Bloody Monday

The life of C.B. Claiborne is explored in a mini-documentary, with a feature-length project coming next.

Because the Danville movement was so fresh and the violence toward protesters so extreme, protesters from the city were in the front of the pack in the Rev. Martin Luther King’s march, 61 years ago Wednesday.

Winslow Hospital treated Danville’s Black community for decades, making the difference between life and death during the city’s civil rights movement.

The Library of Virginia has finished a digitization project that makes these pieces of history easily available to the public. Some of the documents will also be on display next week at a screening of “The Movement” documentary in Richmond.

Judge Archibald Aiken presided over the trials of civil rights protesters arrested in 1963 for demonstrating against segregation. Historians say his discriminatory courtroom practices were extreme even compared to other judges of the era. But he had plenty of fans.

Danville’s 1963 civil rights movement led to almost a decade of court cases, most of which were kept closed to the public by a segregationist judge. The Danville courthouse and the Library of Virginia in Richmond both have records and audio recordings.

Jonathan Parker, a white producer, had to build trust within Danville’s Black community for a project that would showcase their firsthand accounts of the summer of 1963. He also had to race against the clock, working to preserve these stories while people are still around to tell them.

This weekend marks the 60th anniversary of Bloody Monday, when civil rights protesters in Danville were violently confronted by police. In this story and three others, read about Danville’s civil rights movement, the people who lived through it, and how the city is growing today.

Many of the people who participated in Danville’s civil rights struggle 60 years ago are still alive today. These are five profiles of the people helping Danville remember its history.