Stetson Kennedy Papers, 1933-1981 (L1979-37)
Kennedy's career as an author began in the 1930s when he worked as both a writer and an editor on the Federal Writers Project guide to Florida. The Papers, 1933-1981, of Stetson Kennedy comprise correspondence; subject files on various organizations, individuals, and ideas; typescripts of articles written by Kennedy; newsclippings; press releases; bulletins and fliers; pamphlets; periodicals; and photographs. Anyone interested in primary source material on the pioneering struggles to introduce unionization, civil rights, and socio-economic-political progress to the South during the Great Depression, WW II, and the decade which followed will find this extensive collection highly rewarding.
Finding Aid
Digital Collection
M.H. Ross Papers, 1916-1987 (L2001-05)
Myron Howard "Mike" Ross, was born November 9, 1919. Ross worked with a number of unions as an organizer, arbitrator, and advocate in the South. He ran for elective office in North Carolina on the Progressive Party ticket. After receiving public health training, he founded the Fairmont (West Virginia) Clinic, which had the mission of providing high quality medical care for miners and their families. Administering the clinic 1958-1978, Ross developed a longstanding interest in coal miners and worked on writing a history of them. The M. H. Ross papers consists of campaign materials from congressional races held in 1940 and 1948, labor union activities, social and political research, coal mining research, including a large collection of coal miner oral histories, manuscripts and those related research files, office files, photographs, audio/visual materials, and personal and family oral histories.
Finding Aid
Digital Collection
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.
Georgia Government Documentation Project Oral Histories, 1971-2002
Finding Aid
Digital Collection
Uprising of '34 Collection, 1987-1995
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.
Willis Bivins, July 7, 2017
A patron of the Stonewall Inn before the raid in July of 1969 Willis Bivins also marched in the first Pride March in New York City in 1970. In Atlanta, Bivins was one of the founding members of Black and White Men Together Atlanta (BWMT). Established in the early 1980s, BWMT is a "gay multiracial, multicultural organization committed to fostering supportive environments wherein racial and cultural barriers can be overcome and the goal of human equality realized". BWMT engages in educational, political, cultural, and social activities as a means of dealing with racism, sexism, homophobia, HIV/AIDS discrimination and other inequities. More recently, in an effort to move beyond color and specific racial designations, to a more community-based organization with a focus on cultural interaction, Bivins co-founded Atlanta Men for All Cultures (AMAC). CONTACT ARCHIVIST FOR TRANSCRIPT AND AUDIO/VIDEO
Gregg Daugherty, June 29, 2018
A native of Black Mountain North Carolina, Gregg Daugherty graduated from Western Carolina University with a BA in Art Education. He moved to Atlanta in 1978, where he became the first African American Ad Sales employee for the city's LGBT publications industry (late 1970's through the mid 1980’s). Daugherty managed advertising and marketing for Cruise, David, and Guide magazines and was a contributing writer of articles, "Under the Lights" and "GADABOUT" which were featured in Pulse, Around the Clock, and Guide magazines. These articles garnered him the Peoples Choice Award for Writer of Year in 1986. [AVAILABLE VIA GSU LIBRARY'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL]
Lorraine Fontana, October 29 and December 11, 2012
Born in Queens, NY, in 1947, Lorraine Fontana became an anti-war activist and supporter of the Civil Rights and Black Empowerment Movements early in life. After joining VISTA in 1968, she came to Atlanta, and together with other feminists, founded the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA - 1972 to 1994), and later DARII (Dykes for the Second American Revolution). She trained at the People’s College of Law in L.A. (1976-79) and went on to work with the National Jury Project, Georgia Legal Services, the EEOC in New York City (Oct 1999 to Jan, 2004), and Georgia’s Lambda Legal Education & Defense Fund (2006-2012). She was a member of the short-lived Queer Progressive Agenda (QPA), and is currently a supporter of First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta’s Social Justice Guild, the Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition, Charis Books, the Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace, SAGE Atlanta, and Southerners on New Ground. [AVAILABLE VIA DIGITAL COLLECTIONS]
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. [AVAILABLE VIA DIGITAL COLLECTIONS]
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. [CONTACT ARCHIVIST FOR TRANSCRIPT OR AUDIO FILE]
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. [CONTACT ARCHIVIST FOR TRANSCRIPT OR AUDIO FILE]
Sara Mitchell Parsons
Parsons began a lengthy career in public affairs as a member of the Atlanta Board of Education (1961-1968). After moving to California, she served as an elected member from the 3rd District to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, the first woman elected in the 120-year history of the county. From 1977 until 1980, Parsons served as board representative for several different organizations, including the County Mental Health Advisory Board, the Juvenile Delinquency Commission, the CETA Advisory Board (Chairman), the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission, the Courthouse Beautification Committee (Chairman), the Eureka Chamber of Commerce, and the Convention and Tourist Bureau. She also served as the chair of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors in 1980. From 1978 until 1980, Parsons was the governor's appointee to the California Solar/Cal Committee as well as vice-chair of the Employment Steering Committee of the National Association of Counties (1979-1980). Parsons was also elected by the Democratic Party of Northern California as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in New York City in 1980. In addition to a career in politics, Parsons also participated in various community service projects. She served as president of the North Fulton High School PTA (1956-1958), as a member of the Official Board of the St. James Methodist Church (1958-1963), and as president of the Atlanta League of Women Voters from 1958 until 1960. She also acted as a visiting lecturer at Emory University and was invited by President Lyndon Johnson to the White House Conference on Education in 1965. In the same year, Parsons was awarded the Atlanta "Good Neighbor of the Year" award. Recently, Parsons completed the book From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights that chronicles her transformation into a civil rights activist and her friendship with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
In her interview, she discusses the integration of schools and the contentious integration of the Atlanta League of Women Voters. [CONTACT ARCHIVIST FOR TRANSCRIPT OR AUDIO FILE]
Millard Farmer, March 9, 2012
Born in 1934, noted death penalty defense attorney Millard C. Farmer, Jr. grew up in Newnan, Georgia. A University of Georgia graduate (1956), he worked in the family business and attended Woodrow Wilson College of Law during the evenings. He was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1967, built a successful practice in Newnan, and was a co-founder of the Bank of Coweta there. Farmer also represented disadvantaged clients, and came to question whether African American defendants could be tried fairly before all-white juries. By 1970, he and his associates were challenging jury composition on the grounds of race. In 1976, he co-founded the Team Defense Project (TDP) with social psychologist Courtney J. Mullin and Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center. TDP was dedicated to the representation of indigent persons in death penalty cases and enjoyed many high-profile successes in the 1970s and 1980s, notably the case of the “Dawson Five” in Dawson, Georgia. Most of Farmer and Team Defense Project’s work was intended to bring attention to the inequities in the way capital punishment is used, and many of TDP’s litigation strategies, such as jury composition challenges and motion filings it developed, have become widely adopted tactics. Farmer and his colleagues taught and lectured on these strategies to numerous legal groups and audiences. An acknowledged expert in capital cases, Farmer has also represented clients bringing racial discrimination suits. He has received numerous honors from legal and civil liberties advocacy organizations.
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)
