In March 2004 Tougaloo College and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History entered into a collaboration to ensure the long-term preservation of and access to the collections that comprise the Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection. The collaborative partnership agreement allowed Tougaloo to loan the collections to MDAH for reprocessing, preservation, and cataloging. To date, all but four collections have been reprocessed and cataloged. The remaining four unprocessed collections are available with curator's permission. Collections are available for research use at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Rims Barber Collection (T/003), 1940-1974.
A Presbyterian minister from Iowa, Barber participated in Freedom Summer in 1964, joined the Delta Ministry, and worked for its Freedom City project in an attempt to set up a self-governing, self-sustaining community for former sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta. He also worked for the Children’s Defense Fund until 1989. This collection (22 cubic ft.) contains Barber’s personal papers, in addition to his Delta Ministry reports and financial material, information on civil rights issues, and mementos and photographs that document his career. The majority of the collection consists of material from Barber’s work with the Delta Ministry, from 1964 to his departure in 1977. Of note in the collection is material relating to education and children’s welfare.
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Gladys Noel Bates Papers (T/004), 1947-1998. 
This collection (1.37cubic ft.) includes two scrapbooks documenting Bates’ 1948 challenge charging salary discrimination against black teachers and principals. One scrapbook contains materials Bates collected during the early years of the lawsuit, including official letters between Bates and school officials, correspondence regarding her work with the Mississippi Teachers Association, and newsclippings. The second scrapbook contains correspondence and materials collected by Bates’s father, Andrew Jackson Noel, who was an officer of the Jackson Branch of the NAACP. Most of the correspondence is from James A. Burns of Meridian, as well as from Robert Carter of the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP.
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Ernst Borinski Collection (T/005), ca. 1922-1984.
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Borinski was a professor of sociology who taught at Tougaloo College from 1947 until 1982. Known for his belief in active freedom regardless of ethnic origin, Borinski supported the civil rights movement and actively fostered communication between the races. The collection (43.82 cubic ft.) consists of personal papers, correspondence, career materials, organizational and philanthropic materials, written works, photographs, books and printed material, news clippings, newspapers, pamphlets, newsletters; magazines, journals, and oversized items.
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Virgia Brocks-Shedd Papers (T/006), ca. 1943-1992. 
Brocks-Shedd was the director of library services at Tougaloo from 1988-1991 and is considered a founder of the archival collections. Her papers (12.85 cubic ft.) document her professional and artistic careers. As a writer, poet, actor, and educator, Brocks-Shedd was involved in several groups concerned with post-civil rights movement cultural uplift, such as the artistic collective the Daughters of Margaret. Of particular interest are her poetry and writings, which reflect her joys, sorrows, anger, and introspective thoughts. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Robert George Clark, Jr. Collection (T/007), ca. 1963-1970.
An educator and the first African American elected to the Mississippi legislature since Reconstruction, Robert Clark was known for his support of Mississippi governor William Winter’s educational initiatives. The collection (2.78 cubic ft.) is comprised of personal papers, Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee materials, community programs, Mississippi Legislature papers, and legislative research materials. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

