Library
55,246 resources — aggregated, dated, and cited for further study.
452 resources
A history of one of the few African American banks to survive the Great Depression and its founder, educator and banking advocate, Major Richard R. Wright.
This dataset is an export of transcriptions created by volunteers participating in the Library of Congress crowdsourcing program By the People (https://crowd.loc.gov) campaign Yours Truly, Frederick Douglass for 9,352 images from the Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress digital collection . The dataset contains volunteer-created and -reviewed text, volunteer-created tags, digital c
This dataset is an export of transcriptions for 112 images of a petition contained in the Justin S. Morrill Papers in the Manuscript Division. The transcriptions were created by volunteers participating in the Library of Congress crowdsourcing program By the People (https://crowd.loc.gov) campaign We the Undersigned: Black South Carolinians Petition for Equal Rights, 1865. It contains text created
Funeral homes have since the end of slavery, been an important business enterprise in the Black community – read a bit about that history.
This dataset is an export of transcriptions for 3,456 images from the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers created by volunteers participating in the Library of Congress crowdsourcing program By the People (https://crowd.loc.gov) campaign, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers. It contains text created by volunteers through a transcription and review process, volunteer-created tags, digital collections metadata,
This dataset is an export of transcriptions for 5,156 images from the Susan B. Anthony Papers created by volunteers participating in the Library of Congress crowdsourcing program By the People (https://crowd.loc.gov) campaign, Susan B. Anthony Papers. It contains text created by volunteers through a transcription and review process, volunteer-created tags, digital collections metadata, and metadat
Cowboys Bose Ikard, Bill Pickett, and Ned Huddleston are part of the history of The West.
This year the nation commemorated the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. The war was a period of great transformation in America, in Washington, D.C., and in the lives of African Americans. Those changes continued into the second half of the 19th century. Jason Steinhauer sat down with historian Kate Masur, a …
The Brown decision fueled violent resistance during which Southern states evaded the law. The Montgomery bus boycott began a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to protest segregation that attracted national and international attention. Media coverage of the use of fire hoses and attack dogs against protesters and bombings and riots in Birmingham compelled Kennedy to act, sending a civil rig
The social, legal, and political forces that battled discrimination for decades won a major victory with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—the most significant piece of U.S. civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It was a culmination of civil rights advocates’ efforts to gain federal protection for the basic citizenship rights of African Americans.
With the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the federal government offered its immense power to the struggle to realize a more just and inclusive American society. But the act did not fulfill all of the goals of civil rights activists. It would take further grassroots mobilization, judicial precedent, and legislative action to guarantee civil rights for African Americans.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments that granted the newly freed slaves freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote. States in the South adopted methods to disenfranchise black voters and instituted “Jim Crow” (segregation) laws mandating the separation of the races in practically every aspect of life.
As segregation tightened and racial oppression escalated across the U.S., black leaders joined white reformers to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Early in its fight for equality, the NAACP used federal courts to challenge segregation. Job opportunities were the primary focus of the National Urban League.
The fight against fascism during World War II brought into focus the contradictions between America’s ideals of democracy and its treatment of racial minorities. With the onset of the Cold War, segregation and inequality within the U.S. were brought into focus on the world stage, prompting federal and judicial action.
The WPA Federal Writers' Project employed many African American authors who wrote fiction and non-fiction about the American life with a black perspective.
The conflict of Abolition and Slavery is seen here through maps, song and newspaper that advocated for the end of slavery.
Throughout American history, African American populations have shifted around the nation, however the majority still remained in the South until 1950.
Nicodemus, Kansas was an African American homestead township full of Exodusters who were newly freed blacks from the civil war.
Many African American migrated west as homesteaders to start life anew on the frontier, and trying to populate the West.
The events of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement are documented through personal stories, oral histories, and photographs collected by the “Voices of Civil Rights” project, and marks the arrival of these materials to the Library.
Civil Rights Movement history, personal stories, discussions and analysis, commentaries, and contact information by and for veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement (CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and similar organizations). Website. electronic | Electronic (Form).
During the slave trade, millions of Africans were enslaved. Some captives resisted by fleeing, by mutiny, and by running away. Some gained liberty through various legal means and others learned to survive in servitude.
The 1954 decision ending school segregation.
Biographies of the Interviewers Biography Alan Lomax (1915 – 2002) Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) spent almost 70 years as a folklorist and ethnographer, collecting, archiving, and analyzing folksongs and music
Approximately four million Americans enslaved in the United States were freed at the conclusion of the American Civil War. The stories of a few thousand have been passed on to future generations through word of mouth, diaries, letters, records, or written transcripts of interviews. Only twenty-six audio-recorded interviews of ex-slaves have been found. This collection captures the stories of forme
Includes table: Number of lynchings. Includes two inset maps. "Map No. 5241-128" Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.
Chant (Nobody knows de trouble I've seen)--Lament (I'm troubled in mind)--Slave song (Many thousand gone)--Negro dance (Sometimes I feel like a motherless child). Copyright MCMXXII by Carl Fischer, New York Printed in United States Military Band Journal No. 277 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
African American stories and tales for children.
For low voice and piano. LC copy imperfect: damaged spine.
In the debate over whether new states and territories should be free or slaveholding, few spoke more passionately than Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner. In this speech, delivered before the Senate in 1860 when Kansas applied for statehood, Sumner makes clear his abolitionist stance. Decrying slavery as barbaric, he criticizes various pro-slavery arguments and offers statistics to show how, in
From its earliest years, the American Colonization Society (A. C. S.) drew sharp criticism, from both blacks and whites, for its efforts to resettle free African Americans in Liberia. Many believed colonization was a scheme to perpetuate slavery. This three-part tract, published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, offers a critical view of the A. C. S.
Nearly a decade after he gave his controversial address at the opening of the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition, the renowned African-American spokesman Booker T. Washington appeared at a meeting in New York's Madison Square Garden to speak on behalf of the Hampton Institute.
In this tract the African-American professor Caesar A. Taylor attempts to prove biblical statements about hell by quoting scientific principles. He argues that hell can be found in the "bowels of the earth" and offers a diagram of its exact location and size. He writes:
This pamphlet presents editorials from a Washington, D.C., newspaper, the National Intelligencer, purporting to contain the intercepted correspondence between Judah P. Benjamin, secretary of state for the Confederacy, and L. Q. C. Lamar, the Confederate commissioner to Russia. In it Benjamin instructs Lamar to avoid treaty negotiations with European countries that might stipulate opposition to the
In this pamphlet written for a British audience, the author James Birney attempts to show how Protestant churches in the United States helped propagate slavery by refusing to condemn the institution and by allowing church members to mistreat slaves without censure. The son of a wealthy Kentucky slaveowner, Birney advocated the immediate emancipation of slaves and established an anti-slavery newspa
Although the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, ratified in 1870, guaranteed all male citizens the right to vote, Southern whites fearful of African-American political involvement created voting restrictions that made it nearly impossible for most African-American men to cast a ballot. These restrictions included poll taxes, literacy tests, and property