Letter from Joseph Ellin to Diane and Susan; June 21, 1964

              Sun. June 21 [1964], Oxford [Ohio] [handwritten] [transcript page 1} 


Dear Diane and Susan,


            Just arrived, checked in, came up to our rooms, rec’d your letter – and are awaiting dinner.  On the registration line, Nancy said it looks like registration for a folk festival.  The Times and Tribune both had reporters here last week, and we followed the daily reports in the Times.  Today’s Trib, which we bought in Columbus [Ohio], has a couple of very good articles, including one by a psychiatrist, Robt. Coles, who has studied Negro rights workers in the South.


            Amazingly enough, a very elegant wedding is going on outside our window – I suppose the dinner was in the dining room, which we overlook.  The beards, blue-jeans, and blacks have tactfully segregated themselves elsewhere, so that the wedding party will be able to retain their idyllic memories unsullied.  It is dreadfully hot & muggy – orientation with a vengeance.  Nancy and I are both nervous and, as always with mass arrivals of this sort, are both feeling hostile.  We can’t imagine why everyone else is so chipper.  At registration we were asked to list in order of preference which of the 5 projects we want to work on – so that perhaps our assignments aren’t final.  He heard in NY that only 150 Negro children have volunteered for the