| Basic Search Manuscript Search | Advanced Search | Online Archives | Help | ||||||||||||
Biography/History:
Rims Barber was born to Donald and Jeanette Barber on November 29, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois. He majored in political science at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He then attended Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. Upon graduation, he became a Presbyterian minister in Davenport, Iowa. He came to Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964 in response to a request for ministers from the National Council of Churches. He worked canvassing homes for voter registration in Canton, Hinds County, Mississippi, that summer. In 1965, he returned to Canton as part of the Delta Ministry and was heavily involved in school desegregation, voter education, and other civil rights issues. Barber became education director for the Delta Ministry in Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi, in 1966. When Robert Clark was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1967, Barber helped to establish a Jackson office on Farish Street for Representative Clark. Barber continued working for the Delta Ministry until 1977.
After he left the Delta Ministry, Barber worked as the director of the Mississippi Project for the Children’s Defense Fund from 1977-1989. In 1989, he became the chairman of the Mississippi Human Services Coalition. As of 2012, Barber lived in Jackson, Mississippi, with his wife Judy and continued to be a civil rights activist involved in community organizing.
Scope and Content:
This collection contains the personal papers; Delta Ministry reports and financial material; information on civil rights issues; published material; and mementos and photographs that document the career of Rims Barber. The majority of the collection consists of material from the years of Barber’s work with the Delta Ministry, from 1964 to his departure from the Delta Ministry in 1977. Of note in the collection is material relating to education and children’s welfare.
Series and Sub-series Identification:
This series contains typed and handwritten correspondence. Folders 1-13 contain general correspondence and are arranged chronologically. Folders 14-25 are arranged alphabetically by correspondent and subject.
Box 1, folders 1-25
This series contains material on the Delta Ministry that Barber gathered while he worked with the organization. It includes some proposals, reports, and general material as well as a large amount of financial information.
Sub-Series 1: Reports and Proposals. 1965-1977; n.d. 14 folders.
This sub-series contains reports, proposals and general information on the Delta Ministry. Also included in this sub-series are copies of Sovereignty Commission reports on Barber and other Delta Ministry members.
Box 1, folders 26-39
Sub-series 2: Finances. 1966-1973; n.d. 100 folders.This sub-series contains a large amount of day to day financial information on the Delta Ministry. Budget reports, income and disbursement account information, expense statements, and miscellaneous expense records are included in this material.
Boxes 13-15
This series contains the material Barber collected on the subjects he dealt with while at the Delta Ministry, including education, politics, and other issues reflecting his civil rights concerns. Also in this series is information on legislative issues, material on Representative Robert Clark, and information on local and national organizations. This series makes up the majority of the collection and consists of correspondence, reports, and general information.
Sub-series 1: Education. 1964-1976; n.d. 143 folders.
This sub-series contains material relating to education, especially problems such as desegregation, public school lunches, school protests, and other issues of children’s welfare. The material is arranged alphabetically by subject.
Box 1, folders 40-51
Box 2, 57 folders
Box 3, 49 folders
Box 4, folders 1-25
Sub-series 2: Elections. 1961-1976; n.d. 43 folders.
This sub-series contains material on the electoral process, especially on voter education and voter registration. Also included is material on some specific elections, and voting data collected for Project Mississippi.
Box 4, folders 26-36
Box 5, folders 1-32
Sub-series 3: Employment and Economic Opportunity. 1936; 1965-1973; n.d. 27 folders.
This sub-series contains material on economic and employment opportunities in Mississippi. The material consists of correspondence, reports, and information on employment programs. Also included is information on strikes and minimum wage violations.
Box 5, folders 33-59
Sub-series 4: Health Issues and Hospitals. 1965-1975; n.d. 10 folders.
This sub-series contains material on healthcare in Mississippi. Information on hospital development in Jackson and Mound Bayou, Bolivar County, Mississippi, is included. The material consists of correspondence and reports.
Box 5, folders 60-62
Box 6, folders 1-7
Sub-series 5: Housing. 1955-1972; n.d. 8 folders.
