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Bobbye Ortiz was a social activist and Marxist feminist. The collection consists chiefly of personal correspondence; extensive subject files on international political and cultural movements; photographs and slides; ephemeral publication material such as grassroots newsletters, pamphlets, broadsides, and clippings; cultural artifacts, including buttons and T-shirts; and over 300 sound recordings of spoken voice and music (see separate catalog record for sound recordings). The collection documents the personal life and career of an international feminist, Marxist activist, and mother, who also served as editor of the magazine Monthly Review and was the founder of the organization WIRE (Women's International Resource Exchange). English.

Abraham Joshua Heschel was an internationally known scholar, author, activist, and theologian. He was born in Warsaw, Poland into a distinguished family of Hasidic rebbes, and studied philosophy in Berlin, Germany. In 1938 he was deported from Frankfurt to Warsaw where he escaped to London just before the Nazi invasion. After a brief time in London he immigrated to the United States, first teaching at the Hebrew Union College and then at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he taught as Professor of Ethics and Mysticism until his death in 1972. In addition to his active participation in social justice issues and his interfaith work, Heschel was also a scholar and religious thinker who made significant contributions to Jewish studies. As a philosopher of religion, his goal was to make the spiritual insights of Judaism understandable and over the course of his lifetime influenced generations of Jews and non-Jews. The Abraham Joshua Heschel Papers span the years 1880 to 1998 and document Abraham Joshua Heschel's personal, academic, and public life. Items in this collection include correspondence, writings by and about Heschel, typescripts, clippings, printed material, and a small amount of photographs and artifacts. The materials in the collection provide insight to Heschel's identity as a spiritual leader and how this role was inextricably connected to his personal and professional life. The collection is organized into the following series: Audio, Correspondence, Personal and Family Materials, Public Activity, Restricted, and Writings.

Educator, gay rights activist, and author of many works on sexuality, identity, and sex education, and the history of homosexuality and the gay rights movement in the United States. The James T. Sears Papers span the dates 1918-2011, with the bulk of the material covering the period between 1950 and 2004. The papers are arranged into the following series: Audiovisual Material; Other Activities; Personal Papers; Photographic Material; Professional Papers; the largest series, Research and Writings; Jack Nichols Papers; and Oversize Material. The Research and Writings series is divided into subseries for major works by Sears, as well as subseries for other writings and editorial work, research files, and a small set of writings by other individuals. Formats include but are not limited to correspondence, research files, writings, interviews, recordings, serials and newspapers, photographs, and diaries. The collection also houses the personal papers of Hal Call (1917-2000) and Jack Nichols (1938-2005), both early activists for gay rights. Taken as a whole, the collection offers a deep and rich source of information on gay, lesbian, and bisexual culture in the United States, especially in the South, and its representation in literature and in the press, both positive and negative; the history of the gay rights movement in the U.S. and abroad, including the evolution of organizations such as the Mattachine Society and related gay movement publications; sexuality studies in the U.S. and teaching sexuality in primary and secondary classrooms; gays in the military; drag queen, lesbian, and bisexual communities; and many other topics relevant to sexual identity in society.