Between 1962 and 1973, the Richmond Police Department–including Detective Dalton Rotruck "Ricky" Duling (1926-2010) who originally compiled the materials–surveilled metropolitan Richmond and Washington, D.C. residents and groups via photography and film. The collection holds a total of 156 films and 13 audio reels, with the average film reel containing 2-3 minutes of footage. Currently, 112 film reels are available in the digital collection. In 2024, VCU Libraries received a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk grant to digitize these film reels and create a digital collection to make these materials available to the public.
This collection contains unprecedented footage of protests and pickets in Richmond, with the majority of films being in color and filmed from the street level, often embedded with demonstrators. Among noteworthy subjects and events captured are local meetings of the Black Panther Party, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, marches and memorial activities following MLK’s assassination, student protests from Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Virginia Union University (VUU), and Virginia State College (VSC–now Virginia State University), and anti-war protests. The collection also includes footage of American Nazi Party rallies, Ku Klux Klan parades, and marches against school desegregation busing, providing scholars across disciplines and geographic locations with new opportunities to research aspects of the civil rights struggle in the South.
Not all of the reels held by VCU Libraries are available in the online collection presented below. Given the nature of police surveillance–the surveilling and recording of individuals and groups without any information tying them to criminal activity or charges–there are films in this collection that could bring undue scrutiny and harm to individuals who were never made aware of this surveillance. VCU Libraries has carefully considered each film, choosing to only include films of public activity in public spaces in the online collection, along with some materials where individuals knew they were being recorded by the Richmond Police Department without any legal proceedings involved (police events). The collection does include surveillance of private residences as well as businesses that have not been added to the digital collection. The entire collection is available via Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library.
The footage available here is an invaluable resource for research into this period of Richmond history. They present how everyday citizens chose to use their voices for the causes they believed in. The films also often demonstrate how citizens reacted to being surveilled by the Richmond Police Department–with some individuals waving at the cameras, while others displayed negative hand gestures. These public protests also included participation from children, often accompanying a parent, creating an understanding of how civic engagement was practiced intergenerationally. In that vein, some children in the footage hold signs that they may or may not have written themselves, and who may have had their names shared to contemporary newspapers covering the event. Finally, this footage also gives historians an idea of how the RPD viewed dissent and protest, particularly with the amount of effort put towards surveilling peaceful gatherings, many of which were planned and orchestrated by Black Americans, student organizers, and civil rights activists.
Additional research information
The Richmond Police Department surveillance collection is available in the Special Collections and Archives housed in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library. The finding aid is available here.
Additional parts of the collection acquired from Detective Dalton Rotruck Duling are housed at The Valentine in Richmond, Virginia, with a finding aid available here. Many descriptions of materials link to contemporaneous newspapers articles to provide further context–many of these articles are from the Richmond Times-Dispatch archive, which can only be accessed with a VCU login at this time. For access to articles, please email libcompass@vcu.edu.
Copyright
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgment of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Credits
Digitization of these films was conducted by The MediaPreserve in 2024-2025, made possible by a Council on Library & Information Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk grant from the Mellon Foundation. Descriptive metadata for all items was created by Digital Initiatives Librarian Irina Rogova, with support from Katie Condon, Margaret Kidd, Staci Ross, Keahi Adolpho, and Amber Jones in 2025. Digital preservation work was completed by Senior Curator for Health Science Margaret Kidd in 2025.
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National Priorities Day Protest in Richmond Film Reel #01, 1970 May 15
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of individuals gathering in Monroe Park on May 15, 1970 for a protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. It begins with footage of individuals gathered in downtown Richmond, it is unclear if this gathering is associated with the rest of the footage. It also contains footage of individuals gathering at the Checkers House in Monroe Park, and the crowd leaving the park. This appears to be a group of majority white participants.
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National Priorities Day Protest in Richmond Film Reel #02, 1970 May 15
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of individuals leaving Monroe Park, marching on Franklin Street, and at the Bell Tower on the Virginia State Capitol grounds on May 15, 1970 for a protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. This appears to be a group of majority white participants.
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National Priorities Day Protest in Richmond Film Reel #03, 1970 May 15
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of individuals gathered at the Bell Tower on the ground of the Virginia State Capitol on May 15, 1970 for a protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. It features footage of multiple speakers including Loretta F. Johnson, an organizer with the Richmond Welfare Rights Organization. This appears to be a group of majority white participants.
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Picket in Support of Howard H. Carwile For Richmond Mayor Film Reel, 1970 July 1
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of individuals, including several children, picketing outside of Richmond City Hall in support of Howard H. Carwile for mayor on July 1, 1970. Councilpersons Carwile and Henry L. Marsh III also appear in the footage. This appears to be a group of racially diverse participants.
