inappropriate political activity by Fund staff.
Earlier files contain material about controversies that arose in two community action agencies in eastern North Carolina--Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development (NEED) and Craven Operation Progress (COP). Esser's responses to charges against Fund staff were sent to Congressman David Henderson, OEO Director Sargent Shriver, and Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz, as well as to state and local leaders. Also included are a memo, 2 August 1966, from staff member Bill Flowers to Durham attorney Moses Burt of McKissick & Burt, asking for a legal opinion on the political activity of employees of programs funded by loans or grants from the federal government, and Burt's response, 4 August 1966.
Clippings, statements, memos, letters, press releases, and other materials document the charges of Congressman Gardner that members of the staffs of the North Carolina Fund and Operation Breakthrough (OBT), Durham's community action agency, had incited people to violence in July 1967. Gardner's charges followed an incident in which Fund and OBT staff were present at a Durham City Council meeting where poor blacks spoke against the city's housing policies. Rallies and a march on city hall followed the Council's inaction. Controversy centered around Howard Fuller, a community organizer on the OBT staff. Letters of support for Fuller, 25 July 1967, came from union leaders, businessmen, attorneys, ministers, and others, among them Asa Spaulding, Watts Hill Junior, City Councilmen John S. Stewart and C. E. Boulware, A. J. H. Clement III, and H. M. Michaux. A letter, with supporting documents, from North Carolina Attorney General Thomas Wade Bruton, 1 August 1967, informed Esser that the attorney general was investigating charges that the North Carolina Fund had exceeded the authority of its charter. Esser's response and exhibits in support are dated 15 August 1967.
Also included in the Gardner file is correspondence and supporting documentation relating to a U.S. Labor Department review of Manpower Improvement through Community Effort (MITCE) in the fall of 1966.
| Folder 313 |
1965 |
| Folder 314 |
1966 February-June |
| Folder 315 |
1966 July-August |
| Folder 316 |
1966 September-December |
| Folder 317 |
1967 January-June |
Folder 318-321
Folder 318Folder 319Folder 320Folder 321 |
1967 July |
Folder 322-330
Folder 322Folder 323Folder 324Folder 325Folder 326Folder 327Folder 328Folder 329Folder 330 |
1967 August |
| Folder 331 |
1967 September |
| Folder 332 |
1967 October-December |
| Folder 333 |
1968 |
| Folder 334 |
1969 |
| Folder 335 |
Undated |
| Folder 336 |
Summer 1967 Chronology |
Folder 337-338
Folder 337Folder 338 |
Notebook |
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Subseries 1.2.3. Planning and Start-Up, 1963-1964.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence, draft proposals, diagrams, and other items relating to the planning and start-up of the North Carolina Fund. The planning file includes several memos from George Esser to John Ehle concerning organization, staffing, office space, goals, and schedules for starting the planned foundation. Bulletins, September 1963-February 1964, are memos from Esser to Board of Directors members transmitting minutes, rosters, financial statements, copies of speeches, and other items of interest to Board members in the start-up period.
| Folder 339 |
Planning |
| Folder 340 |
Bulletin #1. September 1963 |
| Folder 341 |
Bulletins #2-4. October-November 1963 |
| Folder 342 |
Bulletins #5-6. January-February 1964 |
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Subseries 1.2.4. Quayle Poll, 1968.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Reports, press releases, correspondence, and notes from How North Carolina Whites and Blacks View: Each Other, Government and Police, Housing, Poverty, Education, and Employment , an opinion poll conducted by Oliver Quayle & Company for the North Carolina Fund in 1968.
| Folder 343 |
1968 Opinion Poll Summary |
| Folder 344 |
1968 Opinion Poll, Volume I |
| Folder 345 |
1968 Opinion Poll, Volume II-Volume VI |
| Folder 346 |
1968 Opinion Poll, Volume VII-Volume IX |
| Folder 347 |
1968 Opinion Poll, Volume X-Volume XIII |
| Folder 348 |
Press Releases |
| Folder 349 |
Correspondence |
| Folder 350 |
Questionnaire |
| Folder 351 |
"Notes and Questionnaires on Attitudes Toward Negro-White Relations" |
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Subseries 1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968.
Arrangement: chronological.
Typescripts of speeches and statements given by George Esser before various organizations, including testimony before Congressional committees and governmental advisory commissions, as well as presentations at conferences and talks to local civic clubs. Most of the speeches are about poverty, methods for the fight against poverty, and the role of foundations, local and state government, and citizens in fighting poverty. Most of the speeches in the compilation, "When the Heart Is Afire, Some Sparks Will Fly Out of the Mouth," were given in 1966 and 1967.
