The Civil Rights Digital Library Relaunches With A New Look And Fifteen Years Of Updated Content

A premier online compilation of digital civil rights content is relaunching with a new look and thousands of additional pieces of history.

The milestone marks a new era for the Civil Rights Digital Library (CRDL). This project brings together more than 200 libraries, archives, and museums to provide free online access to historical materials documenting the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. These collaborative partnerships are the bedrock of this national project.

View the entire collection online at https://crdl.usg.edu/. 

Barbara McCaskill, an English professor at the University of Georgia who serves as director of the Civil Rights Digital Library and other projects, notes: 

“Since its launch in 2008, the Civil Rights Digital Library has played a meaningful role in advancing the understanding of America’s civil rights activism at a time when upticks in racially motivated violence and crime and the erosion of voting rights have attached more urgency than ever to issues of equality, equity, human dignity, and freedom.”  

She says: 

“The signal achievement of this resource is its varied and unique content about people, places, and events. But it also challenges users to expand their knowledge of civil rights studies beyond national icons such as Dr. King and Rosa Parks, cities such as Atlanta and Birmingham, and beyond the 50s, 60s, and 70s to the present day.“ 

”As a result, the Civil Rights Digital Library continues to demonstrate a transformative impact on scholarship and instruction, as well as on how we carry ourselves as citizens and come together in community.” 

First funded by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Civil Rights Digital Library launched in 2008 as part of the University System of Georgia’s GALILEO statewide virtual library initiative. Along with these continuing collaborations, the Digital Library of Georgia , an initiative of GALILEO and the University of Georgia Libraries, administers the site. 

In addition, support continues to be provided by the following partners: 

Since 2005, the portal has grown from about 100 collections to more than 350 collections of digitized content, including primary sources and educational resources.

The Civil Rights Digital Library contains contributions from statewide and national partners, documenting the civil rights era, including:

Researchers and visitors can search the content of the Civil Rights Digital Library in numerous ways, including geographic location browsing with an interactive map that identifies civil rights movement-related resources in all 50 states.

The site also contains: 

  • Biographical information for more than 3,000 people active during the civil rights era, which can be browsed alphabetically by surname. Many of these civil rights workers and foot soldiers may not be familiar, but their commitment to the movement formed the backbone of transformative civil rights campaigns and social reform.
  • New Georgia Encyclopedia (NGE) articles that cover events and individuals associated with the civil rights movement in Georgia. In addition to the concise, authoritative articles, images, multimedia files, and online exhibitions in the NGE further investigate civil rights figures and events. NGE’s content is made possible by Georgia Humanities in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/ GALILEO, the University of Georgia Libraries, and the Office of the Governor.
  • Raw newsfilm footage from Georgia television stations WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany) preserved through the University of Georgia Libraries’ Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection. These stations covered civil rights events throughout the entire southeastern United States. 
  • Exhibits drawn from materials belonging to partner libraries, archives, and museums across Georgia, created by Georgia graduate students in collaboration with the DLG and NGE.

“By relaunching an expanded site on Sept. 9, 2022, the 65th anniversary of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the Digital Library of Georgia celebrates the first federal civil rights legislation of the 20th century,” adds Sheila McAlister, director of the Digital Library of Georgia. “The relaunch demonstrates the DLG’s commitment to reflecting and sharing the diversity of experiences in Georgia and nationwide.”


View the entire collection online at crdl.usg.edu

Download the Civil Rights Digital Library 2022 Press Kit here


Selected images:

https://crdl.usg.edu/record/ugabma_wsbn_wsbn44816
Series of WSB-TV newsfilm clips of a civil rights march and resulting arrest; civil rights preachers and local officials speaking at mass meetings; groups of Albany city officials as well as civil rights leaders entering the federal courthouse; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy at a press conference in Albany, Georgia, 1962 July. In this still image, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. expresses his disappointment of the injunction blocking demonstrations issued by federal district judge J. Robert Elliott and his gratitude for the reversal of that injunction by Judge Tuttle. He calls the audience to present their bodies as a significant witness by continuing to move and work for freedom. Courtesy of the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection.

 

https://crdl.usg.edu/record/ugabma_wsbn_wsbn41989
Series of WSB-TV newsfilm clips of African American civil rights workers, Georgia National Guardsmen, and city officials in Albany, Georgia, 1961 December. Courtesy of the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection.
https://crdl.usg.edu/record/ugabma_wsbn_wsbn36242
WSB-TV newsfilm clip of an unidentified white female civil rights worker describing the challenges she faces in rural southwest Georgia from Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, 1962 August 1. This still image includes participants of a mass meeting, possibly at Shiloh Baptist Church, singing the freedom song, “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.” Courtesy of the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection.
https://crdl.usg.edu/record/ugabma_wsbn_wsbn36237
WSB-TV newsfilm clip of African American student protesters singing as they are arrested by police at the Albany Carnegie Library in Albany, Georgia, 1962 August 2. Courtesy of the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection.
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The Georgia Open History Library launches today!

Cover of Hubert B. Owens' book Georgia's Planting Prelate

Today, October 15, the Digital Library of Georgia is thrilled to announce the Georgia Open History Library launch from our partners at the University of Georgia Press. 

The collection is now available in our Georgia portal and through other public outlets, including: 

The Georgia Open History Library is an open-access selection of single-authored scholarly titles and two multivolume series and primary documents going back to the founding of Georgia as a colony up to statehood and beyond.

It is important to note that new forewords written by contemporary historians were commissioned by UGA Press for each volume in this collection, adding important current scholarly context to these materials.

44 individual volumes focusing on the colony and eventual state of Georgia cover the following topics:

UGA Press Director Lisa Bayer notes: “As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, these online resources about the thirteenth colony will help students, teachers, and all citizens to better understand the diversity and complexity of our early national history.”

Funded by the NEH Humanities Open Book Program, the Georgia Open History Library is a project of the UGA Press in partnership with the UGA Libraries, Georgia Humanities, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the Georgia Historical Society, the Digital Library of Georgia, the Willson Center for Arts and Humanities at UGA, and the Atlanta History Center.

About the University of Georgia Press:  

Since its founding in 1938, the primary mission of the University of Georgia Press has been to support and enhance the University’s place as a major research institution by publishing outstanding works of scholarship and literature by scholars and writers throughout the world. The UGA Press is the oldest and largest book publisher in the state, currently publishes 60–70 new books a year, and has a long history of publishing significant scholarship, creative and literary works, and books about the state and the region for general readers. To learn more about the UGA Press and its publications, authors, and events, visit www.ugapress.org

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