Atlanta University Center

"Working for Freedom: Documenting Civil Rights Organizations" is a collaborative project between Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, and The Robert W. Woodruff Library of Atlanta University Center to uncover and make available previously hidden collections documenting the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta and New Orleans. The project is administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Each organization regularly contributes blog posts about their progress.

By Allison Hughes, Archival Assistant, Voter Education Project Collection

Vernon Jordan took control of Voter Education Project while it was finding its place in a changing society. Though the project was still under the Southern Regional Council, VEP became responsible for educating citizens and leaders after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. VEP also began expanding the scope of VEP activities.

By Courtney Chartier, Assistant Head, Archives Research Center, RWWL Atlanta University Center

"Working for Freedom:  Documenting Civil Rights Organizations" is a collaborative project between Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University and the Robert W. Woodruff Library of Atlanta University Center to uncover and make available previously hidden collections documenting the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta and New Orleans.  The project is administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Each organization contributes regular blog posts about their progress.

The processing team for the Voter Education Project (VEP) Organizational Records is using Archivist’s Toolkit (AT) for the creation of the VEP finding aid, XTF to provide search functionaliy, and CONTENTdm (Cdm) to store, manage and display of digitized images from the collection. All of these programs were in the early stages of implementation at the start of the VEP project.

By Courtney Chartier, Project Archivist, Voter Education Project Collection

On March 29-30 the Council on Library and Information Resources held a Hidden Collections Program Symposium in Washington, DC. Representatives from all of the institutions involved in the “Working for Freedom” project attended.