Virginia State University

Present: Dr. James Sweeney and Sonia Yaco, Co-chairs; Nicole Dressler, Old Dominion University; Jennifer McDaid, Library of Virginia; Virginia Kinman, Longwood; Jefferson Moak, NARA; Peggy McPhillips, Troy Valos, Norfolk Public Library; Charles H. Ford, Norfolk State University; Francine Archer, Brian Daugherity, Virginia Commonwealth University; Va. Department of Historic Resources; Lucious Edwards, Virginia State University; Derek Gray, Washington D.C. Public Library; Bea Hardy, Peter Jones, William and Mary

1. Status of Project – There are six regional task forces.
1. Tidewater Bea Hardy, Director of the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William and Mary
2. Valley of Virginia- Ted DeLaney, History Department, Washington and Lee
3. Eastern Shore and Southside – Lucious Edwards, Head of the Special Collections & Archives at Virginia State University
4. Northern Virginia – Derek Gray, Washington D.C. Public Library and Bob Vay, George Mason University
5. Southwest – chair needed
6. Piedmont – chair needed

2. Bea Hardy led discussion on regional task force methodology
1. Taskforces should try to have media representation because the media may have school desegregation material and so that they can help to publicize DOVE.
2. These task forces will survey libraries and archives – ideally a pair, a historian and an archivist.
3. Charles Ford will be writing a letter to give to repositories before we go visit them. The letter will list the topics DOVE seeks to document including the role of integration, segregationist groups, and busing in Virginia schools. A draft of the letter will be available at the next DOVE meeting.
4. There may be out-of-state repositories that hold Virginia records. Dove may need to send survey forms to these repositories instead of traveling to them.
5. Survey form design:
* First draft is completed and is available on the DOVE website.
* Those present agreed to ‘test drive’ the form on collections at their own institution and suggest changes to the form.
6. It was suggested that we use Google docs to keep track of which repositories have been surveyed
7. Among the groups to be contacted by taskforces are: scholars, reference archivists, historical societies (as a conduit to the public), churches (church bulletins), courthouses, teacher unions, realtors
8. Francine Archer will come up with a list of which counties are in which DOVE regions
9. Training surveyors. Because there will be different kinds of people doing surveying, training should be aimed at a variety of audiences. Possible training text and video online and in-class training, as well as on-site repository. Break into segments – 1) for people unfamiliar with the history of desegregation 2) for people unfamiliar with archives etc. Surveyors should be periodically re-trained to insure consistency. Maybe just retrain taskforce chairs.
10. Data entry will be done by regional taskforces so that they can do quality control on work done. ODU will do metadata cataloging.
11. Schedule of tasks – additions to DOVE timeline: Regional taskforces should be formed by September 1.

3. Peter Jones led a discussion about the content for a DOVE brochure. He and Brian Daugherity agreed to write the brochure this summer. Sonia Yaco will do the design and layout. Bea Hardy will pay to have 1000 copies printed at printer. A PDF file of the brochure will go on the DOVE web site so taskforces can print off more copies as needed. Send it throughout Virginia communities, possibly to community newspapers, the Chambers of Commerce, and other local organizations.

4. Catalog – A status flag should be added to the catalog – ready to be public, still under review, not yet cataloged, etc.

5. Charles Ford discussed possible grants for DOVE. Charles, Jennifer McDaid, Brian Daugherity and Sonia Yaco will work on the grants. We will address the development and progress of possible grants at the next meeting

6. Next meeting will be hosted by Bob Vay at George Mason University on Tuesday, July 14. We hope to include the Arlington Public Library in the meeting.
Agenda items for the next meeting :
* Brochure
* Grants
* Progress of regional task forces
* Geographical Boundaries
* Surveyor Form
* Letter to Repositories

Revised: 6/12/09

Longwood University
Virginia Kinman Chairing

Attendance – Charles Ford (Washington & Lee), Larissa Smith Ferguson (Longwood), Aaron Purcell (Virginia Tech), Sherrie Bowser (Virginia Tech), Marc Brodsky (Virginia Tech), Lacy Ward, Jr. (R. R. Moton Museum), Brian Daugherity (VCU), Lucious Edwards (Virginia State University), Kelli Palmer (U.Va), Virginia Kinman (Longwood), Lydia Williams (Longwood), Jennifer McDaid (Library of Virginia), Emma Edmunds (U Va), Bob Vay (George Mason University), Sonia Yaco (ODU)

Introductions

Update with Sonia – Jim Sweeney is leaving as Chairman. She suggested Brian Daugherity of VCU as Co-Chair of DOVE. There were no objections from those in attendance. She showed a Power Point presentation of the project summarizing progress to date.

