William A. Price Papers
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Abstract
William Addison Price (1915-2009) was a journalist and community organizer. He worked for the New York Daily News as a United Nations correspondent and later wrote about social issues in New York City and the civil rights movement in the South for the National Guardian. In 1956, Price invoked his First Amendment rights when called before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, which was investigating allegations of Communist infiltration in the media. Price began working with the United Tenants Association (UTA) and other housing rights organizations in the 1970s, fighting the New York City government's plans to develop the Upper West Side. The collection is mostly comprised of materials generated by the UTA and other housing rights groups, as well as the New York City government, regarding urban renewal plans in the designated West Side Urban Renewal Area (WSURA). There are also materials related to the civil rights movement, the opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee and other Congressional inquisitorial groups, and the state of journalism and journalists' unions. The collection also contains biographical information on Price, particularly his World War II service.
Historical/Biographical Note
William Addison Price (1915-2009) was a journalist and community organizer. He grew up in Montclair, NJ and flew air-rescue missions for the Navy during World War II, earning the rank of lieutenant. Price's war experiences inspired him to become a socialist. He joined the New York Daily News in 1940, eventually becoming the paper's United Nations correspondent. In 1948, Price and other members of the Newspaper Guild founded the Newsmen's Committee to Investigate the Murder of George Polk, who was Price's cousin and a fellow journalist. (Polk was murdered in Greece during the Greek civil war by forces allied with the anti-communist government.)
Price appeared before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, an inquisitorial committee which was investigating allegations that Communists had infiltrated the media, in 1956. The Subcommittee inquired if Price was a member of the Communist Party and if he used the plane he owned as a courier aircraft for the Communist International. Price invoked the First Amendment, rather than the Fifth, and argued that the Subcommittee did not have the right to inquire into his political beliefs. He was fired from the Daily News after testifying before the Subcommittee, and additionally was found guilty of contempt of Congress and was fined and imprisoned. Price's appearance before the inquisitorial committee and its aftermath spurred him to become a participant in the Committee of First Amendment Defendants coordinating committee. He also served as secretary of the New York Council to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Price later wrote for the National Guardian, covering social issues in New York City and the civil rights movement in the South. In 1981, Price was awarded $10,000 by the Department of Justice after the FBI's "Squad 47" was found to have illegally wiretapped Price and four others on suspicion that they were associated with the Weather Underground. During the 1980s and 1990s, Price was a member and periodic resident of a congregate living house on Fire Island.
Beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the 2000s, Price worked with a number of community organizations on New York City's Upper West Side to defend tenants' rights and protest the city's urban renewal plans. He was particularly active with the United Tenants Association (UTA), an organization of tenants who lived in buildings in the city's designated West Side Urban Renewal Area (WSURA), and was treasurer of the later dissident subgroup of UTA, the Ad Hoc Committee for Low-Rent Housing. Founded in 1977 by the mostly low-income inhabitants of several city-owned buildings, UTA fought for the right to manage and rehabilitate the buildings in which its members lived, fearing that development in the WSURA would raise rents and push minority groups out of the area. The city's Fifth Amendment to the WSURA plan was passed by the early 1980s and guaranteed UTA tenants the right to rehabilitate the buildings they inhabited as low-rent apartments. However, it was not until 1991 that UTA began renovating the buildings through the city's Mutual Housing Association program (run by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development), thereby forming the United Tenants Association/Mutual Housing Association-Housing Development Fund Corporation, Inc. (UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc.). Members of UTA's Ad Hoc Committee contended that UTA's association with the Mutual Housing Association would cause rents to continually increase and cause further gentrification of the area, as many low-income families in the area had already been relocated by urban renewal. In addition to the dispute between UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. and UTA Ad Hoc, UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. also brought nonpayment proceedings against Price and other tenants who refused to pay the increased interim rents.
