Online Exhibit

Photos: ‘Still Raising Hell: The Art, Activism and Archives of Camille Billops and James V. Hatch’

(Source: By Kimber Williams | Emory Report | Sept. 20, 2016)

An opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 15, marked the debut of “Still Raising Hell: The Art, Activism and Archives of Camille Billops and James V. Hatch,” the new exhibit at Robert W. Woodruff Library (Emory University).

Billops and Hatch were present as attendees explored the exhibit, drawn from items the couple collected over five decades. The Billops-Hatch archives are widely considered to be one of the most important collections of materials related to 20th-century African American theater, art history and African American artists.

The exhibit, which runs through May 14 in the Schatten Gallery, showcases themes related to creativity, social justice and community, art and activism, and the importance of history and memory.

View the online exhibit here.

Rosa Parks Archive

Source: By Jennifer Schuessler, ArtsBeat, New York Times, February 25, 2016 12:01 am

The Library of Congress has digitized the papers of Rosa Parks, enabling free online access to everything from her first-hand recollections of the Montgomery bus boycott and personal correspondence with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to family photographs, tax returns and a handwritten recipe for “featherlite pancakes.”

(To view entire article visit here: Library of Congress Puts Rosa Parks Archives Online.)

Rosa Parks Collection

(Source: Todd Spangler, USA Today, September 10, 1014)

WASHINGTON — A collection of more than a thousand items that belonged to the late civil rights icon Rosa Parks — including her Presidential Medal of Freedom —  will be housed by the Library of Congress.

Librarian of Congress James Billington announced Tuesday that the collection would reside at the library on a decade-long loan from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which purchased the collection from Parks’ estate for $4.5 million in August.

Buffett is the son of billionaire financier Warren Buffett. The items had remained in warehouses for years since Parks’ 2005 death in her adopted home of Detroit at age 92 as her heirs wrangled over the assets.

Parks is best known for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955, sparking a bus boycott considered central to the civil rights movement and the end of government-sanctioned segregation.

She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, in 1996.

Parks’ collection is made up of some 1,500 items including personal correspondence and photographs, autobiographical notes, letters from presidents, a Congressional Gold Medal awarded in 1999, clothing, furniture and 200 drawings by schoolchildren and hundreds of greeting cards from individuals thanking her for her inspirational role in the civil rights movement.

 Next spring, items from the collection will be incorporated into “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom,” a year-long exhibit opening today. Library staff will also digitize documents and visual materials and make them available through its website.
(The complete story is available at Library of Congress to house Rosa Parks collection ).