COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

P.O. BOX 2120

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23218-2120

PRINS. MEMO NO. 6

February 15, 2005

ELEMENTARY / MIDDLE / SECONDARY

TO:	Principals
FROM:	Linda M. Wallinger Assistant Superintendent for Instruction
SUBJECT:	Voices of Freedom: The Virginia Civil Rights Movement

I am pleased to bring to your attention a new primary resource for middle and high school social studies teachers entitled Voices of Freedom. This is a collection of videotaped interviews of leaders and activists in Virginia’s Civil Rights movement including Oliver W. Hill, Henry L. Marsh, and other notable figures. These interviews may be accessed through the Web site for Special Collections and Archives of Virginia Commonwealth University’s James Branch Cabell Library at http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/civilrights.html.

Voices of Freedom focuses on statewide civil rights activities from the 1950s through the early 1970s. The collection includes first-hand accounts of Brown vs. Board of Education, stories about the "Jim Crow" segregation laws and the struggles to change the laws, and advice from civil rights veterans to future generations of Virginians and Americans.

These edited, videotaped oral histories average 25 minutes each and are accompanied by complete transcripts of the full interviews. They were produced by the Virginia Civil Rights Movement Video Initiative, a nonprofit organization, and made available through Virginia Commonwealth University.

For more information, please contact Beverly Thurston, (Beverly.Thurston.@doe.virginia.gov), coordinator, history and social science, Office of Middle and High School Instruction, at (804) 225-2893.

JLD/BMT/yba