Manuscripts Collection
Brian J. Coyle was born in Great Falls, Montana (June 25, 1944) and raised in Moorhead, Minnesota. He graduated from Moorhead High School (1961) and received his BA degree from the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis (1967). While attending the University Coyle participated in the Young Democrats and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); wrote for the Minnesota Daily; helped organize the first Vietnam teach-in; and originated the Free University.
After graduation Coyle taught humanities at Moorhead State University (Sept. 1967-June 1968). He was indicted twice for failure to comply with the draft (1968), but was acquitted both times as a conscientious objector. He returned to Minneapolis and worked at the Twin Cities Draft Information Center (Jan. 1969-Dec. 1971) and helped found the alternative newspaper, Hundred Flowers. Coyle made public his homosexuality in 1971 and became a life-long activist in the gay rights movement.
Coyle was a member of the New American Movement (NAM) (1971-1974), a national organization that attempted to unite the New Left after the collapse of SDS. He worked as the organization's national office coordinator, directed the National Campaign to Impeach Nixon, acted as project coordinator for the Coalition to Stop Funding the War, and coordinated the North Country Peace Campaign. In 1974 Coyle visited Vietnam as a Midwest representative of the Indochina Peace Campaign.
During the mid and late 1970s Coyle worked defending tenants' rights and campaigning for a rent control ordinance; was involved with powerline protests in rural Minnesota (1978); and organized Minnesotans Against the Downtown Dome (MADD), a coalition opposed to the construction of a downtown sports stadium (1979-1981). Coyle was also the founder and director of The Progressive Roundtable (1980-1988), a monthly forum focused on local and national progressive issues and personalities.
Coyle ran unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate (1978), Minneapolis mayor (1979), and 6th ward alderman (1981). In 1983 he won his bid for 6th ward alderman and served three successive terms. While on the city council Coyle's primary interests centered on affordable housing, economic development, civil and human rights, the environment, and transportation.
Coyle was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986 and publicly disclosed the fact in April, 1991. He died from AIDS-related complications on August 23, 1991.
Biographical data was taken from the collection.
Coyle's papers break down into ten different sections, reflecting the major activities that constituted his personal and public lives:
Political Writings, undated and 1965-1980 are composed of papers, articles, and correspondence covering a variety of political and social issues.
New American Movement (NAM), undated and 1971-1974, includes draft political statements and counter statements; internal communications; issues of the New American Movement newspaper and Internal Discussion Bulletin (1972-1974); newspaper and magazine clippings; agendas; minutes; correspondence; and reports. The last section of the NAM papers is composed of correspondence, agendas, position papers, flyers, and newsletters that reflect the political thought, organization, and activities of the Minneapolis NAM chapter (1972-1974).
Rent Control, 1974-1981, contains correspondence, agendas, minutes, notes, ordinances, brochures, flyers, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and booklets, reflecting Coyle's activities as a tenant(s), rights advocate including his work as an organizer, paralegal, and negotiator for the East-West Bank Tenants Union during its rent strike (1977-1978).
Progressive Roundtable (PRT), 1980-1988, includes correspondence, memoranda, notes, agendas, newsletters, bylaws, tax forms, budgets, membership lists, flyers, photographs, newspaper clippings, and brochures documenting the goals, administration, and programs of a monthly speakers' forum. Coyle organized PRT in order to bring progressives together on a regular basis to hear new ideas, discuss strategies for political action, and develop informal networks.
Minneapolis City Council, 1981-1991, is the largest section in the collection, and documents Coyle's election campaigns and his three terms on the Minneapolis city council as sixth ward alderman. The papers related to Coyle's four aldermanic campaigns (1981, 1983, 1985, 1989) include volunteer and contributor lists, schedules, and ward maps used in the "Get Out the Vote" effort, which consisted of doorknocking, telephoning, literature drops, and voter registration; calendars; notes and outlines on campaign organization, issues, and strategy; correspondence; questionnaires and answers; voter abstracts; financial records; speeches; and campaign literature from Coyle, his opponents, and other DFL candidates. The papers related to Coyle's activities on the council consist of memoranda, correspondence, notes, resolutions, financial statements, crime reports and statistics, speeches, photographs, newspaper clippings, calendars, newsletters, and flyers.
Gay Organizations and Issues, undated and 1986-1991, contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, resolutions, brochures, a briefing book, photographs, programs, flyers, newsletters, and newspaper clippings that reflect Coyle's life as a gay rights activist and openly gay public official.
AIDS, 1986-1991, includes correspondence, notes, resolutions, ordinances, bills, executive orders, agendas, programs, statistics, reports, obituaries, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, newsletters, brochures, pamphlets, and comic books relating to the fight against the disease and to AIDS related discrimination.
Personal Papers, 1981-1991, includes correspondence, notes, memoranda, journals, obituaries, newspaper and magazine clippings, and photographs, largely documenting Coyle's own battle against AIDS.
Audio-Visual Materials, include photographs of Coyle's family, friends, and colleagues; two slide shows with accompanying text, one based on Coyle's trip to North Vietnam (1974) and used in presentations he gave after his return, the other a tour of Minneapolis' sixth ward (1987); seven audio tapes (1974, 1977-1978, 1982, 1990) comprising interviews, speeches, and a campaign advertisement; and nine video tapes (1984-1991) related to Coyle's tenure on the Minneapolis city council and the public disclosure of his HIV-positive status, including the series "Private Man, Private Struggle" that aired on KSTP-TV (April 1991), and the KTCA program "Artists and AIDS" (April 24, 1991).
These records are divided into the following thirteen sections:
Accession number: 14,660
Processed by: Frank P. Hennessy, September, 1992
PALS number: 09-00036776
The writings are composed of papers, articles, and correspondence covering a
variety of political and social issues. They include correspondence between
Coyle and Vicky Smith, a woman with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
who was romantically involved with Coyle (1967-1968); an issue of an
underground newspaper he published entitled Notes
As NAM's national office coordinator Coyle kept a large file of material documenting the organization's history from its inception in 1971. NAM was started by a group of West Coast radicals as an attempt to provide discipline and organization to the New Left after the decline of SDS in the late 1960s. The collection documents the NAM Planning Conference held in Chicago (Oct. 1971); a "program conference" held in Davenport, Iowa (Nov. 25-29, 1971); the founding convention (June 1972) that adopted a constitution and conducted several workshops; succeeding annual conventions (1973-1974); meetings of the elected national leadership, the National Interim Committee (NIC); local chapter activity; NAM task forces on racism, economics, the workplace, and welfare; and projects such as a national conference on women and socialism (Fall 1972), a nationally coordinated effort against discrimination at AT&T (1972), an internal education program (1972-1973), and the National Campaign to Impeach Nixon (1973-1974).
Papers (1973-1974) from a variety of left-wing political organizations are also included as are a number of articles that debate the idea of a new political party called the Mass Party of the People. The idea of a new party and the possibility of unifying the Left resulted in joint meetings between NAM, the People's Party, the Socialist Party, USA, and the National Interim Committee for a Mass Party of the People. One of the outcomes of these meetings was the idea of a possible merger between NAM and the People's Party.
The last section of the NAM papers is composed of correspondence, agendas,
position papers, flyers, and newsletters that reflect the political thought,
organization, and activities of the Minneapolis NAM chapter (1972-1974).
Among the chapter activities represented are the people's history project
which included the Alive and Trucking Theater's production of the play,
Coyle visited North Vietnam for two weeks (July-August 1974) as an emissary from the NCPC at the invitation of Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, and the Indochina Peace Campaign. The papers documenting this trip include photographs; Coyle's draft card, birth certificate, and vaccination certificate; a U.S. Information Service News Bulletin containing Nixon's resignation speech (Aug. 9, 1974); maps; newspaper clippings; miscellaneous papers in Vietnamese; and two journals Coyle kept during the trip. The journals contain Coyle's observations and thoughts on NAM's third annual convention (July 11-14, 1974); an outline of Coyle's "life" scenario; a list of gifts for the North Vietnamese; questions to pursue while in Vietnam; expectations of the trip; Coyle's impressions of Tom Hayden; a biographical sketch; a proposed trip agenda; notes on discussions and interviews with the Vietnamese; and an outline of a taped interview with a North Vietnamese official (slide show, with notes and audio tapes, is located in Box 18).
