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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 330.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 187000 items) |
| Abstract | The North Carolina Fund, an independent, non-profit, charitable corporation, sought and dispensed funds to fight poverty in North Carolina, 1963-1968. Governor Terry Sanford and other North Carolinians convinced the Ford Foundation to grant $7 million initial funding for a statewide anti- poverty effort aimed at rural and urban communities. This money--plus additional funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation; the U.S. Dept. of Labor; U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare; U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development; and the Office of Economic Opportunity--enabled the Fund to support a broad program of education, community action, manpower development, research and planning, and other efforts to fight poverty. Administrative and financial records (about 32,000 items), including policy statements; Board of Directors minutes and other records; correspondence, speeches, and other files of Executive Director George Hyndman Esser (1921- ) and other staff members; records of meetings and conferences; proposals and grants; materials documenting the Fund's relationship with the Ford Foundation, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Foundation for Community Development, the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation, and other organizations; subject files; clippings, audit reports; and financial correspondence and other financial records. There is also material about Congressmen Jim Gardner and Nick Galiafianakis's 1967 attacks on Fund activities in Durham, N.C., and earlier controversies over political activity of staff members in areas served by Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development and Craven Operation Progress. Other material relates to How North Carolina Whites and Blacks View: Each Other, Government and Police, Housing, Poverty, Education, and Employment, an opinion poll conducted by Oliver Quayle & Company in 1968. Also included are proposals and grant applications for housing, education, community development, job training, leadership, and rural development programs; the North Carolina Voter Education Project; and proposals from the State of Franklin Health Council, Inc. |
| Creator | North Carolina Fund. |
| Language | English |
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Biographical Information
The North Carolina Fund was incorporated in July 1963 as an independent, non-profit, charitable corporation to seek and dispense funds to attack the cycle of poverty in North Carolina. At the instigation of John Ehle, Governor Terry Sanford had met in New York with representatives of the Ford Foundation, which was funding model anti-poverty programs. Early in 1963, Ford Foundation leaders toured communities in North Carolina and met with leaders of grassroots organizations. After six months of negotiations, the North Carolinians convinced the Ford Foundation to fund its first statewide anti-poverty project, one which would be aimed at rural as well as urban communities. The Ford Foundation provided initial funding of $7 million for a demonstration program, with the condition that the program would be dissolved after five years.
In its five years, the North Carolina Fund received and spent more than $16 million in what director George Hyndman Esser (1921- ) described as a "quest for new ways to enable the poor to become productive citizens, to encourage self-reliance, and to foster institutional, political, economic, and social change designed to strengthen the functioning of democratic society." Funding from the Ford Foundation, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Office of Economic Opportunity enabled the Fund to support a broad program of manpower development, community action, education, research and planning, and other efforts to fight poverty.
The early emphasis of the North Carolina Fund program was on education. Two million dollars of the original Ford Foundation grant went to the state Department of Public Instruction to improve elementary schools. The Fund's focus then shifted to community action and manpower development programs. The Fund supported eleven community action agencies across the state--in the mountains, in the Piedmont, and in coastal counties. Of these, ten are still in operation. Other organizations created under the Fund's aegis included the Foundation for Community Development, the North Carolina Low Income Housing Development Corp., and the Manpower Development Corporation (now known as MDC, Inc.).
An overview of the funds received, the distribution of funds by percentage, and a list of the major programs supported follows:
SOURCES OF FUNDS
Ford Foundation $7,000,000
Zachary Smith Reynolds Foundation (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1,625,000
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 875,000
U.S. government (contracts and grants from the Office of Economic Opportunity; U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development; U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare; U.S. Dept. of Labor) 7,042,753
FUNDS EXPENDED
Manpower Development 43.7%
Education 21.0%
Grants to Communities for Administration of Projects 15.1%
Research and Planning 7.3%
Housing 5.3%
Motivation and Community Development 4.7%
Human Relations in Law Enforcement 1.5%
Health and Welfare 0.9%
Legal Services 0.4%
Day Care 0.1%
Total 100.0%
MAJOR PROGRAMS
North Carolina Volunteers. Summers 1964 and 1965. Recruited 327 college students, who were trained and placed in service jobs working with anti-poverty agencies throughout the state. Funded by $49,835 from the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, $274,316 from the Office of Economic Opportunity, and $85,444 from the North Carolina Fund.
