PATCH, PENNY.
Penny Patch papers, 1962-2010 (bulk 1962-1965)

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Special restrictions apply: The collection contains some copies of original materials held by other institutions; these copies may not be reproduced without the permission of the owner of the originals.

Source

Gift, 2013.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Penny Patch papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Sarah Quigley, September 2013.

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Biographical Note

Penelope ("Penny") Patch (1944- ) is a civil rights activist and former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worker. The daughter of an American diplomat, Patch was raised in China, Czechoslovakia, and Germany until the age of thirteen, when the family returned to the United States permanently. She enrolled at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania in 1961, where she joined the Swarthmore Political Action Committee (SPAC) and began to work with other civil rights student activists. In 1962, she was arrested for the first time while conducting sit-ins in Maryland. In June of that year, Patch joined SNCC and moved to Georgia, where she became the first white woman to work on a SNCC field project in the Deep South. She worked to register and educate voters in what became known as the Albany Movement through 1963.

In early 1964, Patch transferred to the Jackson, Mississippi, Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) office to help manage the application process for the Mississippi Freedom Project. In September, she moved to Panola County, Mississippi, where she worked with COFO to register voters and support African American candidates for the county Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service Committee, a federal program that decided each farmer's cotton allotment for the year. In April 1965, Patch resigned from SNCC and left the South for California where she worked briefly in the anti-war movement and with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). She eventually moved to Vermont, where she currently lives and worked as a nurse midwife. She now teaches and speaks on behalf of civil and human rights.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of Penny Patch from 1962-2010 and primarily documents Patch's work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. The collection includes personal papers, SNCC records, and printed material. Personal papers contain correspondence written by Patch and sent to her family and friends, as well as hate mail received by her parents. Personal papers also include copies of the files kept on Patch by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, as well as a brief report written by her parents Frances and Isaac after a visit to Mississippi and a small number of photographs.

SNCC records include correspondence and memoranda; reports from field staff in both Georgia and Mississippi; program proposals; manuals; a security handbook for the Mississippi Freedom Project; and various other program planning documents. Printed material includes numerous clippings about SNCC as well as Patch herself. There are also fliers, pamphlets, brochures, newsletters and other printed items from civil rights organizations such as SNCC, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the Council of Federated Organizations, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

Arrangement Note

Arranged by record type.