Brochure – Brian Daugherity passed out a computer printed version of the new DOVE brochure. A PDF version of the full color brochure will be on DOVE website. The committee discussed the brochure, its layout, and construction. Full color version will be available. College of William and Mary is picking up the cost for this. We have a willing volunteer for the Eastern Shore but DOVE is still in need of a regional chair. Lucious will check with someone at University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, who might be able to help with it. Aaron Purcell asked about the materials at each of the participating institutions’ college/university records . Should we add this information to the brochure along with private and non-denominational K-12 schools? Because the brochure has already been printed, this change will have to be made in the next version.

Sonia discussed grants. Regarding Mellon grants, DOVE would need to be “invited” by them to apply. When contacted, Mellon said that they will not invite DOVE to apply. After some tweaks a grant will be ready for an NHPRC application next October (2010). She is also looking at a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grant for training, expenses for the regional task forces, and archives management for private records holders such as the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy to preserve records found there. DOVE is considering a type of “archives tool kit” (acid free materials and handling instructions) for places that have records to help get them started.

The question of “What do we want from the grant?” arose. Several members brought up different aims such as: digitization, travel, or training. As grants are being prepared, we will need to each collect letters of commitment from our institutions from officials as far up the chain as possible (library director and up). Letters of support will be good to have as well. Lacy Ward will compose a draft letters of commitment to review by the next DOVE meeting.

We had a discussion about digitization and use of the DOVE records interface. We discussed whether or not the interface could be adapted to use digital objects created with grant money. The field entitled, “Relation” on the DOVE catalog should be renamed to make it clear that this is for the URL of an online catalog or a digital object. More discussion about digitization included the question: “How will our digitization grant be innovative or different?” – that granting agencies will ask. We decided it will be different because we will be working with local, higher-ed, and private agencies for one goal. No other state is doing a project like this. Perhaps a planning grant might be helpful just to help get started. There was discussion about the SHRAB course. The Prince Edward project should be a good prototype for the larger grant. Should digitization and preservation be added to DOVE’s stated goals?

Brian Daugherity– MLK Commission

Virginia’s Marin Luther King Jr. Commission has commemorated Brown v Bd., Massive Resistance, and now Desegregation (1958-1959). The Special Subcommittee on the 50th Anniversary of Public School Closings in Virginia will be holding town hall meetings in locations in Virginia where public schools were closed to prevent integration – Prince Edward, Charlottesville, Norfolk, etc, including Warren County (Tuesday, December 1 at 3 PM). Bob Vay will try to get to that. Trying to decide whether Prince Edward County will need to develop a new film or use existing ones as a teaching tool. Hoping to create a list of Virginians involved in desegregation and massive resistance. The King Commission gives grants (ask Brenda for details). We should do a grant application (they are offered in the $2,500-$7,500 range).

Regional News

Bob Vay reported nothing new for his regional task force but has made contacts with Fairfax and Prince William Counties for government records. Lucious has been focusing on private collections up until now. He will begin focus on public collections again. The Norfolk School Board meeting minutes from the mid-1960s to 1980s, thought to be lost have reappeared again. Charles Ford is constituting his committee for Hampton Roads in the fall.

Task Force Survey Methodology

Discussion continued as to how DOVE will conduct the surveys. Shall we use a region or locality as a model? Perhaps Prince Edward County might be best example for DOVE. What types of people will be best for canvassers? Definitely retired people, who have time and those who lived through this era, as they will have the experience, knowledge, and passion for this project. We will need to get K-12 teachers and retired teachers involved in order to package it as a classroom project. Good contacts are also tourism, economic development, historical societies and other local entities. Sonia went over all of the resources available on the DOVE website (survey, data dictionary, etc.)