Arrangement
This collection is unprocessed. Materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Contents
The collection, which spans from the 1930s to the 2000s but dates mostly from the 1960s through 1990s, is a rich source of information for researchers interested in tenants' rights in New York City's Upper West Side. The collection is predominately comprised of agendas and minutes; proposals and reports; legal documents; correspondence and memoranda; press releases; news clippings; and flyers, pamphlets, and other printed ephemera related to the debates over the development of the city's designated West Side Urban Renewal Area (WSURA). Most of the materials were generated by the United Tenants Association (UTA), later known as the United Tenants Association/Mutual Housing Authority-Housing Development Fund Corporation, Inc. (UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc.). The materials document UTA's protests to the city's urban renewal plans for the WSURA and its promotion of the construction of low-income housing. The collection also reflects the internal politics of UTA, particularly the dispute between UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. and UTA's Ad Hoc Committee for Low-Rent Housing and UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. against Price. Government entities represented in the collection, which UTA and other community groups frequently interacted with, include Community Board #7, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and HPD's Division of Alternative Management Programs (DAMP). The activities of other community groups with an interest in the development of the Upper West Side are also documented, including (but not limited to) the Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council, the Community Service Society of New York, the Metropolitan Council on Housing, the 87th Street West Park Association, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), and Community Action, Inc. (particularly Operation Move-In). There are also materials generated by the Committee of Neighbors to Insure a Normal Urban Environment (CONTINUE), which, in contrast to most other community group included in the collection, opposed the construction of subsidized housing.
The collection also speaks to the political environment of the mid-20th century, particularly the civil rights movement and the resistance to anti-Communist investigations. Newsletters, flyers, reports, news clippings, correspondence, and other materials pertaining to the civil rights movement were collected by Price through his coverage of the movement as a journalist and his personal involvement in the cause. Many of these materials were generated by the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), as well as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other activist groups. Two boxes of reel-to-reel recording tapes appear to be mostly of civil rights meetings and events. A significant amount of the collection pertains to activism against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and other Congressional inquisitorial committees in the form of memoranda and correspondence, flyers, governing documents, press releases, newsletters, and other materials, many created by the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee (NCAHUAC) or the group's local New York Council to Abolish HUAC. In a similar vein, there are subject files on First Amendment cases compiled by the Committee of First Amendment Defendants (CFDA).
To a much lesser extent, the collection includes clippings and correspondence that provide biographical information on Price. Especially noteworthy is Price's family correspondence from World War II, when Price served as a Navy pilot. Materials created by the Communist Party, both national and New York branches, and the Independent-Socialist Party reflect Price's political affiliations. The collection also serves as a resource for researchers interested in the organization and activism of newspaper unions and offices, as it contains correspondence and other materials from the Newspaper Guild, the Guild's Newsmen's Commission to Investigate the Murder of George Polk, and the National Guardian. A small amount of material relates to Price's time on Fire Island (including the journals he kept while living there) and the "Squad 47" wiretapping case.
Subjects
Organizations
People
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Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions with the exception of Box 10, Box 14, and Box 15. Repository permission is required for access to Box 10, Box 14, and Box 15. Please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, 212-998-2630.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held William A. Price were transferred to New York University in 2007 by Elizabeth. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; William A. Price Papers; TAM 398; Box number; Folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Elizabeth Price sent two donations of William A. Price's papers in 2007 and 2009. In 2011, Hope DeRogatis sent an additional eight boxes of William Price's files on West Side Housing and West Side Urban Renewal. Louis Albano sent an additional gift of five of Price's journals from Fire Island House in 2012. The accession numbers associated with these gifts are 2007.018, 2009.064, 2011.094, and 2012.078.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Some materials in boxes 2, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20, and 22 are especially fragile and should be handled with care.
Box 10 was isolated due to suspected mold growth and is currently closed to researchers. Boxes 14 and 15, which contain reel-to-reel tapes in poor condition, are also closed.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Separated Materials
Runs of City Star and other publications were separated for library cataloging. An oversize photograph from Box 2 was separated to Box OS004, which is indicated in the collection with a removal slip.
Unannotated duplicates of printed ephemera created in bulk were sampled and the remainder discarded. A run of the National Guardian from 1966-1967 was removed from the collection. Individual bank statements and checks were also discarded.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Some materials from the 2011 accretion (Boxes 16 through 21) were rehoused in archival quality folders shortly after they were donated to the Tamiment Library. Some materials which suffered extensive fire damage may have been discarded during the rehousing process.
