Civil Rights History Project

Civil Rights History Project
Name	Civil Rights History Project
Formation	2010
Parent organization	Smithsonian Institution; Library of Congress
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.

Contents

Civil Rights History Project The Civil Rights History Project is a federal initiative to document the American Civil Rights Movement through oral history, archival acquisition, and public access. It was created from collaborations among the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Civil Rights Division (United States Department of Justice), building on precedents such as the Warren Commission-era oral collections and the Works Progress Administration folklore projects. The Project draws on participants, witnesses, scholars, and institutions connected to events like the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Background and Origins

The Project emerged after legislation and policy debates involving the John Lewis Voting Rights Act proposals, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 stimulated renewed federal interest in documenting activism tied to sites such as Birmingham, Alabama, Little Rock Central High School, and Freedom Summer. Initiatives from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation influenced early planning, alongside academic programs at institutions like Howard University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and the University of Mississippi. Key historical precedents included the oral history practices of the Federal Writers' Project, the archival strategies of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, and research models used by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The stated mission links memory, justice, and preservation by documenting activists connected to landmark events such as the Freedom Rides, the Birmingham campaign (1963), and the Albany Movement. Its scope covers interviews with participants from organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Black Panther Party, and includes materials related to leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis (civil rights leader), Malcolm X, and Ella Baker. The Project aims to serve researchers at repositories including the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and university archives at Howard University and the University of Georgia.

Collections encompass recorded interviews, transcripts, photographs, and ephemera tied to milestones like the Little Rock integration crisis and the Freedom Summer (1964), with holdings reflecting local campaigns in cities like Jackson, Mississippi, Albany, Georgia, Selma, Alabama, and St. Augustine, Florida. The oral histories include voices from activists affiliated with the Montgomery Improvement Association, veterans of the Red Summer (1919) era memory, legal strategists connected to the Brown v. Board of Education litigation, and clergy linked to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Materials are accessioned into the Library of Congress American Folklife Center and cross-referenced with collections at the National Archives and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The Project adopted oral-history protocols informed by practitioners from the Oral History Association, archivists at the Library of Congress, and curators from the Smithsonian Institution, using standardized consent, metadata, and digital preservation techniques compatible with standards from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and the Digital Public Library of America. Collaboration extended to state historical societies such as the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, academic partners at Emory University, Vanderbilt University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and community organizations like the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and local museums such as the Civil Rights Memorial Center.

Interviewees include activists and public figures associated with events ranging from the Freedom Rides to the Children's Crusade (Birmingham): veterans of SNCC like Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, and John Lewis (civil rights leader); clergy such as Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth; legal figures linked to Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and writers and intellectuals like James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin. Scholars and documentary producers engaged include historians from John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, filmmakers connected to Eyes on the Prize, and oral historians from Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley.

The Project influenced museum exhibitions at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, curriculum developments in university programs at Howard University School of Law and Emory University School of Law, and public history initiatives tied to Civil Rights Trail sites such as the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Its archives have been cited in scholarship published by presses like Oxford University Press and University of North Carolina Press, and used in documentaries alongside materials from PBS and the Smithsonian Channel. The legacy includes strengthened archival practice at repositories such as the Library of Congress American Folklife Center and augmented narratives in local institutions including the Rosa Parks Museum and the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.