Dates: 1961-1964.

Biography:

Joan Harris Nelson Trumpauer

Joan Harris Nelson, probably the daughter of Merle Nelson, was born in Virginia on September 14, 1941. She attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and served as a clerk in the office of United States senator Clair Engle of California. About 1960, Nelson apparently married and assumed the last name of Trumpauer. On June 8, 1961, Trumpauer participated in the freedom rides. She arrived in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, by passenger train and was subsequently arrested by local authorities and charged with breaching the peace for attempting to integrate the Illinois Central Railroad terminal. In September 1961, she was one of the first white students to enroll at Tougaloo Southern Christian College (Tougaloo College), Madison County, Mississippi. While at Tougaloo, Trumpauer was an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She also participated in the sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson on May 28, 1963. Trumpauer went on to graduate from Tougaloo in 1964. Between 1964 and 1979, Trumpauer married Daniel J. Mulholland II. The couple had five sons, Bino, Django, Jome, Jeremiah Loki, and Geronimo. By 1979, Mulholland had settled in Arlington, Virginia, where she worked as a teacher with the local school system. She had divorced by 1996. Joan Harris Nelson Trumpauer Mulholland was employed as an elementary school teacher in Arlington as of 2002.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of photocopies of six civil rights movement scrapbooks compiled between 1961 and 1964 by Joan Harris Trumpauer Mulholland of Arlington, Virginia. Trumpauer created the scrapbooks while a student at Tougaloo Southern Christian College. The scrapbooks were compiled on pages of classwork and notes or blank petition forms. Each scrapbook is organized loosely by topic. They were gathered primarily from various Mississippi and Washington, D.C., area newspapers, and national magazines such as Look and Newsweek. There are also clippings from some California and Pennsylvania newspapers. Most of the clippings deal with the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Topics include the Freedom Rides of 1961; the integration of Mississippi universities, including James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi; voting and voter registration, including the Freedom Vote campaign and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; the integration of Mississippi Gulf Coast beaches; the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission; and the 1964 Byron De La Beckwith trial for the murder of Medgar Evers.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Scrapbooks. 1961-1964. 15 folders.

Box 1, folders 1-7
Box 2, folders 1-8

 

Box List:

Box 1, folders 1-3: scrapbook 1 (James Meredith; university integration), 1962-1964. 
Box 1, folders 4-5: scrapbook 2 (voting; Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party), 1962-1964. 
Box 1, folders 6-7: scrapbook 3 (civil rights issues in Mississippi), 1961-1964. 
Box 2, folders 1-3: scrapbook 4 (James Meredith; University of Mississippi integration), 1962-1964. 
Box 2, folders 4-7: scrapbook 5 (freedom rides), 1961-1962. 
Box 2, folder 8: scrapbook 6 (Byron De La Beckwith trial; Sovereignty Commission; Citizens’ Councils), 1961-1964.