Happy Black History Month! This year the Rediscovering Black History blog at the National Archives would like to highlight select posts from the past. This public blog was created to inform researchers, scholars, students, and anyone interested in records related to African-American history at the National Archives and Presidential Libraries on the vast amount of … Continue reading Black History Month 2017: Blogs Related to Black Education
How has a Commander-in-Chief used his executive power to help shape a diverse nation? With the stroke of a pen, he has used this power to command, appoint, veto, remove, and pardon. This year, the National Archives Exhibits Division’s Outgoing Loan program teamed up with the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and lent several original … Continue reading Commander-in-Chief: U.S. Presidents and their Executive Power
Part II: Literacy Tests, Poll Taxes, and other 1971(a) Barriers to the Black Vote In 1962, Deputy Attorney General Burke Marshall reported that “racial denials of the right to vote” existed in eight states, with only fourteen percent of eligible black citizens registered to vote in Alabama, and just five percent in Mississippi. There were … Continue reading Voting Rights in the Early 1960s: “Registering Who They Wanted To”
Part I: Mapping the Barriers A basic law protecting the right to vote “without distinction of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” has been part of the American story for almost 150 years. The law evolved through the decades, but for much of its history, one thing remained the same: the Federal government had … Continue reading “When It Was So Rough that You Couldn’t Make It”: Voting Rights in the Early 1960s
Today’s post was written by Tiffany Walker, Archives Technician at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland "National Negro Health Week" began in 1915, in response to disturbing findings by the Tuskegee Institute that highlighted the poor health status of African Americans in the early part of the 20th Century. At a session of the Tuskegee … Continue reading “National Negro Health Week”: 1915 to 1951
Today we celebrate the birthday and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, who used the philosophy of nonviolent activism. King made advancements in civil rights for all people through nonviolent civil disobedience. Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, … Continue reading Celebrating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday and Legacy
In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to serve as United States Supreme Court Justice. It was a milestone etched in the American memory in part because of the infamous fight to push Marshall’s nomination through a bitterly divided U.S. Senate. But, few people know that the Supreme Court battle was not Marshall’s … Continue reading “The Long Siege”: Thurgood Marshall’s Other Court Nomination Battle
Today’s post was written by Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Lead Archivist at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus to a white man. She was arrested and charged with violating the city’s segregation laws. Her act of civil … Continue reading 60th Anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Today’s Tribute was written by Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland “It’s important that young people know about the struggles we faced to get to the point we are today. Only then will they appreciate the hard-won freedom of blacks in this country.” ~ Amelia Boynton Robinson On … Continue reading Amelia Boynton Robinson, Leader in the Voting Rights Movement
Today’s blog was written by Dr. Tina Ligon, archivist at the National Archives at College Park and Mary Kate Eckles, summer intern at NARA and senior at St. John’s College Sixty years ago, Emmett Louis Till was kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi for violating southern customs. His death was one of the sparks that led … Continue reading 60th Anniversary of the Death of Emmett Louis Till
