Nancy Sours papers, 1962-1982

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Summary

Creator:
Sours, Nancy, 1944-2018, John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture, and Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
Abstract:
Nancy Sours was a white civil rights and human rights activist who volunteered and worked in Mississippi, San Francisco, and Berkeley in the mid- and late-1960s. This collection contains correspondence, collected printed and published materials, and some personal materials documenting her volunteer work; her family's activities and travels; her involvement with various organizations such as Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); her friendships and sexual relationships; her experiences and opinions about her community organizing and activism; her mental and physical health; and her education at San Francisco State College and University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Topics discussed in the various printed materials include civil rights, Black power, socialism and economic reform, gay liberation, women's liberation, reproductive rights, and Vietnam War protests. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture and the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Extent:
1.0 Linear Foot
Language:
Materials in English.
Collection ID:
RL.13036

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains correspondence, collected printed and published materials, and some personal materials documenting Nancy Sours's work; her family's activities and travels; her involvement with various organizations such as Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); her friendships and sexual relationships; her experiences and opinions about her community organizing and civil rights activism; her mental and physical health; and her education at San Francisco State College and University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her letters to and from her family and friends contain candid assessments of different civil rights organizations and leaders, including her frustration with Martin Luther King Jr.; details about her activities and participation in voter registration canvassing, protests and sit-ins, marches and demonstrations, and her arrests; her mental health, relationships with different men of different races, and her use of birth control; her expenses, living situations, and leisure activities; and her involvement in different feminist and activist organizations on campus and in Berkeley. Topics discussed in the various printed materials include civil rights, Black power, student activism, socialism and economic reform, gay liberation, women's liberation, reproductive rights, and Vietnam War protests.

Biographical / historical:

Nancy Anne Sours (1944-2018) was a white civil rights and human rights activist who volunteered and worked in Mississippi, San Francisco, and Berkeley in the mid- and late-1960s. Sours was born 1944 February 4. She grew up in Virginia and attended Fairfax High School. She attended Bryn Mawr College (1961-1964) but left before graduation to join the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) in November 1964 as a volunteer civil rights worker in Mississippi. In May 1965 she began working for the Congress of Racial Equity, and was employed in Mississippi until around May 1966. While in Mississippi, Sours worked to register Black voters; participated in demonstrations, marches, protests, and sit-ins to desegregate local businesses and facilities; and also supported various civil rights organizations through clerical and administrative duties. She was arrested and jailed repeatedly in Mississippi as part of her civil rights work. In May 1966, she left the state and moved to San Francisco.

Once in California, Sours joined the Students for a Democratic Society and also worked as a typist and stenographer for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. She attended San Francisco State College between 1967 and 1969, earning a B.A. and M.A. She then attended the University of California at Berkeley (1969-1973) and earned a Ph.D. in history. Research on Ancestry.com indicates that she married (1972) and later divorced (1983) Douglas R. Page. She appears to have lived and worked as a professor in California the rest of her life. She died in Contra Costa, California, on 2018 May 19.

Acquisition information:
The Nancy Sours Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase from Mitas Books in 2023.
Processing information:

Processed by Meghan Lyon, November 2023

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2023-0115

Arrangement:

Arranged into series: Correspondence, Printed Materials, and Personal Materials.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Nancy Sours Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1c169