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Biography:
Charles Henry Ramberg was born on December 4, 1943. He was the son of Vernon Ramberg, a career army officer, and Norma Ramberg. Charles Ramberg served in the United States Army as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division. He later attended and graduated from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. After spending a summer in Mississippi doing legal service work with the Law Student Civil Rights Research Council (LSCRRC), Ramberg decided to interrupt his final year of law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1969, to become an intern for the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi. He was later assigned to work with Fayette, Jefferson County, Mississippi, city attorney, Martha M. Wood. He ultimately became the administrative assistant to Fayette’s first African American mayor, Charles Evers, brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
During his one year internship in Fayette, Ramberg worked on economic development, writing grants, and assisting with volunteers. He was also actively involved in Evers’s unsuccessful campaign as an independent candidate for governor of Mississippi in 1971. As an amateur photographer, Ramberg kept an extensive collection of photographs he took while in Mississippi. His photographs captured Mississippi as it moved from the decade of the 1960s and going into the 1970s. The photographs portray Charles Evers and his staff in Fayette; political rallies and conventions; Mississippi people; the Mississippi State Fair of 1969; protest demonstrations; the aftermath of the 1970 Jackson State College riot; and the Democratic National Convention of 1972 in Miami, Florida.
In 1970, Ramberg returned to Washington, D.C., to complete his law degree at Georgetown University before settling permanently in Jackson, Mississippi. He established a private practice in Jackson for eight years. He was the managing attorney for the Brandon office of Community Legal Services and director of litigation for the Central Mississippi Legal Services. He was involved with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), serving as past president of the Jackson chapter and later as a legal counsel. He was also actively involved with Common Cause of Mississippi, LeFleur’s Bluff Bicycle Club, and the Alternative Elementary School PTA. On May 14, 1988, Ramberg died of cancer at the age of forty-four at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, leaving behind his wife, Mary, and their children, Frances, Erica, and Michael.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Charles H. Ramberg contain subject files, photographs, negatives, contact prints, slides, audio-visual material, and printed material. The subject files contain newspaper clippings, memoranda, notes, reports, and printed material. These files cover the period from 1969 to 1971, when Ramberg was working for Fayette, Mayor Charles Evers. Covered in detail are Evers's first administration as mayor and his unsuccessful campaign for governor of Mississippi in 1971. Included in this series are the reports of Evers's poll-watchers that document instances of harassment and unequal treatment of black voters at precinct polls during the election. Another group of files covers harassment of black voters at polls during a local election in Lake Providence, Louisiana. Also included are a few personal letters from young student volunteers who worked for Evers, carbon copies of Ramberg's letters to family and friends, and files on the Democratic National Convention of 1972.
The majority of photographs in the collection were taken by Charles H. Ramberg. Included are black-and-white prints, color prints, negatives and contact prints, and color slides. Subjects include Charles Evers and his staff; Fayette; political rallies and conventions; Mississippi people, street scenes, and general views; the Mississippi State Fair of 1969; substandard housing; and the aftermath of the post-election riot in Lake Providence, Louisiana.
The collection also contains Charles H. Ramberg's audio-tapes of political meetings and rallies; election night at the Evers campaign headquarters; a radio call-in show in which Ramberg participated; and a series of audio-tapes on which Ramberg recorded events of the day and his thoughts about and impressions of the people he encountered. There is also an audio-tape of events at the Lake Providence, polls during the voting there and a commercially produced filmstrip on Fayette, during the time of Evers's first administration as mayor.
Series Identification:
Subseries 1: Prints. 1968–1972. 1 cubic ft. Boxes 7–9.
Subseries 2: Negatives and Contact Prints. ca. 1969–1971. 0.66 cubic ft.
Boxes 10–11.
Subseries 3: Slides. 1967–1973. 1 cubic ft. Boxes 12–14.