Guide to School Desegregation
This guide identifies manuscript collections that are related to school desegregation, but is not intended to be a complete finding aid to the collections. It serves as a preliminary research tool, providing a brief description of holdings with basic information on size, inclusive dates, types of records, and broad subject areas. More detailed descriptions of the sources listed below are available in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) and through EUCLID, the Emory Libraries’ online catalog. EUCLID contains bibliographic records for the majority of the manuscript collections held in MARBL as well as books and other printed material available at Emory University. EUCLID is accessible through the Internet at http://www.library.emory.edu. Finding aids for these sources are also available through MARBL's Web site in the finding aids database.
Please note that not all manuscript collections are housed in MARBL. Some collections are located at an off-site storage facility and must be requested in advance. In addition, some collections have access restrictions. Researchers are encouraged to contact MARBL to insure that materials will be available. We are also happy to pull materials in advance of a research visit.
CHERRY, JIM D. (MSS 655)
Papers, 1947-1988; 11 linear ft. (11 boxes, 13 oversized bound volumes)
Jim D. Cherry (1911-1980) was superintendent of the DeKalb County, Georgia, school system for twenty-five years. He believed in maintaining separate schools for white and black students. By the time Cherry retired in 1972, the school system had undergone token integration. The collection consists of correspondence, speeches, writings, printed material, scrapbooks, photographs, clippings, and memorabilia.
Restriction: Restrictions on access and reproduction may apply.
COE, JOHN MORENO (MSS 628)
Case Files, 1919-1973; 113 linear ft. (18 boxes)
John Coe (1896-1974) was a Florida lawyer interested in civil liberties cases. He also served a term as a Florida state senator and chaired the Florida State Progressive Party. The collection contains personal and professional correspondence as well as case files from his law practice. The case files include material related to Simpson White v. Board of Public Instruction and Mattie Lee Atkins v. Board of Public Instruction, two cases that involved African Americans who wanted to study at a Pensacola vocational school. A list of cases is available upon request.
Restriction: Special permission is required for access to some case file materials.
CURRY, CONSTANCE W. (MSS 818)
Papers, 1951-1997; 8 linear ft. (14 boxes, 1 oversized item)
Constance W. Curry (1933- ) is an author, attorney, community organizer, and political activist. She was Director of the Southern Student Human Relations Project of the National Student Association from 1960 to 1964. Curry was also the first white female on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She worked as Southern Field Representative of the American Friends Service Committee from 1964-1975. Curry’s book, Silver Rights, recounts the story of one rural Mississippi family’s struggle for education and civil rights during the 1960s. Silver Rights won the 1996 Lillian Smith Award for non-fiction.
The Constance W. Curry papers include some materials about education, including a SNCC “Report on School Desegregation,” and printed material from several organizations about school desegregation in the South.
DAVIS, JAMES C. (MSS 507)
Papers, 1919-1966; 221 linear ft. (216 boxes)
James C. Davis (1895-1981), an ardent segregationist, served as a Georgia representative in the U.S. Congress from 1947-1963. His papers detail efforts to maintain segregation in public schools in Georgia. The papers include photographs and drawings of African American school facilities in Georgia from the early 1950s. These materials were supposed to demonstrate to the U.S. courts and to other critics that Georgia’s public school facilities conformed to Plessy v. Ferguson’s doctrine of separate but “equal” accommodations. The papers also contain subject files about schools, DeKalb County schools, and so-called “Desegregation Scrapbooks.”
EMORY UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
There is more material about desegregation in the Emory University Archives. Please contact Emory University Archives for more information.
Emory University. Legal Counsel (RG 100/Series 5)
Henry L. Bowden office files, 1970-1983; 17 linear ft.
Record Group 100: Series 5 consists of the office files of Henry Lumpkin Bowden (1910-1997), lawyer and Emory University trustee. Bowden also served Emory University legal counsel. The collection includes files related to Bowden’s activities with Emory University, including correspondence about the integration of the University.
Restriction: Portions subject to access restriction; special permission required for use.
Emory University. University Activities, Publications, and Memorabilia
(RG 900/Series 99)
Desegregation Documentation collection; 1 linear ft. (2 boxes and 6 audio tapes)
This series consist of materials related to the desegregation of Emory University. It includes files concerning the 1962 Emory v. Nash lawsuit, material about Faculty Orientation in 1962 as well as a history of integration at Emory from 1966.
EPISCOPAL SOCIETY FOR CULTURAL AND RACIAL UNITY (U.S.)
(MSS 723)
Records, 1961-1966; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
The Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity, a voluntary society, was founded in 1960 with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Its stated purpose was to establish total participation in the Church for all persons regardless of race, class, or national origin.
The records consist of statements of purpose, newsletters, official correspondence, materials relating to the Lovett School segregation controversy, and collected material.
FINGER, JOHN A. (JOHN ADAM) (MSS 1051)
Desegregation research files, ca. 1960-1979; 8 linear ft. (8 boxes, 1 oversized paper)
John Adams Fingers, Jr. (1920-2006) was a professor of Education at Colgate University, Brown University and Rhode Island College. Finger served as a consultant to the NAACP for school desegregation cases during the 1960s and 1970s. The collection contains research material and reports collected and written by John A. Finger concerning school desegregation cases from ca. 1960 to 1979. The case files contain notes, reports, and maps, and are roughly arranged by state.
FORT, ADA (MSS 701)
Papers, 1950-1975; 1 linear ft. (1 box)
Fort was the Dean of Emory University’s School of Nursing from 1950 to 1975. She led the school through growth in enrollment and integration of the student body. The collection consists of correspondence, photographs, clippings, scrapbooks, printed material, and certificates. The clippings, scrapbooks, printed material, and certificates relate to the history of the nursing school and its integration.
GOOD, PAUL (MSS 1025)
Papers; .25 linear ft. (1 box)
Paul Joseph Good, Jr. (1929-2005) was a television and print journalist known for his coverage of the civil rights movement. He arrived in Atlanta in 1961 to work as Southern bureau chief for ABC News. Good documented the civil rights movement during his time in the South. The papers consist of audio recordings, including interviews about attempts to desegregate the public high school in Notasulga, Alabama.
GRIFFIN, JOHN A. (MSS 767)
Papers, 1964- ; 58 linear ft. (58 boxes)
John A. Griffin was an educator, activist, and labor arbitrator as well as a founding member of the Southern Regional Council. In 1964, Griffin worked as deputy director of the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service. As deputy director, he helped mediate conflicts in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Between 1965 and 1978, Griffin served as the director of the Southern Education Foundation, a foundation dedicated to equal educational opportunities for African Americans in the American South.
This collection consists of the personal papers of John A. Griffin. It includes correspondence, reports, audiovisual items, and other material documenting Griffin’s work with the Southern Regional Council, the Southern Education Foundation, and his career as an arbitrator. The audiovisual series contains a recording of a speech Griffin delivered in 1966 at the annual banquet of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations, “The Importance of Public Education,” and the subsequent discussion with students.
HAMES, MARGIE PITTS (MSS 825)
Papers, 1969-1993; 98 linear ft. (98 boxes)
Margie Pitts Hames (d. 1993) graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1961 and began practicing law in Atlanta with Fisher and Phillips. She specialized in labor-management relations. In 1969, Hames volunteered for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a Ford Foundation project that worked to prevent confrontations between civil rights demonstrators and police. She opened her own firm in 1971. The collection includes case files which provide information on civil rights issues in Atlanta, including material related to Calhoun v. Cook, a continuation of the original 1958 class action lawsuit to desegregate Atlanta’s public schools.
HARTSFIELD, WILLIAM BERRY (MSS 558)
Papers, 1892-1980; 22 linear ft. (60 boxes, 12 oversized items)
Hartsfield (1890-1971), the son of a tinsmith, was an attorney, an untiring civic booster, politician, and longtime mayor of Atlanta (1937-1962). The collection contains materials about the token desegregation of Atlanta public school in September 1961.
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF DEKALB COUNTY, INC. (MSS 773)
Records, 1943- ; 35 linear ft. (35 boxes)
The League of Women Voters of DeKalb County, (Ga.) is affiliated with the League of Women Voters (U.S.) and the League of Women Voters of Georgia. A nonpartisan political organization, it encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
The collection consists of papers of the League of Women Voters of DeKalb County (Ga.) from 1943-[ongoing]. The papers include annual reports, correspondence, financial records, minutes, photographs, printed material, and subject files. There are correspondence, reports, printed material, and newsletters about keeping public schools open in Georgia, Atlanta, and DeKalb County. There is also material about the desegregation of the University of Georgia.
MAY, JAMES WILLIAM (MSS 667)
Papers 1929-1988; 8.50 linear ft. (16 boxes)
May (1912- ) is professor emeritus of theology at Emory University. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was interested in the issue of school desegregation and the church's response to integration. He also helped formulate Emory's position on race relations. The collection includes pamphlets and memorandum from church organizations about school integration.