L. C. Dorsey Papers (T/010), 1979-1992.
A leading activist who worked for registration of black voters, formed a food cooperative in Bolivar County, and was a member of the Freedom Democratic Party, Dorsey became involved in prison reform in the 1970s, holding offices in the Mississippi Prisoners’ Defense Committee and the Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons, as well as becoming associate director of the Delta Ministry, the civil rights group sponsored by the National Council of Churches. This collection (0.30 cubic ft.) includes a copy of : “’Unwomanly’ Behavior: The Politics of Incarcerating Women in America"; articles written for Grapevine, the newsletter of the Joint Strategy and Action Committee (1984), and the Jackson Advocate (1979); and a poem written for Virgia Brocks-Shedd (1992 ). The correspondence consists of photocopies of letters concerning a conflict between Dorsey and Ronald R. Welch of the Mississippi Prisoners’ Defense Committee. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Laurence Lazelle Durgin Papers (T/011), ca. 1935-1982.
As pastor of the Riverside Congregational Church in New York, Durgin convinced the congregation to sell its property and donate the proceeds to the civil rights movement. In 1961 he became a member of the Tougaloo College Board of Trustees and in 1980 a member of the faculty. This collection (4.30 cubic feet) is composed of Durgin’s writings, sermons, poetry, a journal, materials relating to the play The Bloody Tenet, photographs, and printed materials. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer Collection (T/012), 1964-2001.
The collection (1.69 cubic ft.) is comprised of correspondence and memorabilia, writings and speeches, organizational records, works and tributes, and graphic materials. It includes documents of the Freedom Farm Corporation; letters, brochures, and pamphlets of the Mississippi Branch of the NAACP; copies of magazine and newspaper articles, pamphlets, and brochures that describe the life and work of Hamer; and photographs of Hamer, her family and associates, and personalities of social and civil rights agencies. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Charles Horwitz Papers (T/014), 1936-1973.
Active in COFO and SNCC, Horwitz helped found the Freedom Information Service, which gathered news, statistics, and information related to the civil rights movement; worked for the Delta Ministry; and worked for bi-racial support for education. He was involved in Hurricane Camille relief efforts and also was active in craft cooperatives, boycotts, strikes, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. This collection (9.35 cubic ft.) documents his civil rights work in Mississippi from 1965 to 1973. It contains general correspondence; COFO, Freedom Information Service, and Delta Ministry records; printed material, political materials, photographs, news clippings, and ephemera. Topics of importance include voter registration, school desegregation, anti-poverty programs, and African American political candidates. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Lance Jeffers Papers (T/015), 1957-1986. 
An advocate of black American literature, Jeffers worked with Tougaloo professor Jerry W. Ward to examine the role of the writer in the lives of black students during the civil rights movement and was the 1980 Andrew Mellon Scholar-In- Residence at Tougaloo. This collection (2.47 cubic ft.) contains Jeffers’s writings, reviews of his works, correspondence, interviews, personal data, documents from the civil rights movement, and books, journals, pamphlets, and programs. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Jesse J. Johnson Papers (T/016), 1831-1897; 1919-2001.
A Tougaloo College graduate, Johnson rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. Between 1969 and 1973, he sued the army for discrimination and illegal reduction in pay grade. Johnson also assembled a collection (17 cubic ft.) of scrapbooks containing numerous photographs of African American soldiers. Additionally, the collection consists of the personal and professional papers, photographs, audio cassettes, and printed material of Jesse J. Johnson. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Richard Carl Johnson Collection (T/036), ca. 1965-1987. 
Professor at Tougaloo College since the 1970s, Johnson was a member and officer of the Jackson Human Rights Commission and the Mississippi Council of Human Relations, as well as a member of the American Association of University Professors. This collection (1.55 cubic ft.) consists of correspondence, documents, memorandums, and pamphlets relating to his involvement with the Mississippi Council on Human Relations and its affiliated agencies from 1967-1985. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Henry Jay Kirksey Papers (T/018), ca. 1964-1999.
The Henry Jay Kirksey Papers (8.88 cubic ft.) document the lengthy career of Kirksey, a vocal civil rights leader, Mississippi state senator, and litigant in the state of Mississippi. In the early 1960s Kirksey was editor of the Mississippi Teacher’s Association Journal, using the paper to aid Medgar Evers and the NAACP; and of the movement’s newspaper, the Free Press. After leaving Jackson he published civil rights groups’ literature in his Mount Beulah print shop, and later in his own newspaper, The Truth. Kirksey was involved in numerous cases enforcing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, and reapportioning districts in Mississippi; fought to open the records of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, and served two terms in the Mississippi State Senate. Of particular interest in the collection are files of the 1984 Jesse Jackson presidential campaign, which Kirksey directed in Mississippi, and materials relating to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, to which he was a delegate. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

