National Domestic Workers Union, 1965-1979 (L1979-24)
The collection consists of records of the United Domestic Workers Union (U.S) from 1965-1979. The correspondence (1965-1979) reflects Bolden's efforts in organizing the Union and includes such correspondents as Julian Bond, Senator Sam Nunn, Senator Herman Talmadge, Allen Williams, Andrew Young, and other Georgia and national political figures. The subject files (1967-1979) cover a myriad of topics illustrating the Union's involvement in the Black community, the Manpower Program, the Career Learning Center, the Homemaking Skills Training Program, Maids Honor Day, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), and various federal agencies. The collection contains minutes of the Union (1968-1971, 1978), the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Transportation (1970-1972), the Citizens Neighborhood Advisory Council (1972-1978), and MARTA (1973-1975). The collection also contains financial documents (1968-1979) including budgets, membership records, and files relating to Equal Opportunity Atlanta, which funded many of the Union's projects; and legal documents including agreements and contracts with Economic Opportunity Atlanta.
Finding Aid
Digital Collection
Grady School of Nursing Collections
Founded in March 1898, the Grady Hospital Training School for Nurses prepared young women from around the region for a career in nursing. Similarly, the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses opened for African American nurses in 1917. When the schools merged in 1964, the program name was changed to the Grady School of Nursing. The school officially graduated its last class and closed in 1982.
The Grady School of Nursing Collection contains yearbooks and will continue to grow with the addition of oral history interviews and documentation of the School and its students.
Cole, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, June 20, 2018; June 27, 2018
Gregg Daugherty, May 1, 2018 (Q101)
Gregg Daugherty, May 11, 2018 (Q101)
Gregg Daugherty, June 29, 2018 (Q101)
Gregg Daugherty, July 27, 2018 (Q101)
Miko Evans, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, December 5, 2017
Miko Evans is the Founder & CEO of the World's First LGBT EXCLUSIVE Talent Agency and Full-Service Production Company (Meak Productions, Inc)
Chanel Haley, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, November 13, 2017
Chanel Haley is a transgender woman who serves as Georgia Equality’s transgender inclusion organizer.
Pat Hussain, interviewed by Hillery Rink, March 31, 2017
Pat Hussain helped to establish the first GLAAD chapter in Atlanta, and while working for the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, she helped to organize the first March on Washington. After attending the 1993 Creating Change 1993 conference, which led to the founding of Southerners on New Ground (SONG), she served as its first co-director (with Pam McMichael). Hussain co-founded Olympics Out of Cobb County.
Pat Hussain, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, August 28, 2017
Tracee McDaniel, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, December 14, 2017
Author, Tracee McDaniel, is the CEO and Founder of Juxtaposed Center in Atlanta, Georgia. After many years working as an entertainer, McDaniel became involved in LGBTQ activism - particularly focused on trans homelessness. She was invited to serve on Mayor Kasim Reed's Citizen Review Board.
Tonya Poteat, interviewed by Terri Wilder, June 6, 2008
AIDS activist and educator, Tonia Poteat has worked for the Global AIDS Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she helped to monitor HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa and to develop guidelines that low income countries could use to initiate and improve their programs.
Rickie Smith, interviewed by Jenna-Ashley M. Lee, March 10, 2017
Rickie Smith is president of In The Life Atlanta.
Charles Stephens, interviewed by Hillery Rink, July 31, 2012
Stephens is the African-American Gay Outreach Coordinator for AID Atlanta. He is committed to art, social justice, and gay men’s health. Charles has recently contributed to the anthology "For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home" and is co-editing the anthology "Black Gay Genius" about the legacy of Joseph Beam
Charles Stephens, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, July 10, 2017
Duncan Teague, interviewed by Cal Gough with Randall Cumbaa, November 5 and 7, 2016
Activist, writer and performance artist, Duncan Teague has been actively involved with many organizations, including Second Sunday, the African American Lesbian Gay Alliance (AALGA), AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta (ARCA), AID Atlanta, and In the Life Atlanta.
Duncan Teague, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, July 6, 2017
Craig Washington, interviewed by Ashley Coleman Taylor, May 29, 2019
Craig Washington is a licensed social worker, writer and community organizer with extensive experience in counseling, cultural education, advocacy and HIV/AIDS prevention.
ORAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS
Samenia Williams Limes Oral History Collection
The Samenia Wilson Limes Oral History Collection comprises interview recordings and transcripts that Kelly Limes-Taylor Henderson used to complete her dissertation, One Hundred and Sixteenth: One Family’s Education, which focused on the educational life history of her grandmother, Samenia Limes. Limes-Taylor Henderson conducted oral history interviews with Limes’s nine living children, producing over twenty hours of interview recordings and hundreds of pages of transcripts. Limes-Taylor Henderson went on to analyze her oral history data through the use of historical fiction, writing the novella One Hundred and Sixteenth based on her family members’ testimonies.
INDIVIDUALS
Sandra Barnhill, August 7, 2014 (W071)
Sandra Barnhill earned her BA in political science at Georgia State University (1982), and her J.D. at the University of Texas (1984). From 1983 to 1987, she served as a staff attorney for the Southern Prisoners’ Defense Committee. In this role, she represented indigent prisoners in class action challenges to prison conditions and in post-conviction challenges on capital convictions. During this time, Barnhill became frustrated by the lack of support given to imprisoned mothers and their families. In 1987, she founded Foreverfamily (originally named Aid to Imprisoned Mothers (AIM)), which is a nonprofit Atlanta-based organization advocating for inmate parents and their children. In 2004, the Ford Foundation recognized Barnhill for her outstanding leadership efforts.
June Dobbs Butts, January 29, 2016 (W071)
Therapist and family counselor June Dobbs Butts was born on June 11, 1928 in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the youngest daughter of Irene and John Wesley Dobbs, one of Atlanta’s most prominent African American leaders before the Civil Rights Movement. Butts is also the aunt of the late Honorable Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first black mayor. Butts received her B.A. degree in sociology from Spelman College in 1948, setting a national education record – six sisters graduating from the same college. That same summer, Butts worked with her close friend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Then, in the fall of 1948, she entered the Teacher’s College of Columbia University in New York City, where she received her Ed.D. degree in family life education. Butts’ professional career began in 1950 as a professor in the psychology department at Fisk University. She went on to work at Tennessee State University, Howard University College of Medicine and Meharry Medical College, where she was also a researcher. While serving on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood in the 1970s, Butts met famed sex researchers Masters and Johnson, who invited her to join their staff at the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation (later called Masters and Johnson Institute) in St. Louis, Missouri. There, Butts became the first African American to be trained as a sex therapist by Masters and Johnson. She later served as a visiting scientist at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Butts resides in Atlanta. She is the mother of three children (one deceased), and one granddaughter (Biographical note adapted from The History Makers website).
Delores Crockett, November 7, 2007 (W071)
Born in Daytona Beach, FL , Delores Crockett attended Spelman College (BA in Psychology, 1969) and Atlanta University (MA in Guidance and Counseling, 1972). She was project director for the Minority Women’s Employment Program, 1974-1977, employment and community supervisor for Avon Products, Inc. (1977-1979). In 1979, she was named regional director of the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau. Crockett is a Leadership Atlanta alum (1977), and past board member, and she has served on a number of boards and commissions, including the American Red Cross, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Georgia Commission on the Status of Women, and Georgia’s Employment and Training Council. She was also a member of Georgia’s delegation to the 1977 International Women’s Year Conference.
Jean Davis, January 22, 2005 (W008)
Born in the segregated South to politically active parents, Jean Davis became politically aware as a young girl in Newnan, Georgia. Her early aspiration was to work as a missionary in Africa but instead, she attended Morris Brown College and taught public school in Atlanta. As a student at Morris Brown, Davis was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and participated in boycotts of Rich’s Department Store and sit-ins at Woolworth’s. Davis also worked with the A. Philip Randolph Institute as well as the Georgia AFL-CIO and the National AFL-CIO. Through her work with different union organizations and her activism in civil rights, Davis became interested in the Equal Rights Amendment. She felt strongly that the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) was necessary in order to bring union women on board with the ERA and also to establish an organization that would place women in leadership positions. In addition to her work with the ERA, Davis worked on a number of campaigns from local school boards to notable politicians and continues the struggle for human rights.
Barbara Gibson, April 14, 2011 (W071)
Barbara Gibson has served as Safehouse Director for the Women's Resource Center to End Domestic Violence since 2007. She has held various positions, including family advocate, since joining the agency in 1989. Barbara holds a B.A. in History and completed her coursework for a M.A. in Women's Studies at Georgia State University.
Mary Long, May 13, and May 20,1999 (W008)
Mary Long was born in Guthrie, Kentucky in 1941. In 1961 she moved to Atlanta to pursue a career in nursing, and in 1963 began working at the emergency room at Grady Memorial Hospital. As a member of the Georgia Nurses' Association in the early 1970s, Long became interested in the activities of the Georgia ERA campaign. She was particularly interested in women's reproductive rights and appeared as one of the plaintiffs in the Georgia abortion case Doe v Bolton. Long participated in a number of women's organizations; she volunteered for the Georgia Nurses' Association, the Equal Rights campaign, as well as the Women's Political Caucus while simultaneously working the night shift at Grady Hospital. Long has many professional achievements: She founded Georgia's first health clinic for the homeless; she served as president of the Georgia Nurses Foundation, president of Friends and Public Health, and as president of the Georgia Nurses Association; she was the first African-American and first nurse to lead the board of the YMCA of Greater Atlanta, as well as the first African-American woman to serve as vice-chair of the Commission on Children and Youth. She also served as chair and as an active member of Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies Coalition. Long has been honored numerous times for her unwavering commitment to social causes and is a three-time recipient of the Appreciation for Leadership Skills in Government Affairs Certificate from the Georgia Nurses Association. In 1996, the YMCA of greater Atlanta presented the 13th Anniversary Salute to Women of Achievement to Mary Long.
Eva Parker, April 27, 2000 (W008)
Eva Mae Parker was born in 1919 in Pearson, Georgia. When she was twenty-four years old, Parker moved with her husband to Connecticut where she worked in an airplane factory making nuts and bolts during the Second World War. Beginning in 1972, Parker worked as a sales representative with AAA in Atlanta and as such, was able to travel around the world. Parker became involved in the ERA campaign through workshops at local churches. Prior to her involvement in the Women's Movement, Parker was also active in the Civil Rights Movement, fighting for voters' rights. She became involved with the People of Faith for ERA and later worked as a liaison between the State Department and the United Methodist Women Organization. After the defeat of the ERA, Parker remained interested in women's issues.
Deborah Richardson, May 14, 2008 (W071)
Deborah J. Richardson is the Executive Vice President of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights leading its fundraising and program development. Previously, she was Chief Program Officer at Women’s Funding Network in San Francisco, CEO of The Atlanta Women’s Foundation, Director of Program Development for Fulton County Juvenile Court, founding Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Fund (now Youth Spark) and Managing Director of the National Black Arts Festival. Among Richardson's many awards are: The Community Leadership Award by Spelman College Board of Trustees, The Legacy Award by the Juvenile Justice Fund and The Grassroots Justice Award by the Georgia Justice Project. She also received the Lives of Commitment Award from Auburn Theological Seminary and The Pathbreaker Award from Shared Hope International. Richardson is a nationally recognized leader on social justice for women and girls and an advocate to end child sex trafficking. She is the co-author of "Ending Sex Trafficking of Children in Atlanta" and a national spokesperson for A Future. Not a Past (now Youth Spark, Inc.), a campaign to stop the sexual trafficking of children.
African Americans in Transportation Oral History Project
This small oral history project was conducted by former Southern Labor Archivist Traci Drummond. It includes interviews with African-Americans who have worked in various capacities in the transportation industry, including retired air traffic controllers, a pilot, an Amtrak administrator, and a former staffer of the FAA's Rulemaking department. Some photographs are also included in the collection.
Uprising of '34 Oral Histories
The General Textile Strike of 1934 was one of the largest labor strikes in the history of the United States. Half a million workers walked off their jobs in cotton mills across the South and up the Eastern seaboard, leading some company bosses to respond with violence. Some strikers were killed, others were imprisoned, and nearly all strikers were blacklisted and prevented from returning to work in the textile industry. The effects of the strikes and their consequences lingered in some communities for generations.
The Uprising of '34 is a documentary film, released in 1995, that tells the story of the General Textile Strike from the perspective of those who experienced it firsthand. During the film's production, over 300 hours of interviews were conducted with former mill workers, their children and grandchildren, labor organizers, mill owners, and others who experienced or were affected by the strikes. The recorded interviews are held in Georgia State University Library's Special Collections and Archives.
Finding Aid
Digital Collection
Voices of Labor Oral History Project:
Modibo Kadalie oral history interview, 2010-11-12
In this session, Kadalie explains the impact his parents and the community in which he grew up had on him. He summarizes his time at Morehouse College, where his lifelong interest in activism began with his first sit-ins and several conflicts with the Morehouse College administration. He elaborates on his personal philosophies and involvement with various activist groups, including the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, the African Liberation Support Committee, the Sixth Pan-African Congress, the Dessie Woods and Sheryl Todd Defense Committee, the Black Issues Community Forum. He describes his role in organizing against the brutality led by police chief John Inman, organizing the armed self-defense in the Techwood Housing Projects during the Atlanta Child Murders, supporting the strikes of the Atlanta sanitation workers, housing authority workers, and Atlanta Junior College students, organizing an independent union of taxi drivers, organizing a march from Savannah to Reidsville in response to a prison lockdown and against the death penalty, organizing against a racist plan for desegregation by the state board of education, and many other events. He also describes the influences that many individuals, and often their published works or activism, had on him, including C.L.R. James, Charles Simmons, Kimathi Mohammed, Hosea Williams, and many others.
Dorothy Bolden Oral History Interview, 1995-08-31
Bolden discusses her background—childhood in the African American community in Atlanta during the Great Depression, her faith, marriage, and children. She also talks about the effects of World War II on her family—loss of all male relatives. She discusses racial violence during the 1950s and 1960s. Regarding inter-racial episodes Bolden states, “They [whites] did some awful things to you, you know, to make you want to fight them.” An important aspect of Bolden’s life is her involvement in the civil rights movement—Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Ku Klux Klan, and Women’s rights. She also had a leading role in organizing domestic workers c.1968 (Domestic Workers Union) and speaks of the problems with other unions. Finally, Bolden discusses her part in trying to save historic Vine City.
Civil Rights Digital Library
The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale.
Digital Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.
Digital Library of Georgia
The Digital Library of Georgia is a GALILEO initiative based at the University of Georgia Libraries that collaborates with Georgia's Libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture, and life.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Library of Congress Digital Collections provides access to digitized American historical materials, and includes images, maps, manuscripts, prints, photographs, film, sound files, and legal materials.
Living Atlanta Oral History Recordings at the Atlanta History Center
The interviews in this collection cover a broad array of topics relevant to the history of Atlanta between World War I and World War II. Prominent subjects include race relations, segregation, popular music, baseball, neighborhoods, the Jewish community, police, healthcare, and education. Major events that are covered include the Great Fire of 1917, the 1906 Race Riot, and the 1916 Streetcar Strike. The Atlantans interviewed represent a broad cross section of society, including streetcar workers, musicians, professors, politicians, police chiefs, school teachers, railroad executives, and sports figures.
Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America: Digital Collections
The Schlesinger Library, part of Harvard University's Radcliff Institute for Advanced Studies documents the lives of women of the past and present for the future and furthers the Radcliffe Institute's commitment to women, gender, and society.
Special Collections and Archives
Phone: (404) 413-2880
Fax: (404) 413-2881
E-Mail: archives@gsu.edu
Mailing Address:
Special Collections & Archives
Georgia State University Library
100 Decatur Street, SE
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3202
In Person:
Library South, 8th floor
Contact Lisa Vallen, Southern Labor Archivist for questions related to this topic.
Email: evallen@gsu.edu
Phone: 404-413-2886
Zoom Office Hours Wed 10-11 (see syllabus for the link)
