CRMA
Civil Rights Movement Archive
Monthly Newsletter
April 1st, 2026
Table of Contents
Website Report
Our Sister Sites
Announcements
Top Ten Most Viewed
New Movement Documents
New Letters & Reports
New Stories & Narratives
New Articles & Speeches
New Thoughts & Commentaries
Activist Roll Call, New Names
In Memory, New Tributes
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), New Answers
New Poems
New Photos, Art, & Posters
Recent Books
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.
Website Report
As of April 1st, our online archive contained 11,886 viewable pages,
documents, images, and recordings, 490 videos in our Vimeo video channel, and
listings for 697 Freedom Movement veterans. Google reports that out on the
global internet there are 22,817 backlinks to materials on our site by people,
organizations, schools, and colleges using us as a trusted information
resource.
According to Google, there were 130,828 visits to our CRMA website during
March for an average of 4220 per day. This is four times greater than March
of last year when we averaged 1170 per day. For some reason, there was an
unexpected and highly-unusual spike in the number of visitors to our site
between March 3rd and March 17th. During those 14 days, our daily traffic was
seven to ten times higher than in corresponding days of March 2025. We
have no idea what caused this traffic surge.
Was it an AI info-harvest or experiment somewhere in the world (such as
China)? A mass media story or news event sending traffic our way? Some social
media event we're not aware of? Your thoughts and theories welcome.
Roughly 50% of our visitors came from outside the U.S. in March. On average
over the course of a year, international visitors used to comprise 15%-20% of
our users. But starting in August of last year, there was a ten-fold increase
in the number of visits from China. Last month, traffic from China surged to
28% of our total visits. And the number of "active users" (as defined by
Google) from China was much greater than the number from the U.S. We have no
explanation for, or understanding of, this large traffic from China. However,
we remain 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.
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 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. And to provide momentum for movement building
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. |
 |
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. |
Top Ten Most Viewed
According to Google, here are the top-ten, most-visited sections and
individual pages in March.
(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
- Freedom Rides and Freedom Riders Resources
- Freedom Movement Bibliography
- Selma Voting Rights Campaign & March to Montgomery Resources
- Civil Rights Movement Major Topic Resources
- Poems of the Civil Rights Movement
- Freedom Movement Photo Album
- C.R. Movement History 1950-1970
- About the Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Freedom Movement Videos
- School Desegregation Resources
Individual Pages & Documents
- Photo Album: The Children's Crusade: Birmingham (1963)
- C.R. Movement History: 1960 (student sit-ins)
- The Other America, Dr. Martin Luther King. (1967)
- Photo Album: The Freedom Rides (1961)
- Documents From the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Poems of Langston Hughes
- Poem: Ain't I A Woman? Sojourner Truth
- Photo Album: They Say That Freedom is a Constant Struggle (1962-1963)
- C.R. Movement History: 1961 (Freedom Rides, MS voter registration, Albany GA)
- Photo Album: Freedom Movement Posters
Top Ten Sections & Pages That Others on the Internet Link To
- CRMA Home Page
- The Other America, Dr. Martin Luther King. (1967)
- Are You "Qualified" to Vote?—Literacy Tests & Voter Applications
- The Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR)
- Public Opinion Polls on Civil Rights Movement activities, 1961-1969
- Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story Comic Book. (FOR)
- Speech to Anti-War Protest, Dr. Martin Luther King. (April 15, 1967)
- 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)
- C.R. Movement History: 1963 Jan-June (Birmingham, Greenwod, Danville)
Announcements
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.
Now Available:
Civil Rights Warrior: A Life
on the Front Lines of Justice, Equality, and the American Dream, by
Evelyn (Evie) Jones Rich. Skyhorse. 2026. Autobiography of CORE activist and
leader.
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.
| 1950s? | Depositing money in a bank and writing a check. Unsigned (probably SCLC Citizenship Education Program). Undated (probably late 1950s or early 1960s) |
| 1954 | Letter to Sen. Langer re Senate Un-American hearing in New Orleans. Multiple signers, SCEF. Undated 1954. |
| 1954 | Memo to Friends of the SCEF re award and fund appeal. Jim Dombrowski, SCEF. 5/10/54 |
| 1961 | Freedom Rider arrests, police report. Trailways Bus depot. Capt. John Ray, Jackson MS police department. July 9, 1961. 12 pages. |
| 1961 | FBI report on Freedom Rider convictions, Jackson MS. July 14-17, 1961. 4 pages. |
| 1963 | Notes from meeting to plan unemployment democration in Washington DC, Bill Mahone SNCC, Allen Weinstein CORE, and others. 12/23/63. 4 pages |
| 1963 | SNCC Executive Committe Agenada (ExCom). December 27-29, 1963. 3 pages. |