Community Action Technicians (CAT). 1964-1967. Recruited and trained 105 people from all economic levels to fill crucial manpower gaps in community action programs. Graduates of the program served as neighborhood workers, supervisors of Headstart and Neighborhood Youth Corps programs, and in other positions in community action agencies and anti-poverty institutions. Funded by $379,049 from the Office of Economic Opportunity and $65,502 from the North Carolina Fund.
VISTA Training. 1965-1966. Classroom and field training and instruction to 220 members of the federal Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) program. Funded by $261,161 contract with Office of Economic Opportunity.
Community Action Interns. 1967. Trained 30 college students in the basics of community organization and placed them in five North Carolina communities where local groups had requested summer assistance. A follow-up phase offered undergraduate courses in community organization to students at Catawba College, Livingstone College, and Shaw University. Funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity.
Foundation for Community Development (FCD). Founded 1967. Non-profit corporation working with the poor in eleven geographic areas in North Carolina in leadership development and training, community organization, and economic development. Its assistance to United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI) in Durham resulted in the establishment of United Durham, Inc., a group of poor people that established businesses owned and operated by the poor. Initially funded by a grant from the North Carolina Fund of $263,838; subsequent grants from the North Carolina Fund of $8,093, $241,625, and $210,000. Other support came from the Office of Economic Opportunity--a special impact grant of $900,000 for economic development paired with a $60,000 grant from the Economic Development Agency (EDA). Smaller amounts of support came from a variety of other sources.
Community Action Programs. Eleven programs in eleven North Carolina communities over a five-year period with grants of $30,000 to $40,000 annually for administrative support, plus a total of 82 special grants varying from $3,000 to $150,000 for innovative experimental programs not fundable by federal sources. Among other projects, special grants financed the Winston-Salem Police Department's specially-trained community services squad for low-income neighborhoods; a mountain community action program's plan for making small incentive grants to neighborhood councils; and a three-year development program for enabling low-income farmers to grow, process, and market truck crops.
Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE). 1965-1967. Established field offices in three eastern North Carolina areas and sent out field workers to find the unemployed and underemployed, analyze total family problems, and assist families in meeting their employment and other family needs by using local resources. Contacted 10,000 families. Funded through a $1.8 million contract with the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
Mobility. Established 1965. Recruited unemployed rural people in coastal and mountain counties, developed jobs for them in industrial areas of the state, and assisted them in moving and adapting to new job and living environments. Relocated 1,136 families, 1965-1968. Funded by a $628,248 contract with U.S. Dept. of Labor. Later operated by North Carolina Manpower Development Corporation.
Manpower Development Corporation. Established 1967. Planned and operated statewide manpower programs. Lobbied for establishment of a state manpower council.
Survey of Low-Income Families. 1965-1968. Gathered data on 12,000 families living in 11 areas served by community action programs. Measured attitude, values, wants and needs of family members, as well as income, education, housing, health.
Analysis of the Community Action Process. 1965-1968. Examined the relationship between communities and community action agencies, analyzing general patterns in which communities make decisions, formulate goals, and resolve conflicts.
Learning Institute of North Carolina (LINC). 1964-1969. A private, non-profit corporation providing leadership, technical assistance, and information to improve public education in North Carolina. The North Carolina Fund joined Duke University, the Consolidated University of North Carolina, the State Board of Education, and the State Board of Higher Education in financial support of LINC. North Carolina Fund share of support totaled $362,473.
Comprehensive School Improvement Project (CSIP). 1964-1965. Joint effort of North Carolina Fund and State Board of Education. Experimental programs in 228 schools reached more than 25,000 children from kindergarten through third grade. Total cost was $2.9 million, 55% from state government and 45% from North Carolina Fund.
Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC). Established 1967. Private, non-profit corporation with a small staff of experts who assisted North Carolina communities in developing privately-sponsored, low-income housing. LIHDC also explored solutions to the problems of building decent, but economical new housing to enable home ownership by low-income families. Began operation with grants of $133,530 from the North Carolina Fund and $497,535 from the Office of Economic Opportunity.
