CRMA
Civil Rights Movement Archive
Monthly Newsletter
February 1st, 2026
Table of Contents
Our Sister Sites
Announcements
Website Report
Top Ten Most Viewed
New CRMA Video & Audio
New Movement Documents
New Letters & Reports
New Stories & Narratives
New Articles & Speeches
New Thoughts & Commentaries
In Memory, New Tributes
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), New Answers
New Poems
New Photos, Art, & Posters
Recent Books
For many of veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement, the events we're
witnessing on the streets of American cities from Los Angeles to Minneapolis
spark bitter and painful memories of tear gas and attack dogs, beatings and
brutality, mass round-ups and crowded jail cells, and of brothers and sisters
gunned down by police and murdered with impunity by white-terrorists.
What we are now experiencing are not just the tyrannical impulses of a
power-mad, wannabe king (though he is that). Nor are they merely the
inevitable outcome of partisan demagoguery and machinations by a reactionary
political party (though they are that too). In a recent article titled,
The War of Southern Aggression," Michael Podhorzer, the former
political director of the AFL-CIO, interprets what we've experienced during
this first year of the MAGA Regime (and for quite some time before), as a
political resurgence of what he refers to as the "neo-confederacy."
Meaning far-right controlled states, political movements, and power centers,
that refuse to accept the legitimacy of the United States as the pluralistic
democracy that the majority of Americans aspire it to be.
As veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, we might think of it as a broad,
well-financed, ongoing coup by the political descendants of the Dixiecrats and
White Citizens Councils we faced back in the day. White supremacists and
Christian nationalists committed to restoring both the racial caste hierarchy
we fought and partially defeated in the 1950s and '60s and the dominance of
unrestrained robber-baron economics that the labor movement of our parents
fought against in the 1930s and '40s.
In one example, Podhorzer observes:
"The 'stolen election myth does not draw its power from claims that Democrats
stuffed ballot boxes or manipulated vote totals. It draws its force from a
deeper presumption: that Democratic victories are invalid because they rest on
the political equality of people who, in the neo-Confederate worldview, are
not entitled to the same standing in the polity as white Christians.
The 2020 election was a fraud not because the votes were miscounted but
because of whose votes were allowed to count, meaning that elected
Democrats are not political opponents but the "enemy
within" — a subversive threat to the 'real' America."
We could make a similar point about the Tea Party from which the MAGA movement
grew. At root, their motivating rage was that 'illigitmate' voters had defied
'real' Americans by placing a Black man and woman in the White House.
Today, many Americans are shocked and horrified by what is being done to our
democracy by the MAGA Regime and their violent, politically-motivated,
military-style occupation of cities that try to uphold values of justice and
equality. Yet we Freedom Movement veterans whose boots were on the ground half
a century ago standing against white-supremacy and police-state violence can
take some comfort from the knowledge that because we defeated them before we
know that they can be defeated again — if people summon the
will and courage to do so.
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
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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. |
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.
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 February 1st, our online archive contained 11,766 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 37,266 visits to the CRMA website during
January for an average of 1202 per day. This is approximately 15% higher than
January of last year. There are 35,334 links on the global internet to our
site.
On school days, our number of visitors ranged from roughly 600 to 1000 per
day.
Roughly 35% of our visitors came from outside the U.S. in January. 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 and that continues to be the 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 January.
(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
- MLK Speeched & Writings,
- Poems of the Civil Rights Movement
- Freedom Movement Bibliography
- C.R. Movement History 1950-1970
- Freedom Movement Photo Album
- Freedom Movement Videos
- Roll Call of Freedom Movement Veterans
- About the Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Freedom Movement Bibliography
- Our Words, Articles & Speeches
Individual Pages & Documents
- The Other America, Dr. Martin Luther King. (1967)
- Everybody Can Serve, Martin Luther King. (1964)
- C.R. Movement History: 1961 (Freedom Rides, MS voter registration, Albany GA)
- Poems of Langston Hughes
- C.R. Movement History: 1960 (student sit-ins)
- Poem: Ain't I A Woman? Sojourner Truth
- Photo Album: The Children's Crusade: Birmingham (1963)
- Alabama Voter Literacy Test
- Photo Album: The Sit-Ins—Off Campus and Into Movement (1960)
- Photo Album: Freedom Movement Posters
Top Ten Sections & Pages That Others on the Internet Link To
Google reports that out on the global internet there are 35,334 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)
- The Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR)
- 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. (FOR)
- C.R. Movement History: 1961 (Freedom Rides, MS voter registration, Albany GA)
- C.R. Movement History: 1963 Jan-June (Birmingham, Greenwod, Danville)
- Speech to Anti-War Protest, Dr. Martin Luther King. (April 15, 1967)
- Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence , Dr. Martin Luther King. (April 4, 1967)
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 Audio recordings added in January
Questions
About the Civil Rights Movement Interview, Bruce Hartford. 2025.