Next Meeting

A conference call is set for regional task force members on Thursday, December 17 from 10-11 A.M. Chairs will discuss how we will proceed. Next general meeting will be late January at William & Mary. The meeting will have two parts: a training session and a general meeting. The training session will also serve as a dry run for training volunteers. We will then discuss the timeline of historical waypoints that we can use as a background document for our research that Charles Ford, Lucious Edwards and Larissa Ferguson will have created. Sonia will train us on how to do a records survey. In the general meeting portion we will discuss grant deadlines and letters of commitment.

Revised:12/7/09

Washington and Lee University

Present: Ted DeLaney, Katie Sinks and Victor Jackson, Washington and Lee University; Charles H. Ford, Norfolk State University; Peter Jones, William and Mary; Sonia Yaco, Old Dominion University – co-chair

Prevented from attending by snowstorm: Ervin L. Jordan, University of Virginia; Peter Wallenstein, Virginia Tech; Virginia Kinman and Lydia Williams, Longwood University; Jennifer Davis McDaid, Library of Virginia

1. An overview of the project was presented by Sonia Yaco. She also demonstrated the DOVE catalog.

2. Ted DeLaney volunteered to be the regional taskforce chair for Valley of Virginia. Katie will be working with him this summer on school desegregation research. We discussed who would have relevant material in Valley of Virginia. He mentioned several collections at W & L that should be added to the DOVE catalog. After the meeting, Sonia and Charles did a records survey of the W & L holdings on school desegregation. Ted will compile a list of known school board minutes and school administration files in western Virginia, including a list of individual schools desegregation histories in Botetourt school district. He also mentioned that all colleges in the state are likely to have files on their own desegregation process in Board of Trustees/Visitors minutes, presidents’ papers and other series. Student newspapers may or may not have covered this topic.

3. Interest was expressed in the development of an online help screen for the DOVE catalog.

4. The following stakeholder groups in Norfolk were suggested as potentially having school desegregation records: the Norfolk Academy, Bayview Baptist, Epworth Methodist and St. Paul’s.

5. The type of material should be included in the DOVE database was discussed. It is not intended to be a bibliography of secondary sources. However, self – published material not widely available should be included.

6. Future meetings:

a) Jim Sweeney and Sonia Yaco will be presenting on DOVE at the Virginia Forum, April 24-25.

b) For the May meeting, it was suggested that two items be posted on the DOVE web site so that they could be reviewed beforehand:

A draft of the records survey instrument that will be used by regional taskforces. Sonia Yaco created this and has published this here.

A proposed timeline for project. Tonia Graves and Sonia Yaco developed a draft timeline. It is published here.

c) The group suggested that regional taskforces meet in July rather than holding a centralized DOVE group meeting

Revised: 3/12/09

Virginia Historical Society

Present at the meeting: Co-Chair: Sonia Yaco, Old Dominion University; Derek Gray, DC Public Library, MLK Memorial; Bob Vay, George Mason University; Alfred Willis, Hampton University; Jennifer Davis McDaid, LVA; Jefferson Moak, NARA – Mid Atlantic; George Schaefer, Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk; Tonia Graves, Old Dominion University; Ann Southwell, Ellen Welch, UVA; M. Alison White, UVA Law School; Bea Hardy, Peter Jones, William and Mary; Brian Daugherity, Alex Lorch, VCU; Jodi Koste, VCU (Medical College of Virginia); Lee Shepard, Eileen Parris, Va Historical Society; Lucious Edwards, Va. State University

1. Subcommittee reports:

Alfred Willis gave a report from the grants subcommittee. The minutes are available here :

Eileen Parris presented suggestions from the data dictionary subcommittee. Alison White will supply a list of US Census tracts and school districts for a pull down menu in the database. In describing collections, we will use the school district and geographic corporate name that existed when the school desegregation records were created.
2. The differences between Virginia Heritage (VH) and DOVE were discussed. The range of record types and repositories is much broader in DOVE than VH and has a narrower subject focus.

