One of the longstanding debates within the history of the Civil Rights Movement is whether to associate its origins with the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott or earlier, particularly with more radical protests in the early 20th century, and whether to claim it ended in the mid or late 1960s (with the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 or Dr. King's assassination in 1968). The sources linked to on this page focus on the classic period of the 1950s and 1960s, but they also include information about earlier and later work.
See Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past" vs Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua and Clarence Long, "The 'Long Movement' as Vampire: Temporal and Spatial Fallacies in Recent Black Freedom Studies.
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This resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
Focuses predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina.
Digital access to the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle. The organizations covered include the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored women's Clubs. Also includes the papers of civil rights leaders A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Claude A. Barnett.
Primary source documents related to the Black Liberation Army (BLA), an underground, black nationalist-Marxist organization that operated from 1970 to 1981.
The BLA arose in reaction to the political, social, and economic oppression of African American people. Composed largely of former Black Panthers, the organization’s program was one of "armed struggle" and its stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of Black people in the United States."
Primary source documents related to voting rights activist and civil rights leader, Fannie Lou Hamer.
Fannie Lou Hamer was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The collection includes correspondence, financial records, programs, photographs, newspaper articles, invitations, and other printed items. The papers are arranged in the following series: Personal, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Freedom Farms Corporation, Delta Ministry, Mississippians United to Elect Negro Candidates, Delta Opportunities Corporation, and Collected Materials.
Contains reproductions of hundreds of FBI files documenting the federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution to which Black Americans of all political persuasions were subjected.
Many of the documents originated with Black "confidential special informants" enlisted by the FBI to infiltrate a variety of organizations. In addition to infiltration, the FBI contributed to the infringement of First Amendment freedoms by making its agents a constant visible presence at radical rallies and meetings. This archive is based on original microfilm.
Contents: COINTELPRO: Black Nationalist "Hate" Groups -- FBI file on A. Philip Randolph -- FBI File on Adam Clayton Powell -- FBI file on the Atlanta child murders (ATKID) -- FBI file on the Black Panther Party, North Carolina -- FBI file on the Committee for Public Justice -- FBI file on Elijah Muhammed -- FBI file on the Highlander Folk School -- FBI file on the Ku Klux Klan murder of Viola Liuzzo -- FBI file on Malcolm X -- FBI file : MIBURN (Mississippi Burning) -- FBI file on the Moorish Science Temple of America -- FBI File on the Murder of Lemuel Penn -- FBI file on Muslim Mosque, Inc. -- FBI file on the NAACP -- FBI file on the National Negro Congress -- FBI file on the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) -- FBI file on Paul Robeson -- FBI file on the Reverend Jesse Jackson -- FBI file on Roy Wilkins -- FBI file on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee -- FBI file on Thurgood Marshall -- FBI file on W. E. B. Du Bois -- FBI investigation file on Communist infiltration of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- FBI surveillance file: Malcolm X -- FBI investigation file on Marcus Garvey. (OCLC)
African American oral history video collection.
Includes interviewees from across the United States, from a variety of fields, and with memories stretching from the 1890s to the present. Rather than focus on one particular part of a person’s life or a single subject, such as a career or participation in the civil rights movement, the interviews are life oral histories covering the person’s entire span of memories as well as his or her own family’s oral history.
FBI surveillance files: African Liberation Support Committee and All African People's Revolutionary Party.
Composed of FBI surveillance files on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People's Revolutionary Party; this collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for domestic Black struggles. (OCLC)
A variety of materials comprise this collection, including:
FBI surveillance and informant reports and correspondence from a variety of offices including, NYC, Baltimore, New Haven, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, Newark, Kansas City, and Cleveland; Intercepted correspondence; Ephemera from NGO support groups; Justice Department memoranda, correspondence, and analyses; Newsclippings and articles; Copies of handbills, pamphlets, and newsletters; Witness statements; Extremist Intelligence Section reports; Domestic Intelligence Division reports and memoranda; Transcriptions of wiretaps, typewriter tapes, and coded messages; Speech excerpts; Transcripts of conversations.
Date range of documents: 1970-1985
Provides a comprehensive view of the NAACP's evolution, policies, and achievements from 1909-1970. Included are minutes of directors' meetings, monthly reports from officers to the board of directors, proceedings of the annual business meetings, records of the association's annual conferences, plus special reports on the most important issues for the NAACP.
Collection consists of materials from the years 1913 through 1998 that document African American author and activist Amiri Baraka. Includes poetry, organizational records, print publications, articles, plays, speeches, personal correspondence, oral histories, and personal records. The materials cover Baraka's involvement in the politics in Newark, N.J. and in Black Power movement organizations such as the Congress of African People, the National Black Conference movement, the Black Women's United Front. Later materials document Baraka's increasing involvement in Marxism.
Contents: Series I: Black arts movement, 1961-1998 -- Series II: Black nationalism, 1964-1977 -- Series III: Correspondence, 1967-1973 -- Series IV: Newark (New Jersey), 1913-1980 -- Series V: Congress of African People, 1960-1976 -- Series VI: National Black conferences and National Black Assembly, 1968-1975 -- Series VII: Black Women's United Front, 1975-1976 -- Series VIII: Student Organization for Black Unity, 1971 -- Series IX: African Liberation Support Committee, 1973-1976 -- Series X: Revolutionary Communist League, 1974-1982 -- Series XI: African socialism, 1973 -- Series XII: Black Marxists, 1969-1980 -- Series XIII: National Black United Front, 1979-1981 -- Series XIV: Miscellaneous materials, 1978-1988 -- Series XV: Serial publications, 1968-1984 -- Series XVI: Oral histories, 1984-1986 -- Series XVII: Komozi Woodard's office files, 1956-1986.
--OCLC
Primary resources related to the history, culture, and politics of the American 1960s.
Includes diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary covering the history, culture, and politics of the 1960s. Themes include: arts, music, and leisure ; civil rights ; counter-culture ; law and government ; mass media ; new left and emerging neo-conservative movement ; student activism ; Vietnam War ; women's movement.