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G. Robert Hohler Personal Papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: FMA-FMA0002c

G. Robert Hohler Personal Papers include 6 linear feet of documents, largely pertaining to Hohler's time spent as a member of the board for the Civil Rights Project, Inc (CRPI).

See arrangement for box descriptions.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1968-2007

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open

Conditions Governing Use

Some material may be restricted due to personal financial issues (Social Security numbers, etc.).  Please contact staff for more information.

Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies.

Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University.

If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or spec@wumail.wustl.edu. (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)

Extent

6.00 linear feet

6 boxes

Biographical Information

G. Robert Hohler (1932-2011) was a leader of OxFam America in the 1970s and a civil rights and antiwar activist in the 1960s. Hohler grew up poor in Boston’s South End and by age 14, he was the main breadwinner, hawking newspapers on Mass. Avenue.

Hohler’s passion for social activism began as a teenager when he joined a youth group at the Unitarian Universalist Arlington Street Church (UUA) in Boston. He graduated from Boston's Northeastern University in 1959. At age 30 in 1963, he became the youngest director ever of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Laymen’s League. Four years later, he became the UUA’s first lay minister.

In 1965, Hohler marched on Selma, Alabama, with Henry Hampton. Hohler later was instrumental in fund-raising for Hampton’s film production company, which created the “Eyes on the Prize’’ documentary series on PBS.

Hohler, in April 1969, staged a sit-in and hunger strike at the UUA headquarters on Beacon Hill to protest the church’s investments in companies with Defense Department contracts during the Vietnam War. He ended the demonstration after six days when the church agreed to divest almost $1 million in stocks and bonds and review the rest of its portfolio.

By May 1970, he was working in communications for the Polaroid Corp. when he was jailed along with 168 other antiwar demonstrators who engaged in a sit-in at the Newton Draft Board.

Hohler left the corporate world of Polaroid in the early 1970s to work as director of development at the Putney School, an independent prep school in Vermont. While living in Vermont, he ran and lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 1976. He started at the Melville Trust at its inception in 1991.

Arrangement Note

Box 01 - Contains financial information, including intermittent annual financial reports with Auditors' Report from 1985 to 1995. Also contains various IRS forms, including W-2 forms, along with Massachusetts Department of Employee and Training information. Contains CRPI dissolving paperwork from 2007. Box has complete folder inventory.

Box 02 - Contains financial information, including tax, payroll and other financial documents, such as quarterly tax reports from 1999-2001. Also contains insurance policies from 1998-2001. Blackside correspondence and reports are also included. Also includes a request for Henry Hamptonarchive proposal and responses. Box has complete folder inventory.

Box 03 - Contains documents, correspondence and publicity relating to Washington University in St. Louis acquiring the Henry Hampton Collection. Also contains documents relating to CRPI Board meetings from 2000 to 2003. There are also speeches written and delivered by Bob Hohler for several occasions, including Ruth Batson and Henry Hampton. Box has complete folder inventory.

Box 04 - Contains documents relating to CRPI Board Meetings from 1995 to 1996. It further contains Bob Hohler's speech at Henry Hampton's memorial, as well as material generated on that occasion. There is also a negative of a photo of Henry Hampton and Bob Hohler G. Robert Hohler marching in Selma, Alabama on the day of James Reeb's memorial service. Also includes report on Blackside production, America's War on Poverty to CRPI. Additionally, there are six issues of Trans-action magazine from 1968-1969 as well as an issue of The Black Panther newspaper from November 1969. Box also contains two copies of Malcolm X: Make it Plain, the accompanying book to the Blackside production, one copy of the program treatment for Eyes on the Prize.

Box 05 - Contains CRPI financial statements, budget documents, and Board meeting minutes. Also contains correspondence from Bob Hohler and correspondence from Henry Hampton. Also included are CRPI bylaws, and project proposals. Publicity and promotional material for I'll Make Me a World and The Great Depression are also included.

Box 06 - Contains CRPI financial statements and Board meeting minutes from 1994-1997. Also includes information related to the San Francisco School Volunteers' Eyes on the Prize project which helped prepare lesson plans around Eyes on the Prize to be taught in public schools.

Method of Acquisition

Material was donated by Karen Hohler.

Related Materials

Processing Information

Processed by Film & Media staff, 2013-2014.

Title
G. Robert Hohler Personal Papers
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
eng

Revision Statements

  • 2020 October 16: Resource record updated in ArchiveSpace by Sarah Schnuriger.

Collecting Area Details

Part of the Film & Media Archive Collecting Area

Contact:
Andy Uhrich
West Campus East Building. Lower Level (MSC 1061-141-B)
7425 Forsyth Blvd
Clayton MO 63105 US
(314) 935-5495