3. Phase 3 – project maintenance. Old Dominion University Libraries has made a commitment to permanently house and maintain the database.

4. A brochure for DOVE publicity and collection solicitation will be created after discussions about its content at the next meeting.

5. Alex Lorch suggested that DOVE should have a user focus group to survey the needs of school desegregation researchers.

6. The next meeting will be January 27 at University of Virginia Law School from 11:00 – 3:00 PM. The location and lunch details will be sent out with the agenda. The meeting will be a work session with two sections:
1. Data dictionary – further definition of the database, possible modification, creation of sample records and on-line help feature
2. Regional task forces – New records identification process including criteria for selecting collections to include in DOVE, deadlines creation and content of DOVE brochure.

Revised: 12/2/08

Present: Alfred Willis, Hampton University; Charles Ford, Norfolk State University; Sonia Yaco and  Tonia Graves ODU

The subcommittee discussed what to seek funding for and what appropriate granting agencies would be.

Grants that were discussed:

1.  Teaching American History grants through the US Department of Education.  http://www.ed.gov/programs/teachinghistory/index.html
To develop a set of learning or teaching strategies that can be applied to teachers so that they can adapt them to their classroom. We would train teachers to teach their students to look for records on school desegregation in:

• School records
• Historical societies
• Other records

2.  The NHPRC’s State and National Archival Partnership Grants http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/announcement/partnership.html
This is an administrative and planning type grant to fund task force member training.  It could cover things like workshop to train ourselves. What do we need to train ourselves on?  How to identify the “about to be lost materials”, what do we consider acceptable at risk materials, how to approach the holders of those materials, determine what we expect from the holders and the materials and what might they expect from us, etc.  The grant could cover things such as travel, telecommunications, parking, photocopying and postage, developing publicity materials for DOVE, attending conferences and/or making presentations on DOVE, etc.

The NEH and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities were identified as other possible granting agencies in terms of programming/planning and in terms of preserving, providing access to the resources.

The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant, also from the Department of Education was also mentioned but does not appear to be relevant.  http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/fipse/index.html

3. The subcommittee examined some of the funding sources suggested at the last meeting and determined that DOVE did not meet their funding criteria.
The Oliver Hill Commission appears to deal with training for lawyers, Judge Merhige’s son’s commission, relates to environmental issues, the King Commission has been inactive in the state, the Ford Foundation seems to be for advocacy.

4.  Other
After discussing concerns that DOVE might duplicate the Virginia Heritage Project (VHP), we decided this concern was not valid.  While there are some school desegregation records listed in VHP, VHP contains fully processed collections that have already existing finding aids in VIVA repositories. The DOVE project will focus on identifying unknown/unprocessed materials, such as on public libraries and their vertical files.  Also agreed that historical societies are valid sources of unidentified materials.

We discussed changing the approach for the task force meetings – making them less frequent, but longer and more substantial.  If we change them from “just meetings” to professional development workshops among archivists, historians, and educators, we stand a better chance of covering costs from a planning grant.
A suggestion for a DOVE task force workshop was a full day meeting where in the morning we develop criteria for selecting collections to include in the project and in the afternoon we demonstrate the existing database and develop modifications.

5.  What to do next
Determine specific grants from agencies discussed and identify deadlines.  Spend time reading the agencies’ mission and grant obligations to determine if it really is a match.
Determine if preliminary contact with granting agency should be made and by which grant subcommittee member. For example Charles might contact the person in charge of the Teaching American History grant.

Revised:10/24/08

Virginia Historical Society

Present at the meeting: Co-Chairs: Dr. James Sweeney and Sonia Yaco, Old Dominion University; Derek Gray, DC Public Library, MLK Memorial; Bob Vay, George Mason; Alfred Willis, Hampton University; Conley Edwards, Jennifer Davis McDaid, LVA; Jefferson Moak NARA – Mid Atlantic; George Schaefer, Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk; Charles H. Ford, Norfolk State University; Ann Southwell, Ellen Welch, UVA; M. Alison White, UVA Law School; Brian Daugherity, VCU; Jodi Koste, VCU (Medical College of Virginia); Lee Shepard, Lauranett Lee, Eileen Parris, Va Historical Society; Lucious Edwards, Va. State University;

1. Phase 1 – Electronic survey to gather information on the school desegregation records already in libraries and archives.

a. Sonia Yaco gave a demonstration of the online database for Phase 1 that was requested at the last meeting. The DOVE home page is:

http://www.lib.odu.edu/special/dove/

The database can be viewed by anyone, but the data entry form is password protected. Contact Sonia Yaco for the password

The use of names for school districts that may have since merged was discussed. The consensus was that the names used at the time of the record created should be used. Alison White volunteered to work on a list of historic school district names. Jody Koste and Eileen Parris volunteered to work on a data dictionary for the database to provide name authority for the repository, creator and geographic/school district coverage fields. It was recommended that a field be added for links to finding aids or other catalogs. An import function was requested to bring MARC and EAD records into the DOVE database.

b. Funding possibilities

Considering school desegregation records to be part of legal history not just educational history could open new avenues of granting agencies such as the Virginia State Bar Association, a state agency, or Old Dominion Bar Association, an African-American group.

Lauranett Lee mentioned Teaching American History grants through the US Department of Education. She recommended Bill Obrochta at VHS as a source for information on these grants. Andy Mink at UVA would be a contact for Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

Suggested items to include in the grants: Travel, telecommunications, postage, IT at ODU, task force expenses. A grant of at $25,000 is probably needed.

Other possible funding sources include: Oliver Hill Commission, (contact Esther Vaster), Judge Merhige’s son’s commission, King Commission, Ford Foundation, although that seems to be for advocacy, and the NEH.

Charles Ford, Alford Willis, and Sonia Yaco will work on a grants subcommittee.

2. Phase 2 – Regional task forces to identify other records holders and inventory their records.

a. Chairs have been found for the following regions:
Lucious Edwards, VSU – Eastern shore and Southside
Jody Koste, VCU – temporary chair for Piedmont
John Kirn, Va. Department of Historic Resources – Southwest
Ted Delaney, Washington and Lee may be willing to chair Valley of Virginia
Jim Hirschman and Bob Vay – Northern Virginia
a chair has not been found for Tidewater

b. Objectives

identify resources, make a union list
add more access points to resources

c. Methodology

We need to decide what the collection level of description will be. There is a need to describe sections of a collection that relates to school desegregation. A hierarchical database that can relate repository to collection to series or subseries should be built into the database.

There was discussion over whether all collections we survey should be included in the catalogue and how will we deal with privately held collections. We want to be able to inventory them, but prevent those people from being overrun by researchers wanting access. Among the suggestions were that institutions could restrict access to records they create; only those institutions to contribute to the catalogue would have access to those records, or simply not entering those into the catalogue.

There was more consensus on listing collections held at public institutions that have access restrictions or public records held by reluctant administrators — such as school board records. People seem to agree that those records should be listed.

Jennifer McDaid said that creation of the catalogue will require in person discussions with archivists who will be familiar with school desegregation records that exists within collections. Collections may be described in Marc records or EAD records but the school desegregation aspect of them may not be inherent in that description.

She also mentioned Dove to a superintendent’s group and wondered when we would be getting back to them, and whether that would be during Phase 1 or Phase 2 project. The consensus of the group was that was a Phase 2.

d. Timeline – Phase 1 – 1 year from when grant begins

3. Next meeting items

Subcommittee report on grant possibilities
Subcommittee report on progress on data dictionary
Discussion of creation of a brochure for Dove publicity and collection solicitation

4. Next meeting will be November 18 at 1 p.m. at VHS.

We have reserved room at Bandito’s Burrito Lounge (2905 Patterson Ave) ‎ for an 11:30 AM lunch prior to the meeting.

Revised:10/6/08

Virginia Historical Society

Present at the meeting: Co-Chairs: Dr. James Sweeney and Sonia Yaco, Old Dominion University; Bob Vay, George Mason; Jordan Patty, George Mason; Lee Shepard, Virginia Historical Society; Larissa Smith Ferguson, Longwood University; Jodi Koste, VCU (Medical College of Virginia); Delegate Ken Plum, Va General Assembly; Francine Archer, Va Dept Historic Resources; Eileen Parris, Va Historical Society; Troy Valos, Norfolk Public Library; Bea Hardy, William and Mary; Brian Daugherity, VCU; Lyn Hart, LVA; Carl Childs, LVA; Conley Edwards, LVA; Jennifer Davis McDaid, LVA; Brent Tarter, LVA; Alex Lorch, VCU; Alfred Willis, Hampton University

1. Sonia Yaco presented an outline of proposed task force. The main goal would be to identify, locate and preserve records that document Virginia’s school desegregation process.  She gave examples of the records created by public bodies and private groups.

Governmental records could include City Council/County Board minutes; School Board minutes and administrative papers; school district correspondence with parents, city and county officials, Virginia Department of Education and Pupil Placement Board, decisional papers, legal advice and policy statements.

Non-governmental records include teachers’ diaries, oral histories, records of informal tutoring groups that existed when public school were closed, organization papers of ad hoc citizen groups for and against Massive Resistance, papers of associations such as Virginia Education Association, Virginia State Teachers Association, Virginia Association of School Superintendents, Virginia School Boards Association.

2. Goals of task force were discussed. It was decided that the task force’s emphasis will be on inventorying public and private records already in publicly accessible locations such as libraries, archives, and governmental agencies. The scope of the project would be records related to the desegregation of public and private schools in Virginia, grades K-12 and institutions of higher education. The time span would be 1945 – 1986. Papers, photographs, existing oral histories, newspapers and audio-visual materials will be included.

3. The task force name was changed to, “Desegregation Of Virginia Education (DOVE) Project: A guide to resources”

4. The location of records and contact names of groups who could have records were identified:

1. school superintendents association – records are at LVA
2. teachers
3. civic leaders
4. curators of private collections
   • Virginia Association of Museums
   • Black History Museum
5. civil rights organizations
   • NAACP – papers are at the Library of Congress
6. local historical societies – few were thought to have material related to school desegregation
7. city and county records managers
8. state agencies
   • segregation academies were incorporated so LVA might have their records
   • architectural records
   • Virginia Foundation for Humanities, Christina Draper
   • Governors’ papers at LVA
   • Pupil Placement Board at LVA
   • Attorney General’s records at LVA
9. religious groups
   • Catholic Church, Diocese of Richmond, since it desegregated earlier than public schools
10. federal records
11. state and federal courts
    • both have their own libraries
    • Walter Hoffman’s papers at Washington and Lee University School of Law

5. Although the scope of the project is statewide there will to be regional task forces. In addition to those who attended the meeting, also suggested were:

1. Eastern Shore
   1. Miles Barnes, Eastern Shore Public Library, Accomack County
2. Tidewater – Should this be divided up into Hampton Roads, Northern Neck?
3. South Side
   1. Lucious Edwards, Virginia State University
4. Northern Virginia
   1. Jim Hershman
   2. Derek Gray
5. Piedmont
   1. Legacy Museum of African American History, Lynchburg
   2. W. Hamilton Bryson, University of Richmond Law School
   3. Randolph-Macon
6. Valley of Virginia
   1. Dale Harter, Bridgewater College
   2. James Madison University
   3. Ted Delaney, Washington and Lee University
   4. William C. Pollard, Mary Baldwin
7. Southwest Virginia
   1. John Kern, Va Dept Historic Resources
   2. Washington County Historical
   3. Gail M McMillan and Aaron Purcell, Virginia Tech

6. One strategy for finding school desegregation records should be to publicize the project with state wide publicity.  A brochure would be helpful to convey the goals of the project.

7. It was agreed that the first two phases of the DOVE project would be:

Phase 1: Create an electronic survey to gather information on the school desegregation records already in libraries and archives.  ODU will create this survey and send out a link to institutions before the next DOVE meeting.

Phase 2: Create regional taskforces to identify other records holders and inventory other records.

8. It was agreed that funding for the task force would have to be investigated.

9. Next meeting will be Tuesday, September 30th at 10:30 AM at Virginia Historical Society’s education classroom.

Revised: 9/5/08