Contains correspondence, agendas, minutes, notes, ordinances, brochures, flyers, newspapers clippings, pamphlets, and booklets, reflecting Coyle's activities as a tenants' rights advocate, including his work as an organizer, paralegal, and negotiator for the East-West Bank Tenants Union during its rent strike (1977-1978) (related audio tape is located in box 19); his participation on the Cedar Riverside Project Area Committee (1981); and his work as a staff member of the Minnesota Tenants Union (1979). The bulk of the papers (1979-1981) relate to Coyle's work with a group he helped found called the Coalition for Affordable Housing (CAH) and primarily document its efforts at passing a comprehensive rent and condominium control ordinance. There is also a large amount of background material related to an earlier attempt to pass a Minneapolis rent control ordinance (1974-1975); various studies of the impact of rent control on available housing (1976, 1978, 1980); mandatory national rent control and a National Conference on Rent Control (Nov. 10-12, 1979); rent control in other cities; and miscellaneous rent control literature.
This section documents a variety of activities that Coyle was involved with
after leaving NAM and before his election to the city council. Topics
include the North Country Chautauqua, a series of talks and presentations
Coyle originated with Marv Davidov and Karl Voss; his work with the
Farmer-Labor Association (FLA) and support of the presidential candidacy of
Fred Harris (1976); his participation and arrest in an anti-powerline
protest in West-Central Minnesota (1978); Coyle's unsuccessful campaigns as
an independent candidate for U.S. Senate (1978) (related audio tape located
in box 19) and for Minneapolis mayor (1979); his work as an organizer for
Minnesotans Against the Downtown Dome (MADD), a statewide coalition opposed
to legislation that would enable the construction of a domed stadium
(1979-1981); his role as an organizer and communications officer for the
Citizens Lobby, a coalition formed to fight budget cuts in the early 1980s
(1980-1982); and his plans for a grass roots community development
consulting firm called "Hired Gums" and a monthly regional magazine entitled
Includes correspondence, memoranda, notes, agendas, newsletters, bylaws, tax forms, budgets, membership lists, flyers, photographs, newspaper clippings, and brochures documenting the goals, administration, and programs of a monthly speakers' forum. Coyle organized PRT in order to bring progressives together on a regular basis to hear new ideas, discuss strategies for political action, and develop informal networks. The Roundtable featured both national and local figures including Tom Hayden, Tony Bouza, Hazel Henderson, Robert White, Ronald Dellums, Daniel Ellsberg (audio tapes are located in box 18), Morris Udall, and others.
This section, the largest in the collection, documents Coyle's election campaigns and his three terms on the Minneapolis city council sixth ward alderman.
The papers related to Coyle's four aldermanic campaigns (1981, 1983, 1985, 1989) include volunteer and contributor lists, schedules, and ward maps used in the "Get Out The Vote" effort, which consisted of doorknocking, telephoning, literature drops, and voter registration; calendars; notes and outlines on campaign organization, issues, and strategy; correspondence; questionnaires and answers; voter abstracts; financial records; speeches; and campaign literature from Coyle, his opponents, and other DFL candidates.
Coyle ran against incumbent Jackie Slater during his first city council campaign and lost by a narrow margin (1981). The following year he worked on Caucus '82, an effort sponsored by the Minnesota Committee for Gay and Lesbian Rights to mobilize gay and lesbian attendance at precinct caucuses. In early 1983 a city-wide coalition was formed called the Neighborhood Priorities Coalition. The coalition was based on a housing, jobs, and community-based development platform and worked to elect city council candidates. With the support of the Coalition, and the gay and lesbian support he secured during Caucus '82, Coyle won his second race for city council (1983). His next two campaigns (1985 and 1989) successfully stressed themes of job creation, community controlled development, affordable housing, crime prevention, and civil and human rights.
The papers related to Coyle's activities on the council are composed of memoranda, correspondence, notes, resolutions, financial statements, crime reports and statistics, speeches, photographs, newspaper clippings, calendars, newsletters, and flyers.
Coyle served as chair of the city council's transportation and public works committees and as a member of five other standing committees. He was also chosen as city council vice president (1990). The most prominent issues and organizations represented in the papers include the Urban Revitalization Action Program (URAP) (1986-1988); various neighborhood organizations such as the Whittier Alliance, the Phillips Neighborhood Improvement Association (PNIA), and Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc.; the proposed development of light rail transit (1987-1989); Project for Pride In Living (PPL); the Safety For Everyone Program (SAFE); the homeless and single-room occupancy housing projects; refurbishing the Nicollet Mall (1986-1988); the city's lawsuit with HUD concerning the disposition of Cedar Square West (1987-1988); "Year of the City", a state funding program for the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth (1988-1989); Mayor Donald Fraser's proposals to amend the city charter (1988); the Neiman-Marcus/BCE Development project (1988); the convention center hotel project (1989); a resolution barring the city from retaining the services of the O'Connor & Hannan law firm due to its representation of the ARENA party in El Salvador (1989); recycling and solid waste disposal, including an ordinance to ban plastic food packaging (1988-1991); the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (1990-1991); the management and proliferation of group homes (1984-1989) and Coyle's proposed moratorium on additional community-based residential facilities (1988-1989); the redevelopment of Franklin Avenue and the American Indian Business Development Corporation (AIBDC) (1978-1988); the passage of a domestic partners ordinance (1983-1991) (video tape of hearing located in box 19); Coyle's support of an ordinance opposed by a large segment of the Gay community that regulated the city's bathhouse and adult bookstores in order to prevent the spread of AIDS (1987-1988); opposition to the Hennepin County garbage incinerator (1987-1988); and the proposed expansion of I-35W (1987-1991).
The scrapbooks contain photographs, campaignliterature, correspondence and newspaper clippings documenting Coyle's U.S. Senate Campaign (1978), aldermanic campaigns (1981, 1983, 1989), and first two terms on the Minneapolis City Council.
Contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, resolutions, brochures, a briefing book, photographs, programs, flyers, newsletters, and newspaper clippings that reflect Coyle's life as a gay rights activist and openly gay public official. Topics include his breakfast meetings with gay and lesbian activists (1986-1987); the repeal of the state sodomy statute (1987); the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council (GLCAC); gay athletes and San Franciso's bid to host the 1996 Olympic games (1988); the Twin Cities Men's Chorus; the annual Gay/Lesbian Festival of Pride; the Northstar Project, a survey conducted by GLCAC to assess the needs of the Twin Cities gay and lesbian community (1990); and international gay/lesbian rights (1990-1991).
Coyle's efforts to make the public aware of a series of 12 to 15 gay murders, to foster cooperation between the police and the gay community, and to encourage Twin Cities homosexuals to launch an anti-violence campaign through the formation of Community United Against Violence (CUAV) are all documented (1984-1990), as is his involvement in the National Conference of Gay/Lesbian Elected and Appointed Officials (1985), including its annual meetings (1985-1990) and a lobbying campaign in Washington D.C. (March 6-7, 1986) attended by ten openly gay elected officials, including Coyle. Other organizations and issues represented include the Human Rights Campaign fund (HRCF), a national gay political action committee; the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's third annual Creating Change Conference, which was held in Minneapolis (Nov. 9-12, 1990); the National March On Washington (1987), which Coyle helped organize; and Coyle's work calling for a third national march on Washington to be held in 1992 (1990-1991).
Coyle attended a national organizing conference at the University of Minnesota entitled "About Face: Combatting ROTC's Anti-Gay Policy" (Nov. 9, 1990), and a conference program and briefing book compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union containing lists of resources, critical documents, and strategy suggestions are included.
Includes correspondence, notes, resolutions, ordinances, bills, executive orders, agendas, programs, statistics, reports, obituaries, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, newsletters, brochures, pamphlets, and comic books.
