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Record 1 of 1

Accessibility:
Title:
  • Mark Toney Papers
Author/Creator:
  • Toney, Mark
Call Number:
  • MSS 966
Record Level:
  • Collection
Physical Description:
  • 2.75 ft.
  • 2 RB, AB, HB
Inclusive Dates:
  • 1977-1986
Bulk Dates:
  • 1977-1986
Cataloged By:
  • Rick Stattler, January 1996
Summary:
  • Community activist, Providence, R.I.

  • Records of WAGE (Workers' Association for Guaranteed Employment), research notes on police brutality on Providence and records of miscellaneous community activist organizations.

Cataloging Note:
  • These papers were donated in a state of great disarray. Their present organization does not closely reflect the original order. Duplicate copies have been discarded. A small portion of the collection was found to have mold damage; these items were copied onto archival paper and discarded. Unrelated periodicals have been transferred to the printed collection; a small number of photographs are in the Graphics Division.
Historical Note:
  • Mark Toney was raised in Vallejo, California, and came to Providence, Rhode Island in 1978 to attend Brown University. He became active in a wide variety of causes on campus, including the peace movement and local civil rights campaigns. He helped found the Rake, a collectively-run campus newspaper. In October of 1980, the Rake published a controversial, exhaustively researched special issue on the Providence Police Department, using complaint forms and hearing records that were wrested from the city government by lawsuit. After receiving a bachelor's degree in political science from Brown in 1982, Toney began working as the lead organizer for WAGE (Workers' Association to Guarantee Employment). WAGE engaged in lobbying on issues affecting lower-income Rhode Islanders, including welfare cuts and utility shut-off regulations. It also organized a job bank and clothing drives. WAGE had over 1500 members, and emphasized community involvement in all of their activities. After the demise of WAGE in 1985, Toney helped found a similar organization, DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), and became its first executive director in 1986. He left DARE in 1994, and returned to California in 1995 to run a private consulting firm, Strategic Tools, Inc.
Bibliographic References:
  • Beeman, William O. "Mark Toney: Door Knocker Extraordinaire", in Mother Jones, January 1989, p. 29.; Welsh-Huggins, Andrew. "Fish Don't Vote: The New Social Activists", in Brown Alumni Monthly 89 (June/July 1989), no. 9, p. 47-48.
Scope and Content:
  • Series 1 consists of records of WAGE. They seem to be, for the most part, the personal files of Mark Toney as lead organizer. They consist of meeting minutes, sign-in lists, publicity materials, membership information, correspondence and newsletters, as well as documentation of campaigns against welfare and utility assistance cuts. There are few financial records, and nothing like a complete file of correspondence or meeting minutes. Series 2 consists of scattered records of various Rhode Island activist organizations. Some of these organizations were formally linked to WAGE; others are represented because of Mark Toney's personal involvement. Many of the records in this series consist of printed brochures and newsletters. Series 3, the Rake papers, pertain almost exclusively to the 1980 article on police brutality in Providence. They show efforts to gain access to official police records, and to publicize their findings. The bulk of this series consists of copies of the police records obtained by Rake staff. These include both censored official copies of internal investigations, and uncensored complaint forms obtained from an anonymous source. The complaint forms include detailed testimony on over a hundred cases of alleged violent abuse from 1977 to 1980. For papers relating to DARE, see MSS 965 (the DARE records). An inventory is available of this large collection.
Subjects:
Accession Number:
  • 1995.79.3-
Provenance:
  • These papers were donated by Mark Toney in 1995.
Inventory:
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