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Brent Campney research on racist violence against African Americans

 Collection
Call Number: RH MS 1492

Overview

The Brent Campney collection focuses on Dr. Campney's work in researching racist violence, especially towards African Americans in the Great Plains region of the United States. The collection contains newspaper clippings from the mid-1800s through the 20th century, with topics including the Exodusters, racist violence during the Reconstruction period, and violence in both general (Kansas) and specific (Salina, Atchison County, etc.) places. A large subset of materials relates to the 1949 lynching of Caleb Hill, Jr. in Irwinton, Georgia. Dates used throughout the collection reflect when the news articles were originally published, not when they were later copied.

Dates

  • Creation: 1863-2001 (bulk 1863-1920s)

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

No access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.

Biography of Brent Campney

Brent Campney is a professor of history at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is the author of This Is Not Dixie: Racist Violence in Kansas, 1861-1927 (2015) and Hostile Heartland: Racism, Repression, and Resistance in the Midwest (2019). Campney won the 2018 Alyce Hunley Whayne Visiting Researchers Travel Award, hosted by the University of Kansas Libraries, to conduct research on a followup project regarding African American struggles for freedom in the Midwest between World War II and the 1970s. Most of Dr. Campney's current work focuses on racist violence and is reflected by the contents of this collection.

Dr. Campney received his Bachelors in American Culture from the University of Michigan in 1998 , his Masters in American Studies from the University of Kansas in 2001, and his PhD from Emory University in 2007.

Extent

3 Linear Feet (3 boxes + 1 oversize box)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

Some clippings were grouped by newspaper title, some by topic, by the donor, Brent Campney. These groupings have been left intact, and the folders have been organized alphbetically based either on title or topic. Material related to the lynching of Caleb Hill, Jr. in Irwinton, Georgia in 1949 has been divided into separate folders in order to maintain alphabetical arrangement; these folders have been noted in the finding aid for those researchers specifically interested in this case.

Oversize photocopies of clippings have been physically separated to RH MS Q458, where this same alphabetical arrangement has been replicated by newspaper title.

Physical Location

RH MS 1492

Physical Location

RH MS Q458

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gifts, Brent Campney, 2018, 2019, 2021.

Source

Title
Guide to the Brent Campney Collection
Subtitle
Brent Campney research on racist violence against African Americans
Author
Finding aid prepared by adc. Finding aid encoded by adc. Finding aid revised by mwh, 2019.
Date
2019-06-14
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Finding aid written in English.
Sponsor
Support for the processing of this Collection was provided by the Dana and Sue Anderson African American Collecting Program Endowment Fund.
Finding aid permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/10407/4709897650
Preferred citation
Brent Campney research on racist violence against African Americans, RH MS 1492, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Repository Details

Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository

Contact:
1450 Poplar Lane
Lawrence KS 66045-7616 United States
785-864-4334