The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Integration: the African American experience in Harrisonburg, Virginia

Repository: James Madison University Libraries. Special Collections

Collection Description (CRHP): Two interviews along with a monograph explore integration in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

This monograph provides a short history of Afro-American segregation and desegregation issues from a national and state (Virginia) perspective, beginning with the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. Mentions various issues on a national level: social, political, economic, and educational perspectives, with a review of various individuals and organizations supporting equality issues and black rights: W.E.B. Dubois and the NAACP; Thurgood Marshall; Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Reviews the concept of sit-ins as a form of protest; differing white responses, including the Ku Klux Klan. Reviews the same issues from the state level, with an emphasis on Virginia's resistive response: pro-segregationist views of Armistead L. Boothe, the Byrd Organization, and the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties versus viewpoints of organizations led by church ministers, college professors and social workers. Also included is information on voter rights and demographic issues. The background paper ends with a brief review of local (Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, Va.) responses to integration efforts, and speculates on reasons why they were mostly favorable.

Collection URL: http://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/OralHistory/ListofOralHistoryCollections.aspx

Digital Status: No

Existing IDs: SdArch 15

Extent: 2 audio cassettes; 2 transcripts; 1 monograph

Language: English

Related Archival Items: The repository also includes the African Americans in Harrisonburg oral history tapes.

Interviewees: Elon Rhodes, Barbara Blakey

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African Americans--Civil rights--Virginia
African Americans--Virginia
Civil rights movements--Virginia
School integration--Massive resistance movement
Segregation in education--Virginia

Genres:

Manuscripts
Sound recordings
Transcripts