Civil Rights Movement Documents
SCLC's SCOPE Project
June 1965-March 1966

Summer Community Organizing and Political Education (SCOPE)

[SCLC's 1965 SCOPE project brought hundreds of northern college students and Freedom Movement supporters into Black communities in six southern states. In some ways similar to COFO's 1964 Mississippi Summer Project, SCOPE focused on voter-registration and community organization in anticipation of imminent passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. There were county-level SCOPE projects in Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. Some SCOPE projects and individual activists continued into 1966.]

Contents

SCOPE Recruitment & Training
Lists of Counties, Chapters & Volunteers
Organizing & Operations
SCOPE-SCLC Staff Reports
Letters & Field Reports From SCOPE Projects
SCOPE-SCLC Miscellaneous
SCOPE-Related FBI Reports

SCOPE Recruitment & Training

Preliminary map of SCOPE projects, SCLC. Undated (probably May of 1965)
Summer Community Organization and Political Education Project of SCLC. Four-page description of SCOPE project, probably from April or May of '65.
Summer Community Organization and Political Education Project (SCOPE). One-page handout describing project, probably from April or May of '65.
MCHR Letter to SCOPE Volunteers, May 1965.
Release Form, signed by SCOPE volunteers to hold SCLC free of liability if they're injured or killed.
Recruiting. SCOPE report. SCLC, undated (probably May).
Status of SCOPE Personnel (Registration, Total number of personnel at present), undated, probably May of 1965
SCLC-SCOPE Orientation Agenda, June 1965. (Note, page 3 is missing.)
SCLC/SCOPE Orientation Brochure
Letter to Campus Pastor About SCOPE Orientation Week, Janet Wolf. (Detailed description of SCOPE orientation.)
Volunteer Reading List
Song Sheet, SCLC-SCOPE orientation? Summer 1965?
(Typical example of song sheets used in many places and locales.)

SCOPE Brochures and Flyers

SCLC/SCOPE Orientation Brochure
SCLC SCOPE brochure.
Meet Tommy Smith, SCOPE brochure.
Help Me Find the Key to Freedom.

Lists of Counties, Contacts, Chapters & Volunteers

[The roster of SCOPE outside volunteers and the counties they worked was fluid and changed too rapidly to accurately track. Therefore these partial lists — most of which are undated — more or less reflect the best understanding of who was working where at the time the list was made. But they contain inaccuracies, and for the most part they only track summer volunteers, not SCLC field staff.]
List of Counties & Volunteers, undated, 1965.
List of Local Contacts and Addresses, SCLC SCOPE Project. Summer 1965
SCOPE Counties and Associated College Chapters, undated.
SCOPE Campus Chapters & Volunteers, by county, undated.
SCOPE Campus Chapters & Volunteers, by county. June 28, 1965. Junius Griffin
SCOPE Volunteers Listed by College Chapter, undated
SCOPE Volunteers Listed by Assigned County, undated

Organizing & Operations

Canvas Form, used during house-by-house visits.
Memo to Projects re Reporting, Hosea Williams, SCLC. Late June or Early July, 1965.
Press Statement: Ralph Abernathy, July 1, 1965. On violence and repression against SCOPE voter-registration volunteers.
Memo to Projects re Mobilizing for Passage of Voting Rights Act, July 28, 1965. Hosea Williams, SCLC.
SCOPE/SCLC Incident Reports July-Oct, 1965.
Draft of petition to Waverly SC officials by local Berkeley County SCOPE activists, July 1965.
Results of SCLC's SCOPE Project, Hosea Williams (SCLC).
[Note that some observers consider the numbers cited in this report for political education and community organizing are exaggerated.]
SCOPE for 1966, Hosea Williams, SCLC.

Birmingham Voter Registration Campaign November 1965 - March 66 (Multiple documents)

SCOPE-SCLC Staff Reports

SCOPE Public Relations Report, Kit Clarke, SCOPE. July 10, 1965
Alabama SCOPE Reports, compiled by Kit Clarke. July 1965
Results of SCLC's SCOPE Project, Hosea Williams (SCLC).
SCOPE Project Evaluation Form, Sherie Labedis, SCOPE volunteer. 1965.
SCLC Voter Registration Totals by State, October 30.
SCLC Voter Registration Department Report, November.
Chicago Area SCOPE Meeting, October 1965. Report & evaluation of SCOPE work over the summer.
Voter Registration in Alabama, Report. November, 1965.
      Table Legend:
      WVAP & NVAP = White/Negro voting age population
      #W/N-Reg = Number of Whites/Negroes registered to vote at that time
      %w/n-r = Percentage of eligible Whites/Negroes registered.
      The SCLC 10-65 column is cumulative from June through the end of October.
Alabama Registration Statistics (re SCOPE project), SCLC Report. November 1965
Final financial report on SCLC-SCOPE project, Jesse Blayton, CPA. June 30 1966

SCOPE-SCLC Miscellaneous

Mass Meeting flyer template, Unsigned, SCLC/SCOPE. Undated 1965 (probably June or July)
First Annual Virginia SCLC Convention program, Unsigned, Virginia SCLC. July 3, 1965
White Citizens Council Anti-Civil Rights Recorded Message, Crenshaw County, AL
Convention registration forms from SCOPE volunteers at SCLC annual convention, Birmingham AL. August 1965
Register to Vote flyer, Unsigned, SCLC/SCOPE. Sussex County, VA. August 2, 1965
Demonstration Permit, City of Luverne (Crenshaw County) Alabama, August 4, 1965.
Selma News, SCLC/SCOPE newsletter. July 9, 1965
Letter to SCOPE Volunteers, October 1, 1965. Martin Luther King, SCLC.
Conscience and Confrontation: Some Preliminary Findings on Summer Civil Rights Volunteers, Aiken, Demerath & Marwell, Univ. of Wisconsin. 1965. (Sometimes referred to as the "Wisconsin Study.")

SCOPE-Related FBI Reports

Informant's report on SCLC & SCOPE, FBI report, June 10 1965.
Racial Situation Liberty County GA, FBI report, June 28 1965.
Racial Demonstrations Organgeburg SC, FBI report, August 3 1965.
Voter Registration Demonstrations Allendale SC, FBI report, August 12 1965
Possible Racial Violence Major Urban Areas (Savannah GA), FBI report, August 20 1965.
SCOPE Voter Registration Liberty County GA, FBI report, August 30 1965.
SCOPE Jefferson County GA, FBI report, September 30 1965.
Liaison with Groups Sponsoring Integration Racial Matters, FBI report, October 11 1965.
SCOPE Voter Registration Drive Liberty County GA, FBI report, November 11 1965.

See also: Letters & Field Reports From SCOPE Projects

For More Information:

See Summer Community Organization Political Education Project for background information.
See also SCOPE Articles & Memoirs by Freedom Movement Veterans
See also Letters & Field Reports from SCOPE Projects
See also Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) & SCOPE Project for books.
See also SCLC & SCOPE Summer Project for web links.


© Copyright
Webspinner: webmaster@crmvet.org
(Labor donated)