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Anti-Busing Rally at Mosque Theater in Richmond, 1970 August 28
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of a rally against school desegregation busing organized by Reverend John B. Book of the Southside Christian Church at the Mosque (now the Altria Theater) in Richmond, Virginia, held on August 28, 1970. Footage includes Book and several other speakers on the stage. This appears to be a group of majority white participants.
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Anti-Busing Protest in Richmond Film Reel #01, 1970 August 29
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of approximately 250 individuals protesting school desegregation by busing in downtown Richmond. Footage shows demonstrators gathering in Monroe Park, leaving Monroe Park, marching in downtown Richmond, and approaching the Virginia State Capitol grounds. This appears to be a group of majority white participants.
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Anti-Busing Protest in Richmond Film Reel #02, 1970 August 29
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of approximately 250 individuals protesting school desegregation by busing in downtown Richmond. Footage shows demonstrators marching at the the Virginia State Capitol grounds, as well as a car protest leaving Skinny's Kitchen in southern Richmond. This appears to be a group of majority white participants.
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Anti-Busing Protest in Richmond Film Reel, 1970 August 22 ; Aerial Footage of Richmond, 1970 October 14
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of several dozen adults and children protesting against school desegregation busing in Belvidere Street near the Virginia War Memorial on August 22, 1970. This appears to be a group of majority white participants. It also contains aerial footage of the Monroe Park area of Richmond filmed on October 14, 1970.
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Black Panther Party Information Center in Richmond Film Reel, 1970 November 25
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains police surveillance footage of individuals exiting and entering the Black Panther Party Information Center at 8 E. Baker Street in Richmond, Virginia, on November 25, 1970. The house has a large Black Panther banner on the front porch railing, and an article with the address appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch three days prior to this recording. It appears the BPP members were aware they were being surveilled, although the video is filmed from a distance.
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March Against Oppression and Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King's Death in Richmond Film Reel #01, 1971 April 3
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of approximately 100 individuals marching along the roadside of U.S. Route 1 in Virginia (somewhere between Petersburg and Richmond, likely closer to Richmond) on April 3, 1971. They were on their way to an event in commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and against war, racism, and repression in Richmond. The crowd in this part of the march appears to grow as the footage follows them. This appears to be a group of majority Black participants.
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March Against Oppression and Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King's Death in Richmond Film Reel #02, 1971 April 3
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of individuals marching in Richmond, primarily on Franklin Street, on April 3, 1971. They were on their way to an event in commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and against war, racism, and repression at the Virginia State Capitol. The final part of the reel is footage of the crowd on the capitol grounds. This appears to be a group of racially diverse participants.
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March Against Oppression and Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King's Death in Richmond Film Reel #03, 1971 April 3
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of individuals marching in Richmond, primarily on Franklin Street, on April 3, 1971. They were on their way to an event in commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and against war, racism, and repression at the Virginia State Capitol. The final part of the reel is footage of the crowd on the capitol grounds. This appears to be a group of majority Black participants.
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National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP) in Richmond Film Reel, 1972 February 15
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains police surveillance footage of an American Nazi Party bus in Richmond, brought to the city by Matt Koehl to protest school desegregation busing. There are multiple clips of the bus in Richmond, as well as individuals in Nazi uniforms boarding the bus.
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Motorcade Against School Consolidation from Richmond to Washington, D.C. Film Reel #01, 1972 February 17
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains a footage of cars in the February 17, 1972 motorcade from Richmond to Washington D.C. opposing the consolidation of schools for integration. The cars are primarily filmed leaving the State Fairgrounds on Laburnum Avenue. Car license plates are filmed, as well as a uniformed officer and other individuals directing traffic and speaking with one another outside of cars.
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Motorcade Against School Consolidation from Richmond to Washington, D.C. Film Reel #02, 1972 February 17
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains a footage of cars in the February 17, 1972 motorcade from Richmond to Washington, D.C. opposing the consolidation of schools for integration. The beginning of the reel films the motorcade on the highway to Washington D.C. The rest of the reel films cars in the motorcade turning left at the intersection of Independence Ave SW and 14th Street SW in Washington, D.C.
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Richmond Prisoners Solidarity Committee Picket at Virginia State Penitentiary, 1973 January 31
Richmond (Va.). Police Department
This reel contains footage of a picket organized by the Richmond Prisoners Solidarity Committee (PSC) at the Virginia State Penitentiary, likely on January 31, 1973. Picketers carry signs calling for support of incarcerated individuals, the firing of W.K. Cunningham, and the abolition of "C-Cell". This appears to be a group of majority white participants.