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THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH SALT LAKE CITY
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY AND RADIOBIOLOGY DIVISION MEDICAL CENTER
June 24, 1968
Mr. Julain Bond 162 Euhralee Street, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314
Dear Julian:
I hope that things are going well with your campaign for re-election. I only wish that I was close enough that I could be of some assistance to you. I saw you getting on the Kennedy funeral train to Washington, and I suppose that you feel about like I do about presidential politics at this time. I had worked for Senator Kennedy here in Utah, as you might well imagine. If almost seems as though we cannot take time out from state funerals to do anything else any more.
I am writing to you on quite a different subject than politics or civil rights today. I have a friend who is the Science Editor for the American Cancer Society in New York. His name is Alan Davis. Recently he visited Salt Lake, and we spent an evening at dinner discussing among other things the problems of communicating cancer control information in underprivileged ghetto neighborhoods. The American Cancer Society is extremely interested in aggresively pursuing such a program to promote better cancer control among black people and underprivileged people in general. The reason that I am writing to you about this is to find out what your opinion of efforts in this direction is and any ideas you might have on how the system can be improved. I suggested to Alan that it might even be worthwhile to conduct a meeting on this subject. What we need to know is if enough of this kind of thing is being done, and if it is being done properly. Any comments you might have along these lines would, I am sure, be very useful.
I hope that all goes well with your family and that the new baby arrivesd on time. All is well with my group. They are just getting more agile and more hostile.
Best regards, [signed] Chuck Charles J. Nabors, Jr., Ph.D. Assistant Professor
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Dear Chuck:
Thanks for your letter. The Kennedy funeral was an event, more like what I imagine a wake issusposed to be like than any funeral I've ever been to. It siounds ofdd to say so about what is susposed to be a solemn occasion, but I never enjoyed anything quite so much.
Having saod that, I ought to restate it, but I think you'llknow what I mean.
Your questions about communications interests me, primarily because I have been wondering for some time about communicating important information to the black community. My feeling is that most information of importance is presented in such a literate manner, and aimed at such a literate audience that is is far over the heads of those of us most interested in absorbing information.
I'm sending under separate cover a comic book I wrote about the war. While the subject is far from cancer prevention/, I think and detection this sort of technique can be used to get any information across.
I am trying to get situated with a group here called the Federation of Southern Cooperatives; my job with them will be to develop materials for low-literacy groups in the rural South. I have thought about the possibility of setting up an independent group to do this sort of work for a variety of groups; the total civil rights movement suffers from a dearth of good, explanatory literature, and could use, I think, some help in telling its constituency what it needs to know.
At any rate, tell your friend I am interested in briding bridging the information gap, bnot just in his field fbout in a great many areas, and I'd be glad to lend him whatever aid or assistance that he thought I might be able to offer.
Sincerely,