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Scope and Content
Records of the North Carolina Fund, primarily the files of the central office staff, are organized by program. Also included are files of the field offices of the Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE) Program.
North Carolina Fund records include those of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee; the Executive Director; the Special Projects, Training, Community Affairs (also known as Community Development, Community Support, and Community Organization), Research, Planning and Program Development, and Public Information departments; programs funded by the North Carolina Fund; and various study committees staffed and supported by the Fund.
Among the programs operated by the North Carolina Fund documented in these records are the North Carolina Volunteers program; training of community action technicians to work in North Carolina and with Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA); a summer internship and curriculum development program; and research on poverty in North Carolina, community problems in areas served by community action programs, the community action process, and manpower and economic development.
Also documented are the eleven community action agencies funded by the North Carolina Fund and the projects they operated. There are also files relating to two grassroots organizations which received financial support from the North Carolina Fund: United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI) in Durham and the People's Program on Poverty (PPOP) in the Choanoke area (Northampton, Bertie, Hertford, and Halifax counties). Other programs documented include the Comprehensive School Improvement Project (CSIP), Learning Institute of North Carolina (LINC), Youth Educational Services (YES), community service consultants, Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE), Mobility, Manpower Development Corporation (MDC), Foundation for Community Development (FCD), and the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC).
The collection is organized into series that were established by the North Carolina Fund staff. Each series contains the records of a department or function of the North Carolina Fund. Subseries were established during processing. Many of the original file folder titles were retained, but some files were combined, divided, or renamed for clarification purposes during processing. The order of the series and of the files within the series has been changed somewhat in order to put the most general files first and move from the general to the specific. Thus, the first series, Administration, contains the records likely to give the broadest overview of the organization's operation. Most series are organized so that policies, reports, and other documents that show the purpose and scope of the program are placed first, followed by files on specific programs or participants. For Series 4, Community Action Programs, the original order was retained--programs are arranged by geographic location across North Carolina from west to east.
ADMINISTRATIVE SERIES ABSTRACT:
Administrative and financial records (about 32,000 items), including policy statements; Board of Directors minutes and other records; correspondence, speeches, and other files of Executive Director George Hyndman Esser (1921- ) and other staff members; records of meetings and conferences; proposals and grants; materials documenting the Fund's relationship with the Ford Foundation, the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the Foundation for Community Development (FCD), the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC), and other organizations; subject files; clippings; audit reports; and financial correspondence and other financial records. There is also material about Congressman Jim Gardner's 1967 attacks on Fund activities in Durham, N.C., and earlier controversies over political activity of staff members in areas served by Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development (NEED) and Craven Operation Progress (COP). Other material relates to How North Carolina Whites and Blacks View: Each Other, Government and Police, Housing, Poverty, Education, and Employment, an opinion poll conducted by Oliver Quayle & Company in 1968. Also included are proposals and grant applications for housing, education, community development, job training, leadership, and rural development programs; the North Carolina Voter Education Project; and proposals from the State of Franklin Health Council, Inc.
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VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS SERIES ABSTRACT:
Volunteer program records (about 14,000 items) are primarily those of the North Carolina Volunteers program, which operated in 12 counties in 1964 and 25 counties in 1965. These files include information about college student volunteers, daily logs of volunteers, reports from volunteers, information about community objections to racially integrated teams of volunteers, and correspondence of staff and volunteers. Also included are files relating to Youth Educational Services (YES), a statewide tutorial project in which college students tutored disadvantaged children; a study of women volunteers in North Carolina, which resulted in Women Volunteers in the War on Poverty by Guion Griffis Johnson; the establishment of an Outward Bound school in North Carolina; and other special projects, including a health careers project, a migrant health project, and Upward Bound.
