Strange-but-true stories in the struggle for equality
This year we have Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s returning to the National Archives on December 14, 2018, for our annual Bill of Rights Day naturalization ceremony. Today's post comes from Danielle Sklarew in the National Archives History Office. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited the National Archives on August 26, 1993—16 days after she … Continue reading Notorious RBG at the National Archives
Today's post comes from Kerri Lawrence, Writer-Editor for the National Archives News. This year marks the 50th anniversary of 1968, a year of turmoil and change in the United States and the world. In reflection, 1968 was a year of triumph and tragedy. International and national events changed the landscape of America and the world around … Continue reading The National Archives and 1968: A Year of Triumph and Tragedy
On June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. After graduating from Howard University Law School in 1933, Marshall worked in private practice in his home town, Baltimore. In one of his earliest cases, he represented the local … Continue reading Honoring Justice Thurgood Marshall: the right man and the right place
Today’s post comes from Sarah Basilion in the National Archives History Office. A letter from San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk to President Jimmy Carter is on display in the National Archives’ East Rotunda Gallery until June 29, 2016. In the June 1978 letter, Milk asks President Carter for his support in defeating ballot Proposition 6, … Continue reading Featured Document: Harvey Milk
In commemoration of the anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, today’s post comes from Sarah Basilion, an intern in the National Archives History Office. Sixty years ago, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black woman, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama, public bus. On December 1, 1955, Parks, a seamstress … Continue reading The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Today’s post comes from Alex Nieuwsma, an intern in the National Archives History Office in Washington, DC. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a milestone in American history. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it on August 6, 1965, marking the culmination of decades of efforts toward African American equality. The 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, … Continue reading On Exhibit: Voting Rights Act of 1965
Between 1961 and 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) held a voting registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, a town known to suppress African American voting. When their efforts were stymied by local enforcement officials, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by Martin Luther King, Jr., pushed Selma into the national spotlight. On March … Continue reading On Exhibit: Bloody Sunday
For 18 months in the late 1940s, some of the nation’s most important historical documents toured the country in a traveling museum called the Freedom Train. The National Archives History Office has produced a new online exhibit on the Freedom Train, which is available in the Google Cultural Institute. Viewed by more than 3.5 million … Continue reading New Web Exhibit on the Freedom Train
Today’s post comes from Marisa Hawley, intern in the National Archives Strategy and Communications office. As part of the "six weeks of style" celebration to recognize the Foundation for the National Archives' partnership with DC Fashion Week, we are showcasing fashion-related records from our holdings. This week’s fashion theme is Get Your 1970s Groove On. After the ratification … Continue reading Failure of the Equal Rights Amendment: The Feminist Fight of the 1970s
Mark K. Updegrove is Director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. The first time a sitting President came to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library was on May 21, 1971, when President Richard Nixon boarded Air Force One and journeyed to the campus of the University of Texas at Austin to … Continue reading Reflections on LBJ and Civil Rights
