Creator: Mitchell, Morris R. (Morris Randolph), 1895-1976.
Collection number: 3832
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Abstract: Morris Randolph Mitchell was a pacifist and educator who, 1919-1924 and 1926-1929, farmed in Marston and Ellerbe, N.C., and served as principal and/or teacher in Ellerbe schools; founded Macedonia Cooperative Community in Clarkesville, Ga., in the 1940s; served as director of the Putney Graduate School in Putney, Vt., 1950-1964; and was president of Friends World College in Glen Head, N.Y., 1964-1972. Personal and business correspondence and a few other papers of Morris R. Mitchell. Included are scattered financial records and letters to and from members of his family, colleagues, friends, and students, primarily concerning Putney Graduate School, Friends World College, and Macedonia Cooperative Community. Early correspondence describes Mitchell’s experiences with the American Expeditionary Forces in France and Belgium in 1918; his graduate education at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tenn.; his work as headmaster of Park School in Buffalo, N.Y.; his work with the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration during the New Deal; and his later work with the Southeastern Cooperative League. Correspondence for the 1940s provides an overview of activities at Macedonia Cooperative Community during that decade and a glimpse into Mitchell’s teaching at Rochdale Institute in Wisconsin and at Walhalla Public Service Camp No. 30 (Mich.), a camp for conscientious objectors. Also included is information about related ventures in education, various cooperative communities, study tours that Mitchell either organized or directed, and the Cold War academic environment.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Correspondence, writings, pictures, and other materials of Mitchell, pacifist and educator who founded Macedonia Cooperative Community (Clarkesville, Georgia) in the 1940s; served as director of the Putney Grange Graduate School (Putney, Vermont); and was president of Friends World College (Glen Head, New York). Letters discuss a black revival meeting in Ellerbe, North Carolina (9 Aug 1920); a black school in Ellerbe (1927, 1937); incidents of racial discrimination at Putney Graduate School (1951); and executive action in desegregation (1956). In Subeseries 1.9: Putney Graduate School for Teachers, the collection includes a dedication of program for the Ellerbe Colored High School (1952) and review of Harry S. Ashmore’s book The Negro and the Schools (7 Jul 1954); information concerning the possibility of opening an interracial camp near Green Bay, Wisconsin (1956); and references to a recording of Uncle Remus stories that Morris was planning to make (1959 ;see folder 385). Partially restricted.