Folder 352-355
Folder 352Folder 353Folder 354Folder 355 |
"When the Heart Is Afire, Some Sparks Will Fly Out of the Mouth." Speeches of George Esser Junior, 1962-1968. |
| Folder 356 |
1963 |
| Folder 357 |
1964 |
Folder 358-359
Folder 358Folder 359 |
1965 |
| Folder 360 |
1966 |
Folder 361-362
Folder 361Folder 362 |
1967 |
Folder 363-365
Folder 363Folder 364Folder 365 |
1968 |
| Folder 366 |
Miscellaneous and undated |
| Folder 367 |
Speech material |
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Subseries 1.2.6. Other Materials, 1964-1970.
Arrangement: by subject.
Miscellaneous materials kept in George Esser's files include speeches by others, writings by Esser, materials relating to the phaseout and dissolution of the North Carolina Fund, and other items.
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Subseries 1.3. Staff, 1963-1968.
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Subseries 1.3.1. Correspondence, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence, primarily routine letters and memoranda, of senior staff, including deputy directors Tom Hartmann and Nathan Garrett, administrative assistants Mary Hatley and Lucy Watkins, and director of administration James Lee Burney.
| Folder 394 |
1963 September-December |
| Folder 395 |
1964 January-February |
| Folder 396 |
1964 March-May |
| Folder 397 |
1964 June-September |
| Folder 398 |
1964 October-December |
| Folder 399 |
1965 January-October |
| Folder 400 |
1965 November-December |
| Folder 401 |
1966 January |
| Folder 402 |
1966 February |
Folder 403-404
Folder 403Folder 404 |
1966 March |
| Folder 405 |
1966 April |
Folder 406-407
Folder 406Folder 407 |
1966 May |
Folder 408-410
Folder 408Folder 409Folder 410 |
1966 June |
| Folder 411 |
1966 July |
| Folder 412 |
1966 August |
| Folder 413 |
1966 September |
| Folder 414 |
1966 October |
| Folder 415 |
1966 November |
| Folder 416 |
1966 December |
| Folder 417 |
1967 January |
| Folder 418 |
1967 February |
| Folder 419 |
1967 April |
| Folder 420 |
1967 March |
| Folder 421 |
1967 May |
| Folder 422 |
1967 June |
| Folder 423 |
1967 July |
| Folder 424 |
1967 August |
| Folder 425 |
1967 September |
| Folder 426 |
1967 October |
| Folder 427 |
1967 November |
Folder 428-429
Folder 428Folder 429 |
1967 December |
| Folder 430 |
1968 January-February |
| Folder 431 |
1968 March-April |
| Folder 432 |
1968 May-December |
| Folder 433 |
1969 and undated |
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Subseries 1.3.2. Reports, 1964-1968.
Arrangement: by subject.
Reports, 1965-1966, on visits to community action programs outside North Carolina by North Carolina Fund staff and project directors; departmental progress reports; North Carolina Fund progress reports; speeches; and other reports by North Carolina Fund staff.
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Subseries 1.3.3. Meetings and Conferences, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by meeting.
Records of North Carolina Fund staff meetings, conferences attended by North Carolina Fund staff, and a brainstorming project conducted in the summer of 1965 to generate program ideas. Included are minutes, agendas, notes, correspondence, and other items relating to regular staff meetings, senior staff meetings, staff retreats, staff orientations, meetings of department heads and administrative staff, staff committee meetings, and project directors' meetings. Of particular note are reports and papers from a meeting of project directors and North Carolina Fund staff at Blair House, 10-11 August 1965.
In the records of conferences attended are programs and papers from meetings conducted by the Ford Foundation; a conference of state and federal officials with Fund staff in January 1964; regional conferences on the Economic Opportunity Act; meetings of other organizations, such as the National Association of Community Development and the National Association of Social Work; and meetings on topics of interest to Fund staff, such as rural poverty and low-income housing.
Records of the brainstorming project include material collected and written to prepare for seminars on scholarships, public information, and urban and rural housing. There are also a list of participants, correspondence, reports, background papers, and papers presented at seminars on involvement of the poor, urban housing, rural housing, and public information.
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Subseries 1.4. Personnel, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by type of document.
Personnel policies and procedures, job descriptions, forms, staff directories, organizational charts, correspondence, and other records of the personnel department of the North Carolina Fund. Included are data collected for a position classification survey, information about salaries and fringe benefits, correspondence with job applicants and others, and correspondence of William Koch about recruiting staff for community action agencies, as well as routine personnel department correspondence. Additional correspondence of Koch about staff for community action agencies may be found in Series 4.1.
