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No restrictions. Open for research.

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No usage restrictions.

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 Ted Outwater Papers #70127, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Ted Outwater in February 2022 (Acc. 20220520.1).

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.

Processed by: Rebecca Stubbs, June 2022

Encoded by: Laura Smith, June 2022

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.

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.

• Agricultural laborers--Southern States.
• Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris.
• Energy policy--Southern States.
• Environmental justice--Southern States.
• Industrial hygiene--Southern States.
• Industrial safety--Southern States.
• Labor laws and legislation--Southern States.
• Migrant Agricultural laborers--Southern States.
• Nonprofit organizations--Southern States.
• Outwater, Ted.
• Seasonal labor--Southern States.
• Social action--Southern States.

• Bob Hall Papers (05633)
• Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris Records (05404)
• Cecelia Conway Papers (04871)
• Student Action with Farmworkers Collection (20317)
• North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Project Records (04578)
• Wells Eddleman Papers (05489)

Ted Outwater is a white organizer and advocate for labor rights, occupational health and safety, and environmental justice. A 1970 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Outwater was involved in several in anti-war and labor campaigns during his time as a student, including: the N.C. Moratorium Committee, United Citizens for Peace, Peoples’ Peace Treaty Coalition and the May Day Committee. After graduation, Outwater did various graphic design projects and volunteer programs, then becoming involved in the New American Movement. In 1975, he organized with the Orange County (N.C.) Citizens for Alternative Power against the sale of the UNC utility system. In 1976, he was a founding member of the North Carolina People’s Alliance. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he continued doing contract graphic design, audiovisual, and consulting work for occupational safety and health, water quality, and labor projects. From 1986 to 1988 he was involved in the Farmworkers Legal Services of North Carolina and the East Coast Farmworkers Network as a member of a labor camp inspection team. Outwater served as director of the Clean Water Fund from 1990 to 1996, worked with the Rockefeller Family Fund as an environmental grantmaker from 1996 to 1998, and served as associate director of the Hunter College Center for Occupational Environmental Health from 1998 to 2002. During his tenure, he was involved in occupational health issues and training for workers doing cleanup following the attacks on 11 September 2001. He worked with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Worker Education and Training Program from 2002 to 2014.

Contains reports, correspondence, photographs, flyers, posters, artwork, newspaper clippings, and other materials pertaining to organizations and causes supported by white organizer and labor rights advocate Ted Outwater. Organizations documented in this collection include the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris (CASH), the Farmworkers Legal Services of North Carolina (FLSNC), the People’s Alliance, and Orange County Citizens for Alternative Power (OCCAP).

Materials pertaining to the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris (CASH) includes some of the founding documents of the organization, documents related to initial legal strategies to fight the siting of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant, and information on CASH outreach and collaboration with residents within the five-mile zone around the Harris plant. Also includes many flyers, posters, and other items with artwork done by Outwater, a few newspaper clippings, and a set of photos from rallies and events.

Materials pertaining to Farmworkers Legal Services of North Carolina (FLSNC) include Outwater’s sketches and reports, correspondence, photographs, and background research. Of note is a copy of a farmworker’s weekly paycheck that the team found on the floor of one of the camps, which provides an accounting of all the illegal deductions to the worker’s pay.

Materials pertaining to the People’s Alliance: Outwater was a founding member of the People’s Alliance include founding documents, correspondence, and other early materials of the organization. Also includes a set of pamphlets developed by People's Alliance, and illustrated by Outwater, on major social issues.

Materials pertaining to Orange County Citizens for Alternative Power include a full-size poster designed by Outwater and several photographs of organizers flyering on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, NC.

The collection also contains a Snapshot of University of North Carolina Police Chief Arthur Beaumont standing in Lenoir Dining Hall, smiling and taking a photo of Outwater in early 1969, several days prior to the “table turning incident” during the Foodworkers Strike.