In 2013, the entire collection was assessed for preservation needs. Some materials were placed in new archival quality folders if the original folders were damaging the materials (i.e. if the original folders were dirty or overstuffed). Original folder titles were retained when provided. Any other information on the original folders was photocopied and placed in the new folders. Folder titles added by the archivist are indicated with square brackets. Acid-free paper was used to separate photographs from any acidic materials. In some instances, materials which suffered fire damage were placed in mylar or were separated from other materials with acid-free paper. A folder containing Social Security numbers was redacted with permanent marker. Materials were shifted between boxes to correct understuffing.
Repository
View Inventory
Box 1, 1930s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box mainly contains Price's correspondence with family and friends. The majority of the correspondence documents Price's World War II service, though many of the letters were written later and pertain to both his personal life and his various activism interests. Correspondents include Price's parents, his nephew George Jefferson Price III ("Jeff"), and Judith Gregory. Some of Price's World War II correspondence, along with news clippings and photographs from his service and clippings and publicity materials from the National Conference for New Politics, appear to have been collected by Price for a scrapbook.
This box also contains materials related to Price's journalism career, including reports and memoranda on changes at the National Guardian and reports, correspondence, newsletters, and news clippings related to the work of the Newspaper Guild's Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Evidence of Price's activism in opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) is also present in the form of news clippings on an April 1961 rally to abolish HUAC and memoranda, minutes, petitions, newsletters, press releases, and notes created by the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee (NCAHUAC) and its local New York Council. Some of the materials document the fraught relationship between the national and New York groups.
To a much lesser extent, the box contains campaign material promoting the Progressive Party and Henry A. Wallace's 1948 run for president; First Amendment subject files on Arthur Miller and Otto Nathan containing news clippings, correspondence, and photographs; newsletters, correspondence, and reports produced by the American Veterans Committee (AVC), including a report written by Price for AVC titled "The Negro Doctor in Montclair and His Relationship to Montclair Hospitals;" documentation from a civil suit between Price and his siblings against their sister, Harriet Price; and correspondence and other material related to a family reunion Price helped organize in Oxford, New Jersey.
Box 2, 1940s-2000s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
About half of the materials in this box relate to housing rights issues. The materials document the work of the United Tenants Association (UTA), later the UTA/Mutual Housing Association-Housing Development Fund Corporation (UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc.), and other housing rights organizations during the 1970s through 1980s in the form of UTA Steering Committee minutes and UTA proposals, memoranda and correspondence, official statements, reports, and publicity materials, as well as collected news clippings. Many of the materials relate to the development plans for the West Side Urban Renewal Area (WSURA), particularly the UTA and the Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council's interactions with Community Board #7 and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) regarding WSURA. There is also material generated by the UTA Ad Hoc Committee for Low-Rent Housing, which documents the Ad Hoc Committee's opposition to the UTA/MHA program and the dispute between the Ad Hoc Committee and UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. Correspondence, legal documents, and other materials from the 1990s provide evidence of Price's dispute regarding the rehabilitation of his apartment under the Mutual Housing Association Program (MHAP).
The other half of the box contains Price's correspondence and notes from Fire Island; legal documents and correspondence with lawyer Harry Rand and others regarding the U.S. v. Price First Amendment case; legal documents, photographs, and news clippings from the Price v. Kearney "Squad 47" wire tapping case; publicity materials, news clippings, and correspondence and memoranda documenting the activities of the New York Council to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee; what appear to be school notes; a brief working manuscript of Price's memoir written at age 60 and parts of his diary from 1940; subject files on the political climate in Israel, Egypt, Greece (including documents created by the American Committee for Democracy and Freedom in Greece), and Cuba (including a proposal for a photographers' trip to Cuba); and a miscellaneous assortment of correspondence, photographs, and news clippings relating to Price's personal life and various left-wing causes.
Box 3, 1940s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
The majority of materials in this box relate to the UTA and the UTA Ad Hoc Committee for Low-Rent Housing and their relationship to HPD, Community Board #7, and the NYC Housing Authority. There is also a small amount of material generated by the Committee of Neighbors to Insure a Normal Urban Environment (CONTINUE), the Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council (SBNC), the Community Service Society of New York, and other community organizations. The materials in the box include memoranda and correspondence, agendas and minutes, budgets, reports and proposals, legal and government documents, by-laws, newsletters, news clippings, and flyers and other publicity materials. Topics covered include the Fifth Amendment to the WSURA Plan, the origins of UTA, squatters rights, the UTA/MHA proposal, the status of individual buildings, NYC In Rem housing, Mutual Housing Associations, community land trusts, the non-payment cases brought against UTA Ad Hoc Committee members, and the general struggle to construct low-rent public housing in the Upper West Side.
Box 4, 1960s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box is mostly comprised of materials related to the housing rights struggle in the Upper West Side, particularly the status of several specific building sites. The box includes materials generated by the UTA, UTA Ad Hoc Committee, the SBNC, the Metropolitan Council on Housing, the Coalition for Replanning the West Side Urban Renewal Area, Coummunity Board #7, HPD, the 87th Street West Park Association, and other organizations. Materials include agendas and minutes, proposals and reports, flyers, news clippings, newsletters, legal and government documents, and correspondence and memoranda. To a lesser extent, this box also documents other topics like the the UTA/MHA proposal, the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program, rent collection, WSURA relocation (including documents created by the Citizens' Relocation Advisory Board), and the overall development of the WSURA. There are several photographs of a 1980 UTA demonstration and buildings in the WSURA.
Additionally, this box contains a paper on racism against Africa and African Americans, Price's personal correspondence, and news clippings, government documents, and materials generated by various antiwar and/or civil liberties groups (including NCAHUAC) related to the HUAC anti-Vietnam War hearings held in August 1966.
Box 5, 1960s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box is mostly comprised of materials related to the status of several specific building sites in the WSURA and the activities of Operation Move-In (part of Community Action, Inc.) in regards to the WSURA. These materials, created and collected by the UTA and Operation Move-In, consist of agendas and minutes, correspondence and memoranda, news clippings, newsletters, notes, flyers and other publicity materials, reports and proposals (including those created by the Mid-West Side Community Corporation), government documents, and official statements.
Additionally, the box contains materials on the topic of racism, namely conference materials and articles, papers, and reports, apparently gathered and in some cases written by an organization called People Against Racism (PAR). There is also a small subject file on the Mariana Islands and a significant number of legal documents pertaining to the UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. vs. Price case.
Box 6, 1950s-2000s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box is mainly comprised of legal documents pertaining to the UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. vs. Price, UTA/MHA vs. UTA Ad Hoc, and various other civil cases involving Price and/or the UTA.
The box also contains a general assortment of news articles (some written by Price), notes, press releases, reports, and other materials, some prepared by various NYC housing groups. These materials generally pertain to housing and preservation issues in NYC, particularly urban dislocation, racism in city planning, and the Fifth Amendment to the West Side Urban Renewal Plan. Other topics documented include civil rights, poverty, Cuba, labor history, and HUAC. There is also some personal correspondence and a number of unidentified photographs and negatives, as well as slides and notes prepared for a slideshow on the "Architecture of Fear."
Box 7, 1940s-2000s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box mostly contains an assortment of collected reports, correspondence, news and scholarly articles (some written by Price), and other materials from a variety of sources collected by Price relating to the WSURA, racial discrimination in city planning, the urbanization of NYC, relocation, and public housing as a general issue. An April 1979 draft of the WSURA Fifth Amended Renewal Plan by HPD is also included. The activities of CONTINUE from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s and the United Independent-Socialist Party during the 1950s are also particularly well-documented.
To a lesser extent, correspondence, newsletters, minutes, reports, legal documents, and other materials relate specifically to the New York Council to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee, UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. vs. Price, UTA, and SBNC. Subject files created by the the Committee of First Amendment Defendants are also present, which provide information on the individual cases of people who invoked the First Amendment when they were imprisoned on charges of association with the Communist Party and/or civil rights organizations. There is also some personal correspondence, photographs, and ephemera, including materials dating back to Price's World War II service. Many photographs and negatives are unidentified, though some appear to be of the "L" Club in Montclair and Price's time on Fire Island.