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Subseries 1.5. Grants and Proposals, 1964-1969.
Arrangement: by grant recipient.
Files on programs funded by the North Carolina Fund and a few proposals for programs that were not funded. Most files contain the project proposal and a report on the staff's review of the proposal. Considerably more information is included for some projects, including the Comprehensive School Improvement Project, the North Carolina Voter Education Project, and the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation. There is additional information about some of these programs in other series. For example, see Series 7.3 for more information about the Comprehensive School Improvement Project (CSIP) and the Learning Institute of North Carolina (LINC); Series 1.9 and Series 7.6 for more information about the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC); and Series 1.8 and Series 4.8 on the United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI) in Durham.
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Subseries 1.6. Ford Foundation, 1963-1977.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Records documenting the relationship of the North Carolina Fund to the Ford Foundation. North Carolina's original proposal to the Ford Foundation, 12 August 1963, is found here. There is also correspondence between North Carolina Fund and Ford Foundation staffs about meetings, information, issues of interest, finances, reviews of the North Carolina Fund by the Ford Foundation, and a letter from the Fund's Executive Director, George Hyndman Esser (1921- ), to Mitchell Sviridoff, 24 February 1968, summing up the experience of the North Carolina Fund. Correspondence of George Esser as the Ford Foundation's Program Adviser for the South after the end of the North Carolina Fund is also filed in this series.
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Subseries 1.7. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), 1964-1967.
Arrangement: by subject.
Copies of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964; summaries and analyses of the legislation; amendments, 1965-1967; regulations; Community Action Program guidelines; and information about Head Start and Neighborhood Youth Corps.
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Subseries 1.8. Foundation for Community Development (FCD), 1967-1972.
Arrangement: by subject.
Records relating to the Foundation for Community Development (FCD), which was chartered on 10 October 1967 to support economic development and community organization in North Carolina, received an initial grant of $263,838 from the North Carolina Fund, and began operation on 1 December 1967 with a staff of thirteen, all from the North Carolina Fund. Included are minutes of the Board of Directors; proposals to the North Carolina Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Office of Economic Opportunity; reports; correspondence; materials created by the Foundation; clippings; and materials related to investigations of the Foundation for Community Development in 1969.
Reports include monitoring reports, 1970-1971, sent by the North Carolina Fund's Executive Director, George Esser, and his assistant, Lucy Watkins, to the Ford Foundation; FCD's monthly reports, 1970-1971, to the Ford Foundation; audit reports, 1968-1970; an evaluation report, October 1969, compiled by a team of five outsiders at the request of the North Carolina Fund; and other reports. Correspondence, 1967-1972, is chiefly letters of Nathan Garrett, executive director, and includes reports to the North Carolina Fund in letter form. Other subjects of correspondence are the United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI), the People's Program on Poverty (PPOP), funding, audits, monitoring, and controversies involving FCD staff members.
Files on organizations funded by FCD, such as the Greensboro Association of Poor People (GAPP), United Durham Inc. (UDI), and Malcolm X Liberation University contain lists of board members and other information. Notebooks created by FCD for community organizers include one on community organization, one on publicity, and one on neighborhood councils. There are also files on community development training and a leadership development program.
Clippings, largely 1969-1970, are mostly from Raleigh and Durham newspapers. Many relate to controversies in 1969 involving FCD staff members Howard Fuller and James S. Lee. A clipping in 1970 reported that the Ford Foundation had awarded a grant of $540,000 to FCD for economic development, leadership training, legal and social research, and not for community organization.
Records relating to investigations of FCD in 1969 contain a transcript of hearings, 10 July 1969, before the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, as well as material about the Ford Foundation's investigations of allegations of involvement of FCD staff in incidents of student unrest at North Carolina A & T State University in Greensboro.
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Subseries 1.9. Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC),
1966-1972.
Arrangement: by type of document.
Records of the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC), which began operation in January 1967 as a delegate agency of the North Carolina Fund, with the purpose of developing better housing for less money. Included are the corporation's articles of incorporation and by-laws; Board of Directors' minutes; proposals to the North Carolina Fund, the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology, the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), and the Ford Foundation; documents relating to consolidation of LIHDC with the Rural Housing Development Corporation (RHDC); evaluation, progress, and other reports; correspondence of Bob Smith and other staff members, chiefly 1968-1971; and financial records. Correspondence documents the organization of the LIHDC, the beginnings of a housing study by Arthur Cogswell, the organization's funding, tax status, and relationships with the National Housing Development Center and other housing research organizations.
