Virginia Student Civil Rights Committee Oral History collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Cabell Library
James Branch Cabell Library
Virginia Commonwealth University
P.O. Box 842003
901 Park Avenue
Richmond, VA 23284-2003
Contact for questions and access:
POC: SCA Staff
Phone: (804) 828-1108
Fax: (804) 828-0151

Summary

Extent:
21.2 Gigabytes
Creator:
Daugherity, Brian J.
Language:
English .

Background

Scope and content:

Oral histories taken for the VSCRC 50th Reunion Oral History Project in Blackstone, VA. Professors Brian Daugherity and Ryan Smith interview former members of the VSCRC to obtain information about their work with the organization in the 1960s, in addition to their work with Civil Rights in general.

Biographical / historical:

The Virginia Student Civil Rights Committee (VSCRC) grew out of the December 1964 conference The Movement- The Student- Upper South, organized by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Although the committee evolved from a SNCC sponsored event, the VSCRC was not formally or officially affiliated with any other organizations. The purpose of the VSCRC was to increase communications among black and white college students involved in the civil rights movement in Virginia by holding monthly meetings of the elected representatives from participating colleges and universities. The original members realized that they did not have to go into the Deep South to encounter the major civil rights violations as there were many problems in the Commonwealth, particularly in the more rural counties of Southside Virginia. The committee planned for a conference in the spring of 1965 and assigned people to research and plan for a summer project in Virginia. The committee ultimately focused on empowering local people and groups in Southside to make changes in their own communities themselves.

The leadership of the VSCRC felt there was not enough focus on local, people-oriented, and self-led organizing. They decided to focus on Virginia's 4th Congressional District, working in six Southside counties to empower local Black residents to agitate for change. They were encouraged to demand better services from their city and local government, to advocate for the desegregation of businesses and community groups, and to register Southside residents to vote. White supremacists and the local Klan noticed the VSCRC's work and attempted to intimidate or threatened the civil rights activists. Despite this, the VSCRC prevailed, successfully forging ties with the Southside community. Their success was short-lived. Differences of opinions among the membership and ideological disagreements about the escalating war in Vietnam and the emergence of black-power groups like the Black Panthers divided the VSCRC. The changing membership further damaged group cohesiveness and the VSCRC disbanded in 1966.

Further Reading Hall, Simon. Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights Antiwar Movement in the 1960s. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2005

Hall, Simon "Civil Rights Activism in 1960s Virginia," The Journal of Black Studies vol. 38, no 2 (Nov 2007), pp. 251-267

Virginia Students Civil Rights Committee, "A Brief History of the Virginia Students Civil Rights Committee," The Movement in the Archive, accessed October 30, 2018, Article link.

Arrangement:

Collection arranged alphabetically by interviewee first name.

Physical / technical requirements:

The materials are .mp4 files, with each interviewee having their own interview file. The materials must be accessed using a computer or tablet, and can be accessed online through this finding aid under "Collection Organization."

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard