SCL HIST 112 (Rutledge)

This curated collection brings together diverse archival footage documenting the Civil Rights movement.

Comprised of special collections and archives from UofSC’s South Caroliniana Library and South Carolina Political Political Collections, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Richland County Public Library, and the S.C. State Library, this digital collection provides a contextual glance into primary sources surrounding the legal case Briggs v. Elliott.

This digital collection includes calendars, notebooks, letters, publications, essays, speeches and other papers documenting McCain’s involvement with local and national civil rights organizations. The bulk of the items evidence his interest in local issues such as illiteracy, integration of public schools, and voter turnout in South Carolina’s African American community.

This collection of manuscripts and photographs documents the life and work of journalist and politician John H. McCray (1910-1987).

Champions of Civil and Human Rights in South Carolina is a five-volume anthology spanning the decades from 1930 to 1980 with oral history interviews of key activists and leaders of the civil rights movement in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Oral History Collection is a general collection of over 200 interviews conducted by faculty and staff from the 1980s to the present on numerous topics relating to South Carolina communities, education, civil rights, art, music, military service, politics, university history, and more.

Oral History Transcript. Ike Williams (1945-2008), former NAACP field director and aide to Congressman James Clyburn discusses his relationship with Matthew Perry and his experiences as a Civil Rights leader in South Carolina during the 1950s and 1960s. He also addresses the role of Civil Rights organizations such as the NAACP, SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), and BACC (Black Action Coordinating Council).

Less obvious, but of great value in documenting the civil rights movement, are the collections of leaders in state government and Congress. Legislative files on civil rights and related issues provide fascinating insights into our history. An example of the riches held within these large and complex collections are files in the collection of U.S. Senator Johnston relating to the 1961 nomination by President John F. Kennedy of noted attorney and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) to the Second United States Circuit Court of Appeals. His papers contain a substantial amount of mail received from across South Carolina and the country.

Newman helped organize the Orangeburg branch of the NAACP in 1943, was a founding member of the Progressive Democratic Party, and served the South Carolina NAACP as vice-president, secretary and president. In 1983, at age 72, he was elected to the South Carolina Senate, becoming the first African American to serve in that body since Reconstruction. The Newman papers are available online. They consist of 2.5 linear feet of material, 1929-2003.