96min.
| 1957 | Declaration of Conscience, Joint Statement on South African Apartheid. Rev. Martin Luther King, Bishop James A. Pike, Eleanor Roosevelt. Under Auspices of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA). New York, July 1957 |
| 62? 63? | Suggestions: Memo to Executive Committee and Executive Secretary and Chairman. Julian Bond, SNCC. Undated (1962? 1963?) 2 pages. |
| 1962 | Partial planning document, possibly for SNCC Spring 1962 conference [pages missing]. Unsigned SNCC. 3/27/62. 2 pages. |
| 1962 | Tentative Agenda Coordinating Committee Meeting, June 1 1962. Unsigned, SNCC. |
| 1964 | Hold On flyer opposes anti-circular ordinance. Unsigned Madison County (MS) Movement & CORE. January 1964. |
| 1964 | Letter to Johnson & Robert Kennedy re police harassment and brutality and suppression of voting rights in Canton MS. David Dennis,COFO/ CORE. January 30, 1964. |
| 1964 | Letter to Robert Kennedy re police harassment and brutality against voting right workers. Ed Hollander, CORE. 2/4/64 |
| 1964 | Clinic on Non-Violence, report. Unsigned Louisiana CORE. 2/8/64. 2 pages |
| 1964 | Women in Poverty. DOL. July 1964. |
| 1964 | Memo: Number of People to Elect to State Convention From Each County. Unsigned MFDP. Undated (probably June 1964) |
| 1964 | Resolutions in Support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, by state Democratic Parties. As of June 24. 2pages. |
| 1964 | Memo to Summer Volunteers re chain-letter campaign to Democratic Party convention delegates. MFDP Jackson Staff. 7/20/64. |
| 1964 | Memo to MFDP Workers, Communication & Research. List of, and request for research on the "Regular" (white-only) Mississippi delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. Undated (probably June or July). 3.
pages. |
| 1964 | Rules of Procedure, MFDP 4th District Convention. Undated (probably late July or early August) |
| 1964 | Write or Wire Today! Democratic National Convention Credentials Committee. Unsigned, MFDP. Undated August1964 |
| 1964 | Essential Legal Points for Briefing the Delegates, for MFDP delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Undated August 1964 |
| 1964 | Financial Authorization and Requisition form. CORE. October 1964 |
| 1964 | LDF Mississippi Legal Docket (summary of cases). LDF. November 1964. 20 pages. |
| 1964 | CORE Southern Workshops. Unsigned, CORE. 12/24/64 |
| 1965 | January Workshop; Other Matters. Richard Haley, CORE. 1/23/65. 5 pages. |
| 65? 66? | Dear Friend, SNCC letter to supporters. Undated (possibly late 1965 or 1966) |
| 1967 | A Minimum Wage Campaign for Local Groups. Unsigned (SRC?) 4 pages. |
| 1967 | Quarterly Report Community Development Program, Penn Community Services, SC. War on Poverty. April 1967. 6 pages. |
| 1967 | Nine City Minority Group Employement Profile, EEOC. Analysis of nonwhite employment in nine cities (Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City (Mo.), Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco and Washington.) 8/6/67. 34
pages. |
| 1967 | Memo on fundraising needs and trip, Jan Hillegas, FIS. 11/6/67. |
| 1968 | Poor People's Campaign Continues. Unsigned SCLC. 3 pages. |
Freedom Information Service (FIS) Newsletters
October 6, 1967
October 13, 1967
October 27, 1967
December 1, 1967
December 29, 1967
WATS & Phone Reports (Log of daily phone-in reports)
COFO, June 27, 1964. Oxford volunteer training, Jackson, San Francisco, Greenwood, Washington. 3 pages
SNCC, June 28, 1964. New York, Illinois, St. Paul MN, Ruleville, Jackson
SNCC, June 29, 1964. Jackson & Columbus MS, Enfield NC, Washington DC
SNCC, June 30, 1964. Jackson, Biloxi, Vicksburg, MS, Selma AL, Washington DC. 2 pages.
Vietnam War, Military Draft, & GI Movement Documents
Demonstrate Against the War , April 27, 1965. Flyer. 5th Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee.
Documents from the Northern Wing of the Movement
Peace & Freedom Party Organizing materials, Jan-Nov 1968. (20 documents)
Peace & Freedom Party Organizing materials, undated 1968. (8 documents)
Peace and Freedom Politics and Program. 1968(7 documents)
Joint organizing materials. Peace & Freedom Party and Black Panther Party. 1968. (3 documents)
Nine City Minority Group Employment Profile, EEOC. Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City MO, Los Angels, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Washington. Title VII Civil Rights Act 1964. 34 pages.
New Letters & Reports From Mississippi Freedom Summer
Black Power Chronicles
Sylvia Hill, interviewed by Joshua Myers. Florida A&M, Sixth Pan-African Congress, Southern Africa Support Project. Undated.
Topper Carew, interviewed by Kwame Holman. SNCC, Roxbury, Boston, empowering Black communities. Undated.
William (Bill) Clay, interviewed by Tony Harrison. Homer G. Phillips Hospital, construction unions, Congressional Black Caucus. Undated. |
| Bruce Hartford | Excerpts From "Troublemaker" Los Angeles: 1963-1964 2019 |
| Bruce Hartford | Questions About the Civil Rights Movement Interview, 2025 |
Affidavits of Repression, Retaliation & Violence
| 1960 | Affadavit of Jim Taylor, regarding pond poisoning and barn burning after attempting to register to vote. Canton MS. 7/28/60 (year possibly incorrect) |
| 1964 | Affadavit of Melvin Moody, fired from job for attempting to register to vote. Canton MS. 1/27/64 |
Book Review: No One Ever Asked, the Untold Story of a Civil Rights Worker, Jo Freeman
No new memories or tributes added this month
No new answers added this month.
Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely Emmett Till: The WE of Him [PDF]
Mississippi: Into the Storm
In the Circle of Trust
Freedom Movement Art
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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