This sub-series contains correspondence, manuals, and reports on housing assistance.
Box 6, folders 8-15
Sub-series 6: Legal Issues. 1964-1975; 1982; n.d. 16 folders.
This sub-series contains material on legal cases; ranging from civil action and school board cases to wrongful death suits. Included are affidavits, correspondence, legal briefs, and reports.
Box 6, folders 16-31
Sub-series 7: Legislative Material. 1966-1976; n.d. 20 folders.
This sub-series contains material on bills and reports from the state legislature. Also included in this sub-series is legislative material from Representative Robert Clark.
Box 6, folders 32-36
Box 7, folders 1-15
Sub-series 8: Mississippi Information. 1966-1975; n.d. 15 folders.
This sub-series contains general information on Mississippi, including Hurricane Camille relief information, maps, and background information on several counties.
Box 7, folders 16-30
Sub-series 9: Organizations, Mississippi. 1964-1976; n.d. 24 folders.
This sub-series contains material on state and community organizations. These local organizations were involved with various aspects of the civil rights struggle, from community action to legal rights. Included in the sub-series are correspondence and reports from these organizations.
Box 7, folders 31-54
Sub-series 10: Organizations, National. 1966-1973; n.d. 12 folders.
This sub-series contains material on several national organizations and foundations that Barber dealt with while at the Delta Ministry. The material includes correspondence and reports. The organizations include the Ford Foundation, the National Council of Churches, the Southern Education Foundation, and STAR, Systematic Training and Redevelopment, Incorporated.
Box 8, folders 1-12
Sub-series 11: Politics. 1966-1976; n.d. 27 folders.
This sub-series contains material on political parties, including the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and on political issues such as redistricting, revenue sharing, and the Vietnam War. The material includes correspondence, delegate information, press releases, and reports.
Box 8, folders 13-37
Box 9, folders 1-2
Sub-series 12: Welfare. 1965-1971; n.d. 10 folders.
This sub-series contains material on welfare issues, including procedures for the hearings of welfare recipients, information on food programs, and reports on the Mississippi Welfare Department.
Box 9, folders 3-12
This series contains the published material Barber collected, including articles, newspaper clippings, and pamphlets.
Sub-series 1: Articles. 1963-1974; 1980; n.d. 54 folders.
This sub-series of collected articles, proposals, and reports includes articles and a report by Rims Barber. Also included are articles on civil rights, economic issues, education, and politics. Attendant correspondence is included. The material is arranged alphabetically by author; material without author information is arranged alphabetically by title.
Box 9, folders 13-54
Box 10, folders 1-12
Sub-series 2: Clippings. 1965-1974; 1989; 1994; n.d. 62 folders.
This sub-series of copied newspaper clippings contains a wide range of material, including information on civil rights, politics, and schools as well as specific news stories concerning the Jackson State College (Jackson State University) shooting and the Republic of New Africa. Also included is a folder of clippings about Rims Barber. The clippings are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Box 10, folders 13-74
Sub-series 3: Pamphlets. 1961-1976; n.d. 73 folders.
This sub-series contains pamphlets found in the collection and includes material on all of the topics of interest to Barber, from education to welfare. The pamphlets are arranged alphabetically by topic.
Box 11, folders 1-52
Box 12, folders 1-21
This series includes mementos and images found in the Barber collection. Of note are several pictures of Barber, including a color photograph of Barber performing the first legal interracial marriage ceremony in Mississippi; photographs of storefront picketers; a photograph of Annie Devine speaking at an outdoor meeting; and a photograph of Madison County sheriff Billy Noble stopping voter applicants. Also of note are a few personal photographs, a button from the Meredith Mississippi March for Freedom, photographs of the destruction at the Joseph Williams’ house, and slides that include images of early construction at Freedom City, Panola County, Mississippi.
Box 10, folders 75-85
The restricted series contains duplicate and restricted material. The books, manuals and reports in the restricted series are primarily educational materials.
Box 16-18: Restricted and Duplicate Material. 32 folders
Boxes 19 and 20: Books, Manuals and Reports. 1960-1977; n.d.