Biographical Information:
Scope and Contents
Electronic Format:
General
Conditions Governing Access:
Conditions Governing Use:
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Preferred Citation:
Processing Information:
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives
Title: Millie Moser Smith Papers
Creator:
Moser Smith, Mildred, 1919-
Identifier/Call Number: URB.MAMS
Extent:
0.92 linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1971-2003
Abstract: Millie Moser Smith devoted much of her
time to social causes, especially those involving farm workers, which she came into contact
with through her church membership. The collection consists of articles, booklets,
correspondence, ephemera, fliers, journals, membership directories, newsletters, newspaper
clippings, pamphlets, photographs, posters, reports, and videocassettes from the National
Farm Workers Ministry and related groups that worked on behalf of farm workers.
Language of Material: English
Biographical Information:
Mildred Alice Ross Moser Smith was born in Iowa on August 11, 1919. Graduating from the
University of Iowa in 1936, Millie went to work as a teacher at a junior high school in
Dysart, Iowa. After joining her sisters in California, she found employment at Lockheed,
where she met and married Ray Moser in 1943. The couple had three children. Ray Moser died
in 1979.
For the next ten years, living as a single woman, Moser Smith was able to devote much of
her time to social causes in addition to substitute teaching. She came into contact with
some of these causes through her church membership and eventually became the representative
of Church Women United for the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM).
In the 1980s the NFWM supported the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in a campaign
against the Campbell Soup Company. By 1987, the recent increase in birth defects and
childhood cancers found in the children of migrant workers forced the NFWM to change its
focus once more, this time to an emphasis on the issue of toxic pesticides. In the late
1980s, Moser Smith met and married Sydney Smith, farm worker advocate and author of
The Grapes of Conflict. The couple continued to be active in their
local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, both serving as officers of the organization.
Scope and Contents
The
Millie Moser Smith Papers consist of articles, booklets,
correspondence, ephemera, fliers, journals, membership directories, newsletters, newspaper
clippings, pamphlets, photographs, posters, reports, and videocassettes from the National
Farm Workers Ministry and related groups that worked on behalf of farm workers. Two
typescripts by Sydney Smith are also included in this collection, as are items documenting
César Chávez's 1988
Fast for Life, and an oral history
interview conducted with Moser Smith in 2003.
Electronic Format:
General
Other Information:
The collection was processed in part under a U.S. Department of Education Hispanic-Serving
Institutions (HSI) Grant.
Conditions Governing Access:
This collection is open for research use.
Conditions Governing Use:
Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of
this collection has not been transferred to California State University, Northridge.
Copyright status for other materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials
protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires
the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any
use rests exclusively with the user.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Millie Moser Smith and Jan Wilson, 2002
Preferred Citation:
For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style
manual, or see the
Citing Archival
Materials
guide.
Processing Information:
Rebecca S. Graff, 2003
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Documents
Photographs
Audiovisual materials