Adam Matthew Announces Plans to Digitize Major Civil Rights Movement Collection

From Adam Matthew:

Adam Matthew is pleased to announce a new agreement to digitally publish a wealth of documents from the “Race Relations Department of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, 1943-1970,” held by the Amistad Research Center.
Established within the Race Relations Department in 1966 to house the historical records of the American Missionary Association, the Amistad Research Center is now home to over 600 manuscript collections and a range of further primary and secondary source material relating to civil rights, racial intolerance, and the social and cultural contributions of underrepresented people in the United States.
The research possibilities for this judicious new project are significant. Documents produced by the department, originally set up by a formidable group of social scientists, will provide access to detailed research on segregation and discrimination, pioneering studies and annual institutes. According to some specialists, these documents exerted a greater effect upon the course of desegregation in the United States than any other single series of events.
Race Relations in America will contain various materials, including:

• Papers and speeches presented at “Race Relations Institutes” attended by such notable figures as Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Rachel DuBois

• Social surveys and resulting analysis, including interviews, reports and raw data from the department’s numerous studies conducted throughout the United States

• Correspondence, including plans to replicate the success of the Center with additional institutions and event participation, to or from prospective participants, applicants, consultants and lecturers

• Images of scrapbooks, photographs and past exhibits

The collection, due for publication in early 2017, will be of interest to students and researchers studying and teaching in the fields of education and civil rights, both past and present.

The Amistad Research Center is located in New Orleans.

Filed under: Data Files, Interviews, Journal Articles, News, Reports