Millie Moser Smith Papers, 1971-2003

Printable guide [HTML]

Summary

Creators:
Moser Smith, Mildred, 1919-
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.
Extent:
0.92 linear feet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materialsguide.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Millie Moser Smith and Jan Wilson, 2002
Processing information:

Rebecca S. Graff, 2003

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materialsguide.

Location of this collection:
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330, US
Contact:
(818) 677-4594
Website