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Subseries 1.10. Other Organizations, 1963-1971.
Arrangement: by organization.
Correspondence, proposals, reports, newsletters, and other materials from organizations other than those funding the North Carolina Fund or funded by the North Carolina Fund. Included is substantial material from the Council of the Southern Mountains, the Mississippi Research and Development Center, the National Association for Community Development, the North Carolina State Board of Public Welfare, the North Carolina State Board of Higher Education, the Regional Education Laboratory for the Carolinas and Virginia, the Southern Regional Council, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and various urban action agencies, as well as small amounts of material from other organizations such as the Foundations Group, the International City Managers Association, the Model Cities program, the North Carolina State Technical Action Panel of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, the Southern Education Reporting Service, and others.
The nature of the material for each organization varies with the relationship of the Fund or Fund staff to the organization. The organizations for which there is the most material are those in which Fund director George Hyndman Esser (1921- ) played an active role. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of the Southern Mountains, for example, Esser corresponded with Executive Director (later General Chairman) Perley F. Ayer and Associate Director (later Executive Director) Loyal Jones and others and received minutes of board of directors meetings, memoranda to the Board, and proposals and reports about projects, especially the Council's Talent Recruitment, Technical Assistance, and Training grant. Newsletters, reports, and correspondence with Executive Directors Wallace Edgerton and D. Richard Wenner document Esser's tenure as a Board member of the National Association for Community Development (NACD). The Southern Regional Council (SRC) material here seems to have come primarily from Esser's participation in a Ford Foundation Review of the Council in January 1968. Included here are reports from the Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Houston Councils on Human Relations; annual reports of the Southern Regional Council for 1965, 1966, and 1967; audit reports, budgets; other reports; and publications of the SRC's Voter Education Project.
It is often not possible to determine exactly what the relationship was between the Fund and the other organization. In the case of the Mississippi Research and Development Center, the presence of a proposal to the Ford Foundation indicates that the connection was through the Foundation. Proposals, reports, and newsletters from the Mississippi Research and Development Center describe its program of human and economic resource development for the Mississippi Delta.
Newsletters, reports and memos from the North Carolina State Board of Higher Education include a study of university status for East Carolina College and a report on desegregation of North Carolina colleges and universities and the appropriate role for traditionally black institutions. Supporting material for its 25 September 1968 meeting, including discussion of medical assistance payments to mental hospitals, public assistance policies, and its legislative program for the 1969 General Assembly, comprise the bulk of the North Carolina State Board of Public Welfare material.
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Subseries 1.11. Subject Files, 1963-1969.
Arrangement: by subject.
Miscellaneous correspondence, reports, and publications apparently collected and kept by North Carolina Fund staff. Subjects include civil rights, education, housing, health, employment and economics, and youth programs, among others. There is a relatively small amount of information for each subject.
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Subseries 1.12. Clippings, 1967-1972.
Arrangement: chronological.
Clippings, chiefly 1969-1971, from newspapers and magazines, especially the New York Times and the Raleigh News and Observer. Most clippings are about poverty, race relations, or federal government programs related to poverty or race; a few are about local events such as student protests at Duke in 1968 or the University of North Carolina Foodworkers' strike in 1969.
| Folder 1205 |
1967-1968 |
| Folder 1206 |
1969 January |
| Folder 1207 |
1969 February |
| Folder 1208 |
1969 March |
| Folder 1209 |
1969 April |
| Folder 1210 |
1969 May |
| Folder 1211 |
1969 June |
| Folder 1212 |
1969 July |
| Folder 1213 |
1969 August |
| Folder 1214 |
1969 September |
| Folder 1215 |
1969 October |
Folder 1216-1217
Folder 1216Folder 1217 |
1969 November |
| Folder 1218 |
1969 December |
| Folder 1219 |
1970 January |
| Folder 1220 |
1970 February |
| Folder 1221 |
1970 March |
| Folder 1222 |
1970 April |
| Folder 1223 |
1970 May |
| Folder 1224 |
1970 June |
Folder 1225-1226
Folder 1225Folder 1226 |
1970 July |
| Folder 1227 |
1970 August |
| Folder 1228 |
1970 September |
| Folder 1229 |
1970 October-December |
| Folder 1230 |
1971 January-February |
| Folder 1231 |
1971 March-May |
| Folder 1232 |
1971 June-August |
| Folder 1233 |
1971 September-December |
| Folder 1234 |
1972 |
| Folder 1235 |
Undated |
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Series 2. Volunteer Programs, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by program.
