CLIR Hidden Collections Grant

By Courtney Chartier, Assistant Head, Archives Research Center, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library

"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.

In 1975 the Voter Education Project (VEP) embarked on one of its most ambitious voter education and registration campaigns: Project Georgia 23.

Project Georgia 23 was a “voter education, registration and leadership training program. It [was] designed to increase minority political participation in the Georgia counties with a Black majority population.” The project targeted 23 counties in Georgia.

"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.

From the moment Andrew and Jean Young moved to Atlanta in 1961, they made it their home. For decades, they dedicated much of their time and lives to improving the lives of the people and the city itself.

By Amber L. Moore, Project Archivist, Amistad Research 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.

Grace Elizabeth Marr Nugent, the first African American nurse to hold the positions of instructor at Teachers College, Columbia, and senior supervisor of nursing education in the New York State Department of Education, was the younger sister of Warren Q. Marr II. 

By Allison Galloup, Archival Assistant, Voter Education Project Collection

"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.

Geraldine G. Thompson was born in Memphis, Tennessee and is a graduate of LeMoyne College and Atlanta University. Prior to her tenure as Executive Director, Thompson served as Director of Scheduling for the 1972 Andrew Young for Congress Campaign as well as Co-Coordinator of the Maynard Jackson for Mayor 1973 Campaign.  For the Carter/Mondale campaign of 1976, Thompson worked as the Coordinator of the ten southern states. Immediately before taking the Executive Director position at VEP, Thompson was the Regional Administrator for Region IV of the Housing and Urban Development.

By Cheryl Oestreicher, Project Archivist, Andrew J. Young Papers, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History

"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.

Elected in 1981 and serving two terms, Andrew Young’s time as mayor is known as “The Young Years” and according to Nehl Horton’s report of the same title, it was “nearly a decade of unprecedented social, cultural and economic progress which defines the City of Atlanta in the 1980s.” Young did not accomplish everything by himself, but the vision and opportunities he provided allowed his staff and residents to develop culture, education, employment, housing, facilities, travel, and tourism in Atlanta.

By Amber L. Moore, Project Archivist, Amistad Research 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.

Processing an individual’s personal papers can bring to light interesting, and often little known, aspects about that person’s life and work.  Recent work on the Marr-McGee Family Papers has revealed a file of materials related to the now infamous Peoples Temple, the organization founded by Jim Jones in the 1950s and the center of a mass-suicide in Guyana, South America, in 1978.  The documents and photographs provide a look at how the Temple viewed itself and was viewed by others as supporting civil rights.

By Michael R. Hall, Graduate Processing Assistant, Southern Christian Leadership Conference records, MARBL

"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.

The SCLC collection has proven to be very rich in audio visual material revealing not only the diverse programs and events in which the organization participated, but also the early development of political and philosophical thought of some of its most recognizable figures.  Among the cassette tapes, vinyl records, reel to reels, VHS and DVDs, one can find recordings of panel discussions and speeches at National Conventions, demonstrations like the March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, involvement in national and international policy issues like health care, and public speaking engagements and programming.  In a series of three blog posts, I would like to note gems which I have come across while processing the collection’s audio visual material and illustrate the potential for new research and study which such sources offer.