CRMA
Civil Rights Movement Archive
Monthly Newsletter
October 1st, 2025
Table of Contents
News
Our Sister Sites
Announcements
Website Report
Top Ten Most Viewed
New Movement Documents
New Letters & Reports
New Stories & Narratives
New Articles & Speeches
New Thoughts & Commentaries
New Discussions
New Photos, Art, & Posters
Recent Books
Recent Films/Videos
News
As we've been reporting over the past few months, the MAGA Regime is waging an
unrelenting attack on our history, our values, and our democracy. Last month,
for example, they continued their campaign with a direct assault on the
Smithsonian, demanding that the institution align itself with the
president's political agenda (meaning MAGA ideology and dogma).
This month our focus is on our resistance to autocratic
thought-suppression.
In a time of increasing censorship and thought-suppression, our Movement
History Initiative (MHI) is a collaborative effort by multiple
organizations to build an integrated platform for
preserving — and continuing to make freely available to the
public — the history, thoughts, stories, strategies, images,
videos, and materials of up-from-below peoples' struggles for freedom,
justice, and equality. It is being created by veterans of the 1960s Freedom
Movement and modern-era, grassroots social-justice activists in Black
communities who share their lives-lived experiences from the inside-
out to combat distortions, false-narratives and censorship to provide
momentum for movement building today.
We are not alone. Many other groups and organizations are also in the fight to
defend freedom of thought and preserve Black history. A few examples
include:
Response to the White House Directive to Review Smithsonian Institution Museums
Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
Statement Regarding the White House Review of Smithsonian Institution Museums,
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
Freedom to Learn Network, #HandsOffOurHistory.
Convened by the African American Policy Forum.
Black History Is American History Affirmation, sign-on petition.
Multiple organizations.
Statement by Legal Defense Fund (LDF) April 27, 2025
Stand Against Trump's Erasure of Black History, sign on petition. Color of Change.
Please Donate.
With a Little Help From Our Friends,
We'll keep on keeping on.
Ever since we established the CRMA (originally 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. |
 |
Movement History Initiative.
A collaboration among veterans of the Freedom Movement of the 1950-1960s and today's activists and grassroots organizations to preserve — and continue to make freely available to the
public — the history, thoughts, stories, strategies, images, videos, and materials of up-from-below peoples' struggles for freedom, justice, and equality. |
 |
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. |
 |
Black Power Chronicles. The SNCC Legacy Project created the Black Power Chronicles (BPC) in 2015
to help fill the informational void that exists in our historical record about the impact of the Black Power Movement in local communities throughout America. |
 |
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. |
 |
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. |
Announcements
From
Emmett Till to SNCC & Beyond: Words, Music & Art with Peggy
Dammond Preacely (SNCC) and many others. Benefit for the Highways Performance
Space. Saturday, October 11, 8:30pm (PDT). 1651 18th St., Santa Monica,
CA.
Borrowed Land,
Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit: The Struggle for Power and Equality in
Holmes County, Mississippi, by Diane T. Feldman. University Press of
Mississippi. 2025. Chronicles the profound history of a low-income county that
became a pivotal site for Delta organizing during the Civil Rights
Movement.
From Protest to Power Podcasts . SNCC Legacy
Project (SLP). The central theme of these visual podcasts is the ongoing
effort of the Black community to achieve the power to define its existence in
America.
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.
Website Report
As of October 1st, our online archive contained 11.528 viewable pages,
documents, images, and recordings, 486 videos in our Vimeo video channel, and
listings for 696 Freedom Movement veterans.
According to Google, there were 22,156 visits to the CRMA website during
September for an average of 739 per day. This is approximately 20% more than
September of last year. There are 19,844 links on the global internet to our
site.
On school days, our number of visitors ranged from 561 to 924 per day.
Roughly 34% of our visitors came from outside the U.S. in
September — which is quite high for us. On average over the
course of a year, international users make up 15%-20% of our users. Also of
interest is that 3,349 came from China. We haven't been tracking
visitors from specific countries, but that number from China seems unusually
high (we have no explanation). In any case, we are proud that our Freedom
Movement of the 1960s is still of interest to people around the world and that
our site still stands as a free, publicly-available, un-censored international
information resource.
Top Ten Most Viewed
According to Google, here are the top-ten, most-visited sections and
individual pages in September.
(Note that 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.)
Sections, Landing & Reference Pages
- Site Search: Civil Rights Movement Archive
- C.R. Movement History 1950-1970
- Freedom Movement Photo Album
- MLK Speeched & Writings,
- Freedom Movement Bibliography
- Freedom Movement Videos
- Poems of the Civil Rights Movement
- Our Words, Articles & Speeches
- Roll Call of Freedom Movement Veterans
- Civil Rights Movement Web Links
Individual Pages & Documents
- The Other America, Dr. Martin Luther King. (1967)
- C.R. Movement History: 1960 (student sit-ins)
- Louisiana Voter Application and Literacy Tests
- C.R. Movement History: 1963 July-Dec (Mass Protests, March on Washington JFK assassination)
- C.R. Movement History: 1961 (Freedom Rides, MS voter registration, Albany GA)
- C.R. Movement History: 1963 Jan-June (Birmingham, Greenwod, Danville)
- Poem: Ain't I A Woman? Sojourner Truth
- Photo Album: Freedom Movement Posters
- Alabama Voter Literacy Test
- Photo Album: The Freedom Rides (1961)
Top Ten Sections & Pages That Others on the Internet Link To
Google reports that out on the global internet there are 19,844 backlinks to
materials on our site by people, organizations, grade-schools, and
universities using us as a trusted information resource.
The Top-Ten linked to pages are:
- CRMA Home Page
- The Other America, Dr. Martin Luther King. (1967)
- Are You "Qualified" to Vote?—Literacy Tests & Voter Applications
- Public Opinion Polls on Civil Rights Movement activities, 1961-1969
- Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story Comic Book. (Fellowship of Reconciliation)
- C.R. Movement History: 1961 (Freedom Rides, MS voter registration, Albany GA)
- C.R. Movement History: 1963 July-Dec (Mass Protests, March on Washington JFK assassination)
- Speech to Anti-War Protest, Dr. Martin Luther King. (April 15, 1967)
- Final Plans for the March on Washington, 1963
- We Charge Genocide, Civil Rights Congress (CRC). 1954
| 1947 | Journey of Reconciliation collection 5 documents
Segregation on Common Carriers. James Wallace
About the Journey of Reconciliation. CORE
Journey of Reconciliation miscellaneous documents.
NAACP Contact List for Journey of Reconciliation.
Journey of Reconciliation, Houser & Rustin, CORE/FOR. 15 pages. |
| ???? | The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Enforcement Act of 1870, description of long-standing law requiring federal law enforcement offices to enforce the Constitution and civil rights. By implication countering FBI claims that they had no legal standing to defend southern Blacks or protect civil rights activists. Unsigned, undated. |
| ???? | Mississippi State and County Government Salaries. Unsigned, undated. |
| 56-60 | Listen! Some Reasons Why Everyone Should Register and Vote, Mississippi. Unsigned. Undated (probably 1956-1960) |
| 1964 | Responsibilities and Procedural Requirements. Ronnie Moore, Louisiana CORE. Undated 1964. |
| 1964 | Clinic on Non-Violence. Unsigned CORE. Louisiana. 2/8/64. 2 pages. |
| 1964 | Action Memo: Greenwood Mississippi re Senate filibuster against Civil Rights Act and relationship to Greenwood. Unsigned SNCC. 4/1/64. 2 pages. |
| 1964 | Senate Passes Bill, SNCC Memo #42 re Civil Rights Act. 6/19/64. 3 pages. |
| 1964 | Urgent Memo re dangerous time lapses in incident reports. James Forman, SNCC. 6/26/64. |
| 1964 | Statement correcting false media story regarding position on nonviolence and nationalism. John Lewis, SNCC. 7/1/64 |
| 1964 | Freedom Press newsletter. Hattiesburg MS. August 1964. 4 pages. |
| 1964 | Freedom Registration as of August 3rd. Unsigned COFO |
