ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202
COLLECTION: OGL #1202
DATES: 1981-1989
SIZE: 1.25 linear feet
ACQUISITION: The Red River Valley Peace Workers Records were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Dr. Rachel Scott, UND College of Nursing, on February 16, 1990 (Acc.#90-1690).
ACCESS: Available for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.
The 1982 UND Peace Conference acted as a catalyst for the creation of the Red River Valley Peace Workers. At this conference several groups became aware of each others existence and joined together to form the Red River Valley Peace Workers. These groups included: Educators for Social Responsibility, American Medical Students Association, Lawyers Alliance, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the UND Peace Committee. The purpose of the organization was to inform and involve the public in the quest for peace. The organization proposed a National Peace Academy to train people in conflict resolution, which would serve as a peaceful counterpart to the United States Military Academy.
In May of 1983, the organization adopted the following goals:
(1) create a forum for education, debate and consciousness raising so that
individuals may more effectively work together at the task of assuming
responsibility for peace and constructing conditions for peace.
(2) create a sensitivity to and an understanding of global situations that fuel
tensions and threaten world peace.
(3) prevent nuclear annihilation, recognizing that the goal is attainable only
through a total world nuclear disarmament.
(4) Make ourselves fit citizens for a world at peace.
The organization also concerned itself with a variety of national and international issues: aid to Nicaragua and the Contras, El Salvador, the nuclear weapons freeze campaign, MX and cruise missiles, Rail Garrison, Backscatter Radar plan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Nazi Germany and Hitler.
The Red River Valley Peace Workers Records consist of newsletters and a series of scrapbooks dating from 1982-1989 which contain newspaper clippings, correspondence, programs of events, and photographs. The newsletter "Red River Valley Peace Workers" began with the February/March 1983 issue. Initially it was a bimonthly publication, then a monthly, a bimonthly again, and by the late 1980s was published sporadically. The June 1989 issue contained a plea for donations. The next issue was merely a leaflet. The "NDPC North Dakota Peace Coalition" was a quarterly newsletter published by the Red River Valley Peace Workers and the Fargo-Moorhead Peace Workers, two of the sixteen members of the NDPC. It was first published in April 1985. The records contain issues through July 1988.
Newspaper clippings in the scrapbooks date from April 19, 1982 to December 30, 1989 and are primarily from the Grand Forks Herald and the Dakota Student. They describe activities and opinions of the organization and issues of concern. The correspondence is primarily letters written by Rev. Walter Scott to local, state and national politicians. Programs of events indicate the organization's planned activities, such as conferences, 4th of July picnics, speakers for meetings, fundraisers, etc. The scrapbooks also contain numerous color photographs of group members at Peace Workers-sponsored events and meetings. The majority of the photographs are not identified.
Box 1
Folder
Scrapbook 1. 1981-1983
Scrapbook 2. 1984
Scrapbook 3. 1985
Scrapbook 4. 1986
Scrapbook 5. 1987
Scrapbook 6. 1988-1989
| Original Donation | First Addition: 1990-1992 |
| Second Addition: 1986 |
| Special Collections Home Page | Contact Special Collections | Chester Fritz Library Home Page |
|---|