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Title on Reel (transcribed from original)
May 10, 1968 Friday, RPI students at Byrd Airport Ref. May Day celb. ART / PPC March Sat. 5-18-1968 230PM
Date Created
1968-05-10/1968-05-18
Reel Format
Super 8mm
Reel Description
This reel contains footage of Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) students at Byrd Airport as part of an arts festival, as well as footage of the Poor People's Campaign Caravan likely driving from Norfolk to Richmond, and the the march gathering in a parking lot. The students at the airport appear to be a group of majority white participants. The crowd at the Poor People's Campaign event appears to be majority Black participants. Most are wearing day clothes, some are dressed in religious wear, and many holding signs.
Timestamp Description
00:00:09 Footage begins. Footage filmed from a distance of the back of a truck filled with RPI students followed by two motorcycles.
00:00:16 Footage of a large crowd of individuals, many wearing costumes. The camera pans the crowd from left to right, with cars also visible amongst the individuals.
00:00:37 Footage of cars turning from the road into a parking lot. The camera films front license plates and some individuals in the cars.
00:01:19 Footage of two police trikes followed by multiple buses and vans driving down a road. The camera focuses on their front license plates.
00:01:45 Footage of various cars and buses driving by the camera.
00:01:58 Footage of a bus driving filmed from the rear. Followed by footage of cars and buses, focused on their license plates and drivers. One bus reads: "Barrett Bus Lines, Franklin Va. Phone 5625324".
00:02:16 Footage of an individual wearing a red arm band walking across a parking lot. Uniformed police offers are visible in the background.
00:02:20 Footage of an individual wearing a marshal jacket walking across a parking lot. They walk to a car and seem to retrieve something through the window. As the camera zooms in on the back of their jacket, it reads: "Poor People's Campaign 1968 Washington, D.C." and "marshal" is written around both arms.
00:02:34 Footage of another individual in a marshal jacket carrying a purse walking across the parking lot.
00:02:42 Footage of the back of an individual who has "SCLC [Dr. King?]" handwritten on the back of their shirt.
00:02:48 Footage of approximately two dozen individuals standing in a parking lot with cars visible and a building in the background. The camera pans right to left to show a large crowd, with a stage partially visible as well. There are uniformed police officers throughout, including an officer on horseback.
00:03:22 Footage of three individuals in marshal jackets speaking with one another.
00:03:30 Footage ends.
Event Description
May 10, 1968
A successor to the Bang Arts Festival, the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) held the Albatross Spring Arts Festival in May 1968. Students participated in protests, attended film screenings, and held "happenings". On May 10, students wearing costumes drove to the Richmond Airport to greet visiting cinematographer Richard Meyer. Read more via the Proscript.
May 18, 1968
The Poor People's Campaign occurred between May 12 and June 24 1968. Suggested to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by NAACP director Marion Wright, the campaign sought to bring poor and working class people to Washington, D.C. to demand "jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage, and education for poor adults and children designed to improve their self-image and self-esteem" from the government. After Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968, Ralph Abernathy succeeded King as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and continued plans for the campaign. The first official date of the campaign was May 12, Mother's Day, when Coretta Scott King and thousands of women demonstrated in D.C. The next day, Resurrection City was established on the National Mall. According to a flier from the Civil Rights Movement Archive, a southern caravan to Washington D.C. began in Edwards, Mississippi, on May 5th. It arrived in Richmond on May 18. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on May 19 that the 13-bus, 450-person caravan traveled from Norfolk, with the number growing to 800 people upon arrival in Richmond. At 4PM on May 18, the caravan arrived in an unidentified vacant lot in Southside, where remarks from SCLC officials were given, snacks passed around, and the crowd marched north over the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge, surrounded by a large police presence. The march grew, perhaps to around 2,000 people, and went to Presbyterian School of Christian Education, now Union Presbyterian Seminary, on Brook Road in the Northside neighborhood, where dinner was served. Hosea Williams, field director of SCLC, spoke to a remaining 1,000 individuals at 10:55PM. Marchers spent the night at Virginia Union University, Union Theological Seminary, and in private homes. Read more about the Poor People's Campaign via the Stanford University Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute and the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Runtime
00:03:50
Personal Name Subject
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968; Abernathy, Ralph, 1926-1990; Williams, Hosea, 1926-2000
Corporate Name Subject
Richmond Professional Institute; Richmond International Airport; Virginia Union University (Richmond, Va.); Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Topical Subject
Art festivals; Crowds; College students' art; Art in universities and colleges; Poor People's Campaign; Anti-poverty movements; Demonstrations; Crowds; Processions; Motorcades; Public welfare; Welfare rights movement; "Civil rights movements; Civil rights movements--United States; Civil rights demonstrations; Civil rights workers; Mounted police; Police horses; Animals in police work; Police; Police patrol--Surveillance operations; Electronic surveillance; Video surveillance
City/Location
Richmond (Va.)
Genre
color films (visual works)
Local Genre
moving image
Type
Moving Image
Digital Format
video/mp4
Language
eng
Rights Statement URL
Rights
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgement of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Collection
Richmond Police Department Surveillance Collection
Source
RPI's Albatross Spring Arts Festival at Byrd Airport 1968 May 10 ; Richmond Poor People's Campaign Caravan Film Reel #01, 1968 May 18
File Name
VCU_M571_037.mp4