Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography / Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Index
Other Finding Aids
Descriptive Summary
Title: Sanctuary Oral History Project records
Dates: 1971-2007
Bulk Dates: (predominant 1997-1998)
Collection number: GTU 2009-3-02
Creator:
Purcell, Eileen
Collection Size:
5.8 linear feet (6 boxes, 2 folders in map drawer)
12 transcripts, 20 images
Repository: The Graduate Theological Union. Library.
Abstract: An oral history of the sanctuary movement based on interviews with religious and lay leaders in the Bay Area conducted by
Eileen Purcell during 1997-1998. The interviews cover the beginning of the sanctuary movement during the Vietnam Conflict
(1971-1972) and the much more extensive movement assisting Central American refugees in the United States (1982-1987). Associated
records document the movement's activities and concerns year by year.
Physical location: 1/H/3, posters in map drawer 4
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Spanish
Access
Collection is open for research. Portion of Bernie Maezel interview on tape is restricted.
Publication Rights
Copyright has been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Archivist.
Preferred Citation
Sanctuary Oral History Project records, GTU 2009-3-02. Graduate Theological Union Archives, Berkeley, CA.
Acquisition Information
Donated by Eileen Purcell on March 24, 2009, and September 21, 2010.
Biography / Administrative History
Eileen Purcell planned a comprehensive oral history of the Sanctuary movement that would include refugees as well as religious
and lay leaders in the Bay Area, the US, and Central America. The project was sponsored by the SHARE Foundation and the National
Sanctuary Defense Fund / the Monsenor Romero Foundation. After the initial interviews, the project was put on hold when Purcell
was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, from which she later recovered.
The sanctuary movement began during the Vietnam War when churches offered "the availability of shelter and sustenance to military
personnel who are conscientiously unable to continue their participation in the armed forces or in combat duties."
Later, a much larger movement began in the early 1980's in response to refugees from Central America. Faced with civil war,
military aggression and terror, citizens began to travel north to Mexico and then to the United States. US policy did not
recognize Central Americans, or El Salvadorans, as qualifying for refugee status. Those who were caught were deported and
returned to their countries. Becoming aware of the situation, churches responded to the needs of the refugees by offering
sanctuary.
On March 24, 1982, five congregations in Berkeley and one in Phoenix, Arizona, publicly committed to "protect, defend and
advocate for" men, women and children fleeing from Guatemala and El Salvador. Churches throughout the country joined in this
movement. After protection was no longer necessary for Central American refugees, the movement continued, focusing on issues
with immigrants from throughout the world
Before the illness, Purcell interviewed 12 leaders during 1997 and 1998. These included:
- Rev. Gus Schultz, Lutheran minister and one of the founders of the original Sanctuary movement during the Vietnam War and
co-founder of the Public Sanctuary Movement in the 1980's.
- Norm Berryessa, a management and financial consultant, involved in sanctuary during Vietnam War
- Marilyn Chilcote, Presbyterian minister, who became director of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
- Bob Fitch, United Church of Christ minister and photojournalist
- Maureen Hally, RSM
- Kathleen Healy, PUBM, who facilitated the process for Presentation sisters and church to declare public sanctuary
- Bernie Mazel, instrumental in raising millions of dollars for National Sanctuary Defense Fund (NDSF) through direct mail
- Rev. Bob McKenzie, Presbyterian minister
- Fr. Bill O'Donnell, Catholic pastor and co-founder of the Public Sanctuary Movement
- Rev. Peter Sammon, pastor at St. Teresa's, the first public sanctuary in San Francisco
- Arleen Schaupp, a leader in the Sanctuary movement in the South Bay
- Sr. Bernadette Wombacher OP, Dominican sister, who facilitated the process for her congregation to declare public sanctuary
Interviews of several refugees were conducted but the recordings were lost during Purcell's illness.
Purcell grew up in San Francisco. She received a BA in History from Stanford University (1976), completed a year in both the
Social Work and African American Studies MA programs at Boston Univesity, and earned an MSW from San Jose State (1979). She
attended the Summer Institute, Columbia University Oral History Research Office, in 1998.
In the 1980's, she became a United Farm Worker volunteer and shortly after, one of the original organizers of the National
Sanctuary Movement. She traveled extensively in El Salvador and to refugee camps in Honduras and conducted fact finding trips
with religious and congressional leaders. She served as a fulltime organizer for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and later
became the executive director of the SHARE Foundation in Washington, DC. As of 2009, she is the Senior International Representative
for Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection documents the Sanctuary Movement. The collection contains recorded interviews in audio cassette and transcript
form of 12 religious and lay leaders mostly from the Bay Area with associated documents. Also included are posters that comemmorate
religious martyrs of Central America. Additionally, the collection contains documents of various organizations that took part
in assisting the Sanctuary Movement and the repatriation process of the late 1980s, delegations led by Church leaders and
SHARE, as well as documented accounts of the attacks on individuals and the Church in El Salvador.
Arrangement
The collection is organized in the original order: transcripts and documents to support the interviews, audio cassettes, posters
and associated records. Series 1, Oral History; Series 2, Interviews; Series 3, Posters; and Series 4, Associated Records,
which contains the following: Subseries A, Purcell's Documents; Subseries B, Organizations; Subseries C, Attacks and Offensives;
Subseries D, Delegations; Subseries E, Repatriation; Subseries F, Literature; Subseries G, Washington; Subseries H, Guatemala.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Sanctuary movement.
Church work with refugees--United States.
Refugees, Political--Central America.
Christianity and justice--United States.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Moral and ethical aspects.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Religious aspects.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Desertions--United States.
Mazel, Bernard (1917- )
Berryessa, Norman
Chilcote, Marilyn (1944- )
Fitch, Robert (1939- )
Hally, Maureen (1938- )
Healy, Kathleen (1926-)
McKenzie, Robert (1930- )
Sammon, Peter (1923- )
O'Donnell, Bill
Purcell, Eileen
Schaupp, Arleen (1934- )
Wombacher, Bernadette (1925- )
Schultz, Gustav H., (1935-2007)
Other Finding Aids
Gustav Schultz Sanctuary Collection, GTU 90-5-01; National Sanctuary Defense Fund Collection, GTU 98-9-04; East Bay Sanctuary
Covenant Collection, GTU 89-11-01.