Guide to the Millie Moser Smith Papers
Special Collections & Archives
University Library
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8326
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
Box 1, Folder 1
Agricultural Trade Unionism article
Box 1, Folder 2
Agroecology Program Report, University of California, Santa Cruz,
1990
Box 1, Folder 3
American Farmland Trust,
No Farms, No
Food
Box 1, Folder 4
California Educational Migrant Information Council pamphlets
Box 1, Folder 5
Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles proposals,
1986
Box 1, Folder 6
Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO: Seventh Constitutional Convention
booklet,
1997
Box 1, Folder 7
Facts for Life booklet,
1988 August 21
Box 1, Folder 8
Facts for Life fliers,
1988
Box 1, Folder 9
General Board of Church and Society pamphlet
Box 1, Folder 10
General Board of Church and Society staff report,
1990
Box 1, Folder 11
Grape Boycott, "Some Endorsements" booklet,
1988
Box 1, Folder 12
Illinois Conference of Churches fliers
Box 1, Folder 13
Institute of Human Relations, Loyola University, "Blueprint for Social Justice"
newsletter,
1988
Box 1, Folder 14
Michigan Farmworker Minority Coalition fliers and pamphlets
Box 1, Folder 15
Migrant Education Program pamphlets
Box 1, Folder 16
Migrant Labor General newspaper clippings and articles,
1980-1993
Box 1, Folder 17
National Farm Worker Ministry anniversary book and pamphlet,
1995-1996
Box 1, Folder 18
National Farm Worker Ministry correspondence,
1982-1992
Box 1, Folder 19
National Farm Worker Ministry ephemera
Box 1, Folder 20
National Farm Worker Ministry, "History of the Church's Ministry with Farm
Workers,"
1995
Box 1, Folder 21
National Farm Worker Ministry membership directories,
1987-1990
Box 1, Folder 22
National Farm Worker Ministry memoranda,
1988-1989
Box 1, Folder 23
National Farm Worker Ministry newsletters,
1989-2002
Box 1, Folder 24
National Farm Worker Ministry fliers, North Carolina Farm Worker
Box 1, Folder 25
National Farm Worker Ministry pamphlets
Box 1, Folder 26
Pavich Family Farms pamphlet
Box 1, Folder 27
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noreste (PCUN: Northwest Treeplanters and
Farmworkers United) pamphlet
Box 1, Folder 28
Rosales v. United Farm Workers et al memorandum,
1989 November 29
Box 1, Folder 29
Smith, Sydney,
Hearing on Resolution of Support for the
Boycott of California Table Grapes,
1988
Box 1, Folder 30
Smith, Sydney,
The Role of the Churches with migratory
Farm Labor: An Overview
Box 1, Folder 31
United Auto Workers,
Ammo, vol. 25, no.
9,
1988
Box 1, Folder 32
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO benefits package
Box 1, Folder 33
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO ephemera
Box 1, Folder 34
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
Food and
Justice,
vol. 2, no. 5 and vol. 4, nos. 7-9,
1985, 1987
Box 1, Folder 35
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
Food and
Justice,
vol. 5,
1988
Box 1, Folder 36
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
Food and
Justice,
vol. 6, nos. 1 and 3,
1989
Box 1, Folder 37
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
El
Malcriado,
vol. 25, no. 8,
1987
Box 1, Folder 38
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO memoranda,
1988
Box 1, Folder 39
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO pamphlets
Box 1, Folder 40
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
Solidarity yearbook,
1982
Box 1, Folder 41
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
The Wrath of
Grapes
accompanying materials
Box 2, Item 1
Cassette Tape - Millie Moser Smith, Tape 1
Box 2, Item 2
Cassette Tape - Millie Moser Smith, Tape 2
Box 2, Item 3
Cassette Tape - Oral History Interview with Millie Moser Smith, Tape
1,
2003 February 21
Box 2, Item 4
Cassette Tape - Oral History Interview with Millie Moser Smith, Tape
2,
2003 February 21
Box 3, Item 1
Oral History Interview with Millie Moser Smith - Transcript,
2003
Box 3, Item 6
Photo - handmade sign "Sisters of Loretto pray for Speedy Response in Kern
County Health Department"
Folder 1
American Library Association,
Chavez: Great Minds Meet at
the Library
poster,
1993
Folder 2
FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee),
25 Years of
Struggle
poster,
1992
Folder 3
National Farm Worker Ministry, Farm Worker Week Calendar,
1989-1990
Folder 4
United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO bandana
Folder 5
United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, History of Farm Workers
Struggle Calendar,
1971