Today we're highlighting two digital repositories -- one large and one small -- focused on the history of the American Civil Rights movement in the mid-20th century.
The Civil Rights Digital Library is based in Georgia, but it includes materials from dozens of institutions across the country. Their mission statement is to promote "an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale." Their impressive multimedia collections include resources for educators, an interactive timeline, oral histories, diaries, government documents, and so much more. From the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 and beyond, these resources provide an in-depth look at the struggle for racial equality in the United States.
The Civil Rights Movement Archives is a smaller-scale project created by Queens College in New York. Using the QC Library's Special Collections archive of images and documents from the early 1960s, the students in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science created a digital repository on the Omeka platform (the same system behind our own exhibit site). It contains photographs, fliers, and original correspondence, most of it relating to the activism of Queens College students, both in the city and in southern states.
Whether you're looking for the bigger picture or more personal stories, these sites are great places to start your search.
--Robin
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