Resources for Research
on Regional Organizations in the 1960s
The original materials referenced below are the generous donations of Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen.

 
ORGANIZING ON THE EAST COAST

In January 1962, representatives of homophile organizations on the east coast met in Philadelphia and agreed to form a loose affiliation called ECHO, for East Coast Homophile Organizations.  ECHO organized three successive annual conferences and also undertook sponsorship of the July 4th Annual Reminder picketing at Philadelphia's Independence Hall in 1965.

The first annual conference was held in Philadelphia under the theme Homosexuality -- Time for ReappraisalI. The second conference was held in Washington, DC in 1964 (not without difficulty as hotels declined to host the event) with the theme Homosexuality - Civil Liberties and Social Rights.  The third and final ECHO conference was held in New York City in 1965 with the theme The Homosexual Citizen in the Great Society.
 

ECHO - East Coast Homophile Organizations

Make Echo Meaningful, September 7, 1965 - response to letter and withdrawals from ECHO
ECHO 1965 Conference flyer
ECHO 1965 Program
Memo on Echo, 1965 message discussing the Daughters of Bilitis' withdrawal from ECHO
ECHO1964, preconference report on difficulties organizing the conference
Registration form for 1964 ECHO conference
Proceedings of the 1964 ECHO conference, excerpts (the document runs to nearly 100 pages).

• Keynote address by Bob Belanger (MSW, pseudonym Robert King):
• Address by Julian Hodges (NY Mattachine),

ECHO flyer: How to Handle a Federal Investigation

Jack Nichols addressing ECHO 65 in New York City
© Jack Nichols

ERCH - Eastern Regional Homophile Conference

Minutes of the Spring 1968 meeting, April 27-28, 1968
Leaflet for 4th Annual Reminder, sponsored by ERCH, 1968

ERCHO - Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations
ERCHO was created as "a constituent but autonomous body of the North American Homophile Conference" (the original name of NACHO).

Leaflet for 5th Annual Reminder, sponsored by ERCHO, 1969
Letter accompanying a survey of employment issues
Invitation to join ERCHO, January 1970

ORGANIZING NATIONALLY
Although the 1965 ECHO conference in New York City had only three sponsoring organizations, the Mattachines of New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, the conference was attended by a wide range of delegates from across the nation.  The response encouraged those attending to schedule a meeting in Kansas City to consider creating a national association of homophile organizations.

NACHO - North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (originally the North American Homophile Conference)

Resolution adopting "Gay is Good" as slogan of the homophile movement, August 1968