Professor & Reference and Instruction Librarian Coordinator
Diane Duesterhoeft
she/her
Contact:
Louis J. Blume Library, Room 201
St. Mary's University
One Camino Santa Maria
San Antonio, TX 78228-8608
USA
dduesterhoeft@stmarytx.edu
St. Mary's University
One Camino Santa Maria
San Antonio, TX 78228-8608
USA
dduesterhoeft@stmarytx.edu
210-436-3346
Background about COPS/Metro
COPS/Metro is a broad-based citizens' organization of religious and other non-profit institutions. It is part of the Industrial Areas Foundation or IAF.
The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) began in Chicago in 1940. IAF Network organizations throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia work on multiple issues and develop structures through which ordinary citizens can effectively negotiate with the government and private institutions that affect their lives. There are no individual members of IAF organizations; rather, institutions participate in these networks.
In San Antonio in 1974, Communities Organized for Public Service (C.O.P.S.) formed the first IAF organization in the Southwest Network. Two additional IAF organizations formed in San Antonio in the early 1980s: the East Side Alliance, composed of African American and Hispanic low- and lower-middle income churches, and the Metropolitan Congregational Alliance, which included South, Central, and Northwest area Anglo and Hispanic Protestant lower-middle and middle-income churches. The Metro Alliance formed in 1989 through a merger of the East Side Alliance and the Metropolitan Congregational Alliance. Today, COPS/Metro works as one organization with many member institutions.
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Guide to Communities Organized for Public Service and Metro Alliance Records, 1954-2009The finding aid for the COPS/Metro records held at UTSA Libraries Special Collections.
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Digitized materials from COPS/Metro recordsA selection of materials from the collection held at UTSA Libraries Special Collections that have been digitized and are available online. Includes the COPS 25th Anniversary booklet from 1999.
Books about COPS/Metro
For users outside of St. Mary's University, search WorldCat for holdings at your local library. Some books may be viewable at the Internet Archive.
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Cold Anger: A Story of Faith and Power Politics
by
Also available as ebook.
Cold Anger is an important book about the empowerment of working-class communities through church-based social activism. Such activism is certainly not new, but the conscious merger of community organizing tactics with religious beliefs may be. The organizing approach comes from Aul Alinsky and his Industrial Areas Foundations (IAF). . . . The book is structured around the polifical life of Ernesto Cortes Jr., the lead IAF organizer who has earned recognition as one of the most powerful individuals in Texas (and who has been featured on Bill Moyers' "World of Ideas"). . . . Cortes fashioned a hard-ball Alinsky approach onto the natural organizing ground of church-based comunities. The experiment began in San Antonio . . . and was successful in the transformation of San Antonio politics. Such dramatic success . . . led to similar efforts in Houston, Fort Worth, El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and New York, to mention only a few sites. Expansion beyond San Antonio meant organizing among Protestant churches, among African American and white, and among middle-class communities. In short, these organizing efforts have transcended the particularistic limits of religion, ethnicity, and class while maintaining a church base and sense of spiritual mission. . . . Rogers's clearly written book will be of great value to the scholar, student, and layperson interested in urban politics, ethnic relations, social movements, or church activism.
Call Number: F395.S75 R64 1990 (3rd Floor)ISBN: 0929398130Publication Date: 1990 -
Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy
by
Dry Bones Rattling offers the first in-depth treatment of how to rebuild the social capital of America's communities while promoting racially inclusive, democratic participation. The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) network in Texas and the Southwest is gaining national attention as a model for reviving democratic life in the inner city--and beyond. This richly drawn study shows how the IAF network works with religious congregations and other community-based institutions to cultivate the participation and leadership of Americans most left out of our elite-centered politics. Interfaith leaders from poor communities of color collaborate with those from more affluent communities to build organizations with the power to construct affordable housing, create job-training programs, improve schools, expand public services, and increase neighborhood safety. In clear and accessible prose, Mark Warren argues that the key to revitalizing democracy lies in connecting politics to community institutions and the values that sustain them. By doing so, the IAF network builds an organized, multiracial constituency with the power to advance desperately needed social policies. While Americans are most aware of the religious right, Warren documents the growth of progressive faith-based politics in America. He offers a realistic yet hopeful account of how this rising trend can transform the lives of people in our most troubled neighborhoods. Drawing upon six years of original fieldwork, Dry Bones Rattling proposes new answers to the problems of American democracy, community life, race relations, and the urban crisis.
Call Number: HT176.T4 E37 2001 (3rd Floor)ISBN: 0691074321Publication Date: 2001 -
Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics in America
by
Also available as Internet Archive ebook.
"Essential reading for anyone concerned about the trajectory of American politics, Gathering Power shows what has gone wrong and how to fix it. Osterman tells stories of campaigns and of the people whose political commitment has been renewed. He shows how to build politics from the ground up and to ultimately give new life to the progressive agenda at the national level. Gathering Power claims an important place for religion in progressive politics and offers a fresh, hopeful vision of how to strengthen our democracy."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Reviving Progressive Politics -- Building Organizations -- Faith -- Practicing a New Politics -- Managing Our Economic Destiny -- Gathering Power
Call Number: JK1764 .O85 2002 (3rd Floor)ISBN: 0807043389Publication Date: 2003
More Background Sources
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NOWCast SA - COPS/Metro Alliance YouTube Channel38 videos recorded by NOWCastSA.
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Bob Bullock Lieutenant Governor papers. Inclusive: 1991-1999, Bulk: 1991-1999.Baylor Collection of Political Materials, W. R. Poage Legislative Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Page 7 - Box 21. Folder 24. Communities Organized for Public Service, 1991. Page 33 - Box 237. Folder 5. Communities Organized for Public Services, 1992.
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Duesterhoeft, Diane. 2014. "No lo tires! Don't Throw it Away! Texas Latino Archives Shaping their own Narrative: Community Leaders Negotiate a Framework for their Archival Collection."Presentation made at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference on April 8, 2014 in San Antonio. The presentation provides practical tips for organizations and individuals considering preserving their historical records with a local archive.