Joe Felmet Papers

Posted October 15th, 2012 by drice

Accession Number:

LP001507

Extent:

.25 linear feet (1 MB)

Joe Felmet participated in the first “freedom ride” of the civil rights movement. This 1947 trip, known as the “Journey of Reconciliation,” was meant to test the Supreme Court’s ruling that banned segregation on interstate travel. The sixteen riders were arrested multiple times along the way and Felmet was sentenced to three weeks on a chain gang in North Carolina.

Felmet was a lifelong peace activist and an advocate for civil liberties. He was a conscientious objector during World War II and refused to be inducted into the military. He went on to become an active leader of the Southern chapter of the Workers’ Defense League (WDL). He later ran for the US House in 1974 and the US Senate in 1978.

His papers consist of articles and personal remembrances of his civil rights and free-speech activism and copies of FBI files on the WDL.

Collection is unprocessed.

Date:

1944–1993

Bookmark/Search this post with: