On behalf of my archivist colleagues, I am delighted to post the
following very interesting and important annoucement:

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the availability of the
sound recordings from 130 Dictabelts found in the 1963 Danville Civil
Rights Cases files.  A grant procured from the Virginia Circuit Court
Records Preservation Program funded the reformatting and transfer of the
Dictabelt sound files to digital tracks on forty compact discs.
These files contain a full audio recording of the Danville Civil Rights
Demonstrations Corporation Court Cases heard from 13 December to 23
December 1966 and 7 February to 21 February 1967.  These files include
witnesses' testimony, defense attorney's motions and arguments,
Commonwealth and Danville City attorney's arguments, rulings and
sentences of Judge Archibald M. Aiken, witness and recorder oaths, and
the calling of the court docket.  Also contained on the compact discs
are the recordings of the 9 February 1973 Corporation Court hearing
concerning a defense motion to suspend the sentences for those
defendants whose sentences had been upheld on appeal by the Supreme
Court of Appeals.
To access the finding aid, visit the Library of Virginia's homepage at
http://www.lva.lib.va.us/, click on "What We Have," then click on
"Archives and Manuscripts Catalog," do a keyword search for "Danville
Civil Rights," then select the first "hit" for 1963 civil rights case
files, you will be taken to the catalog record for the collection.  If
you then select the URL near the top of the record, you will be taken to
a container listing and more complete description of the collection.
The compact discs can be accessed in the Archives and Manuscripts
Reading Room at The Library of Virginia.  For more information please
contact Archives Reference staff at (804) 692-3888 or by electronic mail
at [log in to unmask]



Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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Visit the Library of Virginia's web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us

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