Social Justice Collection | Boston Public Library Archival and Manuscript Finding Aid Database

This collection contains eight boxes of activism-related ephemera from 1968-1983, documenting changing American ideologies at the grassroots level in Boston and Cambridge. Particularly strong topics represented in the collection are Boston’s busing crisis, boycotts of major companies such as J.P. Stevens & Co., workers strikes, farmworkers’ rights, housing and tenant rights in Cambridge, anti-nuclear activism regarding Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, advocacy for nuclear disarmament, feminism and issues of equal and reproductive rights, and anti-war action relating to the Vietnam War and the draft. The materials largely promote events, marches, protests, and meetings that raised awareness for or benefited different social and political advocacy efforts in Boston.

Among the organizations that are represented in Boston and Cambridge are the Eastern Service Workers Association, Greater Boston Peace Action Coalition, People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice, Progressive Labor Party, and Students for a Democratic Society. The Eastern Service Workers Association is an existing membership association for Boston’s service, temporary, domestic, and other low-income workers and their families. The Greater Boston Peace Action Coalition and People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice were active anti-war groups. Many of the political and student organizations worked collaboratively to host events or marches in Boston and Cambridge.

Subjects, such as women’s rights, anti-war, and anti-nuclear, include materials from other organizations that advocated specifically for these causes. Examples of these groups are 9to5 Organization for Women Office Workers, Indochina Peace Campaign, and Mobilization for Survival. These items are organized topically, as the nature of their materials and organizational missions dealt with specific topics.

Collection materials include posters, flyers, brochures, pamphlets, and newsprint.