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TRAINING PROGRAMS SERIES ABSTRACT:
Training Department records (about 18,000 items) include plans, reports, trainee files, and other material. The Community Service Consultants (CSC) program is the earliest program documented. Other programs include a community development worker training center at University of North Carolina; a training program for Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA); the Community Action Technician (CAT) training program, which trained neighborhood workers, Headstart and Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) supervisors, and other community action and anti-poverty workers; and summer internship and curriculum development programs. The internship program for 1967 was established and operated by the Fund's Department of Community Organization under Howard Fuller to train college students at Catawba College, Livingstone College, and Shaw University for community work. Shaw University, North Carolina College, St. Augustine's, Livingstone College, and Catawba College operated a joint internship program in 1968. CAT files also include information about selective service policies and draft deferments for trainees.
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COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAMS SERIES ABSTRACTS:
CHARLOTTE AREA FUND ABSTRACT:
Records (about 4,000 items) relating to the Charlotte Area Fund (CAF), a North Carolina Fund community action program in the Charlotte, N.C., area. Included are reports on CAF operations and many files relating to the CAF's manpower program, which caused conflict between the Charlotte Bureau of Employment, Training, and Placement (CBEPT) and the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC). Other documented programs include neighborhood centers, Domestics United, legal services, planning for a model cities proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, planning for a unified approach to school desegregation, and scholarships for arts enrichment programs. Also included are press releases, information about press coverage of CAF programs, and an almost complete set television station WBT's editorials, 1966-1968.
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CHOANOKE AREA DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION ABSTRACT:
Records (about 3,000 items) of the Choanoke Area Development Association (CADA), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Bertie, Halifax, Hertford, and Northampton counties, N.C., in the basin of the Chowan and Roanoke rivers. Included are files documenting CADA's early emphasis on job training. CADA was originally established in 1961 as an area industrial development organization. Also included are files on Head Start, Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC), multi-purpose centers, and other programs. There are also files of the People's Program on Poverty (PPOP), an anti-poverty organization of people, primarily poor and African American, from Bertie, Halifax, Hertford, and Northampton counties. The July 1966 People's Conference on Poverty, sponsored by PPOP, was attended by 500-1,000 people. PPOP received a grant from the North Carolina Fund to support its operation and pursued a program of promoting adult basic education, recreation, sanitation, and low-cost housing.
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COASTAL PROGRESS, INC., ABSTRACT:
Records (about 4,000 items) of Coastal Progress, Inc. (CPI), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Craven, Jones, and Pamlico counties, N.C. Included are records of Craven Operation Progress (COP), organized in 1964 and, in 1966, combined with Jones County Economic Development Corporation and Pamlico County Economic Development Corporation to form Coastal Progress, Inc. These files are especially good for information about administrative policies and procedures and public relations efforts. Programs documented include Neighborhood Youth Corps, adult basic education recruitment, small business development center, day care centers, home management aides, rural environmental sanitation, a federal credit union, and a strawberry marketing co-op.
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EXPERIMENT FOR SELF-RELIANCE ABSTRACT:
Records (about 4,000 items) relating to the Experiment for Self-Reliance (ESR), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, N.C. Included are a strong public information component, with articles and clippings as well as newsletters of ESR and of the Neighborhood Youth Corps. ESR programs documented best include the Winston-Salem Police Community Services Unit, for which there are proposals, reports, a review, and clippings; a Wider Job Opportunities program; and a legal services program. There are also files on an after-school tutorial program, a Boys Club program, and a community organization summer program.
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MACON PROGRAM FOR PROGRESS ABSTRACT:
Records (about 3,000 items) relating to the Macon Program for Progress (MPP), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Macon County. Included are files on a manpower program, a health services program, a mental health program, and an agricultural development program. There are also files on neighborhood workers, Head Start, self-help housing, a credit union, day care and child development, small business development, the Macon County Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, Inc., a family planning clinic, adult education, and a senior citizens program.
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NASH-EDGECOMBE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ABSTRACT:
Records (about 3,000 items) relating to the Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development (NEED), a North Carolina Fund community action agency in Nash and Edgecombe counties, N.C. Included are files that document the agency's emphasis, under Director R. Timothy Brinn, on industry and jobs rather than on community organization and participation of the poor. The program's priorities changed in 1967 when Edgar Odum took over as director. Documented NEED programs include the community action program proposal, the manpower program, the small business development center, and Neighborhood Youth Corps.
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OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH ABSTRACT:
Records (about 6,000 items) relating to Operation Breakthrough (OBT), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Durham, N.C. Included are a report of a management survey in June 1966, proposals and files on a mental retardation training conference, a day camp, Head Start, Neighborhood Youth Corps, a New Careers program, a legal assistance program, Community House, the Education Improvement Project, an arts project, and a child case conference program to coordinate the work of social agencies with children. Attacks by Congressmen Jim Gardner and Nick Galiafianakis on North Carolina Fund activities, especially on the work of Howard Fuller in summer 1967, are documented. Reports and legal papers relate to a rent strike in Durham. Also included are files on the United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI), an organization of neighborhood councils, especially relating to the controversies about housing for low-income people in Durham, and a proposal for a credit union. Many of the tenants involved in the rent strike and neighborhood activists who presented grievances to the Durham City Council were African American.
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THE OPPORTUNITY CORPORATION ABSTRACT:
Records (about 3,000 items) relating to The Opportunity Corporation (TOC), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Asheville and Buncombe County, N.C. Included are planning papers, a Poor People's Evaluation of TOC, and general office records. Also included are files on TOC programs: day care, Sandy Mush rural health program, Head Start, the Hillcrest Rent Strike, and the community action program grant.
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SALISBURY-ROWAN COMMUNITY SERVICE COUNCIL ABSTRACT:
Records (about 2,000 items) relating to the Salisbury-Rowan Community Service Council (SRCSC), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Salisbury and Rowan County, N.C. Included are files on a legal services program and a home managers program. There are also files relating to a change in directors. Also included is a memo from Reginald Durante of the North Carolina Fund to Heslip Lee, SRCSC director, expressing his concern that SRCSC's multipurpose centers were providing only recreation and day care programs, not real organization of the poor, and that their boards of directors had too many middle class people.
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TRI-COUNTY COMMUNITY ACTION ABSTRACT:
Records (about 2,000 items) relating to Tri-County Community Action (TCCA), a North Carolina Fund community action program in Robeson, Richmond, and Scotland counties, N.C. Included are administrative files and materials documenting struggles over representation of the area's African-American and Native American populations on the Board of Directors and staff as well as information about programs for African-American and Native American people in the tri-county area. Prominent programs of TCCA included Head Start, Neighborhood Youth Corps, neighborhood organizers, and work training and other manpower programs.
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WAMY COMMUNITY ACTION, INC., ABSTRACT:
Records (about 5,000 items) relating to WAMY Community Action, Inc., a North Carolina Fund community action program in Watauga, Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey counties in western North Carolina. Included are a special report on WAMY's subcontracting practices; files on incentive grants in the four counties; and files on a craft marketing cooperative, a Neighborhood Youth Corps project, a news demonstration project, and manpower projects.
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MANPOWER PROGRAMS ABSTRACT:
Records (about 42,000 items) of manpower programs supported by the North Carolina Fund. Included are Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE) headquarters and field staff files, documenting efforts to assist families in meeting their employment and other family needs by using resources available in Nash, Edgecombe, Richmond, Robeson, Scotland, Craven, and Guilford counties, N.C. Proposals and reports give an overview of the program's operation. There are also records of the institutional training and on-the-job-training programs. Mobility program records include proposals, reports, and correspondence concerning a program that recruited unemployed rural people in coastal and mountain counties, developed jobs for them in industrial areas, and assisted them in moving and adapting to their new job and living environments. Files on the Manpower Development Corporation (now MDC, Inc.) contain much material relating to operational studies on computer job matching, program planning and budgeting, housing, basic education, industrial training capacity, skill training, Work Oriented Retraining Centers (WORC), New Careers, transportation, and outreach techniques and supportive services in manpower programs.
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RESEARCH, PLANNING, AND PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT ABSTRACT:
Correspondence, statistics, notes, drafts, and other materials (about 17,000 items) from research projects and planning and program development. Major projects include a report on poverty in North Carolina; a study of record-keeping in community action programs (CAPs) aimed at producing evaluation information; profiles of community problems in areas served by the 11 Fund-supported CAPs; a survey of attitudes, values, wants, and needs as well as income, education, housing, and health of low-income families in CAP regions; a study of the community action process and decision-making, conflict resolution, and other patterns in CAP communities; and a study of hunger in North Carolina. Also included are records of the Fund's library and history and archives project. These history and archives project records contain information about Fund organization and staffing, transcripts of debriefing interviews with Fund staff, and grant officers' reports on the CAPs.
