The J.D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi is featuring an exhibit that highlights the civil rights movement in Mississippi. The exhibit, “We Shall Always March Ahead: Mississippi and the Civil Rights Movement,” covers a broad range of civil rights history.
“We have cases devoted to the university’s history in civil rights, including photographs of the 1962 riot and items from Dr. James Silver’s collection and James Meredith’s collection,” said Jennifer Ford, head of Archives and Special Collections. “We have cases devoted to battles over civil rights in Congress and the courts. We also have displays devoted to the protest music of the movement. Researchers from all over the world travel to the university to review our holdings on civil rights, and this exhibit offers visitors a glimpse at some of the remarkable holdings we have in this field.”One notable case in the exhibit includes photos from the John Elon Phay Collection. Beginning in the late 1940s, Phay, professor of educational administration, director of the Bureau of Education Research at the University of Mississippi, and consultant and adviser to the 1952 Mississippi Legislative Recess Education Committee, photographically recorded the pre-integration days of selected public elementary and secondary schools of Mississippi. Although filming was not a part of his assigned duties, Phay used his personal time to amass the pictorial history of these schools.
“The Phay Collection is so important as it graphically shows the flaws within the separate but equal doctrine,” Ford said.
The library has digitized 4,700 images from the collection and placed them online.
Pamela Williamson, curator of Visual Collections, was instrumental in the digitization of these images.
“The John Elon Phay Collection enables researchers to evaluate the Mississippi educational system of the 1940s and ’50s through visual documentation,” Williamson said. “The images put a face to the injustices of the ‘separate but equal’ ruling. Digitization was important to allow on-site and remote patrons the same type of access to this historically significant collection.”
The exhibit is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding university holidays. It will be open through October 2012.