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Beyers (Robert West) papers
2014C42  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Use
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biographical/Historical Note
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Related Materials

  • Title: Robert West Beyers papers
    Date (inclusive): 1962-1967
    Collection Number: 2014C42
    Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
    Language of Material: English
    Physical Description: 5 manuscript boxes (2.0 Linear Feet)
    Abstract: Speeches and writings, correspondence, notes, press releases, memoranda, and printed matter, relating to work of the Council of Federated Organizations (composed of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other organizations) in carrying out a voter registration drive among black citizens of Mississippi in 1964, involvement of Northern college student volunteers, and attendant violence.
    Creator: Beyers, Robert West, 1931-2002
    Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Access

    The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

    Use

    For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Material in the papers was previously a part of the New Left Collection, Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Robert West Beyers papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Biographical/Historical Note

    1931 Born, New York City
    1953 B.A., Cornell University
    1954-1955 Public relations director, U.S. National Student Association
    1956-1961 Assistant managing editor, University of Michigan News Service
    1961-1990 Director, Stanford University News Service
    1964 Volunteer communications coordinator, Mississippi Summer Project
    1990-1995 Volunteer associate editor, Pacific News Service
    2002 Died, Palo Alto, California

    Scope and Content of Collection

    While Robert W. Beyers had a long and varied journalistic career as director of the Stanford University News Service and in other capacities, his papers in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives are narrowly focused on a single episode in that career, the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964. The project was sponsored by a number of civil rights organizations, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee foremost among them, grouped together as the Council of Federated Organizations. Its goal was to secure voter registration of black Mississippians and otherwise to promote improvement of their condition in what was widely considered to be the most thoroughly segregated state in the country.
    The project depended heavily on college student volunteers from the North to carry out this work. Approximately forty Stanford University student volunteers participated in the project. Beyers, taking leave from his job, joined them as volunteer communications coordinator for four weeks in June and July 1964. The project predictably elicited strong opposition from the Mississippi power structure, including local law enforcement officers. Incidents of harassment, arrest, intimidation and violence culminated in the murder of three civil rights workers. Although concrete immediate achievements of the Mississippi Summer Project were limited, it did draw national attention to the condition of blacks in the Deep South and to the broader national civil rights movement.
    The collection includes correspondence, internal memoranda, circulated materials and press clippings, documenting the project from a number of perspectives. These include the Stanford University community; the Council of Federated Organizations on the scene in Mississippi; the white Mississippian response, as seen from local newspaper coverage; and the national public reaction, as reflected in national press coverage.

    Related Materials

    New Left collection, Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Civil rights -- United States
    African Americans -- Civil rights
    Council of Federated Organizations (U.S.)
    Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)