It is estimated that approximately 80% of archival footage from the American Civil Rights Movement is held by local US television news stations (Frick, 2023). Unfortunately, this footage is unaccounted for and/or has not been properly preserved. This poster highlights the contributions and impact of Dr. Grace McFadden’s oral history project, The Quest for Civil Rights: Oral Recollections of Black South Carolinians, which aired on South Carolina’s WIS-TV. In this project, Dr. McFadden interviewed African-American activists and professionals who were influential in the fight for American civil rights, especially in South Carolina. This footage centers African-American voices in South Carolinian history and makes space for African-American women to tell their stories, which were often overlooked when documenting the Civil Rights Movement. The Quest for Civil Rights footage has been preserved by the University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collection (MIRC) and Dr. McFadden’s interviews can be viewed on their website.
