California Proposition 6 Briggs Initiative collection, 1977-1980

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Summary

Creators:
Bay Area Committee Against the Briggs Initiative (Organization), Kight, Morris, and No on the Briggs Initiative Committee (Organization)
Abstract:
Correspondence, clippings, legislative and legal documents, pamphlets, flyers, photographs, financial records, meeting minutes, event posters, petition forms, memoranda, speakers' manuals, volunteer forms, and other material documenting the campaign to defeat California Proposition 6, introduced by State Senator John Briggs in 1978. The initiative's intent was to require the dismissal of public school teachers and schoolworkers who "engaged in advocating, soliciting, imposing, encouraging or promoting of private or public homosexual acts."
Extent:
5.5 Linear Feet 3 boxes, 2 cartons, and 1 flat box.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] California Proposition 6 Briggs Initiative Collection, Coll2011-018, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of correspondence, clippings, legislative and legal documents, pamphlets, publicity flyers, photographs, financial records, meeting minutes, event posters, petition forms, memoranda, speakers' manuals, volunteer forms, and other material documenting the campaign to defeat California Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, in 1978. The bulk of the collection documents the activities of the three groups organized to oppose the initiative: the No on the Briggs Initiative Committee (NOBIC) and the Committe Against the Briggs Initiative/Los Angeles (CABI/LA), both based in Los Angeles, and the Bay Area Committee Against the Briggs Initiative (BACABI) based in San Francisco. The collection also includes legal papers and other material documenting the activists' lawsuits filed against the Briggs Initiative in an attempt to remove it from the November 1978 ballot.

Biographical / historical:

Beginning in 1977, California State Senator John Briggs from Fullerton authored and introduced State Ballot Initiative 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, for the November 1978 election. The initiative's intent was to prohibit hiring or requiring the dismissal of public school teachers and schoolworkers who "engaged in advocating, soliciting, imposing, encouraging or promoting of private or public homosexual acts." Proposition 6 was defeated in the November 1978 election with 58.4 (No) to 41.6 (Yes) percent.

Acquisition information:
This collection was separated from the ONE Subject Files Collection, Coll2012-001. A portion of the collection was donated by Morris Kight. The donor and date of the remaining materials are unknown.
Processing information:

Collection processed by Marc LaRocque and Loni Shibuyama, with assistance from Cooper Moll, October 2014.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] California Proposition 6 Briggs Initiative Collection, Coll2011-018, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Location of this collection:
909 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007, US
Contact:
(213) 821-2771
askone@usc.edu
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