Save Our Schools records

The Save Our Schools records document the efforts by this organization, which was founded in April 1960 to maintain free public education in New Orleans during the integration of the public school system. The collection contains organizational records, as well as newspaper clippings and publications collected by SOS and its members.

The bulk of the materials within the Save Our Schools collection spans the years 1957 to 1962, with correspondence dating from 1960 to 1962. The correspondence contains letters from citizens of Louisiana, businessmen, and politicians concerned with desegregation of the New Orleans Public Schools. The collection also includes organizational records, newsletters, reports, pamphlets, minutes of meetings from 1960 to 1962, a petition, a brief (Lawrence Hall, et al v. St. Helena Parish School Board and J. L. Meadow), reprints of articles, hate literature, leaflets, broadsides, and newspaper clippings. The collection documents the organization's efforts to maintain free public education in New Orleans and the reactions of other groups and individuals to these efforts. An item of interest is the television script, Our Schools at the Crossroads. Even though the organization was not founded until 1960, there are items among those collected that pre-date the founding year. The bulk of the materials consist of newspaper clippings spaning the years 1960 to 1962. The publications are arranged in chronological order and include Crisis in the Schools, If the Schools are Closed, and Why Segregation.

Names in the collection are Moses Cahn, Anne Dlugos, Julian Feibelman, Joseph Fichter, Rosa Keller, John P. Nelson, Leander Perez Sr., and Jack Ricau. Organizational names in the collection include Citizens Council of Greater New Orleans, Louisiana Independent Foundation for Education, and the Louisiana Sovereignty Commission.