On September 23, 1957, nine African American students entered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas – initiating the first important test of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to riots led by white residents, President Dwight D. Eisenhower mobilized the 101^st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to Little Rock. Americans across the country watched these events unfold on their television screens, and Georgians considered the fate of their own public schools. 

How did the Little Rock Crisis shape politics, policy, and public response to federal directives to desegregate?  How have public schools changed since Little Rock? The Russell Library, a political archives at the University of Georgia, invites you to consider these questions in two new exhibit now on view, Measuring Deliberate Speed: Georgians Face School Desegregation and With All Deliberate Speed: The AP in Little Rock .

Measuring Deliberate Speed: Georgians Face School Desegregation is the culmination of a year of research and planning by staff at the Russell Library. The exhibit was created to showcase materials that illuminate the tactics, rhetoric, and reactions of Georgians to federal school desegregation mandates. Using text panels, artifacts, and selected audio and film clips, the display examines the landmark federal and state legal decisions that led to the desegregation of public schools in Georgia between 1950 and 1961.

With All Deliberate Speed, created by the Associated Press Corporate Archives, serves as a companion exhibit that explores how the news agency prepared for and covered Little Rock and its reverberations throughout the South. The AP had never faced a more difficult test of its mission to serve all members equally with objective, timely reporting than it did covering desegregation in Little Rock. Using news clippings, photographs, and correspondence, this exhibit captures a moment in time and demonstrates the legacy this event created for journalists everywhere.  
 

The Russell Library is located on the West side of the Main Library on the University of Georgia campus.  For directions and parking information, please visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/directions.html or call 706-542-5788.

Both exhibits will remain on display at the Russell Library until February 28, 2010. Russell Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 8:30-4:30 p.m. Admission is free; tours of the gallery are available upon request. In addition to the collections of the Russell Library and the Associated Press Corporate Archives, Measuring Deliberate Speed was supplemented with materials from the archival collections of the Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, and the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies.

Wish you were here… Postcards from the Past

Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

October 1, 2009-October 31, 2009

Help celebrate Georgia Archives Month by visiting the Southern Museum in Kennesaw. On display is a selection of vintage postcards from the Southern Railway Historical Association’s collection as well as some smaller individual collections. You may recognize some of these images such as  Sanford Stadium in Athens, Martha Berry College, the old Atlanta terminal,  and Stone Mountain. Mostly coming from the first three decades of the 20th Century, when color photography was still in its infancy, they have been colorized.

Free with museum admission.

Carter Presidential Museum Gala Re-Opening Ceremony

Mark your calendar for Thursday, October 1st at 10:30 a.m. for the gala re-opening ceremony for the Carter Presidential Museum. Join President and Mrs. Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and a host of national, state and local dignitaries as we celebrate the ALL NEW CARTER PRESIDENTIAL MUSEUM.

   The re-opening ceremony is on the front lawn of the Carter Presidential Library and is free and open to the public. To accommodate the expected large crowd for the opening, public parking will be at the  large, secure parking lot off north avenue, across from Atlanta City hall East with continuous shuttle service to the Carter Library. Look for the Carter Library signs.

   Following the 45 minute ceremony, the ALL NEW CARTER PRESIDENTIAL MUSEUM will be open to the public (free of charge on Thursday, October 1st in honor of President Carter’s 85th birthday)

   The museum has undergone a complete re-design. The $10 million project was funded completely by private donations. The new museum is brightly lit, colorful and highly interactive. There is something for everyone in the family at the new museum, whether it is the submarine periscope showing pictures from when Carter was in the Navy, to “A Day in the Life of the President, which follows President Carter through a single fast-paced day in the White House. The museum also features a large section on the work of the Carter Center, including an interactive table that lets visitors take a virtual trip with the Carters around the world to fight disease and promote democracy and human rights.

For more information about our re-opening ceremony, visit www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov.

To see pictures of the redesign process from beginning to the present, visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library page on Facebook.com

Documented Rights

National Archives in Atlanta

On display through February 23, 2010

Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our rights as citizens of the United States have been debated, contested, and amended. These rights, documented in original records held by National Archives locations across the country, give voice to our national struggle for individuals’ freedoms and rights.Participants in these struggles included revered figures in American history--Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.undefined as well as common or anonymous individuals fighting for basic civil liberties, including slaves, immigrants, and marginalized citizens.

