Civil Rights Movement Archive (CRMA)
New & Announcements

May 1st, 2023

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According to Google, there were 28,630 visits to the CRMA website during April for an average of 954 per day. This is approximately 16% less than April of last year . Roughly 86% of our visitors came from outside the U.S. On school days, the number of visitors ranged from 650 to 1500 per day.

As of May 1st, our online archive contains 9164 searchable pages, documents, and images plus 170 videos in our Vimeo video channel.

 

Please Donate.
With a Little Help From Our Friends,
We'll keep on keeping on.

Ever since Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement established the CRMA (formerly known as "CRMVet") in late 1999, it has been funded by personal donations from Freedom Movement activists and individual supporters. We carry on this work without any institutional support, foundation grants, or philanthropy contributions of any kind. So if you find our CRMA site useful and worthy, please click here to make a donation to keep us alive and growing. Thank you for anything you are able to contribute.

Please consider converting your PayPal donation to an automatic monthly contribution by checking the "Make this a monthly donation" box on the amount screen when it pops up.

 

Our Sister Sites

SNCC Legacy Project (SLP) . SLP was begun to preserve and extend SNCC's legacy. Although SNCC the organization no longer exists, we believe that its legacy continues and needs to be brought forward in ways that continue the struggle for freedom, justice and liberty. The SLP Digital Movement Platform connects modernday users to the mid-twentieth century Southern Civil Rights Movement.

SNCC Digital Gateway. SNCC Legacy Project & Duke University. Tells the story of how young activists in SNCC united with local people in the Deep South to build a grassroots movement for change that empowered the Black community and transformed the nation.

Teaching for Change and Zinn Education Project . Provides teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write and change the world by promoting and supporting the teaching of people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country.

Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. Empowering the next generation, passing it on to carry it on by preserving the history of the Mississippi Movement.

Chicago SNCC History Project. Tells the Stories of Chicago Area Friends of SNCC (CAFSNCC), its relationship to SNCC, it's pivotal role in shaping the fight for freedom in Chicago between 1960-1965, and preserves that history as a legacy for the young people who are continuing the fight for freedom, justice and peace.

SCOPE 50. Preserving Civil Rights and The Story of Voting. Website of SCLC/SCOPE project activists.

Announcements

59th Annual Mississippi Memorial Service, Conference & Tour June 24-25, 2023. Philadelphia, MS

Now Available: My Country Is the World: Staughton Lynd's Writings, Speeches, and Statements against the Vietnam War, edited by Luke Smith. Foreword by Staughton and Alice Lynd.. Haymarket Books, 2023.

Information Request from a Book Author: For a biography of SNCC's JAMES FORMAN, I'd appreciate hearing from those who worked with him in the 1960s and 70s. Thanks, Gary May.
 Professor Emeritus of History
 University of Delaware
garymay@udel.edu
 Author of Bending Toward Justice: the Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy.

Movement Art: If you are aware of any works of art related to the Freedom Movement such as paintings, drawings, murals, statues, and so on, please take a look at our Civil Rights Movement Art page to see if we already have an image of it in our collection. If it isn't included in our collection please email us an image we can post, or a weblink, or some other information that we can use. Thanks.

Movement Materials: Please continue to email to us documents, letters, reports, stories, and other Southern Freedom Movement materials from the period 1951-1968. See Submissions details.

 

Most Viewed

According to Google, our top-five, most-visited sections and pages in April were:

Section Contents, Landing Pages, & Reference Resources

  1. Freedom Rides and Freedom Riders Resources
  2. Are You "Qualified" to Vote? — Literacy Tests & Voter Applications
  3. Original Freedom Movement Documents
  4. Poems of the Civil Rights Movement
  5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Individual Pages & Documents

  1. What were the failures of the Civil Rights Movement? (FAQ)
  2. Civil Rights Movement History: 1960 (student sit-ins)
  3. Photo Album — The Sit-Ins
  4. Alabama Voter Literacy Test
  5. Photo Album — Freedom Summer

(Google does not count how often PDF files are accessed. Since most of our documents are in PDF format, the "Top Five" lists are not all that accurate.)

 

CRMA Video Channel

Our CRMA Video Channel on the Vimeo hosting service provides videos created by Freedom Movement veterans (or their immediate families) and videos created by others that are substantially about Movement veterans. When you visit the channel, please consider adding yourself as a "follower" for social-media metrics. Thanks.

New videos posted in April :

Claire Milligan Oral History Session #1, 164min ~ Transcript.
Claire Milligan Oral History Session #2, 137min ~ Transcript.
Southern Freedom Movement, Montgomery, AL, Black Workers Congress (BWC), lifetime of activism. Interviewed by Bruce Hartford.

Ernest McMillan: Sidley Celebrates Black History Month, by Sidley Austin LLP, 2023. Dallas, TX, racial justice, social justice, Dallas Environmental Justice Network. 67min.

Ernest McMillan: Living History, by 2019. SNCC, Dallas, Morehouse, 1963, brief personal encounter with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 49min.

Ron Ridenour, SNCC, Mississippi. 2023. 86min.

Bruce Hartford, CORE, SCLC, California, Alabama, Selma, Grenada MS. 93min. 2022.

Panels & Presentations about the Freedom Movement

Call To Action: The SNCC Experience in Dallas, with Bishop Mark Herbener, Ernest McMillan, and Edward Harris 2006. 78min.

Civil Rights and Black Power in Global Context, Dr. Joshua Davis, Courtland Cox, Jennifer Lawson, & Daphne Muse. International work of the Freedom Movement, Black Power, Vietnam War, independence of African nations, apartheid in South Africa. 2023. 91min.

Mayor Marion Barry Interview, 1st Chairman of SNCC, Mayor of Washington DC. 43min.

Lawrence Guyot Interview, 2004. SNCC field secretary, Parchman Penitentiary, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Chairman. 114min.

SNCC 60th-12 Education for Self Determination, 77min. Transcript.

SNCC 60th-13 The Artist as Activist, 68min. Transcript.

SNCC 50th #8 ~ Up South: We Raised Money, We Raised Hell, 82min. Transcript.

SNCC 50th #9 ~ More than a Hamburger, 90min. Transcript.

SNCC 40th #8 ~ Ms. Ella Baker's role in the founding of SNCC, 54min. Transcript.

SNCC 40th #9 ~ Chuck McDew's remembrances; Ella Baker as mentor (Ladner), 63min. Transcript.

 

New Movement Documents

1945-1964 Chronology of Legislation on Civil Rights (incl executive actions). Detailed 21-page PDF. Congressional Quarterly, 1965.
1948Telefact: Calling All Women monthly bulletin. Unsigned NCNW. July 1948
1958We Open the Gates, Labor's Fight for Equality. Harry Fleischman, James Rorty, UAW. September 1958. 64-page pamphlet.
1963Police Brutality in Jackson, Unsigned, COFO. July 24 1963
1963Events of November 1 and 2 General, Unsigned, COFO. November 2, 1963
19641964 Civil Rights Act, legislative history – House, detailed 9-pages. Congressional Quarterly, 1965
19641964 Civil Rights Act, legislative history – Senate, detailed 18-pages. Congressional Quarterly, 1965
19641964 Civil Rights Act, legislative history – Final Actions, & Black voter registration statistics. Congressional Quarterly, 1965
19641964 Civil Rights Act, provisions summary, Congressional Quarterly, 1965
1965Final Fifth District Project Report, Sanford R. Leigh, COFO. March 18, 1965
1965Memo: Medical Committee for Human Rights office in Jackson, unsigned MCHR. May 25, 1965
1968Summary of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Summer 1968

WATS & Phone Reports (Log of daily phone-in reports)

SNCC October 25, 1963. Phone report: Freedom Ballot rally, Greenville MS
SNCC October 27, 1963. Phone report: Arrests in Sunflower Co. MS
SNCC October 28, 1963. Phone report: Alabama & Mississippi check-in calls
SNCC October 28, 1963. Phone report: Arrests in Hattiesburg MS
SNCC October 29, 1963. Phone report: Protests & arrests in Gadsden AL
SNCC October 29, 1963. Phone report: Arrests, harrassment, and activities in Mississippi
SNCC October 29, 1963. Phone report: Alabama & Mississippi check-in calls
SNCC October 29, 1963. Phone report by Danny Lyon: Hattiesburg police & firemen harrassment
SNCC October 30, 1963. Phone report: Arrests, harrassment, & suppression in Mississippi
SNCC October 30, 1963. Phone report: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, updates
SNCC October 31, 1963. Phone report: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, updates

Documents from the Northern Wing of the Movement

12/57NCNWNCNW SF Committee Roster, 1956-1957. Unsigned. Undated (probably November or December 1957)
50s? 60s?NCNWNational Council of Negro Women (NCNW) Constitution, U.C. Berkeley chapter. Undated (possibly 1950s)
5/4/65UCCDonation from "Mother Courage" theater play fundraiser, Kenneth Friou, UCC
5/11/65FoSThank you note, R. W. Fleming, Univ. Wisconsin Regents
5/13/65FoSLetter thanking Alicia Kaplow for presentation to meeting, Maurice Pasch, Univ. Wisconsin Regents
5/22/65FoSDear Sir, thank you note for financial assistance. Eugene Pritchett, Selma AL. (Handwritten)
1966 Unite! Newsletter of UNITED (United Neighbors Integrated Through Education and Dedication), Richmond CA. Undated.

