The majority of correspondence in this rather large series documents the conflicting sentiments that members and leaders of the United Church of Christ held regarding congregational support for the Wilmington 10. Many of the letters (1:1-1:9) are addressed to Dr. Lightbourne from members and ministers within the Southern Conference protesting UCC support for the Wilmington 10; copies of Dr. Lightbourne’s responses are included more often than not. Many churches wrote of their intention to withhold tithes from the denomination’s Our Christian World Mission (OCWM) fund to avoid financing the Wilmington 10’s legal defense, while other parishioners threatened to leave the UCC altogether. Letters of support to Dr. Lightbourne are few and far between.

Also found throughout the letters subseries (1:1-1:9) are letters written by Dr. Lightbourne, in his role as Conference Minister, for dissemination to ministers and members of the Southern Conference. In these he attempts to justify the Executive Council’s support for the Wilmington 10 and encourage such support within his conference. There are also letters between Dr. Lightbourne and the Executive Council which demonstrate Dr. Lightbourne’s own questions regarding Executive Council decisions as he reports the internal dissension their actions were creating within the Southern Conference.

The subseries for memos (1:10-1:14) and telegrams (1:15-1:16) contain communication largely within the Executive Council, briefing its members on media coverage and legal issues surrounding the Wilmington 10 case. Also of note are memos documenting the 1977 formation of a “governor’s consultation” composed of a number of North Carolina ministers asking Governor James B. Hunt to grant a pardon of innocence to the Wilmington 10 (1:13), as well as a legal analysis of the case written for Dr. Lightbourne by a UCC lawyer representing the Wilmington 10 (1:14).

This series documents UCC spending on behalf of the Wilmington 10 for bail, legal fees, and mobilization expenses. This information comes in the form of an Executive Council motion approving Wilmington 10 spending for 1977, an accounting of the Commission for Racial Justice and the Executive Council’s Wilmington 10 expenses from 1971 to 1977, and a fact sheet outlining spending UCC expenditures from 1972-1977 and their financial commitments for 1978 (2:1).

This small series contains a variety of legal documents: a copy of the 1980 decision from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturning the prior convictions of the Wilmington 10 (3:1), a blank copy of a petition for amnesty addressed to the North Carolina governor and sponsored by the N.C.-Va. Commission for Racial Justice (3:2), and a copy of witness Allen Hall’s sworn statement of August 1976 (3:3).

This series includes essays and manuscripts that provide a history of race relations in Wilmington, Ben Chavis’s background, and accounts of the February 1971 violence in Wilmington – all sympathetic to the Wilmington 10’s point of view (4:1-4:2). Also of note is a proposal written by the Commission for Racial Justice leaders for a “national education and mobilization campaign” to increase public support (especially among the UCC constituency) for the Wilmington 10 (4:4). This series also includes a number of resolutions produced by various churches and groups, both in support of and in opposition to the UCC’s advocacy for the Wilmington 10 (4:5-4:6).

This small series contains minutes from two meetings of two different groups supporting the Wilmington 10. The first set of minutes records part of an April 1978 meeting of the UCC Executive Council adopting a position description for a Wilmington 10 Committee and reaffirming their commitment to the Wilmington 10 (5:1). The second set is from a January 1975 meeting of the Wilmington 10 Defense Committee, recording plans for circulating a petition around North Carolina, updates on the appeals process, and reports on legal expenses and finances (5:2).

This sizable series of materials is largely made up of newspaper clippings (6:22-6:39) following the development of the Wilmington 10 case. Topics include, but are not limited to, Chavis’s suit against the North Carolina Department of Corrections, the recantation of testimony against the Wilmington 10 by Allen Hall and Jerome Mitchell, state and federal review of the case, the missing files from the Good Neighbor Council, Governor Hunt’s decision not to pardon the Wilmington 10, and editorial pieces evaluating the carriage of justice in the case. A handful of clippings from the 1990s (6:37-6:39) follow Chavis’s controversial tenure as NAACP president and his conversion to Islam.

Researchers interested in newspaper coverage of the Wilmington 10 will also want to look at the booklet included in this series titled “Wilmington 10: Editorials and Cartoons” (6:1). This publication, produced by the Commission for Racial Justice, compiled editorials and political cartoons defending the rights of the Wilmington 10. Magazines and magazine clippings found in this series as well are likewise largely sympathetic to the Wilmington 10 (6:5-6:7). Also included is a 1978 article from The New York Times Magazine that paints the defendants in a much more unfavorable light (6:6).

Newsletters comprise another significant part of this series. Preserved here are several issues of “Commission News” from the Commission for Racial Justice (6:9-6:13) and “Criminal Justice Issues” from the Commission’s Criminal Justice program (6:14-6:19) reporting on the case of the Wilmington 10 and asking for reader support. A few newsletters from other organizations are also included here (6:8, 6:20-6:21).

Press releases from the UCC Office of Communication announce developments in the case and declare UCC sentiment and actions in support of the Wilmington 10 (6:44-6:48). Press releases from the Commission for Racial Justice, the Southern Conference, and an assortment of other groups are located here as well (6:41-6:43).

Also of note in this series are transcripts of a 1972 conversation summarizing Mr. Redmond’s legal analysis of the case (6:49) and of Ambassador Young’s controversial statement in Caracas in 1978 proclaiming the innocence of the Wilmington 10 (6:50).

Finally, a variety of printed materials included here are promotional items defending the Wilmington 10. Fact sheets from various sources outline the role of Gregory Congregational Church in the violence (6:2) and provide a timeline of events in the Wilmington 10 case (6:2-6:3). An undated flyer (6:4) calls the residents of Charlotte, North Carolina, to a Christmastime rally in support of the Wilmington 10 and the Charlotte 3, while pamphlets (6:40) highlight the apparent injustices in the Wilmington 10’s trial.