The collection includes such organizational records of the Farm Cooperative as articles of incorporation, by-laws, a historical sketch, a progress report, plans, budgets, membership lists, and printed brochure, and minutes of meetings beginning with the organizational meeting April 12, 1968. Also present are minutes of Area Teams, which were composed of health care and social services professionals who concentrated their efforts on a particular family or area in the Delta. There are minutes of the River Area Team, East Area Team, and others without identification. Records of the Tufts-Delta Health Center consist of a copy of a grant proposal, October 1968 progress report, two articles by Dr. H. Jack Geiger of the Center, and guidelines for the organization of health groups in North Bolivar County. Also included are data on the population of the Delta area, listing names, addresses, number of family members, and annual incomes.
The eight tape recordings were made during the early summer of 1969 by Charles Bowden of the State Historical Society staff. Bowden interviewed several Farm Cooperative board members and community leaders concerning their work with the organization, their lives, and conditions generally in the Delta. Bowden's field records note that many of the black people interviewed seemed to have a long-held fear of whites, which apparently inhibited them in speaking to Bowden, who was a young white Northerner. Bowden also found that many of the interviewees were reluctant to speak frankly on tape, either from a fear of the equipment or due to apprehension about who might hear the tape and how it might be used. Whatever the reason, Bowden placed the microphone at a distance from several of the speakers, and thus the sound on some of the tapes is impaired. Bowden also noted, “If at times it appears I forced the subject to speak of segregation, poverty, etc., I in turn [was] forced to do this because many black people assume such things are obvious and do not mention them.”