Box 8, 1950s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
Most of the box consists of materials generated by the UTA, UTA Ad Hoc Committee, HPD, Community Board #7, SBNC, the NYC Housing Authority, Community Action, Inc., and various low-rent housing groups. Genres of materials include legal documents (particularly pertaining to UTA/MHA vs. UTA Ad Hoc); UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. by-laws; financial documents; flyers and other publicity materials; newsletters; news clippings; photographs; minutes; correspondence and memoranda; and proposals and reports. Some photographs, flyers, and other visual materials appear to have been collected for a slideshow. The materials document the debates over the WSURA in particular and urban development in general. There is also an unpublished housing study published by the City Planning Commission (CPC).
To a lesser extent, the box contains subject files of mostly news clippings and correspondence on individual First Amendment cases, compiled by the the Committee of First Amendment Defendants. Similarly, there are writings and other materials in opposition to HUAC and a copy of Price's testimony before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Additionally, there are photographs from an Independent-Socialist Party meeting and proposals and other materials generated by the Committee for Independent Political Action (CIPA) and other socialist or otherwise left-wing groups. Materials regarding racism in the U.S. and materials that document the civil rights movement are particularly prevalent, including those generated by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF).
Also included are a small number of materials on the Newsmen's Commission to Investigate the Murder of George Polk; National Guardian memoranda; a subject file on poverty (including materials generated by the People's War Council Against Poverty); photographs from Cuba, some dating to the 1950s; and unidentified photographs.
Box 9, 1950s-2000s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box is mainly comprised of by-laws, minutes, correspondence and memoranda, newsletters, statements, and other materials on the WSURA and low-rent housing The materials were generated by the UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc., UTA Ad Hoc Committee, CONTINUE, SBNC, HPD, National Low Incoming Housing Coalition, and other government or housing activist groups.
The box also contains a series of articles apparently compiled for a conference on Cuba; reports, press releases, speeches, and other materials created by the Progressive Party, many regarding Eisenhower's election and presidency; and news clippings and legal documents pertaining to the Price vs. Kearney "Squad 47" wire tapping case. Subject files on the Trenton Six and the 1960s political climate consisting of news clippings, official statements, correspondence, press releases, and other materials, generated by various civil rights and left-wing political action groups (especially the Committee for Independent Political Action), are also present. There are photographs of unidentified buildings, meetings, and demonstrations, presumably of the WSURA and housing rights groups, and leaflets on civil rights, politics, and public welfare in Mississippi.
Box 10, 1959-1965, inclusive
Scope and Contents
This box contains materials concerning the First Amendment, Congressional anti-communist inquisition, and the civil rights movement as it relates to the Communist Party, USA. Organizations documented include the National Committee to Abolish HUAC (and the group's New York Council) and the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights. Materials in this box include correspondence, memoranda, meeting notes, press releases, flyers and other ephemera, and newspaper clippings and small press publications.
Conditions Governing Access
Repository permission is required for access. Please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, 212-998-2630.
Box 11, 1950s-1960s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box is mainly comprised of subject files on First Amendment cases compiled by the Committee of First Amendment Defendants, consisting mostly of news clippings and correspondence. The topics of the subject files are individuals accused of having affiliation with the Communist Party or suspected Communist-affiliated groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Many of the subject files pertain to Price's experience with the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. In addition to the subject files, there are publicity and organizing materials related to the opposition of HUAC and other Congressional inquisitorial committees.
Correspondence, flyers, and press releases generated by the United Independent-Socialist Campaign Committee, as well as news clippings on the party and other topics in leftist politics, appear to have been compiled by Price for inclusion in a scrapbook.
Box 12, 1940s-1970s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box pertains to opposition to HUAC and other forms of Congressional anti-communist inquisition. It contains subject files on First Amendment cases compiled by the Committee of First Amendment Defendants; notes, minutes, correspondence, flyers, and other materials created by NCAHUAC and the group's New York Council; and government documents and clippings related to Price's testimony before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (including a copy of his testimony).
To a lesser extent, this box contains materials related to the civil rights movement, including newsletters, flyers, and correspondence generated by the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), as well as subject files on poverty and politically organizing poor Caucasian people.
