In September 2011, Occupy Wall Street began its protest in New York’s City’s Zuccotti Park, and quickly gained widespread popular attention.  As a protest movement against economic and social inequality and corporate greed, the group touched a nerve with people worldwide affected by the economic crisis. By October of 2011, Occupy groups existed in over 80 countries, although the majority were located in the United States.

Best known for its extensive and elaborate camp at Dilworth Plaza, adjacent to City Hall, Occupy Philadelphia was largely composed of nonviolent protests, organized marches, and demonstrations.  In November 2011, Philadelphia city officials informed Occupy protesters of the impending renovations scheduled to begin at Dilworth Plaza later that the month and asked Occupy Philadelphia to relocate.  They refused, and Philadelphia Police evicted them on November 30, 2011.

Occupy members, archivists, and other interested groups have tried since 2011 to document the movement and collect historical evidence related to the many Occupy groups. Because of its decentralized and non-authoritarian nature, this has proved enormously difficult. The digital nature of many Occupy materials have also caused difficulties in preserving and making available records of the movement. Emory Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Commons has collected over ten million tweets from the Occupy Wall Street group for data analysis, and WBAI radio station in New York has preserved and made accessible audio files related to the group. A 2012 New York Times article detailed efforts to collect records associated with the Occupy Wall Street, while Harvard collected and created a finding aid for records of the Occupy Harvard group.

The Special Collections Research Center received materials in physical and digital form from the Occupy Philadelphia group. The Occupy Philadelphia Records  include organizational records, fliers and ephemera, song and chant lyrics, journals and newspapers, clippings, and digital materials including photographs and videos, documenting the Occupy Philadelphia movement as well as other Occupy and protest movements. Much of the material is graphically striking, and expresses the tone and message of the movement in artistic and eye-catching ways. Both the physical and the digital materials can be viewed in the SCRC reading room. An advance appointment is recommended for viewing digital files.

–Katy Rawdon, Coordinator of Technical Services, SCRC

In the 1960s, Franklin H. Littell took a public stand against political extremist groups in America. He created The Freedom Institute at Iowa Wesleyan College; developed an Early Warning System to prevent genocide; and exposed radical radio preachers and the John Birch Society with the support of the Institute for American Democracy.  All these activities supported Littell’s work to educate about and guard against the development of totalitarian regimes.

Ideological programs dominated segments of the American radio industry in the 1950s and 1960s. The Institute for American Democracy (IAD) and Littell worked against radical radio preachers such as Billy James Hargis and Carl McIntire. Along with the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Churches, the IAD utilized the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine as a means to expose and rally against extremist speech.     In an effort to comply with the FCC Fairness Doctrine, Hargis offered Littell equal airtime on his weekly radio broadcast to rebut statements Hargis made against him. Hargis cites his Christian principles “as a minister of God” as reason for extending the opportunity to Littell, but labeled Littell “one of the most dangerous men in United States.”

Courtney Smerz, Project Archivist

Please join us in celebrating the opening of the Littell Collection, April 9, 2:00 pm, Paley Library Lecture Hall. For more information visit http://library.temple.edu/scrc/conwellana-templana-collection/franklin-littell

Among his many accomplishments as a scholar, educator, and Methodist preacher, Franklin H. Littell (1917-2009) spent the better part of fifty years dedicated to increasing public awareness about the lessons of the Holocaust and interfaith cooperation between Christians and Jews in its continued remembrance. Littell was a pioneer in establishing academic programs on Holocaust studies. He taught a graduate seminar on the Holocaust at Emory University in 1959, and established a doctoral program at Temple University in 1976. In the 1970s, Littell also established conferences such as the Annual Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, an interdisciplinary, international, interfaith conference on Holocaust scholarship; and centers like the National Institute on the Holocaust at Temple University, an interfaith education resource center that encouraged study of the Holocaust in primary and secondary classrooms. In 1978, Littell was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve on the Presidential Commission on the Holocaust, later renamed the US Holocaust Memorial Council, which conceptualized the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC as a permanent living memorial.

With increased public discourse initiated by Holocaust scholars like Littell, observances and remembrance activities in commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust were established on both a national and international scale. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 , International Holocaust Remembrance Day¬ as an annual international day of commemoration. The date, January 27, marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the largest Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops.

2014 International Holocaust Remembrance Day events in Philadelphia:

American-Italy Society of Philadelphia:

http://tinyurl.com/nzjopuy

Congregation Mikveh Israel:

http://tinyurl.com/ncxztj7

Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia:

http://tinyurl.com/q42yar6

On February 10, 2014, a new exhibition will open in Paley Library, featuring selections from Franklin Littell’s extensive collection of papers in Temple Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center. The exhibition will showcase Littell’s life and work including his Holocaust Remembrance activities.

Jessica Lydon, Associate Archivist, and Courtney Smerz, Project Archivist