The literature produced in the early stages of the desegregation struggle served as the catalyst for Connie G. Griffith, then Director of the Manuscripts Collection, to start what was then called the Political and Civil Rights Collection. Mrs. Griffith well-realized the importance of the conflict and the ephemeral nature of much of the published material--mimeographed sheets, flyers broadcast in the streets, small journals and newspapers designed solely to advocate a cause--which were distributed gratis. At first the collection was based upon local materials and it grew as determined by the intensity of the conflict. The collection continued to expand until the late 1960s, when it numbered several cubic feet of material.

In 1970, William W. Moore, a graduate student in political science interested in extremist groups, joined the department. Operating from a well-prepared base, he actively solicited materials from across the nation and across the political spectrum, but particularly right wing material. He also brought the division into an informal network of other universities for the exchange of duplicate materials.

Currently the Political Ephemera Collection is one of the largest and most diverse within the Manuscripts Department. It includes:

• more than 180 reels of microfilm
• over 75 file drawers
• more than 140
• linear feet of books
• plus more than 40 cubic feet of storage boxes

For ease of access the collection has been divided into several series. The major series are arbitrarily determined to be "right wing" and "left wing". Material about the two major parties is limited, but the collection does include

• printed materials that are smaller files from Louisiana (both right and left wing)
• Alternative Culture, mainly underground publications
• Foreign, with a strong section on Communist propaganda, as well as that of
• nations such as South Africa
• local campaign flyers dating from 1896
• and World War I and II propaganda, both Allied and Axis.

To these groups have been added the Maurice Ries clippings files (15 cubic feet), relating to the spread of Communism.

Nearly 5,000 organizations and individuals are represented in the files of the Political Ephemera Collection. The right wing segment is the largest and contains publications ranging from the slick, well-financed publications of Lyndon Larouche to the photocopied newsletter of the Anti-Communist Confederation of the Polish Freedom Fighters in the U.S.A., mainly the product of the anti-Semitic and racist mind of Jozef Mlot-Mroz. Other unusual journals are The Alarming Cry, a publication of the Christian Sons of Liberty from--appropriately enough--Liberty, Missouri, and Zion Restorers, the publication of an Anglo-Israelite organization also from Missouri. As an indication of the strength of Tulane's holdings on right wing material, when the Microfilm Corporation of America was preparing a microfilm edition of right wing publications, the Manuscripts Department supplied more than 20,000 pages to be filmed.

The left wing section, while not as extensive, is just as diverse and noteworthy. Much of the left wing material was collected during the anti-establishment and anti-Vietnam period. There has been a noticeable decline in recent years in left wing publications.

The Political Ephermera Collection is a clear example of collecting the documents of the present so that scholars of the future will be able to interpret the past.