Record of the Week: Selma, Edmund Pettus Bridge FBI Case File

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

Striving Towards the Great Society: Remembering LBJ, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Momentous Year that Encompassed It

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

The Road to the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Today’s blog is written by Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Archivist and Damon Turner, doctoral student at Morgan State University and summer intern at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. At the conclusion of World War II, African Americans began an aggressive campaign to achieve equal rights in America.  Organizations such as the National Association … Continue reading The Road to the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Descendants of Solomon Northup Walk in His Path

Today’s blog is written by Vera J. Williams, IT Specialist in the BP Project Assistance Division at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland On January 15, 2014, the 85th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., a family member, Clayton Adams and I walked in the path of our Great-Great-Great Grandfather Solomon Northup – the … Continue reading Descendants of Solomon Northup Walk in His Path

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church: A Turning Point in Civil Rights History

Today’s blog is written by Dr. Christina Violeta Jones, Textual Reference Archivist, who specializes in DOJ, FBI, and other law enforcement federal agencies records Less than one month after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963, four young girls, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Addie Mae Collins, were … Continue reading The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church: A Turning Point in Civil Rights History

Re-Introducing RG 60 Class 144 (Civil Rights) Litigation Case Files

 Today’s blog is written by Tina L. Ligon, Archivist at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland In April 2013, the processing for Class 144 (Civil Rights) Litigation Case Files (National Archives Identifier 603432) series [RG 60 General Records of the Department of Justice] began. Litigation case files were created or accumulated by the various … Continue reading Re-Introducing RG 60 Class 144 (Civil Rights) Litigation Case Files

Let Freedom Ring!!! Honoring the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

This Week’s Special Blog Post is written by Tina L. Ligon, Textual Processing Archivist, who is currently processing DOJ Litigation Case Files and Christina Violeta Jones, Textual Reference Archivist, who specializes in DOJ, FBI, and other law enforcement federal agencies records Known as one of the largest political rallies for human rights in the United … Continue reading Let Freedom Ring!!! Honoring the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Examining the other side of Black History with James Earl Ray

Michael Arzate is the Summer Diversity Intern in the Research Services Division, Textual Records at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. He is currently a History undergraduate major at the University of California, Berkeley. First, let me introduce myself. I’m an undergraduate student spending my summer as an intern at the National Archives. Why? I … Continue reading Examining the other side of Black History with James Earl Ray

Remembering 1963 through NARA Records

Today’s blog post is by Tina L. Ligon.   2013 marks the 50th anniversary of several significant events regarding the modern Civil Rights Movement. The year 1963 witnessed the murder of Mississippi activist Medgar Evers, the forced desegregation of the University of Alabama, the March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs (MOW), the death of … Continue reading Remembering 1963 through NARA Records