Archie Henderson - Conservatism, the Right Wing, and the Far Right - A Guide to Archives

Websites with information:

http://www.augustana.edu/SpecialCollections/Resources/Finding%20Aids/index.html

Finding aid:

http://www.augustana.edu/SpecialCollections/Resources/Finding%20Aids/MSS156.htm

[0260a] Byron de la Beckwith Correspondence, Photographs, and Other Materials, circa 1940-1992, MS.3439

Location: Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 121 John C. Hodges Library, 1015 Volunteer Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37996-1000

Description: Byron de la Beckwith (1920-2001) was a white supremacist and ordained minister in Christian Identity. This collection consists primarily of letters that de la Beckwith wrote to his wife, Mary Louise (Williams) Beckwith, his son, Byron de la Beckwith Jr., and his brother- and sister-in-law, Jesse and Frances Williams, while he was incarcerated before and during his first trial for the murder of NAACP leader Medgar Evers. Another set of correspondence was written between Beckwith and his nephew, B. Reed Massengill, while Massengill was working on a never-completed book chronicling Beckwith's life. Also included are photographs (some of which were published in Massengill's Portrait of a Racist) showing Beckwith and his family. In the letters to Massengill, Beckwith's Christian Identity principles are displayed prominently. Beckwith also enclosed leaflets, newspapers, and other items published by such organizations as the Christian Defense League, Aryan Nations, and the Ku Klux Klan for Massengill's edification.

References:

Elizabeth Dunham, "'On the White, Right, Christian Side of Every Issue': The Life and Death of Byron de la Beckwith," The Library Development Review (University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville, Tennessee) (2009-2010), pp. 5-7, http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_libdevel/103 and https://www.academia.edu/500202/­On_the_White_Ri

ght_Christian_Side_of_Every_Issue_The_Life_and_Death_of_Byron_de_la_Beckwith; Elizabeth Dunham, "Documenting a White Supremacist: The Byron de la Beckwith Papers," Archives and Archivists of Color Newsletter, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Winter 2010), pp. 5-6, https://www.academia.edu/500214/­Documenting_a_White_Supremacist_The_Byron_de_la_Beckwith_Papers.

Websites with information:

http://libguides.utk.edu/c.php?g=188664&p=1245273

Finding aid:

http://dlc.lib.utk.edu/spc/view?docId=ead/0012_002749_000000_0000/0012_002749_000000_0000.xml

[0260b] Byron de la Beckwith Letter, 1972, MS.2271

Location: Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 121 John C. Hodges Library, 1015 Volunteer Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37996-1000

Description: Byron De La Beckwith (1920-2001) was an American white supremacist and the assassin of civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963, in Jackson, MS. He was twice tried for Evers' murder in 1964, but avoided convictions when the juries both returned deadlocked. Based on new evidence that he had boasted about the assassination at a Ku Klux Klan rally, De La Beckwith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1994. In 2001, while his case was still being appealed, he died of heart problems in prison. The letter is a March 21, 1972, handwritten letter of application for employment with Bryan Brothers Packing Company in West Point, MS.

Finding aid:

http://dlc.lib.utk.edu/spc/view?docId=ead/0012_000728_000000_0000/0012_000728_000000_0000.xml

[0260c] Byron de la Beckwith papers, circa 1990, ACMA.M06-051

Location: Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, 1901 Fort Place, SE, Washington, D.C., 20020

Description: Byron de la Beckwith (1920-2001) was an American white supremacist and Klansman who was convicted of killing civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi. This collection contains newsletters from white supremacist organizations and photocopies of articles about Byron de la Beckwith. These items were used as stationery by de la Beckwith while he was in prison in Mississippi and most are liberally covered with his handwriting. On them, de la Beckwith expounds on his ideas of racial segregation and white power. Also present are notes in de la Beckwith's hand, as well as a copy of the Watchdog, a white supremacist newspaper.

Finding aid:

http://sova.si.edu/record/ACMA.M06-051

[0260d] [Duke of] Bedford (Great Britain) Collection

Location: Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081-1399

Description: Hastings William Sackville Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford (1888-1953) was a pacifist and patron of the British People's Party, an anti-war party. Files on British People's Party and National Freedom Rally.

Websites with information:

https://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/manuscriptcollections/mss_collections.html

[0260e] Duke of Bedford Letters and printed material, 1941-1956, RUB Bay 0039:05 items1-18 c.1

Location: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Box 90185, 103 Perkins Library, Durham, North Carolina 27708

Description: The Duke of Bedford (1888-1953) was a British pacifist, reformer, and author. Letters to Mr. Curtler regarding political and economic issues, including Social Credit, coal exports, and the repayment of the American loan; and printed material by and about Russell, including pamphlets, serials, and a speech.

Websites with information:

http://search.library.duke.edu/search?id=DUKE001030491

http://www.worldcat.org/title/letters-and-printed-material-1941-1956/oclc/24778355

[0260f] Duke of Bedford papers, 1942-1952, Coll. 73018

Location: Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-6010

Description: Pamphlets by the Duke of Bedford, 1942-1952, and correspondence between the Duke of Bedford and Louis Obed Renne, 1948-1952, relating to pacifism and military disarmament.

Websites with information:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/duke-of-bedford-papers-1942-1952/oclc/754869967

Finding aid:

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4k40357c/entire_text/

[0260g] Michael Bedford Collection, 1982-1991 (bulk 1986-1989), COLL00014

Location: International Institute of Social History (IISH), Cruquiusweg 31, 1019 AT Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Description: Michael Bedford (1946– ) lived and worked in the Philippines in 1970-1972 and 1975 and was involved in the anti-Marcos movement that centered on U.S. involvement in Philippine politics. Between 1986 and 1990 Bedford conducted interviews in the Philippines, most of them directly after the EDSA revolution in 1986. The purpose of his research was to understand the political struggles during the Corazon Aquino presidency between Legal Left groups and the liberation theology arm of the Roman Catholic Church on one side, and the conservative Roman Catholic Church, the rise in U.S. Protestant missionaries and corresponding growth of local anti-Communist vigilante organizations under the name of Christ on the other side. This is a documentation/research collection on right-wing vigilantes in the Philippines and the support they found in right-wing Christian groups in the USA. The vigilantes were responsible for the killings of many human rights activists, left wing activists, and labour leaders. The collection contains 56 audiocassettes consisting of unpublished interviews with a right wing vigilante, the head of the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade [CACC], priests involved in Liberation Theology, human rights workers, and others. Also included are 247 photos and slides of demonstrations and protest meetings of various parties and groups to the left and to the right of the political spectrum in the Philippines and of some other events, 1982-1991.

References:

"Guide to the International Archives and Collections at the IISH: Supplement over 2013," International Review of Social History 59 (2014), pp. 367-376 (p. 368), https://www.cambridge.org/­core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CF6B9AD975C680C16D58BBD292833AA7/S0020859014000285a.pdf; Eef Vermeij, "Michael Bedford Collection," South East Asia Blog, IISH, 14 August 2014, https://socialhistory.org/en/south-east-asia-blog/2014/08/michael-bedford-collection; Eef Vermeij, "Michael Bedford Papers," South East Asia Blog, IISH, 06 April 2015, https://socialhistory.org/­en/south-east-asia-blog/2015/04/michael-bedford-papers.