March
2003--Two Archival Collections Open for Research:
|
|
| Marquette University Libraries' Department of Special Collections and University Archives announces the availability of two newly processed collections. | |
| The papers of James M. Barrett are now open for researchers. A faculty member of Marquette’s Department of Biological Sciences from 1951 to 1986, Barrett served with a number of committees and organizations—chair of the Committee on Faculty and president of the Faculty Association for Interracial Justice, Pere Marquette Political Association, and the Marquette chapter of Sigma Xi. In 1986, he received the Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence and became a professor emeritus of Biology. He was a well-known peace activist and tireless supporter of human rights causes. From marching with James Groppi and the NAACP Youth Council for fair housing in the 1960s, to serving on the board of the Milwaukee Area Chapter of the ACLU in the 1990s, Barrett spent much of his adult life championing causes of peace and social justice. In 1973, he was one of three recipients of the B'nai B'rith Human Rights Award for his commitment to principles of equal opportunity and better understanding between racial and ethnic groups. Barrett died in October 2000. |
|
| The collection documents Barrett's service activities both within and outside Marquette University. Examples of the former include Barrett's work with Marquette's Equal Opportunity Advisory Council, the Faculty Association for Interracial Justice, and the Père Marquette Political Association. Examples of the latter include Barrett's involvement with the Governor's Commission on Human Rights and Milwaukee Citizens for Equal Opportunity. The collection also contains subject files on various campus controversies and organizations, and civil rights and peace movements. A descriptive inventory of Barrett’s papers is available online. | |
| Records of the Pledge of Resistance (Milwaukee Chapter) are also newly available for research. When it was organized in the mid-1980s, the Pledge of Resistance was a national social activist network of individuals and organizations of faith and conscience opposed to U.S. military involvement in Nicaragua and El Salvador specifically, and Central America generally. To those involved, Pledge of Resistance provided an opportunity to publicly denounce the Reagan Administration’s war plans and to demonstrate that opposition in a deeply moving and politically effective way. Following in the tradition of nonviolent resistance represented by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Pledge sought to create conditions under which the public and elected officials would recognize the terrible destructiveness and immorality of a U.S.-sponsored war in Central America. |
|
| Included in the records of the Milwaukee chapter are correspondence, minutes, publications, reports, press releases, and other material documenting the organization’s nonviolent efforts to work for peace and justice in Central America, 1980-1997. A descriptive inventory of the collection is available online. | |
The Department of Special Collections and University Archives is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.. For more information please contact Matt Blessing at (414) 288-5901 or matt.blessing@marquette.edu. |
|