Box 13, 1960s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box mostly contains memoranda and correspondence created by the Executive Board of the New York Council to Abolish HUAC, as well as official statements, flyers, and correspondence generated by the National Committee to Abolish HUAC, the organization's New York Council, and the organization's other groups. The box also consists of correspondence with Frank Wilkinson of the Committee of First Amendment Defendants (CFAD); a subject file on linguistics in the South as it pertains to the education of African American students; a subject files of mostly news clippings on the civil rights movement as it relates to the Communist Party, USA; and press releases, speeches, and news clippings related to the politics of the Communist Party, USA and the Communist Party of New York State during the 1960s.
To a lesser extent, there is an assortment of correspondence from SCEF, the National Guardian, NCAHUAC, and other groups and individuals, as well as news clippings on a variety of topics. There is also a small amount of information on renovations to Price's apartment, housing and human rights in Cuba, and Price's health.
Box 14, circa 1960s
Scope and Content Note
Reel-to-reel tapes, mostly of civil rights groups and meetings
Conditions Governing Access
Repository permission is required for access. Please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, 212-998-2630.
Box 15, circa 1960s
Scope and Content Note
Reel-to-reel tapes, mostly of civil rights groups and meetings
Conditions Governing Access
Repository permission is required for access. Please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, 212-998-2630.
Box 16, 1960s-2000s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
The box is mostly comprised of agendas and minutes, reports, factsheets, flyers, memoranda and correspondence, news clippings, and other materials generated by or pertaining to the UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc., the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), SBNC, Community Action, Inc., and various housing rights groups, as well as the federal and New York City governments. Topics documented include the UTA/MHA proposal; disputes over rent, with particular emphasis on the UTA Ad Hoc Committee's proposal to add 2,500 units of low- and moderate-income housing; the indirect displacement of Penn Yards and urban dislocation more broadly; the demonstration against the Trinity Episcopal School Corporation and its attempts to block the construction of low-income housing; the Homefront campaign; and the development of the WSURA in general. There are also legal documents from Hudgins/CONTINUE vs. Koch/UTA, UTA Ad Hoc vs. Rafael M. Pantoja, Jr., UTA/MHA vs. Danilo Fernandez, and other cases, as well as a report on housing, race/ethnicity, and income in NYC by the Community Service Society.
Price's other areas of interest are documented via materials on First Amendment cases; lecture notes and syllabi for classes on Community Development and Understanding Human Interaction and Behavior taught by Price at the School of Contemporary Studies, Brooklyn College; a subject file on race and intelligence; and printed ephemera on a variety of topics.
Box 17, 1940s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box contains memoranda and correspondence, bylaws, legal documents, reports and proposals, flyers, notes, and other materials generated by or pertaining to the activities of UTA, UTA's Tenant Dignity Committee, SBNC and its Ad Hoc Committee for the 2,5000 Units, the Committee for Independent Political Action (CIPA), Community Action, Inc., and other community groups. The general topic of the box is development of the Upper West Side and low-income housing in the WSURA, but the box also specifically covers a variety of subjects, including Operation Move-In's 1970 negotiations with NYC's Housing and Development Administration; information on income rates in NYC; UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. vs. Price; creating a historic district in the Upper West Side; the Fifth Amendment to the WSURA plan; race as it relates to the housing movement; the UTA/MHA proposal; mortgages; housing for senior citizens; the Cooper Square Urban Renewal Area; the Brooke Amendment; single room occupancy housing; Sites 30, 32, and 46; and Hudgins/CONTINUE vs. Koch/UTA. There are also materials generated by the local and U.S. government, including reports and guidelines authored by the NYC, NY county, and federal government on the in rem housing program, the future of housing in NYC, private management of low-rent public housing, and other topics; Community Board #7 resolutions, correspondence, and other materials on the Department of City's Planning's inclusionary zonings proposal in the 1980s; and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development pamphlets and other printed ephemera on a variety of topics. There are also news clippings on a number of housing-related issues, including Roger Starr's "planned shrinkage" of the South Bronx.
To a lesser extent, the box contains materials created by the Citywide Intergroup Coalition of NYC's Commission on Human Rights; W.E.B. DuBois speeches; a subject file of news clippings and reports on racism; and a subject file of mostly news clippings on criticism of the press and alleged examples of the press's biases.
