While I can not help you with most of your requests, Doug Rossinow wrote
a paper (grad school seminar, I believe) on student activism at
Swarthmore College. The paper is available at Swarthmore, although I
don't believe it circulates. Their library catalogue is on line.
"Tenney, Matthew" wrote:
>
> Dear Sixties Aficionados, Scholars, and Relentless Activists:
>
> I'm a student at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, and I
> recently completed my senior thesis on white student radicalism at the
> Claremont Colleges between 1966 and 1970. Although I've already submitted
> the thesis, I intend to significantly expand my paper and deposit the
> narrative history in the College Archives. Before I continue with my
> project, however, I was hoping that some members of this list might shed
> some light on a few questions I have:
>
> 1. What ever happened to Timothy Peebles? Peebles was the San Francisco
> State Black Student Union (BSU) member who accidentally blew himself up on
> March 5, 1969, while planting a bomb in the SF State Creative Arts Building.
> Claremont had bombings at Pomona and Scripps Colleges (two of the
> undergraduate schools that comprise the Claremont Colleges) in late February
> of that year, and investigators linked the devices to an earlier explosion
> at Southwestern College in Los Angeles. After the SF State explosion,
> Peebles became the main suspect in the Claremont bombings, although charges
> were never filed (the Claremont bombings occurred right before the Pomona
> College faculty was set to vote on the Claremont BSU's plan for an
> autonomous Black Studies Center).
>
> 2. Are there any dissertations, papers, articles, or monographs that
> explore how campus clergy fostered and channeled student dissent at colleges
> and universities and the extent of their involvement in radical activism?
> The Claremont chaplains led marches and rallies, established a draft
> counseling center, and delivered radical sermons during chapel services.
> Claremont Colleges Chaplain James Joseph, who later served as President
> Clinton's ambassador to South Africa, once delivered a sermon endorsing the
> Black Manifesto penned by James Forman. Essentially, the Claremont clergy
> turned the campus religious activities center into the physical and
> spiritual hub of white radical activism on campus.
>
> Doug Rossinow's book (The Politics of Authenticity) explores how the
> University of Texas-Austin YM/YWCA and the Christian-Faith-and-Life
> Community fostered liberal dissent in the early Sixties. However, once he
> starts discussing the latter New Left (1966-1970), the religious aspect
> disappears from his narrative. Ken Heineman's Campus Wars occasionally
> makes reference to clergy activism at the four public colleges he profiled
> (Michigan State, SUNY-Buffalo, Kent State, and Penn State). Are there any
> historiographical materials that specifically examine the activist role
> played by campus clergy?
>
> 3. Are there any dissertations, papers, articles, or monographs that
> explore campus radicalism at small, private liberal arts colleges? I would
> like to compare Claremont activism to the radical activities at comparable
> institutions.
>
> 4. Do you know any former Claremont activists who are willing to share
> their experiences? The student and community newspapers mention the same
> five or so names in every article on student dissent. (FYI, one of those
> names is Jim Miller, a former Pomona student and radical anarchist who
> attended the 1969 SDS convention supporting Murray Bookchin's anarchist
> platform. Miller later wrote Democracy Is in the Streets, which led the
> Sixties historiographical avalanche of 1987 and prompted Tom Hayden to
> complete his memoirs.) I would like to interview some of the activists who
> weren't media darlings to get their opinion on the Movement leaders in
> Claremont. Yes Claremont is a relatively small place, but I figure some
> subscribers to this list might work with or otherwise know Claremont
> Colleges alumni. Perhaps your "six degrees of separation" might produce a
> few valuable leads. By the way, if anybody on this list knows the present
> whereabouts of one Jim Kulk, I'd greatly appreciate your assistance in
> tracking him down. Kulk was a Claremont Graduate School student and leader
> of the SDS chapter there. I've inquired around Claremont, but nobody knows
> what happened to him after he left in 1970 without completing his Ph.D.
>
> 5. (The easiest question to answer!) I'm curious: what is former National
> SDS leader Greg Calvert up to these days? I know he went back to school
> some years ago and obtained a Ph.D. from the UC Santa Cruz History of
> Conciousness program. Is he teaching anywhere?
>
> Thank you for your assistance -- I certainly appreciate whatever tidbits of
> information you might provide. Thank you, too, for continuing the
> discussion and debate over the many facets of this fascinating era.
>
> Best regards,
> Matthew Tenney
> mtenney01@mckenna.edu
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