The entire collection consists of over 5 million feet of newsfilm from WSB-TV, Atlanta, Georgia and it covers the Civil Rights Movement, the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the political careers of Jimmy Carter, Julian Bond, Andrew Young, Maynard Jackson, Herman Talmadge, Lester Maddox, Carl Sanders, George Wallace, Richard Russell, William Hartsfield, and other prominent politicians. The selected footage includes both local (in particular those in Atlanta, Albany, Rome, Augusta, Athens, Columbus, Savannah, Americus, and Macon) and national civil rights events such as the Albany Movement; the Selma to Montgomery March; the attempts to desegregate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Prince Edward County, Norfolk and Arlington County, Virginia; the integration of Ole Miss, the University of Georgia, the University of Alabama, and Georgia Tech; the Freedom Rides; and .... Contains edited and raw footage. No televised newscasts are included.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata.