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 the Civil Rights Movement
Today’s blog was written by Stacey Chandler, Textual Reference Archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library 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 … Continue reading Voting Rights in the Early 1960s: “Registering Who They Wanted To”
Today’s blog was written by Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Supervisory Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland The March against Fear that took place in June 1966, is considered the last great march against racism of the 1960s Civil Rights era in the South. Participants of this march included the Southern Christian Leadership … Continue reading “Turn this Town Out”: Stokely Carmichael, Black Power, and the March against Fear
Today’s blog was written by Stacey Chandler, Textual Reference Archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library 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 … Continue reading “When It Was So Rough that You Couldn’t Make It”: Voting Rights in the Early 1960s
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
This blog post was written by Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Supervisory Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act. This act helped disenfranchised African Americans to register to vote and gave the federal government power to oversee … Continue reading 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
In Celebration of LGBT Pride Month The post was written by Dr. Tina Ligon, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland Bayard Rustin was a believer in non-violence, a socialist, a civil rights organizer, and an openly gay black man. He was born on March 17, 1912 in West Chester, Pennsylvania and raised … Continue reading Record of the Week: Bayard Rustin, Civil Rights and Gay Rights Activist
Today's blog was written by Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland The movie Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay and released in January 2015, brought to life the struggle for voting rights in America. This Academy Award nominated film, which starred David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Lorraine Toussaint, … Continue reading FBI Case File #44-28492: Bloody Sunday
Today's post was written by Netisha Currie, Archives Specialist at the National Archives in College Park. This weekend the 87th annual Academy Awards will air, and many of the Best Picture nominees' subjects are culled from historical events or people. Selma (directed by Ava DuVernay) is a dramatization of the events that happened around the Selma to Montgomery … Continue reading Record of the Week: Selma, Edmund Pettus Bridge FBI Case File
Written by Dr. Miranda Booker Perry, Archivist at the National Archives at Washington, D. C. LBJ and Civil Rights Although I did not have the opportunity to attend the Civil Rights Summit in April of this year, having the event at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library was most fitting. A key component of the … Continue reading Striving Towards the Great Society: Remembering LBJ, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Momentous Year that Encompassed It
