Civil Rights Movement Archive (CRMA)
New & Announcements

March 1st, 2024

New Collection: What the Civil Rights Movement Taught Us

According to Google, there were 35,853 visits to the CRMA website during February for an average of 1236 per day.

As a general rule, February (Black History month) is our peak month each year. The 1236 per day of this February, however, is 150 below (-10%) February of last year. Ever since 2020, our traffic has been declining. Since two-thirds of our visitors are students (grade school and college) we believe that a significant portion of this decline stems from the vicious and unrelenting war being waged by Republicans and MAGAites against teachers, librarians, schools, and colleges who dare stand against racism and educate around issues of racial justice. Nevertheless, we still stand and will persevere.

Roughly 27% of our visitors came from outside the U.S. That is much higher than normal for a February but we have no idea why. On school days, our number of visitors ranged from 800 to 1400 per day.

As of March 1st, our online archive contains 9833 searchable pages, documents, and images, and 318 videos in our Vimeo video channel. Google reports that out on the global internet there are 20,080 backlinks to our CRMA site, sections, and pages, by organizations and people using us as an information resource.

 

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

Ever since we established the CRMA (formerly known as "CRMVet") in 1999, it has been almost entirely funded by personal donations from Freedom Movement veterans and individual supporters. We carry on this work with almost zero institutional support, foundation grants, or philanthropic contributions. So if you find our CRMA site useful and worthy, please click donate to keep us alive and growing. You can donate via check, your bank's Bill Pay service, or PayPal. Thank you for anything you are able to contribute.

 

Our Sister Sites

SNCC Legacy Project (SLP). SLP preserves and extends 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 equality today.

SNCC Digital Gateway (SDG). A joint project of SLP and Duke University, SDG tells the story of how young activists in SNCC united with local people in the 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.

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

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.

Announcements

SNCC & Grassroots Organizing Discussion Series. Feb-May (online and in-Person events). Various locations. SNCC Legacy Project (SLP).

Medical Assistance for Dorie Ladner ~ Dorie Ladner is at a critical time of her life. She is in urgent need of home healthcare assistance. Dorie's brothers and sisters from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the 1960s Freedom Movement are reaching out to support her financially. A GoFundMe account has been set up for that purpose.

Freedom Summer 60th Commemoration programs and initiatives.

Teach Truth Day of Action, Saturday, June 8, 2024. Zinn Education Project (coordinated by Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools)

SSOC Reunion: Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC) veterans have organized a reunion to be held June 14-16, 2014 in Nashville, TN. Those who were involved in SSOC chapters and/or other SSOC programs are especially urged to attend. For further information contact Grant Cooper at gc@resupro.com or by phone at 504-813-9922.

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 1950-1970. See Submissions details.

 

Top-Ten Most Viewed

According to Google, our top-ten, most-visited sections and individual pages in February were:

Sections, Landing & Reference Pages

  1. Are You "Qualified" to Vote?—Literacy Tests & Voter Applications
  2. Poems of the Civil Rights Movement
  3. Site Search: Civil Rights Movement Archive
  4. Freedom Rides and Freedom Riders Resources
  5. Documents From the Montgomery Bus Boycott
  6. Original Freedom Movement Documents
  7. Freedom Movement Bibliography
  8. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
  9. Documents From the 1960s Sit-Ins
  10. March on Washington: Articles & Speeches

Individual Pages & Documents

  1. Photo Album: Freedom Movement Posters
  2. Poems of Langston Hughes
  3. Louisiana Voter Application and Literacy Tests
  4. CRM History: 1951-1952 (Student Strike Moton High, We Charge Genocide, Murder of the Moores)
  5. Civil Rights Movement History: 1960 (student sit-ins)
  6. Alabama Voter Literacy Test
  7. Photo Album: The Sit-Ins—Off Campus and Into Movement (1960)
  8. Photo Album: The Freedom Rides (1961)
  9. Voter Registration in Alabama Before the Voting Rights Act
  10. Photo Album: The March to Montgomery (1965)

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

 

CRMA Video & Audio

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 February:

Dr. L.C. Dorsey Interview, 2006. Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Head Start, Operation Help, MFDP, Delta Ministry, National Council of Churches, 42min.

Vincent Harding Interview, 2006. Martin Luther King, Spelman, Mennonite House, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, 16min.

Rev. Clinton Collier Interview, 2005. Meridian and Neshoba MS, MFDP candidate, 120min.

In Rarefied Air: A Civil Rights Story, 8 Train Productions (Jack Straton), 2009. SNCC member Karen Haberman Trusty talks to Portland State University students. 57min.

Civil Rights and the Southern Freedom Movement, Chude Allen, Marion Kwan, and Karen Trusty talk with an ElderStudy group. 2024 114min.

Black History Month—SNCC Women Speak, Efia Nwangaza, Fannie Rushing and Theresa El-Amin share their SNCC stories for Black History Month, 2024. 68min.

Frankye Adams Johnson, interview, 2005. NAACP, SNCC, Mississippi, 1963-1967. 121min,

Owen Brooks, interview, 2006. NAACP, Delta Ministry, SNCC, 1943-98, 68min.

James (Jimmy) Garrett, interview 2005 1962-66, CORE, SNCC, Louisiana, Mississippi, California, 26min.

Margaret Kibbee, 2006. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) 1965-, 28min.

SNCC 50th #33 ~ Special Program - Dick Gregory ~ They're Asking Different Questions Today. 68min.

SNCC 50th #34 ~ Plenary - In Remembrance of Ella Baker, Howard Zinn, and James Forman Charles Sherrod, Dr. Carolyn Brockington, Constancia 'Dinky' Romilly, Vincent Harding. 82min.

SNCC 50th #35 ~ Dinner Keynote - Danny Glover, The Real Costs Lie Ahead. 36min.

New Audio recordings added in February

Joseph Carter Interview by Mimi Feingold Real, 1967. Arrested for trying to register to vote in Louisiana. 47min.

 

New Links Added to Film, Videos & Audio Bibliography

Journey to Freedom Project. Videos of women and men from the Capital Region of New York who participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

 

New Movement Documents

 SNCC Womens Statements — Disambiguation
1959CORE Does It This Way! Unsigned CORE. Handout describing CORE nonviolent tactics and methods.
1959Call to National CORE Council, unsigned CORE. Invitation to participate in January 1960 national CORE meeting. December 8, 1959
1961?"My beliefs and my associations are none of the business of this committee", HUAC and the Carl Braden case. Unsigned SCEF. Undated (possibly 1961). 24 page pamphlet.
1963SNCC Staff Application, unsigned SNCC. Undated (probably late 1962-fall 1963)
1964Report & proposals from Community Center & Voter Registration Workshops, unsigned SNCC. Probably from a conference or staff meeting. Undated (probably late 1963 or 1964)
1964Letter from Bob Moses (COFO) to James Farmer (CORE) re timing, strategy, and press releases. March 2, 1964
1964SNCC Staff Working in Mississippi Summer 1964, unsigned SNCC
1964Things to Do Now And Throughout the Summer, unsigned SNCC. Probably sent to Friends of SNCC offices nationwide during Freedom Summer. Undated summer 1964
1964Map: Mississippi congressional districts and FBI bureau assignments Unsigned SNCC. (Before summer 1964 there was no Mississippi FBI field office. The FBI's Memphis office handled cases in northern half of Mississippi and the New Orlans office cases in the southern.)
1964Mississippi HB227, new law expanding use of Parchman prison to incarcerate local misdemeanor arrests (protesters). Unsigned SNCC. Undated (probably summer 1964)
1964Support mobilization letter for MFDP Congressional Challenge, Al Raby, Freedom Democratic Clubs, Chicago IL. 12/14/64
1965Present Information About the Nation-Wide High School Conference, Lynn Wells, SNCC. May 22, 1965.
1965National CORE Financial Report, unsigned CORE. May 31, 1965.
1965Appeal Bulletin, Jackson Situation and MFDP congressional challenge. SNCC northern support team. 6/17/65.
1965We Urge You to Do These Things, re support for Jackson voting rights protests. SNCC northern support team. 6/17/65
1965Memo to Friends of SNCC re MFDP congressional challenge, Jackson voting rights protests & horrendus jail conditions. Unsigned SNCC. 6/19/65
1965Letter to Alcia Kaplow re SNCC's position on Vietnam and the draft. Margaret, SNCC. 12/1/65.

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

SNCC January 28, 1964. Hattiesburg arrests - Moses & Guyot, Canton report.
SNCC January 28, 1964. Phone call with NASA re not speaking at segregated event.
SNCC January 29, 1964. Jackson injunction. Mike Sayer.
SNCC January 29, 1964. Cambrdige MD Gloria Richardson and Adam Clayton Powell
SNCC January 29, 1964. Hattiesburg & Greenwood arrests & court cases.
SNCC January 29, 1964. Hattiesburg, Jackson, New York, Selma, Shaw, St. Augustine.
SNCC January 30, 1964. Cross burnings, Hattiesburg & Danville report.
SNCC January 30, 1964. Chapel Hill & Jackson reports, Charlie Cobb re Canton.
SNCC January 30, 1964. Canton arrests & intimidation.
SNCC January 30, 1964. Canton & Selma report.
SNCC January 30, 1964. Jackson report.
SNCC January 30, 1964. Hattiesburg report, Sandy Leigh.
SNCC January 31, 1964. Hattiesburg report, Sandy Leigh, court cases, etc.

