Catalog Search Results
Visit the Civil Rights Room
The Civil Rights Room is a space for education and exploration of NPL's Civil Rights Collection. The materials exhibited here capture the drama of a time when thousands of African-American citizens in Nashville sparked a nonviolent challenge to racial segregation in the city and across the South.
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"Fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death--and at a time when race relations and social justice are again at the forefront of our country's consciousness--this book expands on a Frist Center for the Visual Arts exhibition to present a selection of approximately one hundred photographs that document an important period in Nashville's struggle for racial equality. The images were taken between 1957, the year that desegregation in public schools...
Description
Black and white: Nashville sit-ins of 1960, Nashville Banner's coverage and opposition to the movement; Banner leads effort to remove James Lawson from Vanderbilt.
Ben West: Bombing of Z. Alexander Looby's home leads to a confrontation with Mayor West on courthouse steps by Diane Nash.
Shades of gray: Desegregation of Buena Vista Elementary School; John Kasper led opposition to desegregation; bombing of Hattie Cotton Elementary School; modern...
Description
In Fall 1959, James Lawson offered free evening classes on nonviolent action to university students in Nashville with the goal of training and preparing them to desegregate the city's business district. Lawson had spent three years in India learning about Mohandas Gandhi. Now he guided his students in a study of both the history and practice of nonviolent methods--to prepare them for their "sit-ins" at downtown stores. Lawson's guidance helps the...
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Scope and content: Biographical and subject clipping files, collected by Nashville Room staff since ca. 1970. Biographical files cover thousands of Nashvillians and Tennesseans, and subject files cover numerous general topics of local interest, such as buildings, businesses, cemeteries, churches, historic homes, forts, and parks. There are binders of the most heavily used files across from the main desk in the Nashville Room for the following topics:...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville businessman David Swett, Jr., conducted 17 July 2006 by John Egerton as part of a cooperative effort between the Nashville Public Library's Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project and the Southern Foodways Alliance. During the interview, Swett discusses such topics as his grandfather, Walter Swett's, establishment of the family restaurant, Swett's; his grandfather's encounters with...
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Abstract: Comprised of original newsreel, video and audio tapes, recordings of freedom and protest songs along with recorded sermons and speeches. These materials were donated or purchased through the Robin and Bill King Foundation and are part of the Civil Rights Collection of the Nashville Public Library Special Collections Division. Individual recordings are cataloged separately.
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Abstract: Consisting of rare and unique items that give historical sketches of race relations in the south, civil rights, school integration, segregation, race riots, economic discrepancy among southern African Americans and civil rights legislation. Materials in the collection were donated or purchased through the Robin and Bill King Foundation and are part of the Civil Rights Collection of the Nashville Public Library Special Collections Division....
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Scope and content: A series of oral history interviews with former Nashville Mayor Beverly Briley, conducted 21 Mar. 1980-22 May1980 by Paul Clements as part of the Century III Nashville: Nashville Heritage Project. Briley discusses such topics as his childhood and early life; his career as a lawyer and judge; Nashville politics; urban renewal and housing in Nashville; the events of Nashville's civil rights movement and race relations in the city;...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville Civil Rights Movement participant William Lewis Barnes, conducted on 19 December 2002 by Ed Hamlett as part of the Nashville Public Library's Civil Rights Oral History Project. During the 1 hour and 30 minute interview, Barnes discusses such topics as experiencing segregation while growing up in Nashville; attending McKendree Methodist Church; attending Vanderbilt University and Yale Divinity...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville businessman, former State Representative for the 53rd District, civic leader, and Davidson County, Tennessee Clerk John H. Arriola, Jr., conducted 5 June 2007 by James T. Havron as part of the Library Interviews series of the Nashville Public Library's Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project. During the 1 hour interview, Arriola discusses such topics as his childhood and education...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville businessman and civic leader James Stephen Turner, conducted 21 June 2006 by Andrea Blackman as part of The Turner Interviews series of the Nashville Public Library's Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project. During the 1 hour and 51 second interview, Turner discusses such topics as his childhood and early education in Kentucky; the importance of community support for families and businesses;...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville Civil Rights Movement participant Wallace Westfeldt, conducted on 31 October 2002 by Milt Capps as part of the Nashville Public Library's Civil Rights Oral History Project. During the ca. 2 hour interview, Westfeldt discusses such topics as his family and education; attending Sewanee; segregation; his journalism career, including working for Nashville's Tennessean newspaper covering civil rights;...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville Civil Rights Movement participant DeLois Jackson Wilkinson, conducted on 31 October 2002 by Kathy G. Bennett as part of the Nashville Public Library's Civil Rights Oral History Project. During the 1 hour and 16 minute interview, Wilkinson discusses such topics as her family, education, and growing up in Helena, Arkansas; Rev. Kelly Miller Smith and First Baptist Capitol Hill; her involvement...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville businessman and civic leader Kenneth L. Roberts, conducted 27 July 2006 by Cabot Pyle as part of The Turner Interviews series of the Nashville Public Library's Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project. During the 1 hour and 42 second interview, Roberts discusses such topics as his family and education; Nashville during the 1950s when he first came to town to attend law school at Vanderbilt;...
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Scope and content: An oral history interview with Nashville minister Dr. Frank F. Drowota, Jr., conducted on 20 November 1980 by his granddaughter Helen Drowota as part of the Century III Nashville: Nashville Heritage Project. Drowota discusses such topics as immigrating to America from Great Britain as a teenager; experiences as a child in England that influenced him throughout his life, including his first experiences with death (upon viewing...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville businessman and civic leader Nelson Andrews, conducted 25 Aug. 2006 by Cabot Pyle as part of The Turner Interviews series of the Nashville Public Library's Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project. During the 1 hour and 46 minute interview, Andrews discusses such topics as Nashville during the 1940s when he first came to town as a child; leadership; attending Vanderbilt; the advantages...
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Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville Civil Rights Movement participant Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., conducted on 22 June 2005 by John Egerton as part of the Nashville Public Library's Civil Rights Oral History Project. During the ca. 1 hour interview, Birch discusses such topics as his family; his education in Washington, D.C.; growing up in segregated Washington, D.C.; his service in the Navy; coming to Nashville to practice law in...
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