 

New Letters & Reports From the Field

???George Robbins, COFOA new spirit in Shaw, MS.
2/3/64Unsigned SNCCField report: police attack and shoot protesters at Jackson State College, MS
1/30/64Mary King, SNCCNames of Those Indicted on Anti-Trespass, Atlanta GA sitins and protests, January 1964
2/19/64Sandy Leigh, SNCCMemo re Pascagoula and Biloxi NAACP Meetings, MS
3/10/64Joyce Barrett, SNCCMemo to Jim Forman on court situation, re Atlanta GA sitins & protests
10/12/64Charles Prickett, COFOWeekly Report, Canton MS
10/12/64Judy Hampton, COFO/COREWeekly Report, Canton MS
10/12/64Unsigned, COFO/COREWeekly Report, Valley View, MS
2/16/65Mary Sue Gellately, COFOResponse to query about organizational dissension, Shaw, MS
4/19/65Eric Fever, U of OKMemo Hattiesburg Ministers Project accompanying donation to COFO. MS

New Letters & Reports From SCLC's SCOPE Projects of 1965

   Report on Sussex County Improvement Association meeting, Mickey Bennett, SCOPE. 8/5/65
   Report, Mickey Bennett, SCOPE. 8/9/65
   Dear Folks Letter to family, Peg Ryan, SCOPE. 8/12/65
   Letter to Glenn Kendall, President, Chico State College, Martin Luther King, SCLC. 9/30/65
   Recommendation note re Peggy Ryan's SCOPE contribution, Herbert Coulton, SCLC. 10/10/65

 

New Additions to Our Stories

No new stories added this month.

New Articles & Speeches From the Southern Freedom Movement

1947Negro Poice in a Southern City. Unsigned, New South, October, 1947.
[For a different view see the term "Negro Police"]
1946Race Hatred Gets a Hearing, Harold C. Fleming, New South, January 1948. Re "Negro police."
1949Courts Define the Right to Vote. Unsigned, New South, Feb 1949. Re White Primaries and literacy tests
1949"Separate But Equal" In Court. Unsigned, New South, December 1949. Re segregated inter-state train travel (Henderson case)

New Articles Added to Freedom Movement History

NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 1909-1970

LDF: NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund (aka "Inc Fund") 1930s-1970

 

New Additions to Our Thoughts

Letters of Support to Expelled Tennessee LegislatorsSNCC Legacy Project (SLP)
Dr. King ¡Presente!Ted Glick

 

New Names Added to the Activist Roll Call

No new names added to the Roll Call this month

 

New Tributes & Memories added to In Memory

Harry Belafonte

Silvia Fischer

Juadine Henderson

Anna Holden

 

New Answers Added to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

No new answers added this month.

 

New Additions to Poetry

No new poems added this month.

 

New Additions to the Photo Album Pages:

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

March on Washington

Before I'll Be a Slave...

Freedom Movement Posters

Freedom Movement Art

Web Links and Bibliography updated, revised, & expanded.

Recent Books by or About Movement Veterans:

The Struggle of Struggles, by Vera Pigee (1924--2007), edited by Frangoise Hamlin, University Press of Mississippi. 2023. New edition of Vera Pigee autobiography chronicles Coahoma County MS, NAACP, Women's leadership, grassroots organizing, citizenship schools, voter registration, and the Baptist church.

A Day I Ain't Never Seen Before Remembering the Civil Rights Movement in Marks, Mississippi, by Joe Bateman, Cheryl Lynn Greenberg, and Richard Arvedon. How the civil rights movement unfolded in a small rural town, far from the cameras.

Stayed On Freedom: The Long History of Black Power through One Family's Journey, by Dan Berger, Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons. An authorized biography of Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons that brings into focus the lives of two unheralded Black Power activists who dedicated their lives to the fight for freedom. Basic Books, January 2023.

By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners, by Margaret Burnham, 2023. Investigation of Jim Crow-era racial violence, the legal apparatus that sustained it, and its enduring legacy. If the law cannot protect a person from a lynching, then isn't lynching the law?

Anne Braden Speaks: Selected Writings and Speeches, 1947-1999, Ben Wilkins, editor. Monthly Review Press, August 2022. Representative collection of Braden's writings, speeches, and letters, covering the full spectrum of her activism: from the relationship between race and capitalism, to the role of the South in American society, to the political function of anti- communism.

The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride, by David Dennis Sr. & Jr. HarperCollins, May 2022. "A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter."

Memoirs Of A Revolution Experience Through Poetry And Poems, by Lulu Westbrook Griffin. Page Publishing Co, 2022. The personal story of a young activist in Southwest Georgia during the height of 1960s Freedom Movement who was held for 45 days in the infamous Leesburg stockade.

RECENT FILMS & VIDEOS By or About Movement Veterans:

Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, by Sam Pollard & Geeta Gandbhir, Multitude Films in association with The Atlantic. Story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County. 2022. 90min.

 

As always comments, suggestions, corrections, and submissions from Freedom Movement activists are welcome. Veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement who are listed on the website's Roll Call are encouraged to contribute to the website their stories, thoughts, documents, and memories & tributes of those who have passed on by emailing them in to us.

If you're not already a subscriber to the monthly email version of this newsletter, send us your email address and let us know you'd like to be added to the list. To unsubscribe (heaven forfend!) do the same.

 — Bruce Hartford, webspinner@crmvet.org.


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