Image of the Week: Sit-In Songs
As part of the Black History Month Blog, VCU Libraries' Special Collections and Archives will post weekly images from its collections of photographs, manuscripts, and other materials that document African American life and history in Virginia.
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This image shows the cover of "Sit-In Songs: Songs of the Freedom Riders" LP record which was issued by CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in 1962 on the Dauntless label. The record contains many of the songs sung or inspired by the "Freedom Riders" who in 1961 rode buses in the segregated south to test Federal law that outlawed racial segregation in interstate transportation facilities, including bus stations and railroad terminals. Notice how the music notes resemble the bar stools of lunch and diner counters.
This record is part of the collection of papers of Dr. Edward H. Peeples, Jr. Peeples is Emeritus Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at VCU. Much of Peeples' research and writing dealt with contemporary issues of social justice and he spent most of his adult life as a civil rights advocate involved in a variety of human rights reforms in Virginia and other places across the south. A copy of "Sit-In Songs: Songs of the Freedom Riders" is available to borrow on CD from Special Collections and Archives for those interested in listening to the record.
--Ray Bonis, Assistant Archivist for Collections, Special Collections and Archives