News Release

Jack Rabin civil rights collection on exhibit in Pattee Library

January 15, 2008

An exhibit entitled “Profiles in Civil Rights Activism” featuring the Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama civil rights and Southern activities that documents the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery is on display in University Park’s Pattee Library through March 3.

Dr. Rabin, who served on the Penn State Harrisburg faculty from 1988 until his death in November of 2006, collected the historic materials and donated them to the University Libraries in 2002. A portion of the previously unseen collection was first exhibited in Penn State Harrisburg’s library in March and April of 2005.

A scholar, editor, and author, Dr. Rabin began assembling most of the collection through while teaching public administration in Montgomery through contacts with students who were then working for the Alabama Department of Public Safety. He also actively pursued primary-sources materials from white activists and African American civil rights leaders, several of whom he photographed.

Dr. Rabin also toured the area, taking color slides of historically significant African American churches and of the Selma-to-Montgomery march route.  The resulting collection formed the core of his Center for the Study of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

When he took a faculty position in New Jersey in 1980, Dr. Rabin brought the collection north and later to Penn State in 1988, when he accepted a faculty position at Penn State Harrisburg.

A comprehensive finding aid for the collection is located at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/speccolls/FindingAids/rabin.frame.html.

The exhibit also features the Robert Joyce Collection, which includes documentary photographs on acts of civil disobedience and the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, that culminated with Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech.

Archival images and records from the Penn State University Archives, including Dr. King’s speech at Penn State in 1968, and selected books from the Rare Books and Manuscript’s African-American History book collection further add to a visual essay of the period. The exhibit area is open to the public during library operating hours, unless noted. Call 814-865-3063 for a listing of general hours.