On November 18, 1978, over nine hundred expatriate Americans died in Jonestown, Guyana, along with a U.S. congressman and members of the press. The deaths of the members of Peoples Temple stunned the nation, and to this day a single aerial photograph taken at the time remains indelibly etched in our minds—a horrifying pile of corpses lying in a clearing in the South American jungle.

We have forgotten how the people of Jonestown lived: that they once walked among us as neighbors and friends. They were a community that embraced racial equality and social justice and that won the praise and support of some of our most notable leaders.

Dear People challenges perceived notions of the Jonestown tragedy, presenting letters, personal histories, reports, newspaper articles, photographs, and other documents—many published here for the first time—from the Peoples Temple Collection of the California Historical Society. Dear People is a companion to The People’s Temple, a play directed by Leigh Fondakowski.

Denice Stephenson is a special project archivist for the Peoples Temple Collection at the California Historical Society. This collection is the repository of the most complete set of personal and official documents related to the subject. Stephenson has provided assistance to researchers and to family, scholarly, and media projects since 2000.