Millicent E. Brown collection of the Somebody Had To Do It Project
Scope and Contents
Series 1: Administrative Documents, (Circa 1963-2015, and undated) Contains correspondence, with photocopied emails, handwritten notes, interview transcripts, grant proposals, financial reports, and conference/symposia presentations pertaining to the establishment of the Somebody Had To Do It (SHTDI) Project. Contains the sub-series: "Somebody Had To Do It" Project Files; Grants and Proposals; Financial Records; Correspondence; and "Somebody Had To Do It" Conferences and Events."
Series 2: "First Children" Interviews, (1963-2013, and undated)
Contains documents, some with interview transcripts, DVD and audio tape recordings. Several oral history interviews are available online through the College of Charleston's "Lowcountry Digital History Intitative," (LDHI), and indicated as such.
Series 3: Claflin University: Jonathan Jasper Wright Institute for the Study of Southern African American History, Culture and Policy, (2008-2013, and undated) Dr. Brown joined Claflin University as a Associate Professor in 2008. As a Senior Research Fellowship with the J.J. Wright Institute, she established the "Somebody Had To Do It" Project. Dr. Brown tailored her courses with the focus on the SHTDI project, utlizing several students as project interns. Contains correspondence, project description for trainees, course syllabi, published essays, tasks and agenda lists, oral history newsletters, event programs, and college catalogs. Contains the sub-series: Claflin University; Interns and Volunteers Training Documents; and HIST 405-1: "Seminar in African American History."
Series 4: Research Documents, (1955-2016, and undated) Contains journal essays, reports, photocopied newspaper and magazine articles used in writing the narrative for "SHTDI," in grant proposals, reports, conferences, teaching, and general research. Topics include "Brown v. Board of Education," Desegregation Pioneers, School Desegregation, Civil Rights, Childhood Trauma, Domestic Abuse/Violence and Public School Education. Holds the sub-series: Reports and Essays, and Newspaper Articles. The Various Documents sub-series contains programs, pamphlets, and flyers from other initatives and events, in addition to materials pertaining to the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture.
Series 5: Audio Visual Materials, (2003-2010, and undated) Holds CD-Rs, DVD+Ds, and commerical DVDs related to the creation and operations of the "SHTDI" initatives. Several DVD's contains interviews.
Dates
- 2003-2013, and undated
- Majority of material found within 2006 - 2013
Creator
- Brown, Millicent E. (Person)
Conditions Governing Use
The nature of the Avery Research Center's archival holdings means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Avery Research Center claims only physical ownership of most archival materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
Conditions Governing Use
The "Somebody Had To Do It" collection is open and available for use.
Biographical / Historical
n 1948, Millicent Ellison Brown was born in Charleston, South Carolina to MaeDe and J. Arthur Brown. Her father was the local and state president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1963, Millicent replaced her older sister Minerva as the primary plaintiff in a NAACP-sponsored lawsuit Millicent Brown versus Charleston County School District #20. Filed to desegregate the Charleston public school system, the lawsuit resulted in Brown becoming one of two African Americans students to integrate Rivers High School in 1963.
Graduating from Rivers High School in 1966, Brown the attended the College of Charleston and received her B.A. in History, 1975. She received her M.Ed. in Education from The Citadel in 1978.
From 1989 to 1991, Brown served as the Director of Exhibits and Museum Education at the Avery Research Center.
Brown earned a Ph.D. in History from Florida State University in 1997, writing her dissertation on history of civil rights activism in Charleston from 1940 to 1970.
Brown has taught at several universities in North Carolina and South Carolina, including Bennett College (1995-1999), Guilford College (1999-2002), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (2001-2002), The Governor's School at the College of Charleston (2002), and Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC (2008-2013).
Extent
6.0 linear feet (15 archival boxes; 1 DVD box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Somebody Had to Do It (SHTDI) Project brought to Claflin University in 2008, under the auspices of the Jonathan Jasper Wright Institute for the Study of Southern African-American History, Culture and Policy. This initative was designed as a multi-disciplinary research project to identify the “first children” who “sacrificed their youth” in implementing the Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954. After the creation of a database identifying the names, videotaped interviews were conducted to document the multiple insights and experiences needed for future scholarship about how the United States actually ended legal segregation. The project was initially funded fom the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and American Friends Service Committee.
The collection contains correspondence, reports, grant proposals, "first children" interview transcripts, conference/symposium documents, financial documents, handrwritten notes, research documents, audio visual recordings and pertaining to this Project.
Arrangement
The Somebody Had To Do It collection has five series:
Series 1: Administrative Documents (Circa 1963-2015, and undated)
Series 2: "First Children" Interviews (1963-2013, and undated)
Series 3: Claflin University: Jonathan Jasper Wright Institute for the Study of Southern African American History, Culture and Policy (2008-2013, and undated)
Series 4: Research Documents (1955-2016, and undated)
Series 5: Audio Visual Materials (2003-2010, and undated)
Other Finding Aids
Millicent E. Brown Papers, 1949 - 2003 [AMN 1003]
J. Arthur Brown Papers, circa 1948-1959 [AMN 1074]
Processing Information
Processed and finding aid written by Georgette Mayo, July 2019; oral history transcripts, DVD and audio tape recordings were incorporated in 2020-2021.
- African American Education and Research Organization
- Charleston (S.C.) -- Race relations
- Charleston County School District
- Civil rights
- Claflin University
- Conferences
- Curry, Constance, 1933-
- Education
- Electronic mail messages
- Programs (Publications)
- Reports and studies
- School integration
- Somebody Had To Do It (Project)
- United States. Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission
- correspondence
- essays
- financial records
- grant proposals
- Title
- Millicent E. Brown collection of the Somebody Had To Do It Project
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- Georgette Mayo
- Date
- July 2018, revised in 2020
- Description rules
- Dacs
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Repository
125 Bull Street
Charleston South Carolina 29424 United States
843-953-7608
averyresearchcenter@cofc.edu