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Register of the Sherna B. Gluck Papers, 1961-1987
MSS 018  
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Collection Details
 
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  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Sherna B. Gluck Papers,
    Date (inclusive): 1961-1987
    Collection number: MSS 018
    Creator: Gluck, Sherna B.
    Extent: 1 record storage box and 1 document case

    1 1/3 cubic feet
    Repository: Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research.
    Los Angeles, California
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    The collection is available for research only at the Library's facility in Los Angeles.  The Library is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Researchers are encouraged to call or email the Library indicating the nature of their research query prior to making a visit.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. Researchers may make single copies of any portion of the collection, but publication from the collection will be allowed only with the express written permission of the Library's director. It is not necessary to obtain written permission to quote from a collection. When the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research gives permission for publication, it is as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Sherna B. Gluck Papers, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles.

    Biography

    Sherna Berger Gluck has been a progressive community activist in Southern California since the 1950s. As a graduate student in sociology at UCLA she challenged the McCarthy era restrictions against Communist speakers. She was one of the earliest local activists in the women's movement. In 1972, she co-founded the Feminist History Research Project, connected with the Westside Women's Center. As an oral historian she has interviewed women involved in the suffrage, birth control labor, and other progressive movements of the early twentieth century.
    In 1977 she began teaching at California State University at Long Beach where she subsequently became the director of the Oral History and Women's History Programs. She was actively involved in the Socialist Feminist Network, the Feminist Forum, and numerous other local women's organizations and coalitions. In 1987 she was a founding member of the Committee for Justice which worked to support the LA Eight, seven Palestinians and a Kenyan threatened with deportation.
    Her published works include Rosie the Riveter Revisited, From Parlor to Prison, and An American Feminist in Palestine: The Intifada Years.

    Scope and Content

    The Sherna Berger Gluck collection is divided into three series. LOS ANGELES WOMEN'S MOVEMENT, WOMEN'S MOVEMENT - GENERAL, and COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE.
    The LOS ANGELES WOMEN'S MOVEMENT series contains two sub-series entitled Reproductive Rights and General Feminist. The Reproductive Rights sub-series is the major component of the LOS ANGELES WOMEN'S MOVEMENT series and includes considerable documentation on the January 22 Committee for Reproductive Rights of which Gluck was a founding member. It contains fliers for numerous actions and demonstrations, including a die-in to protest the death of Rosie Jiminez, the first woman to die from an illegal abortion after the Hyde Amendment cut off Medicaid funds for abortions for poor women. The General Feminist sub-series provides a great deal of documentation regarding many of the individuals and organizations involved in the Los Angeles Women's movement in the 1980's. Of particular note are the newsletters and minutes of the Socialist Feminist Network of Southern California. The minutes of March 20, 1982 describe a report by Alicia Rivera, a Salvadoran refugee, and a discussion of the role of women in revolution, particularly in the Salvadoran revolution.
    The WOMEN'S MOVEMENT - GENERAL series contains records that primarily concern feminist activities and organizations outside of Los Angeles. The series is divided into two sub-series, Anti-Censorship Coalition and Readings on the Right. The Anti-Censorship Coalition papers include a statement of purpose for FACT/LA (Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force/Los Angeles). There are also documents which reflect the debate within the women's movement over the issue of supporting anti-pornography legislation, including a defense of the proposed legislation by Carol Downer, founder of the Los Angeles Feminist Women's Health Center. The sub-series Readings on the Right consists primarily of reproductions of articles by various profamily activists of the 1980s.
    The COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE series documents the activities of the organization, established in 1987 on the campus of California State University Long Beach (CSULB) to defend the eight Palestinian and one Kenyan who were threatened with deportation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) under provisions of the McCarren-Walter act of 1952. Two of the Palestinian defendants were students at CSULB at the time. Included is a copy of a petition signed by faculty members calling for repeal of the McCarran-Walter act.