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The Haynes v. Shoneys Papers documents the largest racial discrimination class-action suit against a private employer in the history of civil rights law. The collection has significant historical and research value for American legal history and civil rights scholars. Some topics include the admissibility of prior discrimination as evidence, adverse witnesses, affirmative action, allegations of recent discrimination, class certification, defendants contacts with plaintiffs' witnesses and clients, deceased claimants notes, destruction of evidence, jury selection, Raymond Danner's claim to fight race discrimination, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences covenant with Shoneys, in which the corporation promised that it would do business with minority-owned firms and target management jobs and franchise ownership opportunities for African-Americans. Among the materials included are all court pleadings and filings in the case, affidavits and declarations, challenges, consent decrees, correspondence, depositions, discovery documents, expert witness files, interrogatories, investigative files, newspaper and magazine articles, notebooks, orders, policies, press releases, questionnaires, reports, research materials, right-to-sue requests, settlement documents, shopper reports, surveys, visitation reports, and the deposition transcripts of over 150 witnesses, who document the history of the alleged discrimination of Shoneys, Inc and Ray Danner.

The collection consists primarily of correspondence and documents relating to Ken van Assenderp's involvement with Florida State University in the years since his time as a student.

This collection contains research materials used by Martin Dyckman for his 2006 book about former Governor Leroy Collins titled Floridian of His Century. Research materials include speeches from Leroy Collins before he became governor; an interview transcript with Premier Khrushchev during Collins' trip to the Soviet Union; newspaper columns written by Collins for the St. Peterburg Times and transcripts and audio recordings of interviews conducted by Dyckman.