Social change

Unity in struggle. Unity of struggle.

Special Collections & University Archives, UMass Amherst LibrariesThe Archive of Social Change

With this in mind, Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) focuses its collecting not on individual social movements, but on the process of social change itself: the myriad ways in which people seek to better the world around them. Our goal is to document the links between and among movements and the ebb and flow of ideas, individuals, and organizations that make up the larger stories of how lasting social change is created and experienced.

Social change

Social justice, as W.E.B. Du Bois argued, cannot easily be compartmentalized. The struggles for racial, gender, and economic equality, for example, are so deeply intertwined that to make progress in one requires attention to all.

Africa-America Institute, Jeff Albertson, Alternative Energy Coalition, the American Revolution, Martha Bevis, Horace Mann Bond, Judi Chamberlin, Citizens Awareness Network, Clarke School for the Deaf, W.E.B. Du Bois, EarthAction, Famous Long Ago, Anna Gyorgy, Liz Henderson, Diana Mara Henry, International Center for the Disabled, Randy Kehler, Liberation News Service, Bill Lichtenstein, Eric Mann and Lian Hurst Mann, Mass AFL-CIO, Raymond Mungo, New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, NOFA, NORML, Carl Oglesby, Peace Development Fund, Radical Student Union, Laura Ross, Tiyo Atallah Salah-El, Peter Simon, David Steindl-Rast, Traprock Peace Center, Valley Women’s History Collaborative, Harvey Wasserman, Yankee Magazine

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Alternative energyAntifluoridationAntinuclearAntiracismCivil rightsCommunism and SocialismCountercultureDisability rightsDrug policy reformEconomic justiceEnvironment & conservationIntentional communitiesLabor movementLGBT rightsMass incarcerationOrganic & sustainable agriculturePeace and antiwarPolitical radicalismRacial justiceSpiritual renewalSocial equality

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Collaborate with SCUA to preserve your part in the history of social change. We offer excellent long-term care for collections, a robust digitization program, and superior service for scholars, students, and communities who wish to learn from their own pasts. Online or in person, we are open to all, free of charge.

Your contributions are the key.

To inquire about our collections or contribute, please contact any of the archivists at SCUA (scua@library.umass.edu). Your donations may be eligible for a tax deduction.

Donating to SCUA

SCUA documents the whole lives of people who create social change and whole communities who work together, all with an eye toward providing a rich context for future research. For individuals and organizations alike, unpublished materials have a particular value for revealing what goes on behind the scenes. We place a priority on preserving letters and diaries, minutes of meetings, ephemera, photographs, sound and video recordings — anything that helps inform how we understand our past and how we can commemorate it for generations to come.

What can I contribute?

Johnson Pasture Commune, 1969 (Roy Finestone Collection)Infant and dog on porch, ca.1910 (Burt V. Brooks Collection)Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party protest at Democratic convention, Aug. 1964

(Gloria Xifaras Clark Collection)Civil rights demonstration, Cairo, Ill., 1962 (Stephen Saltonstall Collection)Beholders Puppet Theatre at Seabrook, 1976 (Lionel Delevigne Collection)March for Sacco and Vanzetti, 1927 (Alton H. Blackington Collection)W.E.B. Du Bois, 1907 (W.E.B. Du Bois Papers)May Day demonstration, Washington, D.C., 1971 and MIT I-lab demonstration, 1970

(Jeff Albertson Collection)Bruce Geisler and Brian McCue, ca.1971 (Daniel Brown Collection)Rail station and ice cream parlor, Lake Pleasant, ca.1900 (Lake Pleasant Collection)Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights march, Mar. 25, 1965 (Herman Nash Papers)

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Special Collections & University ArchivesUMass Amherst Libraries | scua.library.umass.edu

154 Hicks Way | Amherst, MA 01003413-545-2780 | scua@library.umass.edu