The George Raymond Papers were donated to the Widener University Archives by the George Raymond Family. George Raymond was President of the Chester Branch of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) for nearly 25 years, from the 1940s to the 1960s.
This box includes a scrapbook that was created by Patricia Taylor for the Chester Branch of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Its clippings chronicle the Chester Civil Rights movement during the period from 1963 to 1964, while George Raymond was president of the NAACP.
The entire scrapbook has been digitized and can be found in the George Raymond Collection of the Wolfgram Memorial Library Digital Collections at http://digitalwolfgram.widener.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fp270801coll18
Background information: During this highly volatile period, Chester, in the midst of a riveting Civil Rights struggle, drew the attention of the entire nation. The many demonstrations for desegregation, particularly school desegregation, began peacefully. Later, however, as city and state police tried to contain the demonstrations, they turned violent. The violence led to new protests against police brutality. In addition to George Raymond, another important Civil Rights leader of this period was Stanley Branche. Branche formed the Chester Committee for Freedom Now, an organization that spearheaded many demonstrations. In the Spring of 1964, national civil rights leaders, including Gloria Richardson, Philip Savage, Malcolm X and Dick Gregory, came to the area in support of the demonstrators. That summer, Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton formed the Greater Chester Movement in an effort to resolve the underlying issues that had led to the protests. This scrapbook thoroughly documents, through a comprehensive collection of clippings from a variety of newspaper sources, this intense period in Chester’s history.
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