To Julian Bond from Carl Braden, 31 Dec 1968, with Bond's draft response

Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) =============================================GENERAL OFFICES 3210 WEST BROADWAY, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 40211 • Area Code 502 778-3348

December 31, 1968 [written in blue ink: ans 1/2/69

Julian Bond 162 Euhree, SW Atlanta, GA 30314

Dear Julian:

I am writing to ask if you would be willing to perform a great service for SCEF.

Would you be willing to sign a fund-appeal letter, which we could use in reaching new lists of people?

We fully realize that this is no small thing to ask a person to do. We realize too that you must have many calls on you for the use of your name in this way. So we are asking you only after very serious thought as to whether we have a right to ask you to "use" your prestige in this way for SCEF.

We decided to make the request of you only because we are very sincerely convinced of the crucial and unique importance of the work SCEF is doing. We believe it is an objective judgment to say that SCEF is attempting to reach -- and is reaching -- people no other similar group is reaching, and that this work is vital to the future of the South and the country.

As you know, SCEF depends entirely on the contributions of individuals. We get no foundation money -- and of course no government money. This is a hard way to raise money, as you well know, but we are convinced it is worth it -- because it is the only way to be free. But it means that our survival literally depends on expanding the number of people on our mailing lists to whom we can regularly appeal for funds. this we must do by mailings to other lists.

Last year Pete Seeger signed a letter for us of the type we are asking you to do now. We did test mailings with it to about six lists (organizations and publications), and then larger mailings to the lists that showed the best return which were SANE and SNCC. In this manner we added thousands of contributors to our own mailing lists.

That is the kind of thing we want to do again this year -- this time, with a letter from you, if you are willing.

marginal information

OFFICERS

President Fred L. Shuttlesworth

Vice-Presidents Bishop Charles F. Golden Jack Peebles Modjeska M. Simkins

Secretary Clarice Campbell

Treasurer Dorcas Ruthenburg

Assistant Secretary Rosalyn Laventhal

Staff Robert Analavage Ella J. Baker Anne Braden Carl Braden Theresa Bridges Mary Britting Suzanne Crowell James A. Dombrowski Barbara Flynn Nessa Goatley Carol Hanisch Michael Higson Nancy Hodes George McAlister Alan McSurely Margaret McSurley Wm. Howard Melish Jack Minnis Joseph Mulloy Karen Mulloy Miriam Nicholas Sandra Rosenblum Mary Louise Texler Dorothy Zellner Robert Zellner

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Alabama Diane Bevel The Rev. S.M. Davis Dr. Everett MacNair E.D. Nixon Georgia Price The Rev. T.Y. Rogers, Jr. The Rev. F.L. Shuttlesworth The Rev. James A. Zellner

Delaware Louis L. Redding Donald Stephens

District of Columbia Bishop Henry C. Bunton Leonard W. Holt

Florida John M. Coe The Rev. James Hudson Margaret Rigg The Rev. C.K. Steele

Georgia Julian Bond Dr. G. Murray Branch Isobel Cerney Dr. Clarence Jordan Slater King Dr. Herbert Shapiro The Rev. C.T. Vivian Estelle Wyckoff

Kentucky The Rev. William H. Bell Dr. George R. Edwards Dr. Jack McMichael Dr. Marion Pearsall Dorcas Ruthenburg Dr. Lewis S.C. Smythe Lucretia Ward Dr. Harvey Webster

Louisiana J.N. Blankenship James A. Dombrowski Elizabeth Foote Dr. Leonard Krimerman Rosalyn Laventhal Jack Peebles Frederick Rhodes, M.D. Benjamin E. Smith Corinne Freeman Smith Anderson Washington, Jr.

