Notes regarding meetings with Sarah Herbin and Tartt Bell

Item description

These notes, dated April 23, 1963, relate to meetings the unidentified author, presumably Harry Boyte, had with Sarah Herbin and Tartt Bell, both of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)and residents of Greensboro. Comments from both Herbin and Bell, who were active in various Greensboro civil rights actions, give historical perspective and a some insight into the climate surrounding efforts to Greensboro desegregate businesses around 1963.<br><br>The notes state that Herbin, AFSC Associate Director of Merit Employment, feels that no gains have been made in hiring African Americans in Greensboro, and that the climate of opinion has not changed in her ten years of working with the AFSC. The writer also notes Herbin's opinion that there is a lack of movement leadership in the Greensboro African American community, and if a militant leader were to appear, the present leadership would "clobber" him/her. Regarding the conversation with Tartt Bell, it is noted that Bell advises the writer not to attend a meeting in Norfolk, and that he/she has a "tendency to undertake activities which disturbed people and communities." The notes also state that Bell believes the Southern Christian Education Fund (SCEF) is a communist organization that should be barred from the Southern Inter-Agency Conference, and that the writer should end relations with them.