Jack Minnis ran SNCC's research department out of the Atlanta office. For most of 1965, he wrote and distributed a poorly mimeographed weekly research report titled, "Life With Lyndon in the Great Society" that exposed the truth behind LBJ's carefully constructed facade of lies and misdirection.
Number 1, January 22, 1965 Number 2, February 2, 1965 Number 3, February 11, 1965 Number 4, February 18, 1965 Number 6, March 4, 1965 Number 7, March 10, 1965 Number 8, March 18, 1965 Number 9, March 25, 1965 Number 10, April 1, 1965 Number 15, May 6, 1965 Number 18, June 3, 1965 Number 19, undated Number 23, undated, 1965 Number 24, July 15, 1965 Number 25, July 22, 1965 Number 26, July 29, 1965 Number 29, August 19, 1965 Number 30, August 26, 1965 Number 31, September 2, 1965 Number 32, September 9, 1965 Number 33, September 16, 1965 Number 34, September 23, 1965 Number 35, September 30, 1965 Number 36, October 7, 1965 Number 37, October 14, 1965 Number 38, October 21, 1965 Number 39, October 28, 1965 Number 40, November 4, 1965 Number 41, November 11, 1965 Number 42, November 18, 1965 Number 44, December 2, 1965
These weekly reports played a significant role in the radicalization of SNCC, SCLC, and CORE field staff. A radicalization that began with the Johnson-Humphrey-Mondale betrayal of the MFDP at the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City in August of 1964 (see MFDP Challenge to Democratic Convention and Mississippi Movement & the MFDP).
Week after week Jack's reports analyzed current events — local, national, and international — in terms of the connections between wealth, power, and government policy. He identified the key decision makers and (long before Bernstein, Woodward, and Watergate) followed-the-money as it determined what was being done to whom — and why. He had the facts and he layed them out for all to see. And for many freedom fighters the conclusion was inescapable — the abuses we were fighting in the South were not abberations but rather symptoms of deep systemic injustices that applied nationwide and internationally.
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