| 1963 | SNCC Executive Committee Minutes, December 27-31, 1963. 31 pages. |
| 1964 | Voters League mass meeting flyer/agenda. East Feliciana Parsish, LA. 2/1/64 |
| 1964 | Letter to Attorney General Robert Kennedy re police beatings of voting rights activists in Canton MS. Ed Hollander, CORE. |
| 1964 | Observer Ministers to Canton MS, list of. Kent Thompson, National Council of Churces (NCC). 2/25/64 |
| 1964 | Attention: Robert Gore memo re plan for CORE trip to east Louisiana parishes. Unsigned CORE. 3/9/64 |
| 1964 | Monroe Workshop on Non-Violence agenda. Monroe LA. Unsigned CORE. 3/2864 |
| 1964 | Note to Norma Becker from Hattie Chaney, Queens School. Re elementary school books. 5/11/64 |
| 1964 | Dear Norma, letter to Norma Becker from Lois Chaffee, COFO. Re Summer Project dangers and realities. 5/27/64 |
| 1964 | Thank you note to Norma Becker from "Bob." 5/27/64 |
| 1964 | Copy of note to Mary Reiss from Lois Chaffee (COFO) re recruitment of freedom school teachers. 5/29/64 |
| 1964 | Nonviolence. Unsigned (probably distributed to Freedom Summer volunteers during training). Undated (probably June 1964). |
| 1964 | CORE Training Session for summer volunteers schedule of activities June 10-17. Unsigned CORE. 3 pages. |
| 1964 | Not For Release, report from M. King to John Doar (DoJ). Re unconfirmed reports of violence in Mississippi. 7/1/64 |
| 1964 | A Call for Support Young Democratic Clubs of Mississippi. R. Hunter Morey. Re attempt to obtain charter from national Democratic Party. 6 pages. |
| 1965 | We Want the Vote (statement and appeal). Unsigned, SNCC. April 8, 1965 |
| 1965 | The New Voting Bill: Rhetoric and Reality. Votring Rights Act of 1965. SNCC Research Dept. 3/24/65. 2 pages. |
| 1965 | To Campus Friends of SNCC and Campus Contacts. Esther Heifetz, SNCC. 3/24/65 |
| 1964 | Note to Norma Becker and Stanley Zibulsky, from Penny Patch re freedom school teacher materals. 5/3/64 |
| 1964 | Letter to Bob Gottlieb re books for freedom schools. Jim Monsonis, SNCC. 5/8/64 |
| 1964 | Note to Norma Becker re effort to deliver freedom school materials. Penny Patch. 5/8/64 |
| 1964 | Note from
Connie Lee Claywell to Norma Becker re Note to Norma Becker, re
volunteering to be a freedom school teacher. 5/9/64 |
| 1964 | Letter to Norma Becker about cars and other freedom school difficulties from Lois Chaffee. 5/9/64 |
| 1964 | Note to Norma Becker re freedom school books. 5/11/64 |
| 1966 | Letter to John J. Burns re role of national Democratic Party in ensuring democracy in Mississippi. Robert Lewis, New York Committee for MFDP. 3/7/66. 3 pages. |
| 1966 | Report to Dorothy Cotton on Mississippi Citizenship Education program (SCLC). April-November 1966. By Victoria Gray. 6 pages. |
| 1966 | Letter to John J. Burns re role of national Democratic Party in ensuring democracy in Mississippi. Robert Lewis, New York Committee for MFDP. 3/7/66. 3 pages. |
| 1966 | Report to Dorothy Cotton on Mississippi Citizenship Education program (SCLC). April-November 1966. By Victoria Gray. 6 pages. |
| 1967 | The Middle East Question and the NCNP. Statement by Martin Luther King, SCLC. September, 1967 |
Freedom Information Service (FIS) Newsletters
January 26
February 2
February 9
February 16
WATS & Phone Reports (Log of daily phone-in reports)
COFO? July 2, 1964. Ruleville, Holly Springs, Jackson, Tchula. June 30-July 2.
SNCC July 3, 1964. Gulfport arrests & John Doar, New York CRC meeting and Forman
SNCC July 4, 1964. Americus and Tifton GA SNCC workers assaulted after trying to integrate facilities in compliance with Civil Rights Act.
SNCC July 5, 1964. Americus GA white and Black mobs (re Civil Rights Act), reports to FBI , shots fired into Black community.
SNCC July 6,
1964. Americus GA white mobs and shots fired into Black commuity (re Civil
Rights Act), Selma Alabama police intimidation, Moss Creek Mississippi
interactions with police.
Documents from the Northern Wing of the Movement
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Documents
Dear Family, Joyce Brians. Wilcox Co. AL. SCOPE Project 1965. July 5
Dear Family, Joyce Brians. Wilcox Co. AL. SCOPE Project 1965. July 9
Dear Family, Joyce Brians. Wilcox Co. AL. SCOPE Project 1965. July 12
Dear Family, Joyce Brians. Wilcox Co. AL. SCOPE Project 1965. July 16
Dear Family, Joyce Brians. Wilcox Co. AL. SCOPE Project 1965. July 25
Collapse of the Black-White Alliance? Bruce Hartford
Stephen Cecil Thomas - Freedom Rider, 1961, AL, MS.
Bernard Lafayette
Chico ("Sekou") Neblett
No new answers added this month.
No new poems added this month.
Freedom Movement Posters
Recent Books by or About Movement Veterans:
Civil Rights Warrior: A Life
on the Front Lines of Justice, Equality, and the American Dream, by
Evelyn (Evie) Jones Rich. Skyhorse. 2026. Autobiography of CORE activist and
leader.
Police Against the Movement:
The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought
Back. Clark Davis. 2025. Princeton University Press. An examination of the
civil rights struggle through its work against police violence, malpractice,
and illegal surveillance such as the FBI's massive CONINTEL disruption and
political-repression program. Describes CORE, SNCC, and other organization's
direct action resistance to police abuses.
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.
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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