Media Contact
Roy Cummings
Director of Communications
University Library
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ATLANTA — The Georgia State University Library this week is opening the exhibition “Fighting for Freedom: Labor and Civil Rights in the American South” and launching the digital collection “AFL-CIO Southeast Division Civil Rights Department Records.”
These collections, which include photographs, newspaper clippings, departmental records and audio-visual recordings, document the story of the labor unions and civil rights activists who fought together for the freedom of working people in the South.
“Fighting for Freedom” highlights events such as the impact of school integration on labor union integration, the March on Washington, the push for full employment in the 1970s, civil rights issues and strikes between 1943 and 1999, and showcases the impactful contributions of figures from prominent organizations such as the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
The exhibition also recognizes the efforts of local employees, union organizers, religious leaders, educators, students and volunteers. Materials for the exhibits come from the papers of the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department’s Southeast Division and National Office, held respectively by Georgia State University and the University of Maryland. The GSU and UMD libraries have digitized these papers over the past two years through a $350,000 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
The physical “Fighting for Freedom” exhibit opens Sept. 28, while the digital exhibit opened Sept. 25. The digital exhibit is co-hosted by the GSU Library and Digital Library of Georgia with content support from the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
The physical exhibit can be viewed on the eighth floor of Library South on GSU’s Atlanta Campus.
The digital collections that support the exhibits are available for public use through the GSU Library and University of Maryland Library digital collections platforms, and will also be accessible together in October through the Civil Rights Digital Library hosted by the Digital Library of Georgia.
“Digitizing the records and creating the exhibit on the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department’s Southeast Division supports our mission of providing access to the experience of work and workers in the South, especially the stories of minority workers whose experiences are often overlooked and untold,” said Southern Labor Archivist Lisa Vallen. “Our goal is to provide the greatest possible access to as much material as possible.”
To celebrate the opening of both versions of “Fighting for Freedom,” the Georgia State University Library is hosting a panel discussion from 5 to 7 p.m. Sep. 28 on the eighth floor of Library South. Author and historian Maurice Hobson, associate professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State, will moderate the panel. The discussion will feature experts who will explore themes in “Fighting for Freedom.”
The panel discussion is free and open to the public. To RSVP, visit https://lib.gsu.edu/labor.
About the Georgia State University Library
The Georgia State University Library houses over 1.9 million physical volumes, 700,000 ebook titles, 230,000 serial titles and 280 online databases. The libraries on each of the six campuses provide access to the expertise of librarians and staff dedicated to student success. Special Collections and Archives documents the history of the university, Atlanta and life in the South, with particular strengths in social change movements during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The 300,000 sq. ft. Atlanta Campus location offers seating for over 2,000, 55 group study rooms, an outdoor terrace and access to leading-edge computing and visualization technology. To learn more about the University Library, visit library.gsu.edu.