An exciting phone call

Married life is life in an alternate universe. One thing that changes is there are fewer phone calls that make you jump and twitter, especially from men who aren't your husband. Then again, there are other things beside L-U-V that are fun and exciting. For researchers, finding that elusive piece of information can make you smile for days. That was the kind of jump-and-twitter phone call I got from a not-husband today.

For the last year I've been working with the Digital Library of Georgia on a project to document the Civil Rights movement. We're digitizing newsfilm from the era--the raw news footage cameramen shot and took back to the station. Unfortunately, the newsfilm doesn't identify who is in the clip or where it was shot or why it is important. Over the past year I've spent plenty of time searching for some of these elusive answers. And today I had a breakthrough.

I few months ago I had contacted a civil rights worker who appears (and I can identify!) in some of the clips. He was very helpful, and when I had another clip he appeared in that I couldn't identify, I sent him some the information and asked for his help again. So that is what led to the phone call today that made me jump and twitter. This nice gentleman told me all about the clip, how he had gotten to that point and what happened afterward. He identified several of the other men in the clip and gave me enough information that I could find stories in the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal from the time period. Finding research answers can be so invigorating.

The other neat part of talking to my civil-rights-veteran-friend is the greater connection I feel to the research I'm doing. We've spoken twice, and each time the gentleman has ended by telling the same story. He says that during the civil rights movement, when he and other demonstrators were getting ready by putting on their "Sunday-go-to-meeting best," knowing that there was a very real possibility that any of them might not return, they would promise each other that they would tell the story. This kind gentleman says that our work for the Civil Rights Digital Library is part of telling the story.