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Film, Video Cleveland Sellers oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Denmark, South Carolina, 2013 March 21

Cleveland Sellers oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Denmark, South Carolina, 2013 March 21

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About this Item

Title

  • Cleveland Sellers oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Denmark, South Carolina, 2013 March 21

Summary

  • Cleveland Sellers shares memories of growing up in Denmark, South Carolina, especially the influence of Voorhees College in the community. He organized a Youth Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Denmark, and he describes the group's activities. He discusses his first impressions of Howard University, where he joined the Nonviolent Action Group (NAG). He shares memories of the March on Washington and the role of students in organizing it, his involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and his role in the Mississippi Freedom Project. He also describes the goals of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the tensions that developed within SNCC in the late 1960s.

Names

  • Sellers, Cleveland, 1944- interviewee
  • Dittmer, John, 1939- interviewer
  • Civil Rights History Project (U.S.)

Created / Published

  • 2013.

Headings

  • -  Sellers, Cleveland,--1944---Interviews
  • -  Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
  • -  Mississippi Freedom Project
  • -  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.--Youth Council
  • -  Nonviolent Action Group (Washington, D.C.)
  • -  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
  • -  Selma to Montgomery Rights March--(1965 :--Selma, Ala.)
  • -  African American civil rights workers--Interviews
  • -  Civil rights movements--Alabama
  • -  Civil rights movements--Maryland--Cambridge
  • -  Civil rights movements--Mississippi
  • -  Civil rights movements--United States

Genre

  • Filmed Interviews
  • Interviews
  • Oral histories
  • Video recordings

Notes

  • -  Recorded in Denmark, South Carolina, on March 21, 2013.
  • -  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.).
  • -  Dr. Cleveland Sellers was a civil rights activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was arrested after the Orangeburg Massacre in 1968. He later became a professor of African American studies at the University of South Carolina and president of Voorhees College.
  • -  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 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (108 min.) : digital, sound, color.
  • 1 transcript (49 pages).

Source Collection

  • Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0081

Repository

  • Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, DC USA 20540 to 4610 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2015669180

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:

Sellers, Cleveland, Interviewee, John Dittmer, and U.S Civil Rights History Project. Cleveland Sellers oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Denmark, South Carolina. 2013. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669180/.

APA citation style:

Sellers, C., Dittmer, J. & Civil Rights History Project, U. S. (2013) Cleveland Sellers oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Denmark, South Carolina. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669180/.

MLA citation style:

Sellers, Cleveland, Interviewee, John Dittmer, and U.S Civil Rights History Project. Cleveland Sellers oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Denmark, South Carolina. 2013. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2015669180/>.