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Manhattan Women's Political Caucus Brochure
Front cover for Manhattan Women's Political Caucus Brochure
The White Girl Manuscript Draft
![Sheila B. Michaels<br />
87 Columbia Street<br />
New York City, New York 10002<br />
Telephone: Yukon 2-0794<br />
Office: 9352261<br />
<br />
THE WHITE GIRL<br />
<br />
She was scared of Negroes, but her newspaper conscience called her to join the civil rights <br />
movement. She knew she would feel guilty if she associated with Negroes, and guilty if she did not; and <br />
she thought it was as well to hang for a sheep as a lamb. Southern Interracial Student Teams had the greatest reputation for spectacle and derring-do. In view of the momentous step she was about to take it did seem niggling and just too dull to settle on a cause that would be half-measure.<br />
It was a Saturday in early Fall. The first weekend of her sophomore year. Her roommate had gone home for the weekend, and she did not want to begin tackling the cleaning that had to be done in the new apartment. The last tenants had been pigs. She and Sherry would be no different. She went by the Student Union, but there was no one to whom she could confide her plan. She really didn’t want anyone to know, anyway. If she made some spectacular failure, better not to do it in a three-ring circus. She went to the bookstore and read picture books and looked at greeting cards for about an hour. Then she went home and piddled about, daydreaming until after lunch,. [typo] Finally, she called the Funds for SIST – the group’s Northern, fund-raising arm—and got the directions.<br />
The bus rumbled and splatted away over the cobblestones through the empty downtown streets; leaving her alone. She would have stayed on until it circled back to school if she could have faced the bus driver. It seemed like an awfully bright, unreal day in the downtown silence, full of clear sun and sharp [typo] shadows.](https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/18935/archive/square_thumbnails/ce546e7c467c6bb23f662ecdbd91c783.jpg?Expires=1715212800&Signature=XWGLUEJ8nj2wl9E5abBcvOEk3If1pP5RVRuCaXr%7EDRjSn8FZ3TjhDHA4wngho5vjhWrCBmoav1pyVP3rgG0m9gFZsYgy%7E5p%7Ey9ZXQ97x6Mg9WBQ1Ch6xoQK829RNgZCl9jSVe5ug84MOlze7KCvULf5qYWdSit2NkwBeeCqGA1pIYIUzH2j3D3a2rMUkgeY%7EFqtJ%7E%7EB3XrcR8iZ8Vq5dB5Z3-AwlpTDedC0NKGFIxHBi0SSQDiuSMdFnrb5YP8znxSaQRFsuIU8f5ITFc14ZIz-SUKLqA%7Efq-a7y1p5zEFMsrotQKRUNAD7FKJnd-T8kKcWWH8YZ%7EANbclaN7oX10w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM "Sheila B. Michaels<br />
87 Columbia Street<br />
New York City, New York 10002<br />
Telephone: Yukon 2-0794<br />
Office: 9352261<br />
<br />
THE WHITE GIRL<br />
<br />
She was scared of Negroes, but her newspaper conscience called her to join the civil rights <br />
movement. She knew she would feel guilty if she associated with Negroes, and guilty if she did not; and <br />
she thought it was as well to hang for a sheep as a lamb. Southern Interracial Student Teams had the greatest reputation for spectacle and derring-do. In view of the momentous step she was about to take it did seem niggling and just too dull to settle on a cause that would be half-measure.<br />
It was a Saturday in early Fall. The first weekend of her sophomore year. Her roommate had gone home for the weekend, and she did not want to begin tackling the cleaning that had to be done in the new apartment. The last tenants had been pigs. She and Sherry would be no different. She went by the Student Union, but there was no one to whom she could confide her plan. She really didn’t want anyone to know, anyway. If she made some spectacular failure, better not to do it in a three-ring circus. She went to the bookstore and read picture books and looked at greeting cards for about an hour. Then she went home and piddled about, daydreaming until after lunch,. [typo] Finally, she called the Funds for SIST – the group’s Northern, fund-raising arm—and got the directions.<br />
The bus rumbled and splatted away over the cobblestones through the empty downtown streets; leaving her alone. She would have stayed on until it circled back to school if she could have faced the bus driver. It seemed like an awfully bright, unreal day in the downtown silence, full of clear sun and sharp [typo] shadows.")
