CORE--Community center correspondence, Jackson COFO Office, 1964 July-1965 May (Congress of Racial Equality. Mississippi 4th Congressional District records, 1961-1966; Historical Society Library Microforms Room, Micro 793, Reel 1, Segment 9)

This folder contains correspondence about community centers and freedom schools addressed primarily by the two very capable women who tried to coordinate them, Annell Ponder and Lois Chaffee. Most of the letters request money, support, personnel, and materials for both types of institutions. Fearing that Mississippi might close whole school districts rather than desegregate them, some COFO letter writers seek teachers from other states to teach in the freedom schools which would serve as a substitute. In addition to correspondence, there's also the familiar memo called "An Overview of the Community Centers," a flyer advertising the "Adopt a Mississippi Freedom Center" program, a blank form from the COFO Print Shop, and a form letter about the upcoming (1964) Freedom Vote. As with all correspondence, individual voices come through loud and clear and the reader gets a strong sense of the lack of organization, infrequent payments, and inter-office squabbles that afflicted well-intention