Scope and Content Note
The NVLP collection at the Library of Congress consists of 996 master video recordings of 301 interviews, 288 transcripts, 3351 digital photographs and 863 print photographs. In addition, the collection includes a small amount of promotional materials, items from the 2003 and 2007 Summit on the State of Black America event, and a medal. Of the interviews that have been transcribed, 15 have bound copies.
These interviews vary widely in length and subject. Most transcripts contain biographical information for the interviewees. All the interviewees are considered elders who have lived the majority of their lives in the 20th century. Persons interviewed include educators, scientists, authors, community activists, doctors, entertainers, artists and politicians. They represent many different geographical areas, educational levels and economic statuses. Many of the interviewees are well-known, including Shirley Chisholm, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Odetta, Gordon Parks, and Faith Ringgold. Others, such as Willie T. Barrow, Pecolia Boyles, Jayme Coleman, and McDonald Williams, were not nationally known, but were influential within their own community or region. Approximately 40 interviewees were civil rights organizers or activists in the 1950s and 1960s, many of which made major contributions to the movement but are not well known figures.
The master recordings were done in a multiple of formats, primarily BetaCamSP, but also include MiniDV60 and DV Cam 64. Some of the interviews also have an accompanying edited version, primarily stored on DVCam 184 or DV 186 formats. Five of the interviews have been edited for presentation copies, which are on VHS. These interviewees are: Edward Brooke, Cardiss Collins, David Dinkins, John Hope Franklin, and Dorothy Height (two copies). These five visionaries were honored at the Summit on the State of Black America, an NVLP sponsored event at the Library of Congress in 2003. A VHS recording of the event is included with the preservation copies of these interviewees. Promotional DVDs with clips of 24 interviews are also included as well as the printed and bound transcripts, some of which have CD inserts, of interviews conducted with Edward Brooke, Roscoe Lee Browne, Ray Charles, Cardiss Collins, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, David Dinkins, Katherine Dunham, Samuel L. Gravely, John Hope Franklin, Dorothy Height, John H. Johnson, Coretta Scott King, Constance Baker Motley and Gordon Parks.