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Film, Video Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Gainesville, Florida, 2011 September 14

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Gainesville, Florida, 2011 September 14

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About this Item

Title

  • Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Gainesville, Florida, 2011 September 14

Summary

  • Gwendolyn Simmons recalls joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while a student at Spelman College. She remembers directing SNCC's voter registration and Freedom School, called the Freedom Summer Project in Laurel, Mississippi. She discusses learning about Black Nationalism in New York, the decision in SNCC to expel white members, and her work with the American Friends Service Committee's Program on Government Surveillance and Citizens' Rights to interview members of organizations investigated by the FBI's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO).

Names

  • Simmons, Gwendolyn Zoharah, interviewee
  • Mosnier, Joseph, interviewer
  • Civil Rights History Project (U.S.)

Created / Published

  • 2011.

Headings

  • -  Simmons, Gwendolyn Zoharah--Interviews
  • -  American Friends Service Committee.--Program on Government Surveillance and Citizens' Rights
  • -  Mississippi Freedom Project
  • -  Mississippi Freedom Schools
  • -  Spelman College
  • -  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
  • -  African American civil rights workers--Mississippi--Interviews
  • -  African American college students--Interviews
  • -  Black nationalism
  • -  Civil rights movements--Mississippi--Laurel
  • -  Civil rights movements--United States
  • -  Voter registration--Mississippi

Genre

  • Filmed Interviews
  • Interviews
  • Oral histories
  • Video recordings

Notes

  • -  Recorded in Gainesville, Florida, on September 14, 2011.
  • -  Civil Rights History Project Collection (AFC 2010/039), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
  • -  Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
  • -  Gwendolyn Simmons was born in 1944 in Memphis, Tennessee, and had one daughter. She attended Spelman College, Antioch University, and Temple University. She worked as a professor of religion at the University of Florida. She was a civil rights activist and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
  • -  The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
  • -  In English.
  • -  Finding aid http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af013005

Medium

  • 5 video files of 5 (HD, Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (97 min.) : digital, sound, color.
  • 1 transcript (43 pages).

Source Collection

  • Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0049

Repository

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2015669148

Access Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

The individuals documented in these collection items retain copyright and related rights to the use of their recorded and written testimonies and memories.  They have granted the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution permission to provide access to their interviews and related materials for purposes that are consistent with each agency’s educational mission, such as publication and transmission, in whole or in part, on the Web. Their written permission is required for commercial, profit-making distribution, reproduction, or other use beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. See our Legal Notices and Privacy and Publicity Rights for additional information and restrictions.

The American Folklife Center, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance. 

Credit Line

Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Simmons, Gwendolyn Zoharah, Interviewee, Joseph Mosnier, and U.S Civil Rights History Project. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Gainesville, Florida. 2011. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669148/.

APA citation style:

Simmons, G. Z., Mosnier, J. & Civil Rights History Project, U. S. (2011) Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Gainesville, Florida. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669148/.

MLA citation style:

Simmons, Gwendolyn Zoharah, Interviewee, Joseph Mosnier, and U.S Civil Rights History Project. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Gainesville, Florida. 2011. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2015669148/>.