Library of Congress receives historic addition

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Feb 21, 2008

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The Library of Congress received a substantial addition to its collection of civil rights movement resources last month from the family of James Forman, who served as the executive secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1961 to 1966.

In a ceremony that took place in the library's Jefferson Building, Forman's sons, James Jr. and Chaka, presented officials with approximately 70,000 items that chronicle Forman's life. The leader's activism is well documented in the correspondence, memorabilia, diaries, speeches, notebooks, interviews, scrapbooks, photographs, appointment books and video and sound recordings that were donated.

His involvement in the Unemployment Poverty Action Committee, the Congress on Racial Equality, the NAACP and the Black Panther Party is also documented in the historical artifacts. Forman is best remembered for the instrumental role he played in organizing such campaigns as the March on Washington in 1963.