Fifty years ago, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became one of the most significant pieces of legislation ever enacted into law. Over the course of one year, the office of Congressman Gerald E. Connolly compiled testimonials from residents of Northern Virginia who personally experienced the Civil Rights era. The Congressman presented over 50 hours or video, as well as pictures and written testimonials to the Library of Congress, George Mason University and the library systems in Fairfax and Prince William Counties on July 2, 2014.
“The Northern Virginia Civil Rights Archive: Personal Histories of Struggle and Achievement in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” was dedicated on July 7, 2014. The collection is housed as part of the Northern Virginia Ethnography Archive. Mason student Marion Dobbins, working as an intern for Connolly collected the forty oral histories archived here. This collection offers a personal record of the civil rights movement in Northern Virginia. It preserves an important chapter in local and national history that will be studied and cherished for generations.
You can watch videos of the individual oral history videos from the collection here.