Restrictions to Access

Portions of this collection may not be available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. to discuss options for consulting this collection.

This collection contains additional materials that are not processed and are currently not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Photographic negatives are available with special staff assistance.

Restrictions to Use

For copyright and use restrictions contact the Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Roland L. Freeman Photograph Collection #70147, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the Kohler Foundation, Inc., in December 2022 (Acc. 20221212.1).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Since August 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 the 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.

Processed by: Patrick Cullom and Jodi Berkowitz, 2023

Encoded by: Patrick Cullom and Jodi Berkowitz, April 2023

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.

• African American art--Southern States--Photographs.
• African American folk art--Southern States--Photographs.
• African American quiltmakers--Photographs.
• African Americans--Social life and customs.
• African Americans--Southern States--Photographs.
• Freeman, Roland L., 1936-
• Photojournalism.
• Photojournalists.

• Burk Uzzle Photograph Collection (#70116)

Roland Freeman was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1936 and has spent a majority of his career based in Washington, D.C. Freeman's photographic career began when he borrowed a friend's camera to capture the events surrounding the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1968, he documented the civil unrest in Washington, D.C. following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A month later, Freeman was photographing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Poor People's Campaign "Mule Train" March on Washington. Freeman documented the entire Mule Train caravan on its month-long journey from Marks, Mississippi to Washington D.C. Since then, Freeman has spent over four decades documenting ethnic communities, folk traditions, and rituals throughout the South. Freeman's photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world and his many books of photography include: "A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories" (1996), "The Arabbers of Baltimore" (1989), and "The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered" (1998).

Collection contains images made by Black photographer, author, and documentarian Roland L. Freeman (b. 1936) during his career from the early 1960s to the early 2000s. Freeman has been based in Washington, D.C. for most of that time and contents of the collection consist chiefly of assignment and project documentary work. Freeman started his career documenting the Civil Rights movement and related events in Washington, D.C., including photographing the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He then spent over four decades documenting Black communities, folk traditions, and rituals throughout the South. Collection contains photographic prints, film, correspondence, documentation, and some audiovisual materials related to his work. In addition to Freeman's working files, orginal negatives, and transparencies, the collection also includes selections of exhibit prints, curated by Freeman, as well as digital files describing and cataloging his materials.