The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Beloit bicentennial oral history project interviews

Repository: Wisconsin Historical Society. Library-Archives

Collection Description (CRHP): This collection illuminates a range of issues and actions with regard to segregation in housing, employment, entertainment (pools, public clubs), health care, and schools; the role of civic clubs and churches in civil rights efforts; white supremacy movements as well as interracial collaboration; and relationships between migrants from the South and Beloit's already established black population.

Collection Description (Extant): Tape-recorded interviews conducted in 1976 by Clem Imhoff for the Beloit Bicentennial Commission with black and white residents of Beloit, Wisconsin, concerning migration of blacks to the city from Kentucky and Mississippi after World War I and their lives before and after the move. Included in the interviews are references to employment and labor problems at Fairbanks-Morse, education, churches, the Women's Community Club, Beloit College, and the local chapter of the NAACP. The 15 interviewees include Sadie Bell, Rubie Bond, David Fifield, Ambrose Gordon, Ben Gordon, Lorenzo Grady, Anne and Neal Harris, Walter Ingram, Robert Irrman, D. W. Johnson, Ocie Peterson, Charles Simmons, Georgette Smith, and Raymond Wright.
The processed portion of the collection is summarized above, dates 1976, and is described in the register. Additional accessions date 1919-1953 and include [. . .] photographs copied and made for an exhibit to accompany the Beloit Oral History Project. Included are modern and historical images of African Americans who were interviewed as part of the project. The modern photographs were made by Lewis Koch. [. . .] Additions, 1919-1953, of photographs depicting African-American workers at Fairbanks Morse and Company (Beloit, Wis.), including images of their living quarters, recreation areas, and dining hall. Also included are images of workers in the factory.

Date(s): 1976

Digital Status: No

Existing IDs: RLIN: WIHVB2250-A; Tape 637A

Extent: 24 tape recordings; plus additions of 297 photographs; 1253 negatives; 15 pieces of ephemera

Finding Aid URL: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-tape00637a

Language: English

Interviewees: Sadie Bell, Rubie Bond, David Fifield, Ambrose Gordon, Ben Gordon, Lorenzo Grady, Anne and Neal Harris, Walter Ingram, Robert Irrman, D. W. Johnson, Ocie Peterson, Charles Simmons, Georgette Smith, Raymond Wright

Rights (Extant): Individuals or corporate bodies other than the Wisconsin Historical Society may hold the copyright for a portion of ths collection. Permission from the appropriate copyright holder(s) may be required before reproducing items from this collection.

Subjects:

African American businesspeople
African American churches
African American educators--Wisconsin
African Americans--Employment
African Americans--Kentucky
African Americans--Social life and customs
African Americans--Wisconsin
Discrimination in employment
Discrimination in housing
Discrimination in medical care
Discrimination in the military
Labor unions
Lynching
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Race relations
Rural-urban migration
Strikes and lockouts
Voter registration
White supremacy movements
Women--Societies and clubs

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings