Civil Rights Movement Archive

The Civil Rights Movement Archive (or "CRMA") refers to both an online collection of materials about the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s (also known as the "Freedom Movement"), as well as the organization that created and maintains it. The collection provided by the CRMA includes materials from many parts of the civil rights movement, and "tells the history of the movement from the perspective of those who were there," an "up-from-below" and "inside-out" approach to history.[1]

Civil Rights Movement Archive
AbbreviationCRMA
Formation1999
FounderBruce Hartford
TypeNonprofit organization
PurposePreserve and make available the history of the Civil Rights Movement
Location
ServicesOnline archive of original source material
Affiliations
Websitewww.crmvet.org

The group behind the archive originally referred to themselves as the "Civil Rights Movement Veterans", but recently changed their name to the "Civil Rights Movement Archive" and applied to be a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.[1] The organization now refers to itself as "CRMA" rather than "CRMVet". but the website can still can be found at "crmvet.org".[2] Material from the CRMVet.org website has been cited in the past by The New York Times[3] and other reputable publications.[4][5][6]

History

The CRMA was founded in 1999 as the "Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website" (known colloquially as "CRMVet"). At that time its primary purpose was to reconnect former movement activists with each other. To preserve movement-related memories and stories, CRMVet began collecting and making available narratives and interviews, original documents, speeches, photos, articles, and other material created by movement activists.

The archive evolved into an information resource for students, academics, authors, documentarians, and researchers. In recognition of its education and research role, CRMA has been added to the African American Civil Rights Network of the National Park Service.[7][8]

In 2019, CRMVet changed its name to "Civil Rights Movement Archive" and in 2020 it incorporated as a California non-profit. It has also applied to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.[1]

Today

As of December 2020, the archive contains PDF-format scans and transcripts (PDF and HTML) of original materials from the era. It also provides photos and art works; stories, oral-histories and commentaries by movement participants; contact information for speakers; and reference material. All of the archive's substantive content was created by participants and activists of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

The archive is a primary source for pictures, events, documents, people, poetry, oral-histories, commentaries and largely forgotten stories about the civil rights movement, and many teachers use the archive as a source.[9]

According to its founder,[10] more than 412,000 people visited the CRMA website in 2020.

As of the end of 2020,[10] the archive holdings included:

  • 717 veteran stories, narratives, and oral histories
  • 1849 movement photos and art works
  • 4226 original movement documents
  • 905 original letters and reports
  • 469 original articles and speeches by movement veterans
  • 286 history articles written by participants
  • 298 commentaries on the movement and current events
  • 52 transcribed discussions and panel presentations
  • 186 movement-related poems
  • A bibliography listing 653 books about the movement
  • 2792 links, to other movement-related websites and pages
  • Contact information for 671 movement veterans

The Civil Rights Movement Archive is funded by small donations from civil rights movement veterans and website users.

Affiliations

During the 1960s, many people affiliated with the CRMA were involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In the current era, the CRMA works in partnership with the "SNCC Legacy Project" and other organizations to preserve the history of the Southern Freedom Movement.[11][12]

References
  1. "About the Civil Rights Movement Archive". www.crmvet.org. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  2. "Civil Rights Movement Archive". www.crmvet.org. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  3. Roberts, Sam (July 4, 2016). "Donald Jelinek, Lawyer for Attica Prisoners, Dies at 82 (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  4. Ha, Thu-Huong. "A powerful guide to "going high" from a 1963 civil rights letter signed by Martin Luther King, Jr". Quartz. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  5. Levy-Uyeda, Ray. "The Freedom Summer Turned Students Into Revolutionaries". Teen Vogue. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  6. "'They couldn't arrest us all': civil rights veteran Rutha Mae Harris on MLK, protest and prison". The Guardian. September 10, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  7. "Civil Rights Movement Archive (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  8. "Discover the Network - Civil Rights (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  9. "Civil Rights Movement Archive Teacher Recommendations". Civil Rights Teaching. Teaching for Change. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  10. Bruce Hartford. "Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website -- CRMVet Website Annual Report, 2020". www.crmvet.org. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  11. "SNCC Legacy - Home". sncclegacyproject.org. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  12. DeBonis, Mike. "Civil rights comrades remember Marion Barry". Washington Post. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
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