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Color Line Project Collection

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 010

Scope and Contents

The files in the first two series are dated from 1999-2001. They contain the outlines, history, planning, and instructions for the “original” phase of the Color Line Project and the collection of oral history transcripts. Series three is dated from 2002-2006 and contains student papers discussing various Civil Rights Movement topics and their impacts on South New Jersey. Notable topics include, but are not limited to, civil unrest and rioting, redlining and housing discrimination, and the struggle for desegregation across education, housing, and employment. Series four contains Audio-Visual and Mixed media of oral history interviews, story circle meetings, and digital transcription files.

Dates

  • Creation: Majority of material found in 1999-2006

Biographical / Historical

In his 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois asserted that “the defining struggle of the twentieth century will be the struggle of the color line.” During the 2000-2001 academic year, Rowan University became one of two national sites for the Color Line Project, centered on the importance of remembering the local, state, and national legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.

The project was developed by John O’Neil, activist and former Field Secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee; the project laid the groundwork for a multi-dimensional partnership involving Rowan faculty, staff, and students. Their commitment to discover and preserve for themselves and future generations personal stories of how the Civil Rights Movement unfolded in South Jersey is contained within the Color Line Project Collection.

The Color Line Project was initially headed by Gary Hunter, Rowan historian, and the Glassboro Center for the Arts director Mark Fields. The departure of Mr. Fields and the closing of the Center for the Arts created a discussion about the future of the Color Line Project at Rowan University. In 2002, Dr. William Carrigan, Corann Okorodudu, and Gary Hunter became the co-directors of the Color Line Project at Rowan University. Under the direction of Dr. Carrigan, the project took on a new direction with student researchers collecting, compiling, and editing a wide variety of primary source material on the Civil Rights Movement in South New Jersey, with the end result being an original research paper based upon those materials.

Extent

4 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Color Line Project Collection contains a collection of oral history interviews and student research highlighting the Civil Rights Movement and its impacts on New Jersey. The Color Line Project was originally a performance-based art-history project that highlighted the stories of ordinary people during the Civil Rights Movement. Under the direction of Dr. William Carrigan, it evolved into a student-led research project based on the impacts the Civil Rights Movement had on South New Jersey.

Arrangement

The collection has been arranged into four series:

Series one contains the background, history, and administration of the Color Line Project. This series includes the project's instructions, the original story circles and the participants, and several newspaper clippings highlighting the project in local newspapers. This series contains 14 manuscript file folders located in Box #1.

Series two contains the oral history transcriptions of local persons involved directly in the Civil Rights Movement or witnessing the movement's impacts as young adults. Their oral histories are not found anywhere else and are a significant component of the Color Line Project. Notable persons in this collection include Dr. Irene Hill-Smith and Lucille Pfleeger. The series contains 34 manuscript file folders located in Box #1.

Series three contains student papers discussing various Civil Rights Movement topics and their impacts on South New Jersey. Notable topics include, but are not limited to, civil unrest and rioting, redlining and housing discrimination, and the struggle for desegregation across education, housing, and employment. The series contains 85 manuscript file folders located in Box #2.

Series four contains Audio-Visual materials. The series contains two boxes. Box #3 contains the initial Color Line Project story circles collected under Gary Hunter and Mark Field’s direction; it consists of 22 VHS and Audio Cassettes storage envelopes. Box #4 contains the original recorded interviews of the oral history narratives. It consists of 41 Mixed Media storage envelopes.

John O'Neal

John O’Neal was the artistic director of Junebug Productions and the instigator of the Color Line Project. He was a Field Secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and worked as an organizer with the United Church of Christ Committee for Racial Justice. His work as a writer, performer, and community activist led him to found and organize the collaborative nature of the Color Line Project. He was a leading proponent of the view that “politics” and “art” are complementary, not opposing, terms.

Mark Fields

Mark Fields was the director of the Glassboro Center for the Arts and was an integral component of the team of faculty and staff at Rowan University, which provided the local contacts and logistical and administrative support for the Color Line Project until his departure in 2001.

William Carrigan

William Carrigan is a Professor of History at Rowan University and served as co-director of the Color Line Project. A native Texan, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. In 1999, he earned his Ph.D. in American history from Emory University and joined the faculty in the Department of History at Rowan. At Rowan, Professor Carrigan has taught over 100 courses and thousands of students on such topics as the Civil War and Reconstruction, the American West, and the History of New Jersey. He is the author or editor of numerous scholarly articles and four books, including The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916 (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2004), winner of the Richard Wentworth Prize. Professor Carrigan's research has been cited widely in the news media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, and the Houston Chronicle.

Corann Okorodudu

Corann Okorodudu was a full Professor of Psychology and Coordinator of African American Studies at Rowan University. She served as a co-director of the Color Line Project. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development from Harvard University. She served as Coordinator of Women’s Studies, Coordinator of the New Jersey Project “Integrating the Scholarship on Gender, Ethnicity, and Class”, and was the Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rowan University.

Gary Hunter

Gary Hunter was an Associate Professor of History at Rowan University. He specialized in African American History and the history of New Jersey. He wrote and published on the history of the Civil Rights Movement and was the author of Neighborhoods of Color: African American Communities in Southern New Jersey, 1630-1998.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Archon Finding Aid Title
Status
In Progress
Author
April L. Richardson
Date
2023-22-03
Description rules
Other Unmapped
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
und

Physical Storage Information

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Rowan Archives Repository

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