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STUDY COMMITTEES SERIES ABSTRACT:
Leadership Training Committee records (about 500 items) document community leadership development laboratories, the Urban Training Center, and Affiliated Training and Action Centers (ATAC) for New Mission. Voter Education Project (VEP) Committee records (about 700 items) include items from the Southern Regional Council's Voter Education Project; brochures on government and voter registration; information on African-Americans in political office and Congressional redistricting; and proposals for citizen education and a Bertie County Voter Education Project. Education Study Committee records (about 1,500 items) include information on the Comprehensive School Improvement Program (CSIP), 1964; the Learning Institute of North Carolina (LINC), 1964-1968; the Advancement School; a Regional Education Laboratory proposal, 1966; and school drop-outs, 1962. Legal Services and Consumer Education Study Committee records (about 1,000 items) include materials on legal problems of the poor, a summer legal intern program, and producer and consumer co-ops, the latter proposed by Floyd McKissick's N.C. Leadership Conference on Economic Development. Housing Committee records (about 1,500 items) include materials on the Low-Income Housing Development Corporation (LIHDC) and a computer-aided design system to produce good, cheap housing. Committee on Manpower and Economic Development (COMED) records (about 5,000 items) include a 1967 food price survey and 1966-1968 cost-benefit study of the Manpower Improvement Through Community Effort (MITCE) program.
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PUBLIC INFORMATION DEPARTMENT SERIES ABSTRACT:
Records (about 9,000 items) of the Public Information Department include files of Billy Barnes and other staff members about Fund press and public relations; assistance to community action programs through public information efforts; and Fund publications, films, slide shows, radio shows, and other efforts. Much of the 1967 correspondence deals with press coverage of attacks on the Fund by Representatives Jim Gardner and Nick Galiafanakis. There are also records of a special project that assembled packets of article reprints on poverty and race and mailed them to community leaders throughout the state. Also included are audiotapes, films, radio show transcripts, film scripts, and of some slide shows. Films include No Hand-Outs for Mrs. Hedgpeth (28-minutes, color, April 1968) on the life of a domestic worker in Durham, N.C.; a film explaining the Fund's program; and a film about the summer anti-poverty work of the 100 North Carolina Volunteers in 1964. In 1967, the Public Information Department produced a weekly radio show, "New Voices in Carolina," and distributed it to 35 North Carolina stations. For each show, John Morgan interviewed people participating in anti-poverty work as clients, staff, or volunteers.
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Series 1. Administration, 1963-1968.
Records of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee, Executive Director, and staff members concerning policies and programs; meetings; personnel administration; grant administration; interactions with the Ford Foundation, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and other organizations; and other matters.
Note that original file folder titles and original folder order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Subseries 1.1. Governance, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by type of document.
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Subseries 1.1.1. Policies and Official Documents, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by subject.
Major policy statements and governing documents of the North Carolina Fund.
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Subseries 1.1.2. Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: chronological.
Minutes and supporting materials for meetings of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Fund. Supporting materials include correspondence, policy statements, budgets, plans, grant requests and staff recommendations, departmental reports, project progress reports, reports from community action programs, and clippings.
A sound recording of a North Carolina Fund Board Meeting is located in Subseries 8.3: T-4710/1-2. North Carolina Fund Board Meeting, 7-8 May 1967.
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Subseries 1.2. Executive Director, 1963-1971.
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Subseries 1.2.1. Correspondence, 1963-1971.
Arrangement: chronological.
Letters and memoranda to and from George Hyndman Esser (1921- ), Executive Director of the North Carolina Fund. Beginning in October 1963, in-state correspondence is filed separately from out-of-state correspondence. For 1963 and 1964, there is a separate category of Governor's Office correspondence. The subjects and correspondents in Esser's letters and memos encompass the whole range of the Fund's programs and activities and are closely related to materials found in other series. Although many duplicates have been removed during processing, some duplicates may remain within this series and some items, no doubt, may be found in other series as well. This is particularly true of correspondence about community action agencies, manpower programs, and study committees.