Mississippi Ruby Berkley Clarice Campbell James C. Gilliam Victoria Gray The Rev. Edwin King Buford W. Posey

North Carolina Jacquelyne J. Jackson Willson Whitman

South Carolina Modjeska M. Simkins

Tennessee Bishop Charles F. Golden Edward Hamlett J.R. Rutter

Texas The Rev. Sherwood Davis

Virginia The Rev. Raymond E. Musser Samuel Newman, M.D. Dr. Milton Reid

West Virginia Mrs. William G. Gehri Dr. James L. Hupp Dr. William J.L. Wallace

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Alabama Clarence E. Crayton Dr. A.M. Freeman Dorothy M. Lobman

Arizona W.A. Robinson

Delaware Rabbi Herbert E. Drooz

District of Columbia Dean Daniel G. Hill C. Herbert Marshall, M.C., 2nd

Florida Prof. G.G. Beckness Joel D. Hunter The Rev. Floyd M. Irvin Dr. Oscar Riddle Peter H. Robinson Clifford A. Straus The Rev. Robert H. Wilson

Georgia Frank W. Spencer

Kentucky Dean Julia F. Allen Prof. Alfred M. Wolfson

Louisiana Rabbi Julian B. Feibelman

Maryland Byron Allen Dr. Walter E. Hager Sidney Hollander Bishop Edgar A. Love Mrs. John O. Neustadt Mrs. Victor P. Noyes

Missouri Dr. Oliver C. Cox

New Mexico Witter Bynner Mrs. Arthur Musgrave The Rev. J. Paul Stevens

North Carolina Dean Grady D. Davis The Rev. W.W. Finlator Prof. J.S. Himes Dr. Oscar K. Rice Dr. W. Carson Ryan The Rev. Robert E. Seymour Dr. A.O. Steele Gertrude Weil

Oklahoma Dr. Arthur N. Bragg Mrs. Louis B. Fritts Dr. J. Rud Nielsen

South Carolina Prof. Charles F. Nesbitt

Tennessee F. Wood Beckman Alice Cobb The Rev. Frank R. Gordon Mr. and Mrs. John R. Knight The Rev. Robert C. Palmer

Texas Frank Council Rabbi Floyd S. Fierman The Rev. and Mrs. Gayle Spann Carter Wesley Dr. O.M. Wittier

Virginia Edgar S. Fraley Dr. Ruth McNeil W.H. Sanger Dr. Carl C. Taylor

West Virginia Mrs. Franklin McQuilkin Dr. Leland H. Taylor

MEDICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Alabama William H. Faulkner, M.D. R.C. Stewart, M.D.

Arizona Emmett McLoughlin

Kentucky George B. Kimbrough, M.D.

Missouri Park J. White, M.D.

North Carolina L.W. Upperman, M.D.

Oklahoma Gertrude Nielsen, M.D.

2.

I will enclose a copy of the letter that Pete signed for us -- to give you an idea of the kind of thing we mean. Your letter, if you do it, could of course be quite different -- but this is the general idea.

I am assuming that you have kept up somewhat from our mailings with what we are doing. However, I will enclose the basic piece of literature we've been using to describe SCEF -- "40 Million White People . . . This is the enclosure we used last year in the Pete Seeger letter. A more recent summary of our work -- and our present perspective -- was incorporated into a Christmas appeal letter we sent to our own mailing list a few weeks ago. You must have gotten a copy of this -- but it may have been buried under Christmas mail, so I will enclose a copy of that, to bring you up to date a bit on the outlook of the SCEF staff.

We will be doing a new general piece of literature to enclose with mailings in early 1969 -- since "40 Million" is now over a year old. Also it is pitched somewhat on what we planned to do -- since it was prepared just when we were beginning to expand the staff. A new brochure could deal more with what we are actually doing now. If you sign the appeal letter, we would submit the proposed brochure to you in draft form -- to make sure you approve, since it would be going out with your covering letter.

If you are willing to sing an appeal letter, you can either write it yourself -- what you want to say (this would be preferable), or if you don't have time to do that, you could let us draft something and send it to you for changes or approval.

The only trouble time-wise that the mailing would be to you would be in the letter-drafting stage. We are working with a group of movement-oriented direct-mail people in New York (some of the same people who used to work with the SNCC committee there), and they'll no doubt have ideas about the appeal letter no matter who writes it -- which we might need to discuss back and forth. Once it was in final form -- and you approve the brochure -- you would not have to worry with it any more at all.

But of course you would be committing yourself to a special sort of endorsement of our program -- which we realize is a little bit more than you do even by being on our board. We hope you will feel willing to do this.

Naturally we want to get moving on a new mailing program as soon as possible -- so if you can give this your immediate attention and let us have an answer, we will appreciate it.

Yours for freedom, [signature] Carl Braden

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