The Duke Vigil was a silent demonstration at Duke University, April 5-11, 1968, following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The collection features announcements, flyers, publications, handouts, correspondence, reports, ephemera, press releases, clippings, a diary, sound recordings and WDBS broadcasts, and photographs. Individuals prominent within the collection include John Blackburn, Kenneth Clark, John Strange, David Henderson, Duke President Douglas Knight, Samuel DuBois Cook, and Wright Tisdale. Major subjects include student demonstrations, race relations, Duke University employee wages and labor union, and the anniversary and reunion of the Vigil in 1988. Materials range in date from 1968 to 1988. English.
The collection features a variety of materials documenting the Vigil at Duke University from April 5-11, 1968. These materials originate from numerous sources and were compiled by University Archives staff for teaching and research. The first series, Subject files, contains primary documents, including announcements, flyers, publications, handouts, correspondence, reports, and ephemera; media coverage including press releases and clippings; personal papers and a diary about the Vigil from John Blackburn, Kenneth Clark, John Strange, and David Henderson; and analyses and materials relating to the anniversary and reunion of the Vigil in 1988.
The Sound recordings series features five audiotapes made by a Duke student during the Vigil. Additional sound recordings can be found in the Related collections series. These collections include the WDBS broadcast recordings and the University Archives Photograph Collection, and they provide further audio and visual documentation of the Vigil. The WDBS records feature eleven audiotapes of radio broadcasts on events during the Vigil. The Photograph Collection includes over twenty black and white photographs of the Vigil, one color photograph, and numerous negatives, contact prints, and slides.