| 1964 | Memo to Freedom Summer library coordinators. Virginia Steele, COFO. 8/7/64. 4 pages. |
| 1964 | Summary of terrorism in Mississippi, June 21-August 19. Unsigned. COFO? |
| 1964 | COFO Financial Report 5/6/64-9/27/64. |
| 1964 | Dear Friend, memo on campus Friends of SNCC organizing and program. Unsigned SNCC. 10/24/64. 8 pages. |
| 1964 | Organizing outline and plans November-December 1964. Unsigned Louisiana CORE. Undated (progably November 1964). 4 pages. |
| 64? 65? | Laws Against False Arrest by Policemen. Murphy Bell, CORE. Analysis of charging cops with "false arrest" in some civil rights cases. Undated (possibly 1964 or 1965). |
| 64? 65? | Canvas Sheet, door-to-door canvas worksheet. Louisiana? Unsigned CORE. Undated (possibly 1964 or 1965). |
| 64? 65? | Complaint Information forms for reporting violations of the Civil Rights Act or denial of voting rights. Unsigned Louisiana CORE. (Used prior to passage of Voting Rights Act). Undated (possibly 1964 or 1965). |
| 64? 65? | Organizing a Purchasing Co-Op form/questionaire. Unsigned CORE. Undated (possibly 1964 or 1965). |
| 64? 65? | CORE Testing Form for compliance with Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unsigned. Undated (possibly 1964 or 1965). |
| 64? 65? | Statement: What Freedom Schools Will Mean to Louisiana. Unsigned CORE. Undated (possibly 1964 or 1965). |
| 1965 | Women in Poverty. U.S. Department of Labor. July 1964. 8 pages. |
| 1965 | Letter to Yale Rabin re research work. Jack (Minnis?), SNCC. 7/22/65. 2 pages. |
| 1965 | Statement, re phony trial of assassin who murdered Jonathan Daniels in Lowndes County AL. Rev. John. B. Morris, ESCRU. |
| 1967 | Some Simple Facts About the Fair Labor Standard Act (Minimum Wage Law). Usigned SRC. February 1967. 8 pages |
| 1967 | A Minimum Wage Campaign for Local Groups, unsigned SRC. February 1967. 4 pages. |
| 67-68 | Workers Defense League Docket (WDL) 1967-1968. 8 pages. |
| 1968 | SNCC organizational chart. Created by Senate Govenment Operations Committee as part of investigation of "Riots, Civil, and Criminal Disorders" based on unreliable law enforcement intelligence. June 1968. Later reproduced and displayed by Freedom Summer 30th Anniverdary Reunion 1994 |
| 1968 | Poor Peoples Campaign Continues statement. Unsigned SCLC. Undated 1968 (possibly summer). 3 pages. |
Documents from the Northern Wing of the Movement
New Letters & Reports From Mississippi Freedom Summer
| 7/4 | Mr. & Mrs. [unclear] Pomerance? (handwritten), Cathedral Childress. Thanks and praise for their son's work as a Freedom Summer volunteer in Batesville MS (handwritten) |
| 7/5 | Dear Church Members and Friends , Larry Spears COFO. Description of first week in Hattiesburg. 2 pages. |
| 7/5 | Dear Mom, Dad, Bob, and Bill , Jerry Parker? Letter from Tchula about Oxford training and work in Holmes Co. MS. 4 pages. |
| 7/5 | Dear Mama and Papa, Terri Shaw. Draft of letter about work in Hattiesburg. |
| 7/8 | Hi! Judy. Letter describing activites in Shaw (Bolivar Co.) 3 pages. |
| 7/11 | Letter from George Winter , re work in Ruleville (Sunflower Co.) |
| 7/11 | Dear Friends, Linda Seese. Letter about difficulties and hard work in Ruleville (Sunflower Co.) |
| 7/11 | Letter From Mississippi, Abe Sayer. Meridian MS |
| 7/6-12 | Excertps From Letters From Nancy Schieffelin, Greenville MS. 2 pages |
| 7/13 | Honey, note from Roy Torkington. Re work in Itta Bena. LeFlor Co. |
| 7/15 | Dear Ones, Judy. Letter from Shaw (Bolivar Co.) 4 pages |
| 7/15 | Dear Mother, John Stevenson. Note from Meridian MS |
| 7/15 | Dear Mr. & Mrs. Barrow, Robert Stone. Re McComb MS. |
| 9/17 | Memo to Mississippi Project Parents Committee, Nancy Bowles Ellin. Re collection of letters written by her husband Joe from Hattiesburg. |
Suppressing Voting Rights: Jim Crow Compared to MAGA, Bruce Hartford. Sept. 2025
Preface: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party:
Lessons From Another Day. Mike Miller, April 2020
What Were The Failures of the Civil Rights Movement?. Mike Miller. March 2024
Second Draft: The Democratic Party Convention - 60 Years Ago. Mike Miller. August 26, 2024
SNCC 28th ~ The Music of the Movement
SNCC 28th ~ The SNCC Woman and the Stirrings of Feminism
SNCC 28th ~ Alabama Bound: Selma, and the Lowndes County Black Panther Party, 1964-1966
SNCC 28th ~ Discussions with SNCC Veterans and Students
SNCC 28th ~ The Rise and Triumph of Black Power 1965 - 1966
SNCC 28th ~ The 1960s, and the American Democratic Tradition
No new answers added this month.
No new memories or tributes added this month
No new poems added this month.
Pins of the Civil Rights Movement
Freedom Movement Art, Special Collections
Recent Books by or About Movement Veterans:
Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement.
Atria/One Signal Publishers (Simon & Schuster) March 2025. The little known
story of how four activists in the 1950s created and built a semi-clandestine
network of Citizenship Schools across the Jim Crow South. A network that
formed a foundation for the Freedom Movement's voting rights battles of the
1960s. Septima Clark, Esau Jenkins, Bernice Robinson, and Myles Horton of the
Highlander Center.
Mississippi's Black Cotton.
By MacArthur Cotton and John Obee, foreword by Nikole Hannah-Jones. University
of Georgia Press. May 1, 2025. A personal history of the 1960's Mississippi
Civil Rights Movement by SNCC Field Secretary MacArthur Cotton, who lived it.
If Anybody Should Ask
You ... This Is What Happened: A Memoir, by Gwendolyn J. Dennis-Mack.
2024. The personal story of an African American high school girl who joined
the movement of young people to desegregate American classrooms in Deep South
Georgia.
More Voices
of Civil Rights Lawyers: Continuing the Struggle, by Kent Spriggs.
Stories and descriptions by 23 Civil Rights Lawyers about their struggles to
advance and maintain human rights in the United States South.
Putting
the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching, Second Edition. By
Menkart, Murray, and View. 2024. Lessons, quizzes, images, essays, articles,
primary source documents, and poetry, to help teachers go beyond a "heroes and
holidays" approach to teaching about the Freedom Movement in K-12 classrooms.
The focus is on people of color, women, youth, organizing, culture,
institutional racism, and the interconnectedness of social
movements — Desegregation of Public Spaces, Voting Rights,
Black Power, Labor and Land, Transnational Solidarity, and Student
Engagement.
Unlawfully Incarcerated At Age Thirteen, by Emmarene Kaigler Streeter,
2024. Personal story of one the "Stolen Girls of the
Lee County Stockade
arrested in Americus GA, and imprisoned in 1963.
Marching in Montgomery, by John J. Hartman. IPBooks. 2024.
First-hand account by a participant of the March 1965 voting rights protests
in Montgomery Alabama in support of the movement in Selma AL.
Ma Lineal: A Memoir of Race, Activism, and Queer Family, by Faith
Holsaert. Memoir of NYC childhood, SNCC in Southwest Georgia, and raising her
own children in the coalfields of West Virginia.
The Rise and Fall of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, by
Martin Oppenheimer. Native Publishers, 2024. Concise history including the
historical antecedents, the Greensboro sit-ins, Freedom Summer, the violence
of KKK and police, and its demise around 1973.
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
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