Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Southern Council on International Relations Records #40199, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Periodic transfer from the offices that create these records.

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.

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.

• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
• Frazer, Keener Chapman, d. 1983.
• Green, Fletcher Melvin, 1895- .
• International relations--Public opinion.
• Pfaff, Eugene.
• Sensabaugh, Leon F. (Leon Franklin), 1903-.
• Southern Council on International Relations.
• Southern States--History--1865-1951.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--History.

The Southern Council on International Relations was established 20 November 1937, as a non-partisan, non-profit, civic association by a group of civic, religious, and educational leaders representing the ten southeastern states. The council was organized to counter the growth of isolationism in the south and the nation by promoting international peace, international trade, and international understanding through public education.

The Executive Committee--consisting of a president, vice president, executive secretary, and treasurer--and an executive board directed the council's activities. In the main, these activities involved the organization of institutes and the operation of a speakers bureau; the distribution of literature; the establishment of centers to conduct programs on international relations and provide accommodations for foreign visitors; the international exchange of students and teachers; the encouragement of foreign travel for educational purposes; the organization of conferences to improve the teaching of foreign relations; the publication and distribution of memoranda on International Problems (later known as The South in World Affairs); the organization of groups in Latin America to promote the aims of the council in the Caribbean countries; and the promotion of international trade by cooperation with the International Trade Organization, the United States State Department, agencies of state governments, and local chambers of commerce.

The central office of the Southern Council on International Relations was located at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The major forces in the council's establishment and operation were University of North Carolina President Frank Porter Graham, who served as president of the council's Executive Committee; Professor Keener Chapman Frazer of the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, who served as executive secretary from 1937 until June 1943, when he entered military service; Professor Fletcher Melvin Green of the university's Department of History, who replaced Frazer; and Dr. Eugene Pfaff, who replaced Green in July 1944 and served as director of the council until Frazer returned to Chapel Hill in January 1946.

Records of the Southern Council on International Relations (SCIR) consist primarily of files of the executive secretary or director. Most of the material is correspondence with members of the council and with officials of civic, religious, and political organizations. Also included are minutes of Executive Committee meetings; planning materials for meetings, institutes, educational centers, and other activities; and correspondence with and annual reports to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Also included is a folder comprised mainly of correspondence with Leon F. Sensabaugh of Birmingham Southern University, who chaired the SCIR's Committee on the South and Latin America, 1940-1943.