First page of draft manuscript for "The White Girl" written by Sheila Michaels
Letter to Gloria Steinem
![October 15, 1971<br />
Dear Ms. Steinem:<br />
I hear you are putting out MS., a magazine, and thought you might be interest in the chronology of the term--then again, maybe not. I am avoiding several overextended deadlines, and so have all the time in the world to tell you. The pronunciation, "Miz", by the way, is not inflexible. I simply though of both at the same time because I am from Missouri, and it was always necessary to ask whether Miz Lovercam or Miz Schnackenberg were married.<br />
<br />
At the end of 1961 my roommate became CORE's first female field secretary (CORE was founded in 1943 or 4). She was in Detroit lecturing on the Freedom Rides and ran into a little group called "News and Letters", headed by a woman who, I believe, knew Trotsky. They were about 50 people, mostly auto workers, and having withstood the vicissitudes of time and politics in this country are still, I think , about the same number. Anyway, they had a singularly sensible line for that time and Mari, having a great deal of the ex-nun about her, believed in encouraging them and strongarming me at the same time, and took out subscriptions for both of us.<br />
<br />
The copies that came to me where all addressed, "Ms. Sheila Michaels." I never knew if it was a means of saving space, a typo, or a radical posture. But it struck a responsive chord. Her subscription was to "Miss Mari Hamilton," but that gave no clarification, as she has always been so insistent upon the use of courtesy titles that she dragged the entire State of Alabama before the Supreme Court for their refusal to use them.<br />
<br />
I toyed with the idea for several years. When I finally left SNCC in 1965, I had a heightened respect for myself and a beginning self consciousness. (I had been a SNCC field secretary for 1962-4, and as there were few women in the position, and I was one of even fewere with any degree of autonomy, I had become thoroughly sick of the limitations, not to say aware of how little freedom I had been given and how tenuous that was. I though it was interesting that SNCC, which was founded by Diane Nash, and had a white Georgian, Jane Stembridge, as its first field secretary, should in time, as its importance grew, [typo] narrow its opportunities to women to near the point of exclusion.)<br />
<br />
I tried out the "Ms." then, in 1965. But it was more trouble than it then seemed worth. I would explain very carefully and continually that I refused to be defined by whether I "belonged" to a man. Well, I was laughed out of it.](https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/18935/archive/square_thumbnails/53a36bc12fbaaaabedf0cd5d10a054d9.jpg?Expires=1715212800&Signature=gtSiLPsh4Lj2-QbQ5yaiNMa4%7E01E6w22Nou-JOWo5vP5iVxNtsXTQYGpreOYL1DsE6zYPXZ%7EJbcvtAtAkSX-6aXoELOSBj6rGe-85g1ZFq3Hmc8tgbWvUnnCKlfk9dCPClmLYlTkC6OFETym%7EhMXhIZWdvmrqzq7g7BgorXNXF2d6jlt2Oh78yobTuH4xqwZwu-90qnXmyMRfghpHr7ts-uIzDhy3sP4QZ6n1AiIxiwOR9hytMYrATC2YYleE67LTwCkGVOh4VSbCjgMv%7EwO5x%7EYGb6qUu1IoPpkCKhJW6pt0%7E3P7%7EXOae3P4zx3L4Nc2aCqVXDhpTVmMigZyF8ctg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM "October 15, 1971<br />
Dear Ms. Steinem:<br />
I hear you are putting out MS., a magazine, and thought you might be interest in the chronology of the term--then again, maybe not. I am avoiding several overextended deadlines, and so have all the time in the world to tell you. The pronunciation, \"Miz\", by the way, is not inflexible. I simply though of both at the same time because I am from Missouri, and it was always necessary to ask whether Miz Lovercam or Miz Schnackenberg were married.<br />
<br />
At the end of 1961 my roommate became CORE's first female field secretary (CORE was founded in 1943 or 4). She was in Detroit lecturing on the Freedom Rides and ran into a little group called \"News and Letters\", headed by a woman who, I believe, knew Trotsky. They were about 50 people, mostly auto workers, and having withstood the vicissitudes of time and politics in this country are still, I think , about the same number. Anyway, they had a singularly sensible line for that time and Mari, having a great deal of the ex-nun about her, believed in encouraging them and strongarming me at the same time, and took out subscriptions for both of us.<br />
<br />
The copies that came to me where all addressed, \"Ms. Sheila Michaels.\" I never knew if it was a means of saving space, a typo, or a radical posture. But it struck a responsive chord. Her subscription was to \"Miss Mari Hamilton,\" but that gave no clarification, as she has always been so insistent upon the use of courtesy titles that she dragged the entire State of Alabama before the Supreme Court for their refusal to use them.<br />
<br />
I toyed with the idea for several years. When I finally left SNCC in 1965, I had a heightened respect for myself and a beginning self consciousness. (I had been a SNCC field secretary for 1962-4, and as there were few women in the position, and I was one of even fewere with any degree of autonomy, I had become thoroughly sick of the limitations, not to say aware of how little freedom I had been given and how tenuous that was. I though it was interesting that SNCC, which was founded by Diane Nash, and had a white Georgian, Jane Stembridge, as its first field secretary, should in time, as its importance grew, [typo] narrow its opportunities to women to near the point of exclusion.)<br />
<br />
I tried out the \"Ms.\" then, in 1965. But it was more trouble than it then seemed worth. I would explain very carefully and continually that I refused to be defined by whether I \"belonged\" to a man. Well, I was laughed out of it.")
