Luther Russell Herman Jr. Papers 1966-1978

Items in this series relate to the anti-Vietnam movement. Many of the items relate to student-led anti-war organizations at North Carolina State University, such as the Progressive Action Commune (PAC), the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (New Mobe), CONspiroCY, Young Americans for Freedom, the Committee of the Peace Retreat, and Woodstock Nation. Also included are materials from American Students for Action (ASA), an organization of students who supported the war effort.

The materials document many events that took place on NC State University's campus in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Flyers, brochures, newspaper clippings, and armbands tell information about the Vietnam symposium of October 1969, the Peace Retreat of May 1970, CONspiroCY's free dinner and rally in response to Spiro Agnew's campaign stop in Raleigh, PAC's distribution of fake money, and the Woodstock Guerillas threat to burn a puppy in the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union (the puppy was not harmed). Information about the 1970 march to the North Carolina State Capitol to protest Governor Scott's approval of troop movement into Cambodia, and the 1969 and 1971 marches on Washington, D.C. is also included in the collection.

Newspaper clippings in this series capture public sentiment through cartoons and opinion pieces. Also included is coverage of three anti-war protesters arrested for throwing blood at a 1970 anti-draft protest at the Armed Forces Induction Center in Raleigh. Two books on the hearings before the Committee of Foreign Affairs regarding American prisoners of war in Southeast Asia are also included.

Due to the cooperation that existed between many campus organizations, some materials may overlap. For instance, there is information about the People's Peace Treaty in the New Mobe folder. In addition, some pamphlets and brochures can be found in more than one folder.

Anti-war newspapers such as protean/RADISH, the Guardian, Inquisition, and Bragg Briefs can be found in Series 3, Newspapers and Posters.

Items in this series relate to pressing social issues of the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as civil rights, women's rights, labor unions, socialism, and anti-imperialism. Information about U.S. foreign policy toward China, Cuba, Greece, and Puerto Rico is also included.

Civil rights information includes items such as a flyer for the 1970 Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention in Washington, D.C., Liberation Will Come from a Black Thing by James Forman, Huey Newton Talks To The Movement,Power & Racism by Stokely Carmichael, and information about the strike in Laurel, Mississippi.

Information about labor and unions includes a pamphlet entitled The Teen-Wage Fiction,On the Revolutionary Potential of the Working Class by Ernest Mandel and George Novack, and The Third American Revolution: Draft Political Program of the National Caucus of the SDS Labor Committee. Flyers promoting the 1970 lettuce boycott are included as well.

The Radical Education Project and the New England Free Press printed booklets with titles such as Seven Erroneous Theses about Latin America,Myths of the Cold War, and On the Mechanisms of Imperialism. These publications relate to themes found in the rest of the collection.

Raleigh Free University was established to provide classes not offered by the structured, academic university system. This university offered courses in subjects such as reincarnation, UFOs, and revolutionary history. Classes met at a time and location determined by the instructor.

Socialist and anti-facist items includes titles such as The Third Stage of Imperialism by L. Marcus, U.S. Imperialism by David Gilbert and David Loud, and Introduction to the Young Socialist Alliance. Socialist newspapers such as American Mass Line and People's America Daily News can be found in Series 3, Newspapers and Posters.

Voices was an anti-war student publication at NC State University. It served as an alternative to The Technician, the official student newspaper on campus.

Women's rights materials include a newspaper clipping about the 26 August 1970Women's Coalition at Capitol Square, a paper entitled Abortion Do's and Don't's, and a call for women to march on the Pentagon 10 April 1971 to protest the killing of innocent women and children in Vietnam.

Materials about United States foreign policy include a pamphlet entitled U.S. China Policy: A Fresh Start, a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) leaflet called Cuba vs. U.S. Imperialism, a publication entitled Viva Puerto Rico Libre: Puerto Rico A Colony of the United States, and a bumper sticker proclaiming Halt U.S. Aid to Greek Dictators...Learn from Vietnam.

The items in this series relate to topics such as the anti-Vietnam War movement, civil rights, and Marxism/Leninism. Titles include the Lutheran Free Press, Bragg Briefs, and the Guardian. Marxist/Leninist newspapers included in the collection are People's America Daily News, The Workers' Advocate, American Student, American Mass Line, and Mass Line.

Box 3 contains newspapers from 1968 to 1969. Box 4 contains newspapers from 1970 to 1971, as well as newspapers that are undated. Box 5 contains newspapers from 1970 committed to Marxism/Leninism and anti-imperialism. Also included in this box is a pamphlet entitled The Red Papers, which is an explanation and defense of Marxism/Leninism. Box 6 contains newspapers such as the 26 October 1970 edition of The Technician and the 28 September 1970 edition of American Mass Line that were printed on higher quality paper than standard newspapers. This box also contains posters.

Additional installments of The Technician are available at the Special Collections Research Center. Please ask for more information at the reference desk.

Luther Russell Herman, Sr., was born in Hickory, N.C., in 1922. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Lenoir-Rhyne College in 1948. He received a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State College, and served as an instructor there from 1949 to 1950.

From 1950 to 1963, Herman worked as an engineer for the Western Electric Company, General Electric Company, and the Western Company of North Carolina. In 1964, Herman returned to North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh as an electrical engineering instructor. He became an assistant professor in 1965.

Herman was a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Illuminating Engineering Society, and the Professional Engineers of North Carolina. His major research accomplishment is a reactive transformer, U.S. Patent 3,128,443.

Items in this series relate to NC State University's electrical engineering department. Included are details about a 1973 conference entitled Energy Research - Alternatives for Policy and Management to Meet Regional and National Needs. Also included are a solutions manual, a booklet about power flow analysis, and information and reports about the Roesel Generator.