VCU Libraries event to highlight Richmond police surveillance films from civil rights era

VCU Libraries will hold a virtual community event in October focused on its recently launched Richmond Police Department Surveillance Collection, which provides the public with online access to 112 police surveillance films gathered by Richmond police officers during the civil rights era.

The event, “Inside the Richmond Police Department Surveillance Collection,” will be held Thursday, Oct. 2, at 12:30 p.m. via Zoom. To attend, register through this form.

The digital collection offers a rare window into Richmond’s civil rights era and the individuals who helped shape it in the early 1960s and 1970s. This significant historical collection of police surveillance footage includes local meetings of the Black Panther Party, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, marches and memorial activities following MLK’s assassination, anti-Vietnam War protests, American Nazi Party rallies, Ku Klux Klan parades, and marches against school desegregation busing. For more on the collection, visit this information page.

Panelists at the Oct. 2 event will discuss the collection’s significance for research, connections to related archives at The Valentine, and the work of preserving and providing access to these rare materials. On the panel:

• Brian Daugherity, Ph.D., professor of history at VCU, will discuss the historical significance of the films and their value to civil rights research.
• Meg Hughes, deputy director of collections at The Valentine, will highlight its related film and photograph collections from the estate of Richmond Police Department officer Rick Duling.
• Irina Rogova, digital initiatives librarian at VCU Libraries, will share insights on describing and providing access to these important archival materials.

The collection includes 156 films and 13 audio reels. Of these, 112 films are currently available online via Scholars Compass. Additional films are available by request in Special Collections and Archives. Audio recordings, discovered during the digitization process, will be added to the collection in the fall. A finding aid for the collection, which includes information on films not posted online, is also available.