The Human Rights Party Papers consist of correspondence, writings, administrative materials, teaching materials, notes, reports, and photos regarding the life and works of Benita and Gabe Kaimowitz and Edward and Victoria Vandenberg, all of whom were active members of the Human Rights Party in Ann Arbor in the 1970s.
The correspondence series largely consists of correspondence to and occasionally from Ed and Victoria concerning their personal and professional lives. Items groupings correspond to the creators' original order.
The campaign materials series comprises legal documents, ad copy, expenses, ephemera, and photos related to Benita Kaimowitz's 1973 bid for Ann Arbor mayor and Ed Vandenberg's 1986 candidacy for probate judge.
The teaching materials series includes lesson plans, assignments, student work, student evaluations, reading lists, and correspondence relating to Victoria and Ed Vandenberg's and Benita Kaimowitz's work as teachers. Both Benita and Ed taught courses at Community High School, a public alternative school founded in 1972 in response to the popularity of the Youth Liberation movement in Ann Arbor.
The Ed Vandenberg legal work series contains materials related to Ed's career as an attorney and ombudsman.
In the Office of Ethics and Religion series are administrative materials, correspondence, notes, ephemera, and proposals created by or submitted to the eponymous office. Ed Vandenberg served for a time as president of the Office of Ethics and Religion, and participated in many of the office's forums, conferences, and iniatives. Many of the materials in this series pertain to the University Values Program and the debates it facilitated concerning research into recombinant DNA technology.
The conferences series primarily consists of documents related to the 1977 "Narcissism in Modern Society" conference held at the University of Michigan and hosted in part by the Office of Religion and Ethics. It also includes statements and notes about attendees from the 1965 International Conference on Alternative Perspectives on Vietnam, which was co-sponsored by the predecessor to the Office of Ethics and Religion. Lastly, the series contains of a handful of documents related to various teach-ins in the 60s and 70s.
The topical files series is composed of groupings of files, largely collected by Ed Vandenberg, related to political and philosophical topics that did not fit neatly elsewhere in the collection. Files contain a variety of items, including essays, articles, newsletters, and ephemera.
The last item in the collection is a spiral-bound notebook used as a communication log for the Kaimowitzes' communal home.
The Human Rights Party (HRP) was a progressive political party founded in Ann Arbor in 1970. From 1971 to 1975, HRP ran multiple candidates for local political office, three of whom won their bids for seats on the Ann Arbor city council. While in office, HRP party members passed ordinances that effectively decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana and banned discrimination based on age, gender, race, sexual orientation, national origin, and religion.
Benita Kaimowitz, the donor and partial creator of the collection, was born in 1935 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. In 1970, she moved to Ann Arbor with her then-husband, Gabe, who was a defense attorney. The two lived in a collective house with other couples and community members until 1996. Benita worked as a teacher and a bookseller. In 1973, she ran for mayor as the HRP candidate, but lost to the Republican candidate. Gabe was involved in a number of landmark civil rights cases in Ann Arbor and around the country.
Edward Vandenberg was born in 1924 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After serving in the navy during World War II, Ed moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan, where he ultimately earned a J.D. from the School of Law. In addition to running a private law practice, Ed served as city ombudsman, and worked with the Senior Citizens Guild of Ann Arbor, the Washtenaw Legal Aid Society, the University of Michigan Ecumenical Campus Center and the UM Council on Religious Affairs (later named the Office of Ethics and Religion). Ed's late wife, Victoria, was also a teacher.
