A Quaker Action Group Records
Scope and Contents
A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) records in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection include minutes, correspondence (1966-1971), memoranda, financial records, subject files (organizations), research files (topics), project files, newsletters, press releases, statements of Quaker yearly meetings in various cities, clippings, photographs and sound recordings. The files were first processed in 1974, and then again in 1980. In 2004, archival intern, Joe Clark, sorted the papers into the present order, but the processing was not completed by the SCPC archivist until 2006.
Representative organizations are Beheiren (Japan), Fifth Avenue Peace Parade, Poor People's Campaign, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Vietnam Moratorium Committee. In addition to other nonviolent direct actions, the project files highlight the Cuba Project, the Culebra Project (Culebra, Puerto Rico), the Panama Project (Ft. Gulick, Panama Canal Zone) and the Phoenix and Vietnam Projects. Materials relating to the voyages of the Phoenix include correspondence of the crew(s), newsclippings and scrapbooks, still photographs, and 16 mm films, including Voyage of the Phoenix. Research files of AQAG provide information on black liberation, chemical and biological warfare (CBW), draft resistance, human rights, nuclear radiation, the peace movement, and war tax resistance.
AQAG correspondents represented are Elizabeth J. Boardman, John Worth Braxton, Harrison Butterworth, Horace Champney, Jerry D. Coffin, Christopher Cowley, Phillip Drath, Robert Whittington Eaton, Roderick Ede, Ross Flanagan, Nicola Geiger, Walton Geiger, Robert Horton, Donald Kalish, George Lakey, Kenneth Lee, Samuel Legg, Robert E. Levering, Bradford Lyttle, Ivan E. Massar, William R. Mimms, Roger Moody, Beryl Herbert Nelson, Patricia Parkman, Earle L. Reynolds, Lawrence Scott, Lynne Shivers, Glenn E. Smiley, Charles C. Walker, Emlyn Warren, George Willoughby, J. Duncan Wood, and Carl P. Zietlow.
Dates
- Creation: 1965-1973
Creator
- A Quaker Action Group (Organization)
- Boardman, Elizabeth Jelinek, 1917- (Correspondent, Person)
- Braxton, John Worth (Correspondent, Person)
- Butterworth, Harrison (Correspondent, Person)
- Champney, Horace (Correspondent, Person)
- Coffin, Jerry D. (Correspondent, Person)
- Cowley, Christopher (Correspondent, Person)
- Drath, Phillip (Correspondent, Person)
- Eaton, Robert Whittington (Correspondent, Person)
- Ede, Roderick (Correspondent, Person)
- Flanagan, Ross, 1934- (Correspondent, Person)
- Geiger, Nicola (Correspondent, Person)
- Geiger, Walton (Correspondent, Person)
- Horton, Robert, 1900-1991 (Correspondent, Person)
- Rocket, Writer (Correspondent, Person)
- Kalish, Donald (Correspondent, Person)
- Lakey, George (Correspondent, Person)
- Lee, Kenneth, 1944- (Correspondent, Person)
- Legg, Samuel (Correspondent, Person)
- Levering, Robert, 1944- (Correspondent, Person)
- Lyttle, Bradford (Correspondent, Person)
- Massar, Ivan (Correspondent, Person)
- Mimms, William R. (Correspondent, Person)
- Moody, Roger (Correspondent, Person)
- Nelson, Beryl Herbert (Correspondent, Person)
- Parkman, Patricia (Correspondent, Person)
- Scott, Lawrence, 1908-1986 (Correspondent, Person)
- Shivers, Lynne (Correspondent, Person)
- Smiley, Glenn E. (Correspondent, Person)
- Walker, Charles C. (Correspondent, Person)
- Warren, Emlyn (Correspondent, Person)
- Willoughby, George, pacifist (Correspondent, Person)
- Wood, J. Duncan (John Duncan) (Correspondent, Person)
- Zietlow, Carl P. (Correspondent, Person)
Language of Materials
Materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access Note
All or part of this collection is stored off-site. Contact Swarthmore College Peace Collection staff at peacecollection@swarthmore.edu at least two weeks in advance of visit to request boxes.
Conditions Governing Use
None.
Historical Note
A Quaker Action Group, founded in Philadelphia during the summer of 1966 to “apply nonviolent direct action as a witness against the war in Vietnam,” was an informally organized group which sponsored numerous projects of national and international scope. Cooperating with such existing organizations as the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) in confronting “immoral military and political policies” of the government, A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) did not represent any official body of the Society of Friends and accepted as members those non-Quakers who shared their concerns. George Lakey, Lawrence Scott, and George Willoughby were instrumental in the organization and direction of AQAG. Projects undertaken by AQAG included reading the names of the Vietnam war dead on the steps of the Capitol; three voyages of the yacht Phoenix to North and South Vietnam with medical supplies; and protests against chemical and biological warfare. In the summer of 1971, in response to a need for a “multi-dimensional approach to social change,” AQAG was transformed into the Movement for a New Society, with its affiliated Life Center Association.
Extent
19.75 linear ft. (49 boxes)
Arrangement
The A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) records are arranged into Historical Background, Committees, Administration, Outreach, Correspondence, Programmatic Efforts, and Reference Material.
Custodial History
The Swarthmore College Peace Collection is the official repository for these records.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of George Lakey, George Willoughby and Lawrence Scott, 1971-1972 (and other years).
Separated Materials
Items removed to SCPC Collections
- Photographs and slides were removed to the Photograph Collection.
- Audiocassettes, filmstrips, and motion picture film were removed to the Audiovisual Collection.
Bibliographic References
Legal Status
Copyright to the A Quaker Action Group records created by the organization has been transferred to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Copyright to all other materials is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Processing Information
Collection re-processed and checklist re-written by Anne Yoder, July 2006.
Subject
- Reynolds, Earle L. (Person)
- Lakey, George (Person)
- Scott, Lawrence, 1908-1986 (Person)
- Willoughby, George, pacifist (Person)
- A Quaker Action Group (Organization)
- Beheiren (Organization)
- Fifth Avenue Peace Parade Committee (Organization)
- Students for a Democratic Society (U.S.) (Organization)
- Vietnam Moratorium Committee (U.S.) (Organization)
Source
- A Quaker Action Group (Organization)
Topical
- Direct action -- History -- Sources
- Disarmament -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Draft resisters -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Government, Resistance to -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Nonviolence -- History -- Sources
- Peace -- Societies, etc. -- History -- Sources
- Peace Movements -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- History -- Sources
- Peace Movements -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Poor People's Campaign
- Quakers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- History -- Sources
- Quakers -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Society of Friends -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Tax protests and appeals -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Civilian relief -- Sources
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Protest movements -- United States -- Sources
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2018: The file list was standardized in Summer 2017 by Min Cheng in preparation for importing into ArchivesSpace. Tessa Chambers added the notes in Fall 2017.
Find It at the Library
Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting repoductions from Swarthmore College Peace Collection Library
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore 19081-1399 USA US
610-328-8557
610-328-8544 (Fax)
peacecollection@swarthmore.edu
