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UNITED STATES STUDENT PRESS ASSOCIATION
December 21, 1969
Julian Bond 162 Euharlee Street SW Atlanta, Georgia 30314
Dear Mr. Bond:
As I indicated in our telephone conversation Friday, we're now completing plans for USSPA's College Editors Conference, scheduled for February 13-16 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington; we had very much hoped you would be able to speak at the conference.
Let me explain a little of the background upon which we had thought your participation had been set definitely. Over the last year we had agreed on several occasions to let Atlanta SNCC use our phone credit card number for specific projects we were working on jointly; on another occasion, and after extreme hesitation, John Tilmon at SNCC persuaded us to guarantee payment for a rented car (required by the company) for what he said was an emergency. All in all SNCC owed us some $500, mostly due to broken agreements by Willie Ricks and John Tilmon. When Robert Johnston, USSPA's director, spike with John in September about the debt, he told us he would arrange for you to speak at the College Editors Conference since he was ostensibly handling your speaking arrangements. That seemed fair enough, and we assumed everything was set with your talk as a major part of the program.
Thus, given your own commitments in Georgia, I wonder if we might work out the sort of arrangement suggested in the attached preliminary schedule. That is, could you take part in one or two discussion groups with other invited resource guests, Friday, February 14 on the possibilities for black capitalism as a means for obtaining economic self-autonomy? In that situation you would not need to spend the added time of preparing a complete speech.
However, if your schedule still won't permit you to come to the conference, we can of course understand your situation. We will naturally be glad to cover your expenses for coming.
I hope we can work something out; please let me know if you need any further information.
Sincerely [signature] Frank Browning Conference Coordinator
Enclosure
[written at the top] ans 1/2/69 no