The House of Representatives passed by voice vote H.R. 998, Civil Rights History Project Act of 2008.
According to the Congressional Research Service, this bill requires the Librarian of Congress and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (acting through the Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture) to establish an oral history project to: (1) collect video and audio recordings of, and visual and written materials relevant to the personal histories of, participants in the Civil Rights movement; and (2) make the collection available for public use through the Library of Congress and the Museum. A Congressional Budget Office report estimates that enacting H.R. 998 would cost $4 million over the 2009-2013 period.
The Senate version of this bill, S. 3511, was introduced by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) on September 17, 2008 and currently has 6 co-sponsors, including Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN).
As an aside, here in Nashville the Nashville Public Library has a collection of important Civil Rights source materials, including books and magazines, photographs, video and audio productions, microforms, and internet website indexes.
The Nashville Library staff also administers an ongoing Civil Rights Oral History Project to record the experiences and memories of people who took part in or witnessed the historic events of the 1950s and 1960s. Click here to learn more.
In addition, the city of Memphis has a unique collection of photographs recently placed on display at the Brooks Museum of Art. "Photographs from the Memphis World, 1949-1964" offers a broad perspective on African-American life in Memphis at the height of the civil rights movement. Click here to read more about this collection.
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