An exhibition featuring materials from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) archive opened Thursday, Feb. 21 at Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library.
An opening celebration on Friday, Feb. 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. will feature remarks by SCLC leaders Charles Steele Jr. and Bernard Lafayette (board president); and Dorothy Cotton (SCLC education director 1960-1968).
Titled “And the Struggle Continues: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Fight for Social Change,” the display documents the Atlanta-based civil rights organization’s history, progress and continual work for equal rights. Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) holds the SCLC archive.
The Woodruff library is located at 540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322-2870. The exhibition, which runs through Dec. 1, is in the library’s Schatten Gallery and the Jones Room, both located on the third floor of the Woodruff Library. The exhibition and celebration are open to the public free of charge.
“With this exhibition and related events, we feel so honored to have this opportunity to recognize the historic contributions of SCLC and all those associated with it, past and present,” says Rosemary Magee, director of MARBL. “They represent the hope and the drive to seek equality in all aspects of life. The library is a perfect place to honor these shared aspirations for all people.”
The exhibition focuses on the ongoing struggle for civil and human rights in the years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The documents on display include letters, photographs and flyers that promote gatherings and protests. The show spotlights SCLC’s major programs from the 1970s through the 1990s, beginning with the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968.
Other initiatives highlighted in the exhibition include:
• SCLC’s efforts to combat apartheid in South Africa;
• Programs in the 1990s designed to engage youth, such as Rappin’ for our Future (an amateur talent program promoting a nonviolent lifestyle); and
• Initiatives on healthcare and economic equality, ending gun violence, among other issues.
For more information, call 404-727-6873.
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