Virginia Commonwealth University has recently acquired a collection of film and audio reels documenting moments from the civil rights movement in Richmond, Virginia. The materials will be preserved by VCU Libraries and made available to the public.
The Richmond Police Department provided VCU with over 150 film and audio recordings from the 1960s and 1970s. The collection, titled the Surveillance Media Collection, includes footage from Black Panther Party meetings, anti-war protests, student protests, and various marches across the Richmond area.
The archival project was funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Research and the Mellon Foundation. Valentine, a museum showcasing local Richmond history, will partner with VCU Libraries to complete the preservation process.
“In my experience, this Surveillance Media Collection is unique,” said Brian Daugherity, a professor in the department of history at VCU. “There are few archival collections – and none that I know of in the South – dealing with the Black Power movement, Black Panther Party and related individuals nationwide. The preservation and digitization of materials in this archive offers the possibility of investigating new aspects of the civil rights struggle in the South.”
