Special Collections - American History Sources: Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement Resources - Manuscript Collections

A Manuscript Collection is a grouping of materials which focuses on an individual, group of people, or organization. Materials can include letters, diaries, photographs, scrapbooks, and other memorabilia. Processed Manuscripts are stored in Special Collection's closed stacks and can be requested at the Reference Desk in our Reading Room.

Browse Finding Aids for the Manuscript Collections

SNCC button from MS-036: Radical Pamphlets

Select Manuscript Collections pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement include:

• Radical Pamphlets, 1965-1975. MS-036
  • The first part of this collection consists of pamphlets on broad topics such as labor, communism, ecology, poverty, racism and women's rights. The second part on the Peace Movement, consisting of pamphlets, papers, newspaper clippings and correspondence dealing with the Vietnam Conflict and Peace Movement in the United States compiled by David Mozes, a friend of Nancy and Jim Scott, and Michael J. Hobor, Class of 1969.

• Integration Crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas. MS-156
  • This collection consists primarily of anti-integration propaganda circulated by the Little Rock, Arkansas Capital Citizens Council (CCC) to Little Rock families, like the Carlands from 1957 to 1962. The contents include newsletters, booklets, business cards, and the police record of Daisy Bates, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) Arkansas state president. The propaganda from the CCC provides deep insight into the strained race relations in Arkansas. There are also newspaper clippings and photographs that Carland acquired over the years pertaining to interracial relations in the South. These items pay particular attention to the federal mandate to desegregate public schools and the subsequent decision to close public schools in Little Rock from 1958 to 1959. This collection can appear scattered and scant in regards to the depth and the quantity of material creating a need to provide background information and context, yet the bias and vitriolic language of the segregationists is evident in the propaganda they chose to disseminate. Carland{u2019}s collection provides a valuable glimpse into the daily life of the average white family in Little Rock, Arkansas and the mindset of segregation advocates during this turbulent time period in American history.

Civil Rights Movement Resources - Gettysburg College

Manuscript Collections

Browse Finding Aids for the Manuscript Collections

Select Manuscript Collections pertaining to Gettysburg College and the Civil Rights Movement include:

• Richard Hutch ’67 Papers. MS-194
  • This collection consists primarily of materials produced by SCOPE for SCOPE participants, correspondence between Richard Hutch and various companions, and publications regarding civil rights. Though aspects of the collection extend beyond 1965, it focuses most heavily on Hutch's SCOPE experience during the summer of 1965 and does not provide great detail on other civil rights organizations. The collection provides an overview of the role that SCOPE played in the larger Civil Rights Movement, as well as valuable insight to the individual experience of a participant in the Civil Rights Movement.

Vertical File Manuscripts

Browse Vertical File Manuscripts

Select VFMs pertaining to World War I include:

• Race and Civil Rights in the Early 1960s and Gettysburg College: A Reflection by Edward Southworth, Class of 1964. GCVFM-521
  • Southworth writes of his friendship with fellow TKE fraternity brother, Philip Parsons, Class of 1964, and life and racism in the classroom, fraternity, and sports, and local businesses.