- Creator
- Fletcher, Robert, 1938-
- Call number
- Sc MG 402
- Physical description
- 0.21 linear feet (1 box)
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- [Item], Robert Fletcher civil rights collection, Sc MG 402, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- Sponsor
- Schomburg NEH Automated Access to Special Collections Project
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.
This collection consists of assorted printed material gathered by photographer Robert E. "Bob" Fletcher concerning the civil rights movement between 1962-1967. Included is printed material for the March on Washington, 1963; Free Southern Theatre, 1967; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1963-1964; Freedom Summer WATS Line Messages, 1964; and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964. Also included are three issues of Broadside Topical Song Magazine; and other miscellaneous newspaper clippings.
Biographical/historical information
Robert E. "Bob" Fletcher was a photographer, filmmaker, writer, and educator. Born in 1938 in Detroit, Michigan, Fletcher majored in History and English at Fisk University and Wayne State University. In 1963, Fletcher became active in the civil rights movement, taking photographs for and administering the National Student Association's Detroit Tutorial Program. After moving to New York City, he worked at the Harlem Education Project and set up a photographic workshop.
In the summer of 1964, Fletcher became a Freedom School teacher in Mississippi and joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) staff as a photographer; he documented the Civil Rights Movement throughout the South, between 1964 and 1968. After returning to New York in 1969, Fletcher set up a photography workshop at the Henry Street Settlement, and taught photography at Antioch College and Brooklyn College Film Studio.
Fletcher has also contributed photographic work to the films The Wiz and Freddi Prinz Story; he co-directed A Luta Continua (The Struggle Continues), 1971, and was the cinematographer for O Povo Organizado (The People Organized), 1975. Fletcher's work has appeared in such publications as Jet, Ebony, Ms., Redbook, and Life. His exhibitions include Us (1965), Now (1968), and a traveling exhibition of his Cuban trip sponsored by the Van Der Zee Institute (1968). Fletcher worked as a cinematographer for the PBS television programs Black Journal and Enterface. In 1980, his work appeared in the Smithsonian Institute's and Howard University's photographic exhibition, We'll Never Turn Back, a component of Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: A National Working Conference on Civil Rights Movement Culture.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift of Robert E. Fletcher, September 1990.
Revision History
Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2022 January 4)
Processing information
Accessioned by Berlena H. Robinson, September 1995.
Related Material
Also found in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture:
(Catherine Clarke) Civil rights collection, Sc MG 95
(Roberta Yancy) Civil rights collection, Sc MG 388
Key terms
Names
- Fletcher, Robert, 1938-
- Free Southern Theater
- March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963 : Washington, D.C.)
- Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
- Mississippi Freedom Project
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Subjects
- African American civil rights workers
- African American motion picture producers and directors
- African American photographers
- African Americans -- Civil rights
- Authors, Black
- Civil rights movements
Occupations
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor