Emory acquires noted civil rights archive

Provost Earl Lewis (pointing) and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) President Charles Steele review a display highlighting several photographs contained in the SCLC archive recently acquired by Emory. The photo, enlarged for the March 6 press conference, depicts Jim Lawson, an early leader of the sit-in movement, discussing the philosophy and discipline of nonviolent protest, is just one of the archive’s treasures.

The archive of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), all 1,100 boxes-worth, will be placed in Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL). SCLC President Charles Steele was on hand when the acquisition was announced on Thursday, March 6 in Woodruff Library.           

“Placing the SCLC archive with Emory ensures that the organization’s materials will enrich understanding of history, culture, and nonviolence for generations to come,” Steele said.

“Emory is delighted to care for, catalog, and share this unique intellectual resource with visitors from around the city and the world,” said Provost Earl Lewis. “SCLC played a signal role in the nation's struggles over civil rights. By helping to preserve that legacy we honor the past by connecting it to the present and the future.”
           
The SCLC was co-founded in New Orleans on February 14, 1957, by Martin Luther King Jr. and other African American leaders from across the South with the purpose of advancing the cause of racial equality. Its 1,100-box archive is the second-largest collection placed with MARBL, surpassed in size only by the Sam Nunn 61L 62L congressional archive. Processing the materials for use by scholars and the public most likely will take several months. Once that process is completed, the materials will be made available for viewing and research.
           
The bulk of the SCLC materials date from 1968 to 1977, during the terms of SCLC’s two longest-serving presidents: Ralph David Abernathy and Joseph Lowery.
           
Included in the archive are correspondence; press releases, speeches, and other SCLC staff writings; SCLC publications; membership records; clippings and other collected print materials; photographs; audio cassette tapes; and videotapes. Some highlights of the collection include:

• Photographs documenting aspects of the civil rights movement such as voter registration workshops, Freedom Summer and the Freedom Schools.
• A number of drafts of speeches by Ralph Abernathy and others, many heavily annotated in the hands of their authors.
• Thousands of sympathy cards and letters expressing grief and outrage at the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
• Letters from individuals and organizations from across the nation seeking assistance in local political organization or help in dealing with violations of civil rights.

The archive will complement the SCLC papers, most pre-1968, that are held by the King Library and Archives at the King Center in Atlanta. They also will enhance the holdings of African American and civil rights collections throughout Atlanta.—Lea McLees