ABSTRACT: SERIES 2. VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS: Volunteer program records (about 14,000 items) are primarily those of the North Carolina Volunteers program, which operated in 12 counties in 1964 and 25 counties in 1965. These files include information about college student volunteers, daily logs of volunteers, reports from volunteers, information about community objections to racially integrated teams of volunteers, and correspondence of staff and volunteers. Also included are files relating to Youth Educational Services (YES), a statewide tutorial project in which college students tutored disadvantaged children; a study of women volunteers in North Carolina, which resulted in Women Volunteers in the War on Poverty by Guion Griffis Johnson; the establishment of an Outward Bound school in North Carolina; and other special projects, including a health careers project, a migrant health project, and Upward Bound.
NOTE: Original file folder titles and original folder order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Subseries 2.1. North Carolina Volunteers (NCV), 1963-1966.
Note that audiovisual material relating to the North Carolina Volunteers may be found in Series 8.3.
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Subseries 2.1.1. Correspondence, 1963-1966.
Arrangement: chronological.
Letters and memos to and from North Carolina Fund staff involved in organizing and running the North Carolina Volunteers (NCV) program. The bulk of the correspondence relates to speaking engagements of staff, funding for the volunteer programs, helping college groups organize tutoring programs, and recruitment and selection of volunteers. Early correspondence is primarily about speaking engagements of Jim Beatty, the first director of the North Carolina Volunteers. Curtis Gans, assistant director, corresponded with numerous people about recruitment and selection of the 1964 volunteers. Also included is correspondence of Jack P. Mansfield, Director of Volunteer Services and later Director of Special Projects for the North Carolina Fund. Later staff included Bill Harriss and Frank Rush. In a memo to Mansfield, 5 February 1965, Bill Darity expressed his concern that all teams of volunteers should be integrated and that the supervisory staff should be interracial. An undated memo (probably 1965) describes an incident in which volunteers in Craven County were shot at. The latest correspondence is about the end of the volunteer program and reassignment of staff.
| Folder 1236 |
November 1963-March 1964 |
| Folder 1237 |
1964 April |
| Folder 1238 |
1964 May-June |
| Folder 1239 |
1964 July-October |
| Folder 1240 |
1964 November |
| Folder 1241 |
1964 December and undated |
| Folder 1242 |
1965 January-February |
| Folder 1243 |
1965 March |
| Folder 1244 |
1965 April |
| Folder 1245 |
1965 May-June |
| Folder 1246 |
1965 July-September |
| Folder 1247 |
1965 October |
| Folder 1248 |
1965 November-December |
| Folder 1249 |
1965 Undated |
| Folder 1250 |
1966 and undated |
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Subseries 2.1.2. Summer 1964, 1964.
Arrangement: by function.
RESTRICTED: In order to protect the privacy of volunteers, applicants to the volunteer programs, team directors, and clients of the volunteer program, researchers who wish to use files containing information about these people must agree not to identify them in the products of research without written permission from the subjects.
Records of the North Carolina Volunteers program for the summer of 1964, including applications from potential volunteers, records of the recruitment and selection process, daily logs kept by volunteers, logs and reports of team supervisors, reports of teams of volunteers, and questionnaires completed by volunteers about their experiences.
For a history of the Summer 1964 North Carolina Volunteers program, see Series 6.10.
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Subseries 2.1.3. Summer 1965, 1965.
Arrangement: by function.
RESTRICTED: In order to protect the privacy of volunteers, applicants to the volunteer programs, team directors, and clients of the volunteer program, researchers who wish to use files containing information about these people must agree not to identify them in the products of research without written permission from the subjects.
Records of the North Carolina Volunteers program in the summer of 1965, including proposals, financial information, staff reports, a report to the Office of Economic Opportunity, public relations material, materials relating to conferences of volunteers, applications from communities desiring volunteers, completed questionnaires from representatives of agencies where volunteers were placed, weekly volunteer team reports, volunteer team newsletters, team directors' reports and logs, applications from prospective volunteers, daily logs of volunteers, and questionnaires completed by volunteers.
The questionnaires completed by volunteers contain multiple choice and short answer questions about the volunteers' personalities and attitudes and about their experiences as volunteers. The order of administration of the last three questionnaires was apparently changed after they were printed. The questionnaires administered seventh and housed in folders labeled Questionnaire VII are titled QUESTIONNAIRE VIII; those administered eighth and placed in folders labeled Questionnaire VIII are titled QUESTIONNAIRE IX; and those given ninth and placed in folders labeled Questionnaire IX are titled QUESTIONNAIRE VII.