Modern Southern women in the DLG

The December 1, 2015 episode of Georgia Public Broadcasting’s On Second Thought included a segment on modern Southern women. Here, the program’s host Celeste Headlee discusses stereotypes of Southern women with author Jessica Handler and Armstrong State University professor Regina Bradley. You can listen to the episode here  (The part begins at approximately 15 minutes and 55 seconds into the broadcast). This On Second Thought piece prompted us to highlight several partner collections that feature the achievements of modern Georgia women, and the impact that these women have had in the state of Georgia.

Cathey Steinberg at her seat in the General Assembly, Atlanta, Georgia, circa late 1970s.  Local identification number: W042_50_2_014, SERIES III: Visual Materials, Cathey W. Steinberg papers, W042, Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women's Movement Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
Cathey Steinberg at her seat in the General Assembly, Atlanta, Georgia, circa late 1970s. Local identification number: W042_50_2_014, SERIES III: Visual Materials, Cathey W. Steinberg papers, W042, Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women’s Movement Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University, Atlanta.

From our partners at Georgia State University Library Special Collections and Archives, the Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women’s Movement Archives documents the second wave of the women’s movement in Georgia, and in particular, efforts in the state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.  Donna Novak Coles is an activist and philanthropist who has worked with the Feminist Action Alliance, Housewives for the ERA, Georgia Women’s Political Caucus, the League of Women Voters, ERA Georgia. Inc., and the Georgia Women’s Movement Project. Items in this collection include the personal papers and artifacts of individuals active in the 50-plus organizations affiliated with the ERA Georgia Coalition; records of the ERA Georgia Coalition member organizations; personal papers and artifacts from other organizations and supporters of the ERA in Georgia; oral history interviews with ERA and women’s movement activists.

Also from our partners at Georgia State University Library Special Collections and Archives, the Terri Wilder Papers, circa 1996-2007, focus on Wilder’s efforts as an advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS.  Terri Wilder is a native Georgian activist, HIV/AIDS advocate, and social worker who has worked in HIV patient services for over twenty years.  The materials in this collection consist primarily of educational literature produced by organizations with which Wilder has worked, such as ACT-UP, the Global Campaign for Microbicides, and the Hope Clinic at Emory University.

From our partners at the Atlanta History Center, we have two oral history interviews with Dorothy Bolden, available here and here that were conducted by Bernard West on December 7, 1978 as part of the Living Atlanta Oral History Project Collection. Bolden, an African American domestic worker, founded the National Domestic Workers Union in 1968. She also served as vice-president of the Black Women’s Coalition of Atlanta, and worked for both the state and national Departments of Labor.  Numerous photographs of Bolden are also available in the Southern Labor Archives, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.

Photograph of Dorothy Bolden, founder and president of the National Domestic Workers Union L1979-24_75, National Domestic Workers Union (U.S.) Records, Southern Labor Archives, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
Photograph of Dorothy Bolden, founder and president of the National Domestic Workers Union
L1979-24_75, National Domestic Workers Union (U.S.) Records, Southern Labor Archives, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University, Atlanta.

And from our partners at the Richard B. Russell Library, the Reflections on Georgia Politics Oral History Collection contains oral history interviews conducted with modern first ladies of Georgia, including Marie Barnes, who discusses her work with the Georgia Early Learning Initiative and her work with women’s health issues, and Shirley Miller,  who discusses her goal to promote adult literacy in the state through the Certified Literate Community Program.

Please take a look through these resources, and see what modern Southern women have done in Georgia!

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World AIDS Day is December 1st

Tom Fox during a checkup at Atlanta Hospital, the same day he made his funeral arrangements, Atlanta, Georgia, August 29, 1988. AJCPov01-031DJ, Atlanta Journal Constitution Photographic Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.
Tom Fox during a checkup at Atlanta Hospital, the same day he made his funeral arrangements, Atlanta, Georgia, August 29, 1988. AJCPov01-031DJ, Atlanta Journal Constitution Photographic Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.

World AIDS Day is observed December 1st each year to generate awareness of the AIDS pandemic and provides an opportunity for people worldwide to work together to fight HIV, to demonstrate support for people living with HIV, and to remember people who have died of AIDS. You can learn more about World AIDS Day at https://www.aids.gov/news-and-events/awareness-days/world-aids-day/.

Several collections in the Digital Library of Georgia include HIV/AIDS related historical materials that also document the pandemic’s impact in Georgia.

From our partners at Georgia State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives, the Terri Wilder Papers collection focuses on Wilder’s efforts as an advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS (Wilder is an activist, HIV/AIDS advocate, and social worker who has worked in HIV patient services for over twenty years). The materials in this collection consist primarily of educational literature produced by organizations with which Wilder has worked, including ACT-UP, the Global Campaign for Microbicides, and the Hope Clinic at Emory University.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographs collection, also from our partners at Georgia State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives, includes numerous photographs of the last eighteen months of the life of Tom Fox, a man living with AIDS in the late 1980s. These photographs were part of a sixteen-page special section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution titled “When AIDS comes home” by photojournalist Michael A. Schwarz and reporter Steve Sternberg.

Pregnancy and HIV: pamphlets, 1997-2002. W085_01_13, Terri Wilder papers, Archives for Research on Women and Gender. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
Pregnancy and HIV: pamphlets, 1997-2002. W085_01_13, Terri Wilder papers, Archives for Research on Women and Gender. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.

From our partners at Kennesaw State University Archives, the Southern Voice newspaper collection contains 250 issues of the Southern Voice, a significant resource for the LGBT community in the Southeast from 1988 to 2010. Many of the issues in this collection provide in-depth coverage of the fight against AIDS and the epidemic’s effect both regionally and nationally.

We hope that you take a look through these collections on World AIDS Day.

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