In-state correspondence consists of internal memos to and from North Carolina Fund staff members as well as correspondence with members of the Fund's Board of Directors, state agency heads and staff members, and staff and board members of the eleven community action agencies supported by the Fund.
In addition to correspondence with Governor Terry Sanford, Governor's Office correspondence includes correspondence with his Special Assistants John Ehle, Joel Fleishman, and George Stephens. The 1963 correspondence is primarily concerned with start-up of the North Carolina Fund, publicity for the start-up, relations with the Ford Foundation, and the interest of local people in North Carolina Fund plans. The 1964 correspondence is mostly letters passed on from the Governor's office to the North Carolina Fund concerning people looking for jobs or communities looking for funding.
Out-of-state correspondence is comprised primarily of correspondence with federal and Ford Foundation officials. Among these were Sidney Woolner and Harold Bailin of the Office of Economic Opportunity; Richard Groner of the Office of Manpower Policy, Evaluation and Research; and Paul Ylsivaker of the Ford Foundation. Out-of-state correspondence also includes correspondence with researchers interested in poverty and community action, staff of community action programs in other states, and organizations in which Esser participated, such as the Council of the Southern Mountains, National Association for Community Development, and the Southern Regional Council.
Correspondence, 1969-1971, concerns the dissolution of the North Carolina Fund and reports on its projects and spin-offs. Esser's correspondence, 1969-1971, as Ford Foundation's Program Adviser for the South, is filed in Subseries 1.6.
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Subseries 1.2.2. Gardner File, 1965-1969.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence and other material kept by George Esser in a confidential file separate from his other correspondence. The name "Gardner file" apparently stems from the fact that much of the material relates to attacks on the North Carolina Fund by Congressman Jim Gardner in the summer of 1967 and the North Carolina Fund's response to those attacks. Not all of the material in these files has to do with Gardner, but most relates to charges of inappropriate political activity by Fund staff.
Earlier files contain material about controversies that arose in two community action agencies in eastern North Carolina--Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development (NEED) and Craven Operation Progress (COP). Esser's responses to charges against Fund staff were sent to Congressman David Henderson, OEO Director Sargent Shriver, and Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz, as well as to state and local leaders. Also included are a memo, 2 August 1966, from staff member Bill Flowers to Durham attorney Moses Burt of McKissick & Burt, asking for a legal opinion on the political activity of employees of programs funded by loans or grants from the federal government, and Burt's response, 4 August 1966.
Clippings, statements, memos, letters, press releases, and other materials document the charges of Congressman Gardner that members of the staffs of the North Carolina Fund and Operation Breakthrough (OBT), Durham's community action agency, had incited people to violence in July 1967. Gardner's charges followed an incident in which Fund and OBT staff were present at a Durham City Council meeting where poor blacks spoke against the city's housing policies. Rallies and a march on city hall followed the Council's inaction. Controversy centered around Howard Fuller, a community organizer on the OBT staff. Letters of support for Fuller, 25 July 1967, came from union leaders, businessmen, attorneys, ministers, and others, among them Asa Spaulding, Watts Hill Junior, City Councilmen John S. Stewart and C. E. Boulware, A. J. H. Clement III, and H. M. Michaux. A letter, with supporting documents, from North Carolina Attorney General Thomas Wade Bruton, 1 August 1967, informed Esser that the attorney general was investigating charges that the North Carolina Fund had exceeded the authority of its charter. Esser's response and exhibits in support are dated 15 August 1967.
Also included in the Gardner file is correspondence and supporting documentation relating to a U.S. Labor Department review of Manpower Improvement through Community Effort (MITCE) in the fall of 1966.
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Subseries 1.2.3. Planning and Start-Up, 1963-1964.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence, draft proposals, diagrams, and other items relating to the planning and start-up of the North Carolina Fund. The planning file includes several memos from George Esser to John Ehle concerning organization, staffing, office space, goals, and schedules for starting the planned foundation. Bulletins, September 1963-February 1964, are memos from Esser to Board of Directors members transmitting minutes, rosters, financial statements, copies of speeches, and other items of interest to Board members in the start-up period.