Letter sent to Gloria Steinem from Sheila Michaels in 1971, explaining the origin of popularizing the feminist address from women as Ms.
Shiki Hikaru
Photograph of Hikaru Shiki holding a dog with Japanese paper cutouts , husband to Sheila Michaels from 1979 to 1985.
John Lewis Speech Draft
Draft of John Lewis Speech with edits by Sheila Michaels. Title says "March on Washington 1963", but the speech was written after the assassination of President Kennedy.
SNCC Stamps
Four seals with the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) name and graphic
Assignment Paris Program Cover 1958
Cover of program for production of "Assignment: Paris" at William and Mary College where Sheila Michaels is the writer.
This Exploits Women Sticker
Yellow sticker with red text "This Exploits Women" which could be adhered to advertising or promotion materials that exploited women.
Sheila Michaels French School Identification Card
![A pink identification card for a French school. Handwritten entries within brackets. <br />
<br />
Ecole de l'Alliance Francaise<br />
19[69] - 19[70]<br />
To the right of the text is a photograph of Sheila Michaels with her hair pulled back looking to the left. <br />
There is a stamped seal covering some of the text and photo.<br />
<br />
Annee 19[ ] - 19[ ]<br />
NOM [Madamoiselle Michaels<br />
Prenom [Sheila]<br />
Nationalite [US]<br />
CARTE D'ETUDIANT Le Directeur<br />
No 003200<br />
To the right of the number is a stamped seal with an illegible signature.](https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/18935/archive/square_thumbnails/1bcb3d50cbd76e2dba384cf0050bb737.jpg?Expires=1715212800&Signature=roY6olbZ6lCyFlyefR6dUfTHErrORvERvv3xSSUQMwhn56CD-aGbLm9Na-g2rYK5HE1LwBZ6T3nRGIHfnPV65P7TZ34FeYaS3XShUDNPqD1z6EUx4HmfbwgTOX3pz9bEZJKQ4HctUQwXxX2EWZFOUUONezo8TyKepE-ixhTa5LIqJcjaOuMebLNYApD1rkErhFqgn0Z0m80A3WpTR3BbkbN93LGqyQ9aOHjX5-SbRyz%7EU-G04eJHJRBFgEpU9e7BZHpZCDBTR012rTSgmNjnfuWkHpRgMJZbtOOa8jJZfsZUZHb-lGDnhznmH7uhSOf3LHIL1IpgRrmK%7EokhTih5yw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM "A pink identification card for a French school. Handwritten entries within brackets. <br />
<br />
Ecole de l'Alliance Francaise<br />
19[69] - 19[70]<br />
To the right of the text is a photograph of Sheila Michaels with her hair pulled back looking to the left. <br />
There is a stamped seal covering some of the text and photo.<br />
<br />
Annee 19[ ] - 19[ ]<br />
NOM [Madamoiselle Michaels<br />
Prenom [Sheila]<br />
Nationalite [US]<br />
CARTE D'ETUDIANT Le Directeur<br />
No 003200<br />
To the right of the number is a stamped seal with an illegible signature.")
Sheila Michaels identification card for French language school in Paris, France in 1969-1970.
A Salute to Southern Students - Benefit concert for Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee
Advertising card for 1963 Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, New York City, NY featuring Tony Bennett, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Mingus and others