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) Publications.

1967 SpringRights, CIA, Connor Cruise O'Brien, Douglas Dowd, Thomas Parkinson, H.H. Wilson, Warren Hinckle, Native Americans, Robert Burnett
1967 FallRights, Constitution & the poor, urban uprisings, GI resistance, Andrew Kopkind, Irving Brant, William Crain

Documents from the Northern Wing of the Movement

10/17/63COREDefaced Campus CORE flyer (possibly UCLA). (Note official stamp of approval from campus administration permitting the flyer to be posted on bulletin boards as was required prior to the Free Speech Movement of Fall 1964.)
5/5/65Harvey BadeschLetter re Food for Freedom and Selma, AL

SF State BSU/TWLF-Led Student & Faculty Strike (1968-1969)

Legal defense information, flyers, & reports, Legal Defense Committee. 1968-1967. (16 documents)

Strike Closes Down Campus, report by S.F. State Phoenix. 11/7/68. 8 pages.

Student Political Polemics. SDS, YSA, PL, Joe Hill, others. (8 documents)

On Strike Shut It Down, S.F. State Strike Committee (PL). Undated (probably early January 1969). 76 pages.

 

New Letters & Reports From the Field

3/9/64Ed HeiningerMemo to Ian McRae re trip to Mississippi and Mt. Beulah center
3/9/64Fraser ThomasonReport to NCC-CRR on mission to Canton MS (Madison Co.), 14pages
3/12/64Rev. John ShermanExense report & reimbursal request for mission to Canton MS.
3/23/64Ian McCrae, NCCMemo to Ed Heininger re Mississippi trip and and Mt. Beulah center
3/23/64Unsigned, NCC?Memo to Loren Lair? re Mt. Beulah center in Mississippi (possibly sent to a group of individuals)
4/65Unsigned CORE/COFOCanton MS Project Financial Report, undated (probably April 1965)
5/65Unsigned, COFO/CORECanton Mississippi report, early May 1965
5/4/65Sue Thrasher, SSOCFund appeal letter to Lucy Montgomery
5/12/65Myles Horton, HighlanderLetter to Carl Braden (SCEF) re SCEF's organizational role with AEPAC
5/21/65Sue Thrasher, SSOCLetter to Lucy Montgomery re Chicago visit
65-66Correspondence thread re activists & college admissions
Unsigned SNCC: Letter to Alicia Kaplow re admissions to Univ. of Wisconsin 12/3/65
Ruth Doyle, UW: Memo re Negro Students, questions/answers. 12/30/65
Dave Achibald, SNCC: Letter re striking high school students in Forrest City AK, 2/8/66
Ruth Doyle, UW: Response re Forrest City students & Univ of Wisc., 2/11/66
Esther Heifetz, SNCC: Letter re Forrest City student situation, 2/25/66

 

New Additions to Our Stories

Joseph CarterInterview by Mimi Feingold Real. Arrested for trying to register to vote in Louisiana.

 

New Articles & Speeches From the Southern Freedom Movement

1946The CORE Way, Helen Buckler. Survey Graphic, February 1946. Founders and early CORE action, 1941-1943
1949Project: Brotherhood, report on CORE interracial workshop in Washington DC. George Houser, CORE. Fellowship Magazine, undated (probably 1949 or 1950). Anti-segregation direct action efforts in Washington.

 

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

No new memories or tributes added this month

 

New Additions to Our Discussions

Civil Rights and the Southern Freedom Movement2024

 

New Answers Added to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

No new answers added this month.

 

New Additions to Poetry

Poems of C. Liegh McInnis
  Bob Moses: Gardener of Minds
  For Hollis Watkins (Slight Return)
  Mississippi Courage: A Lighthouse to the World
  For Freedom Summer
  The Bridge (For Medgar at the Crossroads)
  Put the Ghosts to Rest (for Rainey Pool)

 

New Additions to the Photo Album Pages:

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

March on Washington

Freedom Movement Posters

 

Web Links and Bibliography updated, revised, & expanded.

Recent Books by or About Movement Veterans:

Love Letter from Pig: My Brother's Story of Freedom Summer, by Julie Kabat. University Press of Mississippi, 2023. Based on primary-source materials, the personal story of volunteer Luke Kabat and the Meridian MS (Lauderdale Co.) project.

No Ordinary Joe: Lesson From a Life of Community Organizing for Social Change, by Jerome Christensen. Wordshop at Fourth & Sioux, September 2023. Life of Civil Rights Movement activist and community organizer Joe Morse.

Standing, by Ernest McMillan. August, 2023.

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.

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.

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 Alabama. 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.


Copyright ©
Webspinner: webmaster@crmvet.org
(Labor donated)