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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | About 4500 items (6.0 linear feet) |
| Abstract | Papers of white folklorist, folk musician, and civil rights activist Anne Romaine (1942-1995) document her music career, teaching career, family and personal life, and social justice activism especially through the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, an organization Romaine cofounded in 1966 with African American folklorist, singer, and civil rights activist Bernice Johnson Reagon. Romaine, who was married to civil rights activist Howard Romaine, also worked with Guy Carawan, Esther Lefever, and Hazel Dickens. Materials, 1935-1995, include correspondence, book manuscripts, songs, publicity materials, photographs, and recordings of Anne Romaine's performances. Among the topics covered are civil rights work in the 1960s, labor organization, cotton mills and textile workers, Bernice Johnson Reagon and the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, country music, labor songs, and folk music as a means of social protest. Also included are materials relating to her husband Howard Romaine; to her teaching career; and to her interest in astrology, particularly psychic readings. Personal and business correspondence, 1962-1995, includes many copies of outgoing letters. There are also manuscripts of two books, one about the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the other a biography of Alex Haley; song-lyrics and audio and video recordings of Romaine's performances and workshops; and publicity photographs and posters relating to Romaine and to musicians and other performers who worked with the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project. Also included are photographs of Romaine's family and slides reflective of various social injustices that Romaine used as backdrops in her performances. |
| Creator | Romaine, Anne. |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Related Collections
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Biographical Information
Anne Romaine was a folksinger, songwriter, activist, and history professor. Born Dorothy Anne Cooke on 1 November 1942 in Atlanta, Ga., she grew up in rural North Carolina. Her grandparents worked in the Gastonia Cotton Mills, and Anne developed a lifelong interest in the lives of cotton mill workers. She attended Queen's College in Charlotte, N.C., and traveled as a missionary to Mexico. This missionary work opened her eyes to the social injustices that she would spend her life fighting.
When she returned to the United States, Romaine enrolled in a graduate program in history at the University of Virginia, where she met and, in 1965, married Howard Romaine, who had participated in the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party's attempt to register African American voters in rural Mississippi. For her master's thesis, Anne Romaine conducted interviews with many of those involved in this project.
The couple later moved to Atlanta where they started the alternative newspaper, The Great Speckled Bird. Anne and Howard Romaine had a daughter named Rita Marie. They divorced in the mid-1970s.
Anne Romaine continued her historical work, taking courses at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and teaching at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She wrote a book on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, based on her interviews with party leaders, but never published it. She served as curator of the Alex Haley House in Henning, Tenn., and began work on a Haley biography, which remained unfinished at the time of her death.
With Bernice Johnson Reagon, Romaine founded the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, a group of artists of different races who performed traditional southern music. The group traveled around the South performing most frequently at colleges and festivals, such as Georgia Sea Island Days and Tennessee Grassroots Days. Bernice Johnson Reagon eventually left the group, and Romaine took over as director, a post she held for many years.
Romaine recorded three albums: Gettin' On Country, Take a Stand, and A Grassroots Christmas . She performed for various audiences, including organized labor groups and educational groups.
Romaine died on 26 October 1995 at age 52 of complications from a ruptured appendix.
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Scope and Content
Materials, 1935-1995, include correspondence, book manuscripts, songs, publicity materials, photographs, and recordings of Anne Romaine's performances. Among the topics covered are civil rights work in the 1960s, labor organization, cotton mills and textile workers, Bernice Johnson Reagon and the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, country music, labor songs, and folk music as a means of social protest. Also included are materials relating to her husband Howard Romaine, to her teaching career, and to her interest in astrology, particularly psychic readings. Personal and business correspondence, 1962-1995, includes many copies of outgoing letters. There are also manuscripts of two books, one about the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the other a biography of Alex Haley; song-lyrics and audio and video recordings of Romaine's performances and workshops; and publicity photographs and posters relating to Romaine and to musicians and other performers who worked with the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project. Also included are photographs of Romaine's family and slides reflective of various social injustices that Romaine used as backdrops in her performances.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence, 1962-1995.
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Subseries 1.1. Personal Correspondence, 1962-1995.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence between Anne Romaine and her family and friends. Topics include the Vietnam War, folk music, social activism, civil rights, and family business. Letters of note include those between Howard Romaine and his parents discussing the military draft in 1968, a letter to Anne Romaine from Alabama Governor George Wallace addressing a complaint Romaine made about the prison system in 1974, and a letter from songwriter John D. Loudermilk to Romaine's daughter Rita.
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Subseries 1.2. Business Correspondence, 1965-1983.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence with publishers about book manuscripts, with universities about history teaching positions, with organizers of various events relating to Romaine's work as a singer, and with artists and others about Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project performances.
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Series 2. Professional Materials, 1964-1994.
Arrangement: chronological.
Materials relating to Anne Romaine's professional life as historian, organizer of the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, and performer. Included are research notes, brochures, newspaper articles, and drafts of manuscripts.
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Subseries 2.1. Research Materials, 1964-1993.
Arrangement: alphabetical by subject.
Papers relating to Anne Romaine's research interests in subjects such including the civil rights movement, working conditions of cotton mill workers, labor organizing, and the life and career of Alex Haley.
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Subseries 2.1.1. Cotton Mills,1988-1991.
Publicity materials, articles, and Anne Romaine's notes on the labor situation in North Carolina cotton mills.
See also performing materials in Series 2.3, photographs in Series 4, videotapes in Series 5.1, reel-to-reel tapes in Series 5.2, and other format recordings in Series 5.3.
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Subseries 2.1.2. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964-1990s.
Arrangement: by type of document.
Anne Romaine's manuscript for her proposed book about the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). The book was to consist primarily of interviews with the important MFDP members and others who talked about the formation and activities of the Party and pivotal events in 1964.
The MFDP organized voter registration drives and sent workers into small Mississippi communities in spite of intense resistance. At the 1964 the Democratic Party convention, the MFDP challenged the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party for the right to represent the state, a battle the MFDP lost while focusing national attention on voter registration and civil rights.
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Subseries 2.1.3. Southern Organizing Committee, 1960s-1993.
Papers, including articles, newsletters, and reunion materials relating to the Southern Organizing Committee, formerly know as the Southern Student Organizing Committee, a group of white southern students who worked to convince people in poor and working-class communities to embrace the civil rights movement.
| Folder 76 |
Southern Organizing Committee #20304, Subseries: "2.1.3. Southern Organizing Committee, 1960s-1993." Folder 76 |
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Subseries 2.1.4. Alex Haley.
Anne Romaine's draft chapters of her biography of Alex Haley, author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots. Romaine's book was never published.
See also photographs in Series 4.
| Oversize Paper OP-20304/4 |
Poster: Alex Haley with the cast of the television adaptation of Roots #20304, Subseries: "2.1.4. Alex Haley." OP-20304/4 |
| Oversize Paper OP-20304/5 |
Poster: Alex Haley #20304, Subseries: "2.1.4. Alex Haley." OP-20304/5 |
| Folder 77 |
Alex Haley #20304, Subseries: "2.1.4. Alex Haley." Folder 77 |
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Subseries 2.1.5. Other Research Interests.
Material relating to music, civil rights, and the plight of the poor in Mexico.
See also photographs in Series 4.
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Subseries 2.2. Teaching Materials.
Tests, lecture notes, and other materials relating to Anne Romaine's career as a college professor. Also included are materials relating to classes in music and spirituality she taught with her friend Peter Calhoun.
Folder 80-81
Folder 80Folder 81 |
Teaching materials #20304, Subseries: "2.2. Teaching Materials." Folder 80-81 |
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Subseries 2.3. Performing Materials.
Arrangement: alphabetical by subject.
Original songs and song lyrics, lyrics for other artists' songs, and publicity materials relating to Anne Romaine's career as a folk singer. The songbooks are small loose-leaf binders with lyrics that Romaine used in performances.
See also photographs in Series 4, videotapes in Series 5.1, reel-to-reel tapes in Series 5.2, and other format recordings in Series 5.3.
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Subseries 2.4. Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, 1967-1994.
Arrangement: by subject.
Papers relating to Anne Romaine's work as the director of the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project (SFCRP), including board meeting notes, correspondence, financial documents, and publicity materials for SFCRP events.
See also photographs in Series 4, videotapes in Series 5.1, reel-to-reel tapes in Series 5.2, and other format recordings in Series 5.3.
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Series 3. Personal Materials, 1962-1995.
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Subseries 3.1 Date Books, 1984-1995.
Arrangement: chronological.
Daily calendars kept by Anne Romaine recording performances, travel, and other events.
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Subseries 3.2. Journals, 1977-1980.
Arrangement: chronological.
Personal journals of Anne Romaine. Journal entries mostly deal with her feelings about the status of her work and her romantic relationships, particularly difficulties relating to being a divorced woman pursuing a career.
| Folder 122 |
Journals #20304, Subseries: "3.2. Journals, 1977-1980." Folder 122 |
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Subseries 3.3. Astrology and Related Materials, 1980s-1990s.
Arrangement: chronological.
Personalized horoscopes and notes and tapes of psychic readings. Anne Romaine had a strong interest in astrology and visited psychics to consult about her future. The notes were taken during consultations with psychics, and the tapes are recordings of these consultations.
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Subseries 3.4. Family Materials, 1935-1995.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Materials relating to Anne Romaine's family members, including information about genealogy, a few pages of an unfinished children's book that her grandmother wrote and illustrated, a letter from her father to his mother when he was first sent off to World War II, newspaper clippings about her mother's golf prizes, and other family items.
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Subseries 3.5. Personal Career Profile.
A career analysis of Anne Romaine, including her ideas on the perfect job and what was important to her in terms of work, family, and other areas of her life.
| Folder 130 |
Personal career profile #20304, Subseries: "3.5. Personal Career Profile." Folder 130 |
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Subseries 3.6. Poems, 1962-1990.
Poems written by Anne Romaine mostly during her undergraduate days at Queens College in Charlotte, N.C.
| Folder 131 |
Poems #20304, Subseries: "3.6. Poems, 1962-1990." Folder 131 |
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Series 4. Photographs.
Arrangement: by subject.
Photographs of Anne Romaine, her family, friends, and Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project artists and events. There are also slides used by Anne Romaine as dramatic backdrops for her performances.
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Series 5. Videotapes and Sound Recordings, 1969-1994 and
undated.
Arrangement: by format.
Primarily recordings of Anne Romaine's performances.
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Subseries 5.1. Videotapes, 1987-1994 and undated.
Videotapes of Anne Romaine's lectures, performances, and workshops. Included are a commercial for a Tennessee bank using Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project performers, tapes of a Tennessee Grassroots Days show, and other tapes of Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project artists.
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Subseries 5.2: Open Reel Recordings and Related Material, 1970-1984 and
undated.
Arrangement: In order as received.
Acquisitions Information: FT-16604 through FT-16606 received as Addition of January 2014 (Acc. 101993).
Reel-to-reel tapes of Anne Romaine performing her songs, both in the studio and at various concert performances. Also includes tape logs found with select recordings (Folder 140).
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Subseries 5.3: Other Recordings, 1969-1993 and undated.
Cassette tapes, eight-track tapes, and albums by Anne Romaine from studio recordings, live performances, and workshops. Included are tapes of Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project concerts, business meetings, and an interview with one of the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project performers. Also included are recordings by Anne Romaine's friends and associates and her favorite songs from other artists.
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Items Separated
Items separated include oversized papers (OP-20304/1-75); photographs (SFC General Photograph Collection: P-3226-3351, P-3569-3599, PF-20304/1-15, IB-20304/1-2); videotapes (VT-20304/1-26); and sound recordings (FT-20304/8716-8807, FT-20304/16604-16606, FS-20304/4198-4285, 8T-20304/36-39, FC-20304/13181-13186).
Back to TopPreservation of and access to the MFDP interviews in the Anne Romaine Collection were made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Processed by: Jennifer Rawlings, July 1999
Encoded by: Jennifer Rawlings
Updated by: Anne Wells, January 2016; Patrick Cullom, October 2019.
Since 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
Until 2019, some of photographic materials in this collection were originally part of the "SFC General Photograph Collection." Materials in the SFC General Photographic Collections were individually numbered in a sequential manner that spanned collections. Materials that have a number with a "P-" indicate inclusion in this collection. These numbers have been retained so that previous uses of the images and additional description remain connected to the materials.
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