Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas

32. Letter to “Dear Friend” from Jim Jones (1965)

32. Letter to “Dear Friend” from Jim Jones (1965) Between June 1960 and December 1965, the national SNCC office published a weekly newspaper, the Student Voice (later briefly renamed the Voice). Although at times publication was irregular, the newspaper provided an avenue for SNCC volunteers in geographically distant places to keep updated on the activities of their colleagues. The newspaper also played an important role in fundraising. The historian Clayborne Carson estimates that by 1964 more than 40,000 donors and supporters received the publication. Inspired by the success of the national publication, the Arkansas Project created a local counterpart, the Arkansas Voice. In the letter below, then Arkansas Project director Jim Jones is soliciting funds to keep the newspaper afloat. 700 West 9th Street Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 (501) Franklin 5-9081 July 20, 1965 Dear Friend, We are including this note with the latest issue of the Arkansas Voice because we need paper for printing the next issue. Each issue is circulated free by SNCC workers to more than 8,000 people. In addition, a small mailing list of about 100 people who live in Arkansas towns in which we don’t work, are mailed the Voice. You and about 350 other people, friends and relatives of current Arkansas SNCC workers, are also mailed the Voice. 224 Source: Box 48, “Arkansas Correspondence,” Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959–1972, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta Formerly, Atlanta SNCC furnished the paper and covered the issue budget of about $50 (which included $18 worth of 4¢ stamps for the mailing list). For the past 3 weeks SNCC has been broke and probably will be for the next month. We were able to mail you this issue thanks to donations by local newsmen. We would like to continue publication. We are sending you and the 350 others on the out-of-state mailing list this note. We ask you to send $1 to the Arkansas Voice for the next issue. Any money we receive over paper costs will go toward postage. (If you send a check or money order please make it out to Arkansas SNCC.) We are asking for donations of not more than $1 because we are only trying to get enough money to keep the Voice going. Jim Jones Arkansas Project Director LETTER TO “DEAR FRIEND” FROM JIM JONES (1965) 225 ...