FIS Library

The Freedom Information Service (FIS) Library began in 1965. That June, civil rights veteran Jan Hillegas rescued documents from the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) statewide headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi. Hillegas was among the leaders of Freedom Information Service (FIS), a communications center established in July 1965 that produced newsletters, political handbooks, and other publications to support organizing efforts in the state. FIS had a goal “to promote wide sharing of information, ideas, and experiences” and partnered with organizations such as the Delta Ministry of the National Council of Churches, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Poor People’s Corporation.

This collection launched the FIS Library, as its holdings included materials obtained from the COFO office. The library expanded as Hillegas continued her activism in Mississippi and acquired documents from subsequent Movements, including labor organizing, environmental issues, anti-apartheid efforts, welfare rights, and education. In John Dittmer’s Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, he noted in his acknowledgments, “For more than two decades she [Jan Hillegas] preserved, at considerable expense, thousands of valuable documents that otherwise would have been lost, adding to the collection as new materials became available.”