Selma, Alabama Crisis

Contents of the second sub-series, Civil Rights, include brochures, correspondence, magazine articles, and newspaper articles which Marmion either collected or produced on the civil rights movement, mainly from the 1950's and 1960's. Included in this series are documents relating to the controversy over the biracial conferences at Hemlock Haven, a retreat near Marion, Virginia purchased by the diocese in 1957. While Marmion maintained the view that the youth conferences should be open to members of both races, many lay members of the diocese opposed mixed race conferences for young people, and only after five years of debate did the facility open to camps attended jointly by whites and African-Americans. The Bishop's yearly files on race relations from 1954-1965 also offer firsthand insight on the civil rights movement in the United States