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Barbara (Jones) Omolade Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SCA-0029

Scope and Contents

The Barbara (Jones) Omolade collection (1963–1995) documents the experience of Barbara (Jones) Omolade in the Civil Rights Movement, with emphasis on civil rights activism on the Queens College campus (1964). The bulk of the collection dates from 1963-1965 and focuses on QC’s Freedom Week and the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. The materials are largely organizational, consisting of memos, flyers, forms, reports, and correspondences. Highlights of this collection include QC student activist sign-in sheets with the signature of Andrew Goodman and a speech delivered by SNCC executive secretary James Forman in Mississippi during 1964. The Barbara (Jones) Omolade collection also contains documents relating to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Mississippi Summer Project Curriculum Conference. Overall, this collection documents how college students in the northeast organized and educated fellow students about the southern-based civil rights movement. Furthermore, the collection provides evidence of how Northern students were recruited to participate in the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.

Dates

  • 1963–1995, bulk 1963-1965
  • Majority of material found within 1963 - 1965

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Staff may restrict access at its discretion on the basis of physical condition.

Copyright

The Barbara (Jones) Omolade Collection is the property of the Queens College Libraries. All intellectual rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assignees. Queens College assumes no responsibility for the infringement of copyrights held by the original authors, creators, or producers of materials.

Biographical note

Barbara (Jones) Omolade, then Barbara Jones, was born on October 29, 1942 to Hugh Jones and Mamie Taylor Jones in Brooklyn, NY. She studied at Queens College, City University of New York, where she received her B.A. (1964) and later went on to receive her PhD in Sociology from The City University of New York (1997).

Omolade was a student at Queens College (QC) from 1960-1964. During the spring semester of 1964, she served as chairman of the Civil Rights Coordinating Council. While working with this council Omolade helped to organize Freedom Week (April 20th-24th) on the QC campus. This event was sponsored by QC’s chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) and supported the Mississippi Freedom Project. Freedom Week consisted of lectures and rallies that informed faculty, students and the Queens community about the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project and recent developments in the Civil Rights Movement. Objectives of Freedom Week included recruiting volunteers and raising money to send them to Mississippi that summer.

Omolade went on to pursue scholarly research and activism focusing on African American women’s history. In 1977, she taught one of the first social science courses on African American women at the College of New Rochelle, Co-Op City Evening Program. In 1981, she started working at the City College of New York Center for Worker Education and would quickly join the faculty. By 1983, Omolade had helped found Friends of Women’s Studies at CUNY, which was instrumental in establishing the CUNY faculty development seminar on balancing the curriculum for gender, race, ethnicity and class.

In 1994, Omolade’s book The Rising Song of African American Women was published. In 2004, she became dean of multicultural affairs at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she has since retired. In 2010, the Hands on the Freedom Plow was published, which offers personal accounts by women in SNCC. Omolade contributed “Building a New World”, a letter written to her parents describing her decision to join the Civil Rights Movement and move to Atlanta to work in the SNCC office.

Extent

0.5 Linear Feet (, 1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Barbara (Jones) Omolade Collection documents civil rights activism on the Queens College campus during the 1960s, including the Freedom Week Events of 1964. This collection also provides material pertaining to the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964 and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Arrangement

Folders are arranged alphabetically based on content.

Source

Donated by Barbara (Jones) Omolade in 2011

Related Materials

The following Queens College collections include more records from the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project:

Mark Levy Papers

George Albertz Papers

Robert Masters Papers

Susan Nichols Papers

Johnnie Mae Walker Letter to Anne Koeppicus

Creator

Source

Title
Barbara (Jones) Omolade Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Corinne Klee
Date
2011
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Queens College (New York, N.Y.) Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Queens College Library, CUNY
Benjamin Rosenthal Library RO317
65-30 Kissena Boulevard
Flushing 11367 USA us