Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Committee on Social Concerns

Overview

The collection contains correspondence and other papers of Arthur W. Clark, a Quaker active in prison reform and restorative justice. Long active in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting committees, he was the first secretary of the PYM Prison Service Committee established in 1960, and he served as Executive Director of the Clemency Project Working Group. A small amount of personal correspondence is included.

Overview In 1972, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting appointed a Committee on Homosexuality under the Meeting for Social Concerns to work for the assurance of civil rights for homosexuals. In December of 1975, after the Meeting for Social Concerns was laid down and Yearly Meeting restructured, it was decided that there should be a subcommittee of the Family Relations Committee on homosexuality and a Committee for the Civil Rights of Homosexuals under the Testimonies/Concerns section of Yearly Meeting; the...

Overview

The Meeting for Social Concerns began as the Committee for Social Concerns with a deliberately loose structure and open membership. It assumed direction of numerous social action committees within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. After the Meeting for Social Concerns was laid down in 1974, these committees were placed under Coordinating Committee for Testimonies and Concerns (CCII).