Organizations and issues represented include prevention measures and AIDS-related discrimination; state and city funding; educational programs and materials; the Minnesota AIDS Project and its AIDS housing program (1986-1991); the death of farm and gay activist Dick Hanson (July-Aug., 1987); the International Lesbian & Gay Health Conference & AIDS Forum (July 20-26, 1988; July 18-22, 1990; July 24-28, 1991); Minneapolis Health Department; Hennepin County AIDS Task Force; testimony of Coyle, Mayor Don Fraser, and others before the task force of the National Commission on AIDS (Jan 4, 1990); an AIDS prevention program for gay Latino men designed by the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) (Feb. 1990); American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and AIDS (1987; June 30, 1988; July-Nov. 1990); the AIDS Action Council; the Minnesota AIDS Funding Consortium (March-April 1989, June 1, 1990; Aug. 1, 1990); The Aliveness Project; and the NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt, which was displayed in Minneapolis (July 16-17, 1988).
The clippings are almost exclusively from local newspapers and deal primarily
with topics related to Coyle's tenure on the city council, gay rights, and
AIDS. The two bibliographies were generated through computer searches and
consist of a printout comprising of citations to all occurrences of Coyle's
name in the
Includes correspondences, notes, memoranda, journals, obituaries, newspaper and magazine clippings, and photographs.
Most of the personal papers are related to Coyle's battle with AIDS
(1986-1991), including his daily journal (Oct. 8, 1989-Aug. 22, 1991) which
he stated was "for self guidance, dream recording, and expanded creativity."
After disclosing his HIV status (April 1991), Coyle released excerpts from
the journals (Oct. 1989-July 1990)
Coyle publicly disclosed his HIV-positive status through a personal letter to
friends and colleagues (April 22, 1991), an article in
Hundreds of supportive cards and letters received following the disclosure (April 22-Aug. 1991) are included, together with cards received for his 47th birthday (June 22, 1991) and get-well cards he received after being hospitalized at the beginning of July. There are also a few negative letters and a folder of articles and letters regarding possible alternative medical treatments.
COPYRIGHT RESERVED
Coyle died at home on August 23, 1991 and obituaries from gay and neighborhood newspapers are included.
Includes resumes; notes that Coyle kept regarding career and life planning; biographical information on Coyle's grandmother, Selma Stenersen (1889-1978); notes on a fictional story Coyle developed; notes from a trip Coyle took to New York City (1989); mandellas and yoga chakras (1990); Coyle's notes regarding the donation of his papers to the Minnesota Historical Society; and notes on the papers' made by a friend of Coyle's, Clark Miller (Sept. 1991).
Coyle visited Nicaragua as a member of the Santa Barbara Fact-finding Delegation (Sept. 13-20, 1986). The delegation was comprised primarily of Los Angelas media figures and a few Midwest politicians. A journal Coyle kept while in Nicaragua is included, along with photographs and miscellaneous printed matter related to the trip.
The personal correspondence (1981-1991) is composed of letters from Coyle's mother and father, his sister Kathy, friends, colleagues, and constituents. The correspondence is primarily concerned with family and personal affairs as well as Coyle's political career.
Slide show and text.
Panel discussion.
Coyle's interview begins at 1 hour mark.
Includes a poster advertising a women's film series shown as a benefit for Coyle's U.S. Senate campaign (Oct. 21, 1978); a chart comparing the Coalition for Affordable Housing's proposed rent and condominium controls with the city council's "Fair Rent" plan (1981); a timeline (1944-1984) depicting Coyle's view of American political history; an outline of Coyle's observations of E. F. Schumacher's "5-Principles of Smallness in Large-Scale Organizations"; organizational models for an independent, grass-roots Public Interest Association (PIA); a poster from the AIDS Action Committee; a calendar (Jan.-Dec., 1981) that includes Coyle's campaign activities; and copies of 17 photographs of domestic partners by Mark Morrill that were exhibited in the Minneapolis mayor's office (Oct. 7-Nov. 1, 1991).
Includes a photograph of Coyle taken with Richard Nixon while Coyle headed a high school group he organized called "Students for Nixon" (1960).
Includes a chart comparing Coyle's and Jackie Slater's contributors, a chronology and analysis of Coyle's campaign, and a breakdown of voting results by precinct (1981).