Main content

Collection of Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors material

Notifications

Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. 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

The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO) was a non-profit organization founded in 1948 in response to the Selective Service act of 1948.

The organization's main goal was to help people avoid military conscription or seek discharge after voluntary enlistment. During the Vietnam War they supported conscientious objectors ("CO's"), war resisters, and draft evaders. Their work was largely through legal means by providing legal aid to CO's at all points of the draft process.

CCCO was headquartered in Philadelphia and had regional offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, and San Francisco. They worked with other organizations including American Friends Service Committee and the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers' Guild. In 1989 CCCO moved the national headquarters to San Francisco and closed all the other office. The San Francisco office then moved to Oakland, California and dissolved in 2011.

The collection of Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO) material measures 0.2 linear feet, dates from 1948-1958, and is composed of the organization's mailings and newsletters.

The material is separated into six folders: aid requests, flyers, general information, mailings, newsletters, and specific cases of a two Vietnam War conscientious objectors. The collection only contains material from the first decade of CCCO and focuses on their work at the beginning of the Vietnam War.

This collection gives insight into the organizing of conscientious objectors at the beginning of the Vietnam War. The material is specifically useful in understanding the organization's public messaging.

Sold by McBride Rare Books, 2024.

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Finding Aid Author
Casper Voca
Finding Aid Date
2024 September 11
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Collection Inventory

Request to View Materials

Materials can be requested by first logging in to Aeon. Then, click on the ADD button next to any containers you wish to request. When complete, click the Request button.

Request item to view
Aid requests, counselling request, "setting up a local cash bail fund, 1948.
Box 1 Folder 1
Flyers, "notice to men of draft age", 1952 December, undated.
Box 1 Folder 2
General Information about CCCO, booklet, memorandum, organization goals, 1948, 1952, 1953.
Box 1 Folder 3
Mailings, updates on organization efforts, 1950-1955.
Box 1 Folder 4
News Notes of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, 1949, 1950, 1952-1954, 1956, 1958.
Box 1 Folder 5
Specific cases of Vietnam War conscientious objectors, "Raymond Paavo Arvio statement to court," Larry Gara case, 1949, 1953.
Box 1 Folder 6

Print, Suggest