MCGILL, RALPH (MSS 252)
Papers, 1853-1971; 60.25 linear ft. (118 boxes, 32 oversized papers, 75 bound volumes, 7 reels of microfilm)
McGill (1898-1969) was a journalist, daily columnist, the editor-in-chief, and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution. He was a prominent Southern civil rights advocate, who was known as the "Conscience of the South." McGill advocated a moderate position on racial issues in his columns, appealing for racial cooperation and obedience to the law of the land after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for distinguished editorial writing.
The collection consists of family and general correspondence, committee records and correspondence, writings, financial papers and subject files, photographs, scrapbooks, memorabilia, and audiovisual materials. Topics covered in the subject files include education and the public schools in the South and Atlanta as well as the desegregation controversy surrounding the Lovett School.
NEWSWEEK, INC. ATLANTA BUREAU (MSS 629)
Records, 1954-1979; 19 linear ft. (19 boxes)
The Atlanta bureau of Newsweek was the hub of the weekly magazine’s southern network. Reporters from Atlanta fanned out across the region to write stories for Newsweek’s editorial office in New York. These stories were then edited, combined, and consolidated by the editors for publication.
The Atlanta bureau files include press clippings, drafts of stories, handwritten notes, press releases, correspondence, and printed materials. Newsweek correspondents filed stories about school desegregation from large cities like Atlanta, Little Rock, and New Orleans and from smaller places such as Clinton, Tennessee. The files cover desegregation in public and private schools, colleges, and universities from the mid-1950s through the busing controversies of the 1970s.
PARSONS, SARA MITCHELL (MSS 946)
Papers, 1933-2002; 1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes, 1 oversized bound volume)
Sara Mitchell Parsons, social activist, served as president of the League of Women Voters of Atlanta from 1958-1963 and published her memoir From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights in 2000.
The papers include correspondence, photographs, printed material, a scrapbook, and writings by Parsons. The collection includes printed material about the Atlanta public system and segregation. The scrapbook relates to her 1961 campaign for election to the Atlanta Board of Education.
PASCHALL, ELIZA K. (MSS 532)
Papers, 1932-1988; 51 linear ft. (76 boxes, 2 oversized items)
Paschall (1917-1990) was an Atlanta civic activist who was involved in a variety of civil rights organizations and women's groups. The collection contains files from Paschall's tenure as executive director of the Greater Atlanta Council on Human Relations (GACHR) from 1961-1967, including correspondence, minutes, inter-office memoranda, reports, press releases, and clippings relating to Atlanta public schools as well as schools in Fulton and DeKalb counties.
PAULEY, FRANCES FREEBORN (MSS 659)
Papers, 1919-1992; 54.25 linear ft. (100 boxes, 11 oversized items, 3 oversized bound volumes)
Pauley (1905-2003) was an activist for civil rights and social causes. She was chair of the state organizing committee for HOPE (Help Our Public Education) Inc., a non-profit organization of volunteers set up to preserve free public education in Georgia. The overriding goal of HOPE was to keep public schools open in the face of state laws and public opinion that decried the notion of “race-mixing.” Pauley later worked for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare's (HEW) Office of Civil Rights. The collection includes correspondence, organizing strategies, policy statements, minutes, reports, conference proceedings, transcripts of hearings, agendas, newsletters, mass mailings, lists of participants, memorabilia, printed matter, and clippings related to school desegregation, the transfer of public school students, and busing.
PITTS V. FREEMAN (MSS 1036)
School desegregation case files; 10 linear ft.
This lawsuit was part of a series of litigation that sought to dismantle segregation in DeKalb County’s public school system. Willie Gene Pitts, et al., v. Robert Freeman, et al., was filed in 1983. The litigation centered on the school system’s efforts to expand Redan High School to relieve overcrowding at the school. The plaintiffs filed a motion to block the expansion because the proposed construction violated a 1969 injunction that required DeKalb County to construct and expand school facilities “with the objective of eradicating segregation and perpetuating desegregation.” The plantiffs contended the county’s efforts to expand Redan’s capacity were a thinly-veiled effort to avoid reassigning white students to nearby “undercapacity” high schools that were predominately African American.
The case files consist of materials from plaintiffs’ legal team, including legal memos, newspaper clippings, transcripts, expert reports, and other materials related to the case.
RAINEY, GLENN W. (GLENN WEDDINGTON) (MSS 471)
Papers, 1917-1974; 10 linear ft. (20 boxes, 1 oversized item, 9 bound volumes)
Raniey (1907-1989), an alumnus of Emory University, was a professor of English at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta from 1932 until 1974. He was active in civil rights groups which flourished during the 1940's, such as the Georgia Commission on Interracial Cooperation (the parent organization of the Southern Regional Council). He served as president of the Committee for Georgia, an affiliate of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare. The subject files include files titled “Negro Education – Atlanta” and “Public School Crisis, 1960.”
SIBLEY, JOHN ADAMS (MSS 437)
Papers, 1920-1989; 154.25 linear ft. (463 boxes, 2 oversized bound volumes)
Sibley (1888-1986) was a prominent Atlanta lawyer, banker, and civic leader. He was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of King and Spaulding, general counsel to Coca-Cola, president of Trust Company Bank, and head of Atlanta's first United Way appeal. Sibley also chaired the Georgia General Assembly Commission on Schools, which was popularly known as the “Sibley Commission.” The Sibley Commission sought a way to keep Georgia’s public schools open after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. The collection includes correspondence, printed material, publicity, reports, speeches, subject files, transcripts of testimony, and other materials related to the Georgia General Assembly Commission on Schools.
Restriction: Access to certain files relating to Coca-Cola and the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foundation are restricted (series 1: subject files).
SITTON, CLAUDE FOX (MSS 633)
Papers, 1958-1990; 13 linear ft. (14 boxes)
Sitton (1925-) worked as the southern correspondent for The New York Times during the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, he was widely considered the “dean” of the “Race Beat,” the best reporter on the southern civil rights assignment. Later, he worked as editor of the Raleigh News and Observer where he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his weekly column. The collection contains Sitton's personal and professional papers, including correspondence, printed materials, speeches and writings. The correspondence, by-lines and columns, and speeches date from the period after he left The New York Times. The scrapbooks, though, contain clippings of Sitton’s work from the late 1950s and early 1960s.
SOUTHERN REGIONAL COUNCIL (MSS 934)
“Will The Circle Be Unbroken?” program files and sound recordings; 21 linear ft. (21 boxes)
"Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: An Audio History of the Civil Rights Movement in Five Southern Communities and the Music of Those Times" is an awarding-winning radio documentary. Produced by the Southern Regional Council (SRC), it chronicles the struggle to end segregation in Atlanta, Georgia, Columbia, South Carolina, Jackson, Mississippi, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Montgomery, Alabama. The show aired on Public Radio International (PRI) affiliates across the country in 1997.
The program files consist of interview transcripts, audiovisual materials, scripts, program research files, and production files. The largest part of the collection is made up of materials related to the interviews, including tapes and transcripts of interviews, conducted by the producers for the show. The interviews and programs examine the desegregation of schools in Clarendon County, South Carolina and Little Rock, Arkansas.
STEVENS, RICHARD L. (MSS 520)
Collection, 1964-1969; 14 linear ft. (28 boxes)
Activist and educator, Richard L. Stevens arrived in Atlanta during the 1960s when he enrolled in the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was active in the peace, civil rights, and student movements in the Gate City and across the South. In 1965, he became project director of the Southern Student Human Relations Project, U.S. National Student Association.
The collection consists of subject files, printed materials, and mimeographed proceedings and speeches. Subject file materials include materials about “Better Schools Atlanta” and school desegregation.
TUTTLE, ELBERT P. (MSS 792)
Judicial papers, 1952-1995; 87 linear ft. (92 boxes)
Judge Tuttle (1897-1996) was a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit from 1954-1967. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 1960 until 1967. Until its division in 1981, the “old” 5th Circuit had jurisdiction over the six states in the South. The 5th Circuit served as the federal appellate court one level below the Supreme Court, and it comprised the country’s largest and busiest Constitutional court during the civil rights movements. The Tuttle judicial papers include correspondence, docket books, records relating to court administration, case files and opinions, and a small number of personal papers. The majority of the case files begin in 1965-1966. However, there are some case files from earlier civil rights cases such as Meredith v. Fair and Armstrong et al. v. Board of Education of the City of Birmingham.
WILEY, BELL (MSS 521)
Papers, 1928-1981; 150 linear ft. (216 boxes and 10 oversized items)
Bell Irvin Wiley (1906-1980), the author of The Life of Johnny Reb and The Life of Billy Yank, was appointed professor of history at Emory University in 1949, where he remained until retirement in 1974. He was particularly interested in the Civil War and published widely in that area. The collection consists of papers of Bell Irvin Wiley, including a file about the desegregation of Emory University.
