David Batzka Civil Rights Collection
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of informational pamphlets and brochures, correspondence, speeches, and slides from Clarksdale during the Freedom Summer of 1964. There is also a CD containing an oral history taken in 2001 of David Batzka’s account of his experiences during the Civil Rights Movement. Other materials include journal and magazine articles concerning a 1994 reunion of Freedom Summer workers.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1963-1965
- Creation: 1984, 1989, 1993-1995
Creator
- Batzka, David Lee, 1941-2002 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Noncirculating; available for research.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code).
Biographical / Historical
David Lee Batzka was born May 28, 1941 and studied Religion and Philosophy at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois. During the Freedom Summer of 1964, a movement sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Batzka as the directory of a community center in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Also working in the center were Zoya Zeman, Margaret Hazelton, and Mark Fast. Françoise N. Hamlin offers a detailed description of the Clarksdale community center in the chapter “Fires of Frustration: Summers of 1963 to 1965” of Crossroads at Clarksdale: The Black Freedom Struggle in the Mississippi Delta After World War II (2012).
Batzka later married his wife, Vickie, and lived in Jacksonville, Florida from 1974 until his death on November 24, 2002. He worked as a gerontologist and was an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), serving the elderly at the Florida Christian Center and Taylor Residences of Jacksonville.
Extent
.50 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The David Batzka Civil Rights Collection contains papers from before, during, and after Batzka’s time in Clarksdale, Mississippi, during the Freedom Summer of 1964. This collection would be of interest to researchers studying the Civil Rights Movement, Mississippi history, and Freedom Summer.
Arrangement
This small collection consists of thirty-four folders.
Provenance
Given by Vickie Batzka, April 13, 2011.
Sources
David Batzka Civil Rights Collection, M565, Historical Manuscripts, Special Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.
“David Lee Batzka,” Obituary. Florida Times-Union, November 26, 2002.
Hamlin, Françoise N. Crossroads at Clarksdale: The Black Freedom Struggle in the Mississippi Delta after World War II. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
Margaret Jo Hazelton Freedom Summer Collection, M359, Historical Manuscripts, Special
Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.
Photograph Log
M565-002 Coahoma County Courthouse, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-003 Government Building in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-004 Government Building in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-005 Government Building in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-006 Group of Freedom Summer Workers Sitting, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-007 Three Freedom Summer Workers Playing Banjo and Singing, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-008 Freedom Summer Worker at Podium Giving Presentation, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-009 African American Freedom Summer Worker, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-010 Group of People, Clarksdale, Mississippi, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-011 Street in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-012 Government Building in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
M565-013 Group of Freedom Summer Workers, Slide 2 x 2 Color 1964
Subject
- Batzka, David Lee, 1941-2002 (Person)
- Title
- David Batzka Civil Rights Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Collection processed and finding aid written by Jonathan Puckett
- Date
- November 15, 2019
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Historical Manuscripts and Photographs Repository
118 College Drive - 5148
Hattiesburg MS 39406-0001
601.266.4345
