Robert W. Woodruff Library of the 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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact:
August 16, 2011 Nicholyn Hutchinson
404-978-2114 / nhutchinson@auctr.edu

 
The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library announces the opening of the Voter Education Project (VEP) Organizational Records. An Atlanta-based civil rights organization, the VEP was originally a branch of the Southern Regional Council.

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

The Voter Education Project Organizational Records span the years 1962-1992 and document the activities of the Atlanta based Voter Education Project (VEP).

The records of VEP are arranged into seven series,

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.

Become involved in the movement when he organized the first student sit-in in Nashville, where he was a student at the Baptist Theological Seminary and then Fisk University. He was involved in the first CORE sponsored Freedom Ride in 1961.

Lewis was elected Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1963. While Chairman he orchestrated SNCC’s Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964) and spoke for the organization at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1965).

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 Alison Hughes, Archival Assistant, Voter Education Project Collection, Robert W. Woodruff Library of 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.

John Lewis became a Civil Rights leader during his college days. As a student of Fisk University, Lewis organized his first sit-in in 1960. The next year Lewis became one of the first participants in the CORE sponsored Freedom Ride. He was one of the first to be attacked when the bus reached Rock Hill, SC and then again when he reached Montgomery, AL. When the bus arrived at in Jackson, Mississippi, Lewis was arrested and sent to Parchman State Penitentiary.

By Courtney Chartier, Assistant Head, Archives Research Center, 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.

The Voter Education Project (VEP) served primarily as a funding source for voter registration and education programs around the South. VEP collected financial and administrative reports from the projects that they funded, but they also collected flyers, posters and other printed ephemera produced by those organizations, or produced for elections in those areas.

By Courtney Chartier, Project Archivist, Voter Education Project Collection

The Voter Education Project (VEP) was formed in 1962 as a program of the Southern Regional Council (SRC). It was the brainchild of then U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who wanted to establish a government funded voter registration program that would eliminate the need for public protests by civil rights organizations. Kennedy went so far as to ask several of the leading civil rights groups to cease protest activities for a short time; while the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) agreed to this, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) did not.