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Film, Video Raylawni G. Branch and Jeanette Smith oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2015 December 01

Raylawni G. Branch and Jeanette Smith oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2015 December 01

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About this Item

Title

  • Raylawni G. Branch and Jeanette Smith oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2015 December 01

Summary

  • Raylawni G. Branch and Jeanette Smith discuss their involvement in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi-based Civil Rights Movement. They remember their upbringings as mixed race children, Smith in Mississippi and Branch in Mississippi and Chicago, Illinois. Branch recalls entering as one of the first black students at the University of Southern Mississippi. Both speak about their activism for voting rights and education, as well as sharing their philosophies on issues of race, discrimination, and activism.

Names

  • Smith, Jeanette, 1940-2018, interviewee
  • Branch, Raylawni G., 1941- interviewee
  • Crosby, Emilye, interviewer
  • Bishop, John Melville, videographer
  • Civil Rights History Project (U.S.)

Created / Published

  • 2015.

Headings

  • -  Branch, Raylawni G.,--1940---Interviews
  • -  Smith, Jeanette,--1940-2018--Interviews
  • -  Carmichael, Stokely,--1941-1998
  • -  Dahmer, Vernon Ferdinand,--1908-1966
  • -  Evers, Charles,--1922
  • -  McCain, William D.--(William David),--1907-1993
  • -  Till, Emmett,--1941-1955
  • -  Council of Federated Organizations (U.S.)
  • -  Deacons for Defense and Justice
  • -  Head Start Program (U.S.)
  • -  Medical Committee for Human Rights (U.S.)
  • -  Mississippi Freedom Project
  • -  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
  • -  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
  • -  University of Southern Mississippi
  • -  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom--(1963 :--Washington, D.C.)--Personal narratives
  • -  African American women civil rights workers--Mississippi--Interviews
  • -  African American women civil rights workers--United States--Interviews
  • -  African Americans--Suffrage--Mississippi
  • -  Civil rights movements--Mississippi
  • -  Civil rights movements--United States
  • -  School integration--Mississippi--Hattiesburg
  • -  Segregation in education--Mississippi
  • -  Social justice--Religious aspects--Christianity
  • -  Hattiesburg (Miss.)--Race relations--History

Genre

  • Personal narratives
  • Filmed interviews
  • Interviews
  • Oral histories
  • Video recordings

Notes

  • -  Recorded in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on December 1, 2015.
  • -  Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0112), 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.).
  • -  Jeanette Smith, Mississippi Civil Rights worker, worked with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).
  • -  Raylawni G. Branch, Mississippi pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, a professional nursing educator and US Air Force Reserve officer. She is best known for her leading role in the integration of the University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg) in 1965.
  • -  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

  • 6 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (2:36:43) : digital, sound, color.
  • transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files.

Source Collection

  • Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0112

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

  • 2016655403

Rights Advisory

  • Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

Access Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

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:

Smith, Jeanette, Interviewee, Raylawni G Branch, Emilye Crosby, John Melville Bishop, and U.S Civil Rights History Project. Raylawni G. Branch and Jeanette Smith oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 2015. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016655403/.

APA citation style:

Smith, J., Branch, R. G., Crosby, E., Bishop, J. M. & Civil Rights History Project, U. S. (2015) Raylawni G. Branch and Jeanette Smith oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016655403/.

MLA citation style:

Smith, Jeanette, Interviewee, et al. Raylawni G. Branch and Jeanette Smith oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 2015. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2016655403/>.