Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Scope and Contents
Arrangement
Related Materials
Descriptive Summary
Title: Darlene Nicgorski papers on the Sanctuary
Movement
Dates (inclusive): circa 1968-2011
Dates (bulk): 1980-1987
Collection number: H.Mss.1011
Creator:
Nicgorksi, Darlene, 1943-
Extent:
11.5 Linear feet (8 boxes + 1/2 document case + 6 flat boxes + 1 shoebox + 1
map case drawer).
Respository:
Claremont Colleges. Library. Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd
Library. Claremont, CA 91711
Abstract: Writings, correspondence, newspaper and
periodical clippings, legal papers, audio- and videotapes, and graphic materials
relating to the life and career of Darlene Nicgorski, a leader in the Sanctuary
movement for Central American refugees in the United States in the early 1980s, and
a defendant in the Arizona Sanctuary Trial of 1985-1986. The materials focus in
particular on her involvement in the Sanctuary Movement, 1981-1987, her defense in
the Sanctuary Trial, and her relations with the order of School Sisters of St.
Francis (SSSF), to which she belonged until the end of 1987.
Physical location: Please consult repository.
Language of materials: English and Spanish.
Administrative Information
Access
This collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in
writing to Special Collections.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Darlene Nicgorski Papers on the Sanctuary Movement
(Collection H.Mss.1011). Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library, Claremont
University Consortium.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Darlene Nicgorski, 13 November 2011.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Michael P. Palmer, May 2012.
Biography
Darlene Nicgorski was born in Wisconsin on 19 November 1943. In 1962 she entered
Mt. Saint Mary College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She left the following year to
enter the Maryknoll Missionary Sisters, but returned home in 1964 at the
suggestion of the order because of severe allergies and asthma. She graduated
from Alverno College, Milwaukee, and entered the School Sisters of St. Francis
(SSSF) in 1966. She made her profession in 1970, and her final profession in
1974. Sister Darlene taught children from kindergarten through fourth grade for
several years, and earned an MS in Education from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1973. After serving as Director of CADET Child Care
Center, Holly Springs, Mississippi, from 1974 to 1979, in 1980 she became a
social worker at St. Joseph's Manor low income housing project in Omaha,
Nebraska.
Sister Darlene's involvement with the people of Central America began in 1980,
when she answered the call to help members of her congregation in Guatemala to
set up a preschool program in Los Amates, Guatemala. On 1 July 1981, less than
six months after she arrived in Guatemala, her mentor, Father Tulio Maruzzo
(Padre Tulio), was assassinated, and the Franciscan community threatened. Sister
Darlene and the other members of the SSSF community fled, settling in Chiapas,
Mexico, where Bishop Ruiz opened the seminar at San Cristobal de las Casas to
them. During her nine months there, Sister Darlene visited the Guatemalan
refugee camps on the border and assisted the Diocesan Refugee Committee. In
1982, she returned to Guatemala City intending to work at the El Tesoro camp for
Guatemalan refugees being set up with the assistance of her congregation in
Santa Rosa, Copan, Honduras. However, after the kidnap and torture of Sister
Albertina Paz by the Guatemalan military, Sister Darlene, in consultation with
the order, decided the time was not right for her to proceed to El Tesoro, and
she returned to the United States. While visiting her family in Phoenix,
Arizona, Sister Darlene became ill, and during her recuperation she became
involved with the local ecumenical task force, the Valley Religious Task Force
on Central America, which assisted refugees fleeing political unrest and
persecution in Central America to find sanctuary in the United States. The
Sanctuary movement had begun in 1980, when Jim Corbett, Jim Dudley, the Rev.
John Fife, and a handful of other residents of Tucson, Arizona, began--in
violation of United States law--providing legal, financial, and material aid to
Central American refugees; on 24 March 1982, the second anniversary of
Archbishop Oscar Romero's assassination, Fife declared his congregation, the
Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, the first public sanctuary in the
United States. At its height, in 1985, the Sanctuary movement had approximately
500 member sites across the United States. In 1983, Sister Darlene was asked by
the Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America to coordinate the movement
of refugees to Sanctuary congregations throughout the country. The Immigration
and Nationalization Service (INS) decided to crack down on the Sanctuary
Movement, and in 1985 initiated two separate criminal prosecutions, one against
two activists in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the other, considerably larger,
case against activists in Arizona. On 14 January 1985, Sister Darlene's home was
searched, and she and 15 others, including Jim Corbett, the Rev. John Fife, and
Father Ramon Dagoberto Quiñones, were arrested and charged with 71 counts of
conspiracy and encouraging and aiding illegal aliens to enter the United States
"by shielding, harboring and transporting them". The trial, which attracted
considerable national attention, began in Tucson on 22 October 1985, and the
verdict was rendered on 1 May 1986. Sister Darlene was convicted of conspiracy
to violate immigration law and two counts each of transporting and aiding and
abetting the harboring of illegal aliens, and faced a maximum sentence of 25
years in prison. On 1 July 1986, she was given a suspended sentence and five
years' probation.
Much in demand as a spokesman for the Sanctuary movement since her arrest,
between 1985 and 1988 Sister Darlene had over 200 speaking engagements. She also
received many awards, including
Ms magazine's
1986 Woman of the Year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern
California's Early Warren Civil Liberties Award for 1986, the Women's Ordination
Conference Prophetic Figure Award for 1987, the American Civil Liberties Union,
Wisconsin Chapter, William Gorham Rice Civil Libertarian of the Year Award in
1987. She was the first Roman Catholic to receive Union Theological Seminary's
Union Medal.
In November 1986, Sister Darlene relocated to WomanCenter in Plainville,
Massachusetts, where she continued to write about her experiences from a
feminist faith perspective. After increasingly questioning the Roman Catholic
Church's attitudes regarding sexuality and women, in 1987, she received papal
dispensation to leave the SSSF.
After leaving the SSSF, Darlene held several part-time positions teaching ESL
(English as a second language) at Roxbury Community College, and Northeastern,
Tufts, and Harvard Universities. From 1989 to 2000, she was employed by Ames
Safety Envelope Company, in Somerville, Massachusetts, initially as Educational
Consultant and finally as Director of Human Resources. In 2001, she and her life
partner, Chris, relocated to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to assist in the care
of the latter's elderly mother. In addition to continuing to teach ESL part
time, in 2002 Darlene joined the staff of Piedmont Health Services, from which
she retired in 2011 as Vice President of Human Resources. She and her partner
now reside in Claremont, California.
Scope and Contents
The collection comprises writings, correspondence, newspaper and periodical
clippings, legal papers, flyers, programs, photographs, audiotapes and videotapes,
graphic materials, and realia relating to the life and career of Darlene Nicgorski,
a leader in the Sanctuary movement for Central American refugees in the United
States in the early 1980s, and a defendant in the Arizona Sanctuary Trial of
1985-1986. The materials focus in particular on three areas: (1) The trial in
Federal District Court in Tucson, Arizona (the “Arizona Sanctuary Trial”), of
Nicgorski and others for conspiracy and encouraging illegal aliens to enter the
United States, their conviction and sentencing, and their unsuccessful appeal to the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1985-1989; (2) Nicgorski’s involvement in the
Sanctuary movement, 1981-1987; and (3) her relations with the order of School
Sisters of St. Francis (SSSF), to which she belonged until the end of 1987.
The materials documenting the trial include relatively few court documents, or
documents relating to the defendants as a group, but focus on Nicgorski and her
defense, prepared and undertaken by Michael Altman. Especially noteworthy are the
original microcassettes and transcripts of Nicgorski’s daily reflections on the
course of the trial; her statements to attorneys and the other defendants, and her
public statements during the trial; and interviews of Nicgorski and several
witnesses by defense counsel Michael Altman. Other significant materials include
post-conviction letters concerning Nicgorski addressed to Judge Carroll for his
consideration when determining her sentence; a large number of letters of support
addressed to Nicgorski; and two extensive collections of clippings from newspapers
and periodicals, one prepared by Nicgorski herself, the other by the Sanctuary
Defense Fund’s media office.
Materials documenting the Sanctuary movement include studies, flyers, pamphlets, and
special issues of periodical publications, that investigate and report on the issues
confronting refugees from Central America, their attempts to escape repression in
their homeland, the movement in the United States to provide asylum and sanctuary
for these refugees, United States government policy on Central America, and the
actions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Materials of particular
significance include audiotaped interviews in the early 1980s with refugees;
photographs documenting Nicgorski’s work in Central America and with Central
American refugees in Arizona; and extensive records--including some audiotapes and
videotapes--of Nicgorski’s speaking engagements, in particular for the years
1985-1987. Other significant materials include publicity, programs, and liturgies
for prayer and worship services for the movement; the Freedom Train Sanctuary
caravan from Phoenix to Northampton, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1987; posters,
newspaper political cartoons, and other graphics concerning the movement; and
writings by, and correspondence with, others working with Central American refugees,
including Jim Corbett and Mary Malherek, MM.
Materials documenting Nicgorski's relationship with the order of School Sisters of
St. Francis (SSSF) include a substantial number of records relating to the order’s
support for the Sanctuary movement and for Nicgorski during her trial. Among these
records are official letters of support from the order, private letters from
individual members of the order, and a detailed media packet that carefully
summarizes Nicgorski’s life, the circumstances that led Central Americans to seek
refuge in the United States, the Sanctuary movement, and the Roman Catholic Church’s
support for the movement. Materials documenting Nicgorski's personal relationship to
the order include her 1970 and 1974 professions, personal papers, and materials
relating to her 1987 separation from the order.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into the following 12 series:
- Series 1. Arizona Sanctuary Trial (US v. Aguilar et al.)
- Series 2. Sanctuary movement
- Series 3. Press and periodicals clippings
- Series 4. Writings, speaking engagements, and interviews
- Series 5. School Sisters of St. Francis (SSSF)
- Series 6. Subject files
- Series 7. Photographs and postcards
- Series 8. Graphic materials
- Series 9. Audiotapes and videotapes
- Series 10. Personal
- Series 11. Realia
- Series 12. Awards
Related Materials
Sanctuary Movement Trial papers (MS 362). Special Collections, University of
Arizona Libraries
, 1982-1988, created by A. Bates Butler (attorney for
Phillip Conger), James Brosnahan (attorney for Maria Socorro de Aguilar), Michael
Altman (attorney for Darlene Nicgorski), Peg Hutchison, Arizona American Friends
Service Committee (Jim Corbett), and the Southside Presbyterian Church (John Fife),
consists of attorney files, certified trial transcripts, and materials collected by
the American Friends Service Committee and the Southside Presbyterian Church.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Subject Headings
Asylum, Right of--United States
Christianity and politics
Church and social problems--United States
Church and state--United States
Church work with refugees--Arizona
Church work with refugees--United States
Nicgorksi, Darlene, 1943-
Political refugees--Central America
Sanctuary movement
School Sisters of St. Francis (Milwaukee, Wis.).
Women in church work--United States
Genre and Form of Materials
Clippings
Correspondence
Photographs
Sound recordings
Textiles
Video recordings