The Civil Rights Movement

LSU Special Collections houses hundreds of manuscript collections, published materials, and rare books related to the Civil Rights Movement. This LibGuide provides users with suggested search terms and subject headings to aid their research. It is organized by different themes that highlight the collections' strengths. Particularly strong are the library holdings of oral history interviews conducted with civil rights activists in Baton Rouge and manuscripts detailing the struggle over the integration at LSU.  

This LibGuide supplements the Special Collections catalog, and is intended to be used as a guide to jumpstart users’ research. LSU Libraries’ Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) can be found here. 

Browse the catalog using search terms, or narrow the search field to “Subject” to display items tagged with the same subject heading. These subjects are linked in catalog entries, and are useful for finding related materials. This LibGuide provides suggestions for search terms and subject headings for Civil Rights materials from our collections. For manuscript materials, finding aids containing detailed descriptions and inventories of the items in each collection are also often linked in catalog entries.

To find materials using the subject headings listed in this LibGuide, follow these steps: 

Begin a new catalog search and type the terms into the "Find these words" field and select "Subject" in the field drop down menu.

If using the advanced search, these terms will be entered next to a drop down option listing "All Fields". Change the drop down menu to "Subject".

If beginning a new search from within an earlier search results, type the key terms into the search bar at the top of the page with "Subject" selected from the drop down menu. 

These subject terms will not be an exhaustive list but will represent the best for each topic. The subject terms are organized to be as specific as possible relating to each topic. Adjustments to specificity can be done by adjusting or dropping the final phrase. For example, "African Americans -- Civil rights -- Louisiana" may be adjusted to "African Americans -- Civil rights" to see the entire nation, or "African Americans -- Civil rights -- Louisiana -- Baton Rouge" to see materials only relating to Baton Rouge. To search by geographic location and topic, attach the appropriate subdivision to the end of the subject search. Lists of free-floating subdivisions can be found here. 

Library holdings and item availability are listed at the bottom of catalog entries. From here, users can request materials to view in our Reading Room using the “Request Item” link. In order to preserve our collections for future use, LSU Special Collections asks patrons to follow protocols for the safe handling of materials in our library. A list of Reading Room policies can be found here. 

Items referenced in this guide contain historical terms, phrases, or images that are offensive, outdated, and/or harmful. These include descriptions of physical and sexual violence; demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.