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Albon Man Collected Papers

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Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore 19081-1399

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Albon Platt Man Jr., from Hollis (New York), was born on May 30, 1919. He was the valedictorian of his high school class in 1936, and went on to graduate from Columbia University in 1941. He then worked in the budget office of the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance of the Social Security Board from July 1941 to Feb. 1943. He was called up for the draft during World War II, but failed to register because of his conscientious objection to war, and was sentenced to three years in prison in March 1943. At the time, he was a member of the Socialist Party, but had also been influenced by his pacifist mother, Estelle Man. Albon's younger brother, Alexander, was 21 when he was also arraigned as a draft dodger, on April 22, 1943. Albon Man was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury (Connecticut) to serve his term, where he was held from March 1943 to June 1944, after which he was sent to Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Penitentiary, where he was held until July 1945. He took part in several prison strikes with other C.O.s: a work strike at Danbury in Aug. 1943 to protest racial segregation in the prison, and two hunger strikes at Lewisburg to protest mail censorship as well as a ruling that lengthened the terms of prisoners who staged work strikes. Man died on October 22, 2014.

Man's papers reflect his stance as a conscientious objector and his years in prison, as well as his later involvements with the Committee for Amnesty, the CCCO, and the War Resisters League.

Gift of Albon Man, 2005 [acc. 05A-065].

Processed, and finding aid created, by Anne M. Yoder, Archivist, February 2006.

Photos removed to Photograph Collection.

Items removed: Photographs

Publisher
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Access Restrictions

None.

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Use Restrictions

None.

Collection Inventory

Biographical information: Miscellaneous and imprisonment as C.O. (for dodging the draft), 1943-1945.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

includes letters of Estelle Man (mother) and Alexander Man (brother)

Biographical information: Imprisonment as C.O. – hunger strikes at Lewisburg Prison, 1944-1945.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

includes hunger strikes at Danbury Prison

Biographical information: Imprisonment as C.O. -- Lewisburg Prison, 1944-1945.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

previous accession from unknown source; includes material by or about Chester Seltzer, Nathan Horowitz, Dave Dellinger, Larry Gara, and others, re: hunger strike, etc.

Miscellaneous correspondence, 1946-1965.
Box 1
Efforts to fight racism ("Jim Crow") in prisons, 1945-1947.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

includes strike by C.O.s at Ashland Prison

Sponsorship of 1st and 2nd reunions of "Danbury Jimcrow Strikers", 1945 (November) and 1946 (November).
Box 1
Participation in "Break With Conscription" demonstration, 1947 (February 12).
Box 1
Scope and Contents

draft cards burned

Involvement with Committee for Non-Violent Revolution (New York Group), 1945-1948.
Box 1
Involvement with Committee for Amnesty, 1945.
Box 1
Involvement with Committee for Amnesty, 1946.
Box 1
Involvement with Committee for Amnesty, 1947.
Box 1
Involvement with Committee for Amnesty, 1948.
Box 1
Involvement with Committee for Amnesty, 1949 - 1951, undated.
Box 1
Involvement with the CCCO, 1948.
Box 1
Involvement with the CCCO, 1949.
Box 1
Involvement with the CCCO, 1950.
Box 2
Involvement with the CCCO, 1951.
Box 2
Involvement with the CCCO, 1952-1963.
Box 2
Involvement with the CCCO: Case of Lawrence Osborne, 1958-1959.
Box 2
Involvement with the War Resisters League [WRL], 1951-1952.
Box 2
Efforts in defense of Daniel Seeger (C.O.), 1963-1965.
Box 2
Miscellaneous involvements/efforts.
Box 2
Lists of Ex-Prison C.O.s (C.O. Ex-Cons), 1945-1947.
Box 2
Reference material: Amnesty for C.O.s.
Box 2
Reference material: "The Call" (Socialist Party), 1943-1945.
Box 2
Reference material: Civil rights for prisoners.
Box 2
Reference material: C.O.s in WWI (amnesty, etc.).
Box 2
Reference material: Conscientious objection.
Box 2
Reference material: Daniel Seeger case (agnostic C.O.).
Box 2
Reference material: Picketing of Danbury Prison on behalf of C.O.s, 1946 (February).
Box 2
Reference material: White House amnesty demonstrations, 1946.
Box 2
Reference material: Miscellaneous newsletters.
Box 2
Reference material: Miscellaneous.
Box 2

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