See the online version of the exhibit at www.archives.gov/exhibits/documented-rights

In celebration of Georgia Archives Month, the University of West Georgia Ingram Library has installed an exhibit featuring political memorabilia from the Breedlove collection housed in Special Collections. This collection contains primarily late twentieth century artifacts of politicians, political events, and propaganda. Included are yard signs, campaign buttons, and bumper stickers as well as t-shirts, audio and videotapes, and political books.  

Some of the more notable items include George W. Bush talking action figures, bedroom slippers featuring Ronald and Nancy Reagan, a Halloween mask of the late Ted Kennedy, and a fedora that is said to have been worn by a poll worker in the 1928 campaign of Hoover.  

The exhibit is located in the library’s main lobby and will remain in place through the month of October. To view other pieces of the Breedlove collection, please contact Special Collections at 678-839-6361 or libspecial@westga.edu.

A Sense of Place

8th Floor Library South, Georgia State University

October 1, 2009-October 31, 2009

The exhibit details elements contributing to the sense of place in Atlanta neighborhoods with a particular focus on Georgia State University’s campus. Changes over time are presented through archival materials such as Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and historic photographs from the Tracy O’Neal and Lane Brothers Photograph Collections. 

Investiture Exhibit

1st Floor Library South, Georgia State University

October 12, 2009-October 23, 2009

As part of the investiture festivities for GSU’s new president Dr. Mark P. Becker, an exhibit highlighting the history and symbolism of ceremonies inducting incoming Georgia State University Presidents will be presented. Artifacts, photographs, programs and other materials from the University Archives will be on display. 

Preservation Open House

8th Floor Library South, Georgia State University

October 13, 2009, 9:00am-5:00pm

Bring in your family photographs, scrapbooks and other unique materials for preservation advice. Southern Labor Archivist, Traci Drummond, and Women’s Collection Archivist, Morna Gerrard, will be available to provide recommendations and referrals for preserving personal documents and artifacts.  

Unscrambling the Eggs: Eastern Air Lines, Delta Air Lines, and the Deregulated Era

Classroom 2, 2nd floor Library North, Georgia State University

October 16, 2009, 12:00pm

Benjamin van der Horst, winner of the 2009 Merl E. Reed Fellowship in Southern Labor History, will present his research on the two airlines during the first era (1978-1991) of airline deregulation. For more information about the Reed Fink Award in Southern Labor History award, including deadlines, please visit Special Collections and Archives on the web http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/ . 

Curator Talks at Coastal Georgia Historical Society

Event hall at the A. W. Jones Heritage Center, 620 Beachview Drive, St. Simon's Island

October 19, 2009, 4:00pm

In 2008, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society completed its state of the art vault designed to house the photographs, artifacts, and documents that preserve the history of coastal Georgia.  Now, for the first time, the public will get a chance to discover some of the historic objects not seen on a typical tour of the historical society’s museums. 

    What is an archive?  How is it created and maintained?  Why is it important to the community?  These questions and more will be answered in the latest of curator Jenny Herring’s “Opening the Vault” presentations.  In honor of October’s designation as Georgia Archives Month, Herring will help visitors learn more about the archives of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society.  Those attending the presentation will follow a recent donation through the process of being part of the historical society’s collections, from the initial inquiry by the donor to the final storage place in the vault.

    The recent donation that visitors will explore is a collection of scrapbooks from the Cassina Garden Club.  Bursting with photographs, newspaper clippings, and humorous and talented hand-drawn illustrations, these scrapbooks preserve a wealth of information about life on St. Simons Island from the 1930s to today.  The Coastal Georgia Historical Society is excited to share this new resource with the community.

Admission is free for members of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society and $10.00 for nonmembers.  Call 912-638-4666 for more information.  

So Much with So Little:
Ulysses Byas and the Journey of Black Educators in the Segregated South

Jones Room, Level 3, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, 4-6 p.m.

Ulysses S. Byas, Ph.D. , now 85 years old, was an educator and leader on the national scene following the desegregation of U.S. schools in 1970. He will be honored at this program and with a simultaneous exhibition from his papers.

Guest Speaker: James D. Anderson, head of educational policy studies and professor of history at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Respondents: Emory Provost Earl Lewis, who has written about black education in Norfolk, Va.; and Emory assistant professor Brett Gadsden, who is writing about school desegregation in Delaware.

Exhibition: Level 2, Robert W. Woodruff Library – runs Oct. 26-Nov. 13. Will feature items such as handwritten notes from Byas to each of his teachers evaluating their instructional practices; photos of him meeting with other prominent political and education leaders; reports about school desegregation in the South; and notes about how to improve education for black children, as well as books from his personal library.

For more information: Contact Denise Funk, dmfunk@emory.edu, 404.727.6887.