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Title on Reel (transcribed from original)
VSC Students, 12-17-69, at State Capitol, #6, Police I.D.
Date Created
1969-12-17
Reel Format
Super 8mm
Reel Description
This reel contains footage of students, faculty, and supporters protesting changes to Virginia State College in Richmond, Virginia. Footage of Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr. speaking to an individual, likely a journalist. It also features a smaller group of marchers entering the Virginia State Capitol grounds and marching in a picket. Marchers wear winter coats and jackets, buttons, and hold signs. It ends with marchers boarding buses on 9th Street. This appears to be a group of majority Black participants.
Timestamp Description
00:00:09 Footage begins. A, individually with a microphone, likely a reporter, speaks with Virginia Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr. outside of the Virginia State Capitol building. Godwin stands in the open door of a car. Some individuals are partially seen observing the interview.
00:00:22 Individuals marching within the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol. Many individuals wear large orange buttons which read "Survival For VSC". Some wear a white piece of paper under the button which reads "Marshal". Some carry signs which read: "Please don't do this to us" with a depiction of a building made of construction paper, "Survival for VSC", "Liberate Virginia State!", "Liberate Virginia State Now! [Illegible word]" and "Build Us Up, Don't Put Us Down".
00:00:39 Marchers walking in a picket circle outside the side door of the capitol building, with some cars parked in front of them. An individual with a film camera on their shoulder is visible in the center of the circle. Individual signs are blocked by a parked car between marchers and the camera.
00:01:12 An individual in the picket hands sheets of paper to others standing on the side.
00:01:13 Several individuals stand inside the fence of the capitol ground, with marchers visible walking north on 9th Street behind them, with uniformed police officers directing protestors. The group in focus includes two uniformed Virginia State Capitol police officers, as well as at least one individual who appears associated with the marchers.
00:01:29 Footage of two individuals, likely from the march, standing with a Virginia State Capitol officer, in the same location as the previous clip.
00:01:43 The individual speaking with officers previously joins the two in the previous clip, all three speak with the two officers.
00:01:59 Footage of buses parked on the street filmed from inside the capitol grounds. As the camera pans, an individual standing inside the grounds smiles at the camera.
00:02:08 An individual holding a "Survival for VSC" speaking with another individual standing several feet away from them. This appears to be within the capitol grounds. There are several cars parked behind them. Both walk away.
00:02:22 A large group of marchers walks down a sidewalk with buses parked to their right. Some individuals leave the crowd to climb aboard buses.
00:02:36 Footage from a different angle of individuals boarding a bus, a "State Capitol" sign with an arrow pointing right is above them. The camera zooms in on the sign, then pans down to film more individuals getting on the bus.
00:03:06 Zoomed in blurry footage of an individual, likely from the march, standing near four uniformed police officers. The capitol building is behind them.
00:03:21 Footage of the sidewalk, likely filmed when the camera was running without being operated.
00:03:22 Footage ends.
Event Description
Around 11AM on Wednesday, December 17, 1969, some 2,200 students and faculty from Virginia State College (VSC) (Virginia State University as of 1979), marched at the Virginia State Capitol in protest of the school's Board of Visitors refusing to meet with student representatives to discuss a proposed merger between VSC's School of Agriculture and Virginia Polytechnic Institute's (now Virginia Tech) agriculture program. VSC is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. About 50 individuals were permitted to enter the Capitol grounds, and then gave a press conference. Other remarks were cancelled, but State senator-elect L. Douglas Wilder traveled back to VSC's Petersburg counsel to meet a student assembly. Students traveled from Petersburg to Richmond via 25 chartered buses and an unknown number of private vehicles. The protest lasted about 4 hours. Students were able to speak with staff of Governor-elect Linwood Holton's office, but did not plan to speak with outgoing Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr. The evening after the protest, board rector Elgin M. Lowe Sr. agreed to schedule a meeting in January. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 18, 1969).
Runtime
00:03:38
Personal Name Subject
Godwin, Mills E. (Mills Edwin), 1914-1999
Corporate Name Subject
Virginia State College
Topical Subject
Historically Black colleges and universities; Student protesters; African American student movements; Student movements; Student strikes; Universities and colleges--Administration; Governors--Virginia; 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
Virginia State College (VSC) Student Protest at the Virginia State Capitol Film Reel #06, 1969 December 17
File Name
VCU_M571_069.mp4