Creator: Dabbs, James McBride, 1896-1970.
Collection number: 3816
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Abstract: English professor, Presbyterian churchman, civil rights leader, and farmer of Mayesville, S.C. The bulk of the papers consists of writings, correspondence, subject files, and administrative records relating to Dabbs’s activities as professor of English, churchman, civil rights leader, Penn Community Services trustee, and farmer. Very little family correspondence is included and there are few items dating before the mid-1920s, but most facets of Dabbs’s professional involvements and interests are covered. Topics of writings, correspondence, and subject files include observations on social and political issues of the day, concerns about racial inequalities, and Dabbs’s own life and religious beliefs. Dabbs’s leadership of civil rights councils, religious organizations, and the Board of Trustees of Penn Community Services are well documented. Note that all letters are not in the correspondence series; some are included in subject files. Correspondents of note included Isabell Fiske Conant and Sarah Patton Boyle.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: The collection includes letters commenting on the treatment of blacks, occasional hate-mail letters prompted by Dabbs’s civil rights activism and writings, Dabbs’s articles on desegregation, and research material Dabbs collected in files, bearing titles such as “Freedom of Thought in Southern Colleges” (which contains correspondence between Dabbs and professors at southern institutions about the issue of freedom to comment on desegregation events) and “The economic effect of the racial struggle.”