Box 18, 1940s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box contains news releases, flyers, agendas and minutes, by-laws, memoranda and correspondence, flyers, petitions, press releases, and news clippings pertaining to urban renewal in the WSURA, particularly debates over increased rents and the fight for low-income housing. Most materials were generated by the UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc., UTA Ad Hoc, the Coalition to Replan the West Side Urban Renewal Area, SBNC, Community Board #7, HPD/DAMP, and, to a lesser extent, the Little Old New York Citizen's Committee, Homefront, UHAB, the Community Service Society of New York, and Operation Move-In. Other, more specific topics documented include zoning; the rehabilitation or status of specific sites in the WSURA; the UTA/MHA proposal (including the UTA/MHA guide and handbook); the tenant interim lease (TIL) program; the Dorothy Smith eviction case; and the Fifth Amendment to the WSURA plan. There are also lengthy reports on "West Side Futures," regarding the infrastructure and demographics of the Upper West Side, and on creating low-income housing in New York, as well as legal documents pertaining to Hudgins/CONTINUE vs. Koch/UTA, UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. vs. Price, UTA Ad Hoc vs. UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc., and the "Squad 47" wiretapping cases.
To a much lesser extent, there are materials related to the civil rights movement and racism in the armed services, Price's appearance before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, the shared house on Fire Island, and Price's work for the National Guardian.
Box 19, 1960s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
The majority of this box relates to the activities of the Stryker's Bay Neighborhood Council (SBNC). The box is comprised of reports and correspondence of the SBNC Housing Committee; agendas and minutes, correspondence, notes, reports, and publications created by the general SBNC and some of its subcommittees related to the WSURA; and legal documents pertaining to SBNC vs. NYC (Site 30 case). There are also reports, newsletters, and flyers and other publicity materials created by SBNC and the Site #30 Coalition regarding the groups' opposition to building a high-rise luxury apartment on the site.
Other materials in the box were mostly created by to relate to the UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. and/or the WSURA. These materials, which include by-laws, minutes, correspondence, news clippings, and other materials, pertain to the UTA/MHA proposal, resolutions regarding specific sites, HPD's Community Management contract with UTA, the Fifth Amendment to the WSURA Plan, Section #8, and other topics. There is also a subject file on urban renewal in other cities.
Box 20, 1960s-1990s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box relates to housing debates over the WSURA. Most of the newsletters, memoranda and correspondence, flyers, and other materials were generated by UTA, UTA Ad Hoc, SBNC, and the Coalition to Replan the West Side Urban Renewal Area. Topics documented include the notion of racial "tipping points;" Site 30; the demonstrations against Trinity School for its opposition to low-income housing; and the UTA vs. UTA Ad Hoc dispute. There are also HPD community consultant contracts and an academic article on tenant organizations and the passage of the 1920 New York State emergency rent laws.
Box 21, 1960s-2000s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This box contains news clippings, memoranda and correspondence, legal documents, proposals and reports, flyers, factsheets, agendas and minutes, newsletters, by-laws, petitions, and other materials related to the efforts of community organizations regarding the WSURA. Many of the materials were generated by or pertain to UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc., UTA Ad Hoc, UTA's Tenant Dignity Committee, Community Board #7, SBNC, HPD/DAMP, UHAB, the Coalition to Replan the West Side Urban Renewal Area, Homefront, the Coalition of West Side Urban Renewal Area Community groups, and other community groups and government agencies. Materials pertain to the UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. and UTA Ad Hoc dispute, specifically as it relates to tenants of Site 46; the internal governance of UTA; the Fifth Amendment to the WSURA plan; the Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) program; Section 8; the details of renovation plans; and general resistance to the city's urban renewal plans for the WSURA and the struggle for more tenant control. There is also an undated copy of a Section 8 Housing Inspection Manual and an undated summary of the final WSURA plan, as well as reports on "white flight" and the future of school desegregation; problems among NYC-owned and former City-owned residential buildings; and housing abandonment in NYC. An inventory of the contents of a folder of news clippings is included within the folder.
Box 22, 1980s, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
Price's Fire Island journals
