Overall focus is the Mid-South, esp. race relations in Memphis, this Delta region's "capital." Period is Civil War through Civil Rights era. Specific Collections include - Rhodes: Brownsville KKK, 1960s-1970s; Shelby Foote (personal documents/memorabilia of novelist/Civil War historian). U of M: Sanitation Strike (150 interviews after 1968 strike and Martin Luther King assassination). MPLIC: Page/Lenox (labor organizer/former mayor of Lenox); Maxine Smith/NAACP (fight for racial equality, esp. in Memphis, 1958-1995); Frank Tobey (race relations while Memphis mayor, 1953-1955); Venson/Memphis Cotton Makers' Jubilee (event programs/correspondence since 1935 founding of African-American parallel to Memphis Cotton Carnival); Cultural Resources Survey/Vollentine-Evergreen Neighborhood/Everett R. Cook Oral History Program/Memphis Civic Clubs (development of Memphis neighborhoods); African-American Life in Memphis (contributions to Memphis, including businesses and churches); Beale St. ('Chitlin Circuit' clubs, 1930s-1960s). NCRM: Symbols of Segregation (signage, KKK paraphernalia, recordings, artwork, clippings file); Voices of Freedom (73 oral history interviews); Freedom Awards (annual ceremony recognizing civil and human rights leaders). Stax: From the Soul (materials on Soulsville, USA neighborhood, home to many Stax musicians); Here and Now (photographs/interviews with former Stax musicians); Club Paradise/Club Handy (two prominent Memphis blues venues).