The Kudzu Collection (T/019), ca. 1960-1970.
An activist newspaper published from 1968 to 1972 by the Mississippi Student News Project in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, the paper’s offices were subjected to searches and surveillance by the FBI. The collection (2 cubic ft.) contains issues of The Kudzu and photographs. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Joyce A. Ladner Collection (T/020), 1931-2003.
This collection (54.44 cubic ft.) spans the years 1931 to 2003 and consists of correspondence, writings, photographs, and other personal materials documenting the career and contributions of Joyce Ann Ladner, a Hattiesburg native, long-time civil rights activist, educator and professor of sociology at Howard University. While in high school, Ladner helped organize an NAACP Youth Chapter and with her sister, Dorie, organized demonstrations supporting the Tougaloo Nine at Jackson State College (University). Dismissed from Jackson State and enrolled at Tougaloo, the sisters became involved with SNCC, voter registration campaigns, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. A well-published educator, she later was a presidential appointee to the District of Columbia Financial Control Board and a Senior Fellow for the Brookings Institution. The civil rights materials contain articles, bibliographies of civil rights sources, correspondence, documents, interviews, and oral histories of those involved with the civil rights movement. Ladner’s research materials include items on the black family, children, teen pregnancy, and poverty. Other series include Howard University and Hunter College, Brookings Institution, Teaching Positions at Georgetown and George Washington Universities, Consultant Positions, District of Columbia Control Board and Committee of Juvenile Justice, and Written Works and Speeches by Ladner and Associates. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law Collection Records(T/035), ca. 1952-1981.
This organization, whose records (70 cubic ft.) formed the basis of the Tougaloo Civil Rights Collection, attempted social reform from within the legal system, dealing with such issues as penal reform, school desegregation, and equal employment. Among its notable cases was Gates v. Collier (1972), which ended the trustee system at Parchman Penitentiary and established that certain forms of corporal punishment constituted violations of the Eighth Amendment. Significant civil rights attorneys served on the committee during its history, including Frank Parker and Constance I. Slaughter Harvey. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Civil Rights Cases (T/001), ca. 1968-1974.
This collection (3.86 cubic feet) consists primarily of correspondence, legal briefs, and legal documents involving civil rights activists from the Jackson area and illustrates the work of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from 1968-1974. Of particular note is the Jackson State University shooting of 1971. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

James W. Loewen Collection (T/021), 1967-1978.
As a sociology professor at Tougaloo College from 1968 to 1975, Lowen studied the Chinese population of the Mississippi Delta and Mound Bayou. With Millsaps College professor Charles Sallis, he co-authored the award-winning textbook Mississippi: Conflict and Change, which was rejected by the State Textbook Purchasing Board. Lowen’s successful legal challenge of this exclusion is considered an historic first amendment case. He concluded his distinguished career as a long-time faculty member at the University of Vermont. The collection (6.25 cubic ft.) consists of correspondence, census surveys, statistical studies, research materials, and writings related to his two research projects and the textbook. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Marilyn Lowen Head Start Records (T/038), 1963-1968.
A poet and dancer, Marilyn Lowen became a civil rights activist while at Bennington College in Vermont. She became an instructor with the Living Arts program of the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), an educational organization that sought to further the struggle against poverty, and in 1967 became field program advisor, primarily for centers in Madison and Leake counties. By 1968 she worked as a field consultant for the pre-school department of the Friends of Children of Mississippi, an offshoot of the CDGM, also supporting Head Start programs and Black awareness curricula. This collection (3.46 cubic ft.) documenting Lowen’s work between 1965 and 1968. includes Head Start program records, classroom and curriculum records, employee activity records; books; and printed material. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

James F. McRee Papers (T/022), 1950-1967.
A Methodist minister, McRee was active in organizations, marches, and rallies for voter registration in Madison County. He hosted a Freedom School, was an alternate delegate of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the National Democratic Convention in 1964, and served as president of the Child Development Group of Mississippi, one of the first and largest Head Start programs in the state. The collection (1.90 cubic ft.) documents McRee’s involvement in two civil rights projects, the Madison County Movement and the Child Development Group of Mississippi. It contains correspondence, minutes, typescripts, funding proposals, administrative files, news clippings, and printed items.
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Records (T/023), ca. 1964-1971.
Founded in 1964 as a major thrust of the Mississippi Summer Project, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party directly challenged the credentials of Mississippi’s five congressmen. The party held local caucuses, county assemblies, and a statewide convention throughout 1964, and elected sixty-eight delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic, City, New Jersey. The collection (0.25 cubic ft.) contains correspondence, flyers, a copy of the lawsuit against the state of Mississippi, newsclippings, and copies of The Drummer newspaper. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

John Usher Monro Papers (T/025), ca. 1968-1991.
Formerly a dean and administrator at Harvard, in 1967 Munro joined the faculty at Miles College, a historically black college in Birmingham, where he established the writing program and revised the English and social studies curricula. In the late 1970s Munro became director of the writing center at Tougaloo, where he also attempted to change the English curriculum, and taught English. The Munro papers (8.00 cubic ft.) contain office files, correspondence, journals, reports, and newsclippings documenting his career at Miles and Tougaloo Colleges. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Jesse T. Morris Papers (T/024), 1969-1976.
A volunteer in COFO and SNCC, Jesse Turner Morris came to Mississippi in 1963. As well as being manager of COFO’s Jackson office, he was the founder of the Poor People’s Corporation to encourage the production and sale of local products through Liberty House stores in Jackson and New York. This collection (8 cubic ft.) documents Morris’s work, primarily in Jackson, with the Poor People’s Corporation, Liberty House, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Loyal Democrats, and the Jackson Boycott. It includes administrative papers, educational and training materials, sketches, patterns, catalogs, business correspondence, and daily worksheets of Liberty House, a chain of cooperatives to provide employment for poor people throughout Mississippi. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Annie Rankin Papers (T/026), 1965-1980.
Rankin was a member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Loyalist Party and actively worked for voter registration and campaigned against poverty, driving a mule wagon in the 1968 Poor People’s March on Washington, D.C. In the 1970s she was active in issues of welfare reform, the plight of senior citizens, and educational programs like Head Start. This collection (0.70 cubic ft.) includes correspondence describing her activities during the civil rights movement, an autobiography, a speech, and an essay of Rankin; and other items that reflect on life in Mississippi in the 1970s. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Republic of New Africa Collection (T/027), 1965-1993.
Established in 1968 by activists Gaida and Imari Bubakari Obadele (Madison and Richard Henry) to acquire, through armed resistance and sabotage if necessary, reparations for slavery and land for a Black nation, in the form of five states to be ceded to it, the Republic of New Africa (RNA) sought to purchase property near Bolton in 1971. Later that year when police raided its Jackson headquarters, a policeman was killed and RNA members were charged with murder and sedition. This collection (1.51 cubic ft.) consists of articles, brochures, correspondence, flyers, pamphlets, and other materials related to the history, activities, and philosophy of the RNA, as well as other black power organizations in the United States. The bulk of the material is concentrated in the 1960s and 1970s. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Jane M. Schutt Papers (T/028), 1957-1984. 
Schutt served as president of the United Church Women of Mississippi and was a founding member of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, reporting on denials of equal protection and voting rights. After testifying before the US Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights in 1963, supporting the extension of the Commission’s authority, she resigned from the Committee but continued to do civil rights work through church organizations, hosted Freedom Summer students, and helped revive the Mississippi Council on Human Relations. This collection (2.08 cubic ft.) primarily spans the period of Schutt’s involvement with the Mississippi Advisory Committee (1959-1963) of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. It contains official records of the committee, as well as typescripts and printed material she collected to support her civil rights work. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Carol Ruth Silver Collection (T/040), ca. 1961-2001. 
While imprisoned in the Mississippi state penitentiary at Parchman for forty-five days as a Freedom Rider, well-known activist Carol Silver created a chess set made of bread. She later served as a member of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco. This collection (2.77 cubic ft.) consists of a diary, documents, photographs, and the chess set; all relate to Silver’s experience as a Freedom Rider in 1961 and a commemoration of that experience during a 40th year celebration in 200l. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Robert L. T. Smith Papers (T/029), 1902-1993.
These are the papers (16 cubic ft.)., of Robert L.T. Smith, a member of the Hinds County NAACP since 1925, and involved in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, was also a friend of Medgar Evers. Also active in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Smith was an alternate delegate to the group that attempted to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Smith was one of the delegates who unseated the regular Mississippi delegation at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He also served on the board of directors of Mississippi Action for Progress, which monitored Head Start Programs in Mississippi. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List / Audio Cassette Tape List

Tracy Sugarman Collection (T/041), ca. 1964.
In 1964 nationally known artist and writer Sugarman covered the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project as an informal reporter for CBS. A strong supporter of the civil rights movement, he met and befriended Fannie Lou Hamer. Sugarman later published his experiences in Stranger at the Gates: a Summer in Mississippi (1966), with a foreword by Hamer. This collection (8.10 cubic ft.) consists of eighty-four pen-and-ink washes (drawings) that Sugarman created in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, including drawings of marches in Bolivar and Washington counties; picketing, Freedom School classes, and voter registration drives in Sunflower County; and depictions of several civil rights movement leaders and local community members including Jess (Jesse) Brown, Jim Forman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Reverend Bruce Hanson, Christopher Hexter, Joseph Landfair, Charles McLaurin, and Albert Williams. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Sketch List