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Subseries 1.2.4. Quayle Poll, 1968.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Reports, press releases, correspondence, and notes from How North Carolina Whites and Blacks View: Each Other, Government and Police, Housing, Poverty, Education, and Employment, an opinion poll conducted by Oliver Quayle & Company for the North Carolina Fund in 1968.
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Subseries 1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968.
Arrangement: chronological.
Typescripts of speeches and statements given by George Esser before various organizations, including testimony before Congressional committees and governmental advisory commissions, as well as presentations at conferences and talks to local civic clubs. Most of the speeches are about poverty, methods for the fight against poverty, and the role of foundations, local and state government, and citizens in fighting poverty. Most of the speeches in the compilation, "When the Heart Is Afire, Some Sparks Will Fly Out of the Mouth," were given in 1966 and 1967.
| Folder 352-355 |
"When the Heart Is Afire, Some Sparks Will Fly Out of the Mouth." Speeches of George Esser Junior, 1962-1968. #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 352-355Folder 352Folder 353Folder 354Folder 355 |
| Folder 356 |
1963 #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 356 |
| Folder 357 |
1964 #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 357 |
| Folder 358-359 |
1965 #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 358-359Folder 358Folder 359 |
| Folder 360 |
1966 #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 360 |
| Folder 361-362 |
1967 #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 361-362Folder 361Folder 362 |
| Folder 363-365 |
1968 #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 363-365Folder 363Folder 364Folder 365 |
| Folder 366 |
Miscellaneous and undated #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 366 |
| Folder 367 |
Speech material #04710, Subseries: "1.2.5. Speeches, 1962-1968." Folder 367 |
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Subseries 1.2.6. Other Materials, 1964-1970.
Arrangement: by subject.
Miscellaneous materials kept in George Esser's files include speeches by others, writings by Esser, materials relating to the phaseout and dissolution of the North Carolina Fund, and other items.
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Subseries 1.3. Staff, 1963-1968.
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Subseries 1.3.1. Correspondence, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence, primarily routine letters and memoranda, of senior staff, including deputy directors Tom Hartmann and Nathan Garrett, administrative assistants Mary Hatley and Lucy Watkins, and director of administration James Lee Burney.
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Subseries 1.3.2. Reports, 1964-1968.
Arrangement: by subject.
Reports, 1965-1966, on visits to community action programs outside North Carolina by North Carolina Fund staff and project directors; departmental progress reports; North Carolina Fund progress reports; speeches; and other reports by North Carolina Fund staff.
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Subseries 1.3.3. Meetings and Conferences, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by meeting.
Records of North Carolina Fund staff meetings, conferences attended by North Carolina Fund staff, and a brainstorming project conducted in the summer of 1965 to generate program ideas. Included are minutes, agendas, notes, correspondence, and other items relating to regular staff meetings, senior staff meetings, staff retreats, staff orientations, meetings of department heads and administrative staff, staff committee meetings, and project directors' meetings. Of particular note are reports and papers from a meeting of project directors and North Carolina Fund staff at Blair House, 10-11 August 1965.
In the records of conferences attended are programs and papers from meetings conducted by the Ford Foundation; a conference of state and federal officials with Fund staff in January 1964; regional conferences on the Economic Opportunity Act; meetings of other organizations, such as the National Association of Community Development and the National Association of Social Work; and meetings on topics of interest to Fund staff, such as rural poverty and low-income housing.
Records of the brainstorming project include material collected and written to prepare for seminars on scholarships, public information, and urban and rural housing. There are also a list of participants, correspondence, reports, background papers, and papers presented at seminars on involvement of the poor, urban housing, rural housing, and public information.
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Subseries 1.4. Personnel, 1963-1968.
Arrangement: by type of document.
Personnel policies and procedures, job descriptions, forms, staff directories, organizational charts, correspondence, and other records of the personnel department of the North Carolina Fund. Included are data collected for a position classification survey, information about salaries and fringe benefits, correspondence with job applicants and others, and correspondence of William Koch about recruiting staff for community action agencies, as well as routine personnel department correspondence. Additional correspondence of Koch about staff for community action agencies may be found in Subseries 4.1.