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Acquisition Information
Preferred Citation
Biographical/Historical Note
Scope and Content of Collection
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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.)