Wilkins was one of three men accused in the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, who had participated in the Selma to Montgomery March. The trial ended in a hung jury, with 10 of the 12 jurors voting to convict. Wilkins was acquitted at a second trial, but he and fellow Klansman Eugene Thomas were later convicted in federal court of civil rights violations and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

This collection contains an extensive body of correspondence, clippings, publications, photographs and other material collected and created by the staff of the Birmingham World, the city’s longest running African American newspaper. Topics include civil rights organizations and their activities, sports, music, education, and politics.

Born in Augusta, Georgia, Charles Colcock Jones Carpenter was an Episcopal priest and served bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama from 1938 to 1968. He died on June 29, 1969. The papers contain the files compiled by the bishop’s office and are divided into four series: parish files, office files, financial files and supplemental files transferred from the diocesan offices at a later time. In addition to correspondence, the files include such things as bulletins, pamphlets, news clippings, photographs, sermons and building plans. The parish files contain much routine correspondence between the bishop and the parish priest and between the bishop and parishioners concerning such matters as the formation of a new mission, property purchases, new building, divorce and remarriage, loss of a priest, and the calling of a new one. The office files include correspondence with various diocesan officials, information about organizations within the church, various discern facilities and other miscellaneous matters. There is a significant amount of material relating to the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and the nation. The financial files contain material relating to various bequests and trust funds set up for the diocese.

Asa Earl Carter was a segregationist leader, politician, speech-writer, and novelist. He was active in the Citizens’ Council movement and the American States Rights Association and founded the North Alabama White Citizens Council. This collection contains three issues (March, April, and September-October 1956) of Carter's white supremacist newspaper The Southerner and one LP record entitled Essays of Asa Carter, Album 1. The record (purchased at a flea market by a member of the Archives staff) is the first in a series of twenty. On the record Carter reads four of his essays, "Communism: Trojan Horse," "Savage Showcase," Reconstruction Times," and "Jesse James."

This collection, edited by historian David J. Garrow, contains memoranda, newspaper clippings and other material collected or produced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation documenting civil rights activities in five Southern communities.

These scrapbooks, compiled by librarians at the Birmingham Public Library, contain newspaper clippings relating to the Civil Rights Movement. The clippings are arranged in three subject areas: national civil rights events, Alabama events, and Mississippi events. The clippings are arranged chronologically within the subject areas.

These scrapbooks, compiled by librarians at the Birmingham Public Library, contain newspaper clippings relating to the civil rights activities in Selma, Alabama, including the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March.

This collection includes the organization’s constitution, minutes of meetings, membership list, correspondence, subject files and newspaper clippings.

During the 1965 voter registration drive in Selma, Alabama, the sheriff’s department recorded one or more of the civil rights mass meetings held at Selma churches. The recording device was discovered by movement participants but was not removed. This collection contains nine audio recordings made by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department of one or more mass meetings, a press conference with Malcolm X and a reporter describing a protest march and mass arrest. In 1988, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department loaned the original tapes to the Birmingham Public Library for copying. The original tapes were returned to the sheriff’s department after copies were made.

Dan Dowe, a reporter for the Birmingham News, gathered this collection of court records, guidelines and other material relating to the desegregation of public schools in Macon County, Alabama.

Newspaper clippings compiled by the staff of the Birmingham Public Library’s Southern History Department on Flower’s service as Alabama Attorney General.

In 1956, Autherine Lucy became the first African American to attend the University of Alabama. In reaction to riots by white students and others, the university expelled Lucy a few days after her enrollment. This collection contains letters written to the Student Government Association president Walter Flowers regarding school integration and the Lucy controversy. The collection also contains newspaper clippings and whole newspapers reporting the events.

These scrapbooks, compiled by staff of the Birmingham Public Library’s Southern History Department, contain newspaper clippings relating to James E. “Big Jim” Folsom’s two terms as governor of Alabama and various political campaigns.

This collection contains letters to and from Foster concerning her participation in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. There is also a small amount of material relating to racial relations in Alabama during the early 1960s.