REL 450: Religion & Society - The Global Civil Rights Movement

A massive list of collections about the Civil Rights Movement. Some collections are freely available online. If a link has become inactive, try locating the collection using a search engine.

"This collection contains correspondence, notes, publicity flyers, scrapbook pages, newsclippings, and other materials concerning the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the 1961 Freedom Rides to Jackson, Mississippi. Most of the materials relate to Byron M. Baer’s experience as a Freedom Rider and his resulting imprisonment in the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman Farm)." From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

"This exhibition, which commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, explores the events that shaped the civil rights movement, as well as the far-reaching impact the act had on a changing society." A selection of related materials are presented online by the Library of Congress.

"Florida State University Libraries partners with the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, the Emmett Till Memory Project, and other institutions and private donors to collect, preserve, and provide access to the ongoing story of Emmett Till. The Till Archives includes newspapers, magazines, oral histories, photographs, government records, scholarly literature, creative works, and other materials documenting the Till case and its commemoration, memorialization, and discussion in scholarship and popular culture."

"Primary source accounts: photographs, oral histories, videos, essays and historical documents from the United Farm Worker Delano Grape Strikers and the UFW Volunteers who worked with Cesar Chavez to build his farmworker movement." Presented by the UC San Diego Library.

"More than 25,000 pages from the Freedom Summer manuscripts -- enough to fill several file cabinets -- are available online. In them you will find official records of organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); the personal papers of movement leaders and activists such as Amzie Moore, Mary King and Howard Zinn, letters and diaries of northern college students who went South to volunteer for the summer; newsletters produced in Freedom Schools; racist propaganda, newspaper clippings, pamphlets and brochures, magazine articles, telephone call logs, candid snapshots, internal memos, press releases and much more." From the Wisconsin Historical Society.

"This project highlights the newspapers, posters, broadsides, pamphlets, fliers, and other printed ephemera produced by student and community groups, leading civil rights organizations, and individuals, which documented a revolutionary era." Created by the Amistad Research Center and presented in the Tulane University Digital Library.

Hundreds of photographs and a selection of graphics available through the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University.

A selection of declassified documents from the FBI that are highly requested. Some information might be redacted. There are over 40 subjects, including many prominent leaders. The Nation of Islam and Christian Identity Movement is included. Look for the navigation at the bottom of the page to see all topics.

"This reference report provides an overview of some of the electronic data records in the custody of the National Archives that pertain to civil rights in the United States, including data related to affirmative action, discriminatory practices, sexual harassment, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

"The Young interviews provide a firsthand account of the events, leadership, and various campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as Young's childhood, work in the National Council of Churches, as a Congressman from Georgia, and United Nations Ambassador. The interviews provide numerous portraits of the SCLC leadership and civil rights workers including Hosea Williams, Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Randolph Blackwell, Dorothy Cotton, Stan Levinson and of course Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." Created by the Amistad Research Center and presented in the Tulane University Digital Library.

"On May 12, 2009, the U.S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-19). The law directed the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a national survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights movement to obtain justice, freedom and equality for African Americans and to record and make widely accessible new interviews with people who participated in the struggle."

"This collection of oral histories, completed from 1991 to 1994, contains narratives of 119 individuals describing the activities and people involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the southern states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. The narratives also detail daily life for the African American community during this volatile period in the United States." Created by the Amistad Research Center and presented in the Tulane University Digital Library.

"Collection consists of materials documenting Augustus F. Hawkins's lengthy service as a U.S. Congressman representing South Central Los Angeles from 1963-90 and as Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee from 1984-90. A small portion of the collection relates to his service as a California State Assemblyman, 1935-62. Materials in the collection cover subjects such as Civil Rights, employment, child care, and equal opportunity with respect to education and job training." From the Online Archive of California. Click "Online items available."

"Basil Lee Whitener (1915-1989) was a U.S. Representative from Gastonia, N.C. Collection includes correspondence between Whitener and his constituents, other congressmen, and government officials, legislative materials, drafts of bills, financial papers, speeches, invitations, printed material, clippings, photographs, and other papers, chiefly from congressional files (1957-1968), relating to issues of national importance during the 1960s, including the Vietnam War, crime legislation, gun control, riots, civil rights legislation, foreign aid, social security, and the Taft-Hartley Act. Correspondents include Sam Ervin, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, and Strom Thurmond." From Duke University Libraries. Click "Only view items with online access."

"Faith Holsaert is a Civil Rights and LGBT community activist. The collection contains correspondence, newsletters, publications, and other materials relating to the activities of Faith Holsaert from the 1960s to the present. A large portion of the collection consists of correspondence and ephemera from her involvement in the Civil Rights movement, including SNCC, and the women's rights movement." From Duke University Libraries.

"This core unit of three hundred fifty items-two hundred sixty-two manuscripts (letters, speeches, reports, narratives, and affidavits) and miscellaneous printed artifacts (news clippings, programs, booklets), and eighty-eight photographs-added to the papers of the late Joseph Armstrong De Laine (1898-1974) covers chiefly the period from 1942, when he submitted his annual report as secretary of the Clarendon County Citizen[s] Committee, to 1974, when he delivered an address entitled 'History leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision outlawing Segregation in Public Schools.'" From University of South Carolina Libraries.

"Activist Modjeska Simkins of Columbia, S.C. served as the South Carolina State Secretary for the NAACP, 1941-1957; as Campaign Director for the renovation of Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital, 1944-1950; as Public Relations Director for the Richland County Citizens Committee, 1956-1988; and as President of the Southern Conference Educational Fund, 1972-1974. She also helped found, in 1921, the Victory Savings Bank of Columbia. As a voice of African-American leadership in the South, Simkins was a political force." University of South Carolina Libraries.

"Stetson Kennedy (1916-2011) was an author, folklorist, environmentalist, labor activist, and human rights advocate known for his infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1940s. He authored eight books, including Palmetto Country, Southern Exposure, and The Klan Unmasked. He became one of the country's pioneering folklorists while working for the WPA Florida Writers' Project, and at the age of 21, was put in charge of folklore, oral history, and ethnic studies." From Georgia State University Library.

"Local newsfilm and special programs relating to César Chávez, the United Farm Workers union and agricultural workers, from the 1960s & 70s."

"The current archive contains films from the nightly news from two local television stations in Virginia--WDBJ (CBS) Roanoke and WSLS (NBC) Roanoke. In this initial installment we have digitized over 230 films. This rare footage includes full speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, the governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as well as original footage of school desegregation, public meetings, local debates over civil rights matters, and interviews with citizens."

"An open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century."