Restrictions to Access

This collection has restrictions to access. Folders 360-361 are closed pending curatorial review.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Alan McSurely Papers, #4928, Southern Historical Collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the African American Resources Collection of North Carolina Central University.

Provenance

Received from, and held jointly with, North Carolina Center for the Study of Black History, North Carolina Central University, in April 1998 (Acc. 98079). Additional materials received from Alan McSurely in September 2016 (Acc. 102641).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

This collection was processed with support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

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.

• African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century.
• African Americans--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
• Congress of Racial Equality.
• Discrimination in employment--North Carolina--Chapel Hill.
• Labor unions--United States--History--20th century.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• McSurely, Alan, 1936-
• McSurely, Margaret, 1936-
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
• Pearson, Drew, 1897-1969.
• Protest movements--United States--History.
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
• Southern Conference Educational Fund.
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.).
• UNC Housekeepers Association.

Lawyer Alan McSurely of Chapel Hill, N.C., was born in 1936 in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1959. During the 1960s, he and his wife, Margaret McSurely, worked with a number of organizations in Kentucky and other states that endeavored to eliminate poverty, bring about an end to segregation, and organize workers in labor disputes. Included among these were the United Planning Organization, Appalachian Volunteers, CORE, SCEF, Mississippi Freedom, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Because of their association with organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Conference Educational Fund, the McSurelys captured the attention of the FBI. Their political views and organizing work made them the subjects of an extensive investigation in the late 1960s. As a result, they were labeled as radicals and accused of holding memberships in communist organizations. Such accusations and suspicions led to a 1967 raid on the McSurelys' Kentucky home and the seizure of numerous books and other materials. Alan and Margaret McSurely were arrested for sedition, an event that marked the beginning of a lengthy battle in the courts.

Through an order handed down by the United States Circuit Court in 1968, the McSurelys succeeded in reclaiming their seized property, which was later subpoenaed again. The following year, the McSurelys appeared before the McClellan Subcommittee of the United States Senate and were charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the materials. They were tried and convicted in 1970, but the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned their convictions in 1972. In 1983, a jury awarded the McSurelys more than a million dollars in damages for the violation of their constitutional rights.

Alan McSurely has practiced law in Chapel Hill, N.C., earning a reputation as a legal advocate for many in the African American community and for his handling of numerous controversial cases dealing with matters such as civil rights and labor disputes.

The collection consists of correspondence, legal documents, photographs, and publications pertaining to Alan McSurely's and Margaret McSurely's work with civil rights and labor organizations in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s. Among these groups were the Southern Conference Educational Fund, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (formerly known as the Student National Coordinating Committee), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Included are numerous documents concerning the McSurelys' 1967 arrest for sedition in Kentucky; their 1969 arrest for contempt of Congress; and their legal battles and appeals, which continued until the 1980s. The McSurelys were ultimately freed in both arrests and won a damage suit in 1983 against those who had arrested them. Also included are photocopies of materials relating to Drew Pearson that the McSurelys collected for their relevance to their own legal battles. The addition of September 2016 contains materials related to McSurely's work representing members of the UNC Housekeeping Association in Tinnen et al. v. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a legal battle that sought better work conditions for housekeepers at the university.

Photographs (P-4928/1).