MSU Libraries launches Citizensâ Council Radio Forum digital collection
Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.â´ķĪķAPP Libraries is launching a new digital collection of Citizensâ Council Radio Forum recordings, along with corresponding transcripts.
MSU Libraries produces, preserves and provides access to digital collections that support teaching, service and research by providing greater access to rare holdings. These include sheet music, diaries, correspondence, ledgers, photographs, transcripts, publications and other materials, all through the MSU Librariesâ Digital Collections.
A $25,000 digitization grant from the Council on Library and Information Resourcesâ Recordings at Risk program provided funds for 269 original Citizensâ Council Forum shows to be preserved and made available online.
The audio recordings are accompanied by transcripts, provided by MSU doctoral graduate and Millsaps College Associate Professor of History Stephanie Rolph, who transcribed the Forum recordings as part of her dissertation and donated them to MSU Special Collections upon completion of her research. Rolph also published a book on the Citizensâ Council last year titled âResisting Equality: The Citizensâ Council, 1954-1989â (LSU Press).
MSU Libraries is a destination for researchers studying Civil Rights and the Jim Crow era, of which the Citizensâ Council played a powerful role. The recordings span 1957-1966 and cover a variety of topics, including the Supreme Court, education, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, and communism.
According to University Archivist Jessica Perkins Smith, who wrote the CLIR grant and has worked extensively with the collection, âResearchers have used the transcripts of the Forum recordings frequently over the years. The tapes themselves were in danger of being lost due to their age and condition. Digitizing the recordings provides the benefit of long-term preservation, but also gives researchers a chance to hear the voices of segregationist politicians and Citizensâ Council leaders. We are pleased to be able to increase accessibility of our collections to patrons who may not be able to travel to Mississippi ´ķĪķAPP.â
For more information, contact Perkins Smith at jsmith@library.msstate.edu. To access the collection, visit
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