Julius Thompson Papers (T/030), 1974-2002.
After teaching at Jackson State University and Southern Illinois University, Thompson ended his career as professor of history and director of the Black studies program at the University of Missouri. Both a poet and a historian, Thompson worked with Jerry Ward, professor of English at Tougaloo College. This collection (2.70 cubic ft.) consists of writings, reviews, and presentations; black studies materials; correspondence, especially between Thompson and Ward; and biographical and personal materials of Thompson. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Tougaloo Nine Collection (T/031), 1960-1991.
The Tougaloo Nine were nine students who staged the first sit-in at the downtown branch of the public library in Jackson, in protest of the segregation practiced in the library system. The students were jailed, given a suspended sentence and a fine. Their arrest sparked protests and demonstrations in Jackson, both at Tougaloo College and at Jackson State University. This collection (1.47 cubic ft.) consists of correspondence, legal documents, legislation, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the Tougaloo Nine library sit-in and other Mississippi civil-rights demonstrations and protests, especially during the early 1960s. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Jerry Washington Ward Collection (T/032), 1939-2010.
As a Tougaloo College faculty member for more than thirty years and chair of the Department of English from 1979 to 1986, Ward was an ardent supporter of the Mellon Scholars program and recognized scholar and speaker on Richard Wright. He is currently a professor at Dillard University. The papers (19.11 cubic ft) contain correspondence, manuscripts, transcripts, and photographs documenting Ward’s career and research interests. Of special note are the correspondence and manuscripts relating to the works of Ward’s colleague and friend, Dr. Julius Thompson. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid / Box and Folder List

Hilda C. Wilson Papers (T/033), 1950-1975. 
Active in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania chapter of SNCC, Wilson came to Mississippi in 1966 and worked for the Poor People’s Corporation and then for Friends of Children of Mississippi, eventually serving as pre-school education associate director, and on the advisory board of the Mississippi Institute for Early Childhood Education. Documenting Wilson’s life and career, the collection (7.33 cubic ft.) includes personal and financial records, Head Start records, and a range of items relating to the civil rights and black power movements in Jackson, Mississippi, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

Aurelia Norris Young Papers (T/034), 1943-1991.
A musician, Young taught at Tougaloo College and at Jackson State University, where she helped to establish a Bachelor of Music program. She encouraged her husband, Jack Harvey Young, Sr., in his role as lead attorney for the NAACP; aided Freedom Riders after their imprisonment, and was a charter member of Womanpower Unlimited, an organization for the improvement of the lives of African Americans in Mississippi. She was active on the Mississippi Council of Human Relations, and founded and served as president of the board of directors of WMPR, the first public radio station in Mississippi. This collection (7.50 cubic ft.) is comprised of personal correspondence and notes; materials related to family matters; materials related to professional and career interests; a personal journal (1961-1965) and records documenting the civil rights era; records of WMPR; community service materials; and magazines, art reproductions, photographs, and audio tape reels. 
Catalog Record / Finding Aid

 

The following collections are still awaiting final processing, however some materials are available for viewing with curator permission and guidance. Please contact manuscripts curator for more information.

Clarity Education Records and Transcripts (T/008), ca. 2001. (10 cubic ft.). 
Clarity Education was a documentary film project examining Robert Parris Moses’ work with local African American leaders in McComb, concerning voter registration and education.

Freedom Song Material (T/002), ca. 2001. (18 cubic ft.).
Like Clarity Education, Freedom Song was a documentary film project examining Robert Parris Moses’ work with local African American leaders in McComb, which concerned voter registration and education.

Aaron Henry Papers (T/013), 1953-1997. (235 cubic ft.). 
A drugstore owner in Clarksdale, Henry was a central figure in the Mississippi civil rights movement, a founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and state president of the NAACP.

Edwin King Papers (T/017), ca. 1954-1967. (18 cubic ft.). 
A native Mississippian, King was a Methodist minister who served as chaplain at Tougaloo College from 1961-1963/ He was deeply involved in the Mississippi civil rights movement, including demonstrations, sit-ins, and boycotts. The bulk of the collection (21.00 cubic ft.) is news clippings and flyers documenting Jackson-area demonstrations and the civil rights movement in the state.