Today's post was written by Joshua Cain, Archives Technician at the National Archives in College Park, MD In the 1920s, the neighborhood of Harlem in Manhattan was the epicenter for a new movement that empowered African Americans to express themselves and their experiences in various facets of the arts. New poems, books, paintings, and literature … Continue reading Not Just a Harlem Thing
Today's post was written by Gabrielle Hutchins, Ph.D, an archivist at the National Archives in College Park, MD George Edmund Haynes Dr. George Edmund Haynes is one of many remarkable figures in the history of the African American labor movement. During the 1920s, Dr. Haynes truthfully captured Black laborers' stories as he traveled throughout the … Continue reading Dr. George Edmund Haynes: Social Crusader in Black Economics
Today's post was written by Netisha Currie, archives specialist at the National Archives in College Park, MD. The wonderful thing about the massive amounts of paper that the National Archives has is that there will always be another story to uncover. At the beginning of this year, I came across the article “The First Drag … Continue reading William Dorsey Swann, the Queen of Drag
Today's post was written by Damani Davis, an Archivist at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Among the most tangible products validating the work of National Archives' (NARA) reference staff are the books written by the many researchers we’ve assisted over the years. Often, there can be a type of synergistic or mutually beneficial relationship … Continue reading Slaves in the Family and Escape on the Pearl: A Report on Two Books that Used NARA Records
Today's post was written by Daniella Furman, an Archivist in Research Services at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. When I started researching the 1964 Freedom Summer Movement a few weeks ago, I thought it would be an interesting project to expand my knowledge about that important moment in history 56 years ago. Never … Continue reading Freedom Summer, 56 Years Later
Today's post was written by Bob Nowatzki, Archives Technician in Research Services at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The early 20th century witnessed the migration of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to the Northeast, Midwest, and West. One of the main causes for this mass migration was the continuing … Continue reading Portal Spotlight: Civil Unrest and the Red Summer
Today’s blog post was written by Bob Nowatzki and Joshua Schroeder in Research Services at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland “completely unwarranted and unjustified” -President’s Commission on Campus Unrest, 1970 From May 13th to May 15th, 1970, Jackson State College, by then a nearly century-old Historically Black College and University (HBCU), erupted in … Continue reading Two Dead in Mississippi: Remembering the Jackson State Killings of 1970
Written by Michael Hancock Like hundreds of thousands of young American men, Henry Johnson returned from the First World War and tried to make a life for himself in spite of what he had experienced on the battlefields of Europe. Escaping with bullet and shrapnel wounds in the dozens, he was fortunate that he even … Continue reading “We Remember Our Heroes”: Henry Johnson
Today’s blog post was written by Michael J. Hancock in Research Services at the National Archives and Records Administration. The 2008 Democratic Presidential run was a watershed moment in American politics. For the first time, a woman and an African American man were the front-runners of a major political party for this nation’s highest office. … Continue reading Shirley Chisholm: Unbought and Unbossed
Written by Michael Hancock There was a time when “freedom of choice” was no choice at all. After the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) schools were slow to desegregate. New Kent County had two schools that taught students from elementary through high school and prior to 1965, New Kent School’s student body … Continue reading The Gridlock of Racial Segregation: When the Light Turns from Brown to Green
