The Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies has served as a partner and the official repository for the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies since 2001. Co-founded in 2000 by University of Georgia faculty Dr. Maurice C. Daniels and Dr. Derrick P. Alridge, the Foot Soldier Project seeks to illuminate, through oral history and documentary filmmaking, the social activism of unsung participants of the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia. As the Project’s official repository, the Russell Library is responsible for preserving documentation and providing access for research and educational use.
The Russell Library houses hundreds of hours of film, videotape, and sound recordings, as well photographs and papers documenting the experiences and perspectives of many of Georgia’s most important, yet least celebrated, civil rights activists. Contributions to the collection in the form of interviews or donated materials have been made by Horace Ward, Hamilton Holmes, Donald Hollowell, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Mary Frances Early, Walter Lundy, Vernon Jordan, Priscilla Arnold Davis, Constance Baker Motley, state Senator Leroy Johnson, Bill Shipp, Reverend Gene Britton, E. Freeman Leverett, Governor Ernest Vandiver, Julian Bond, Judge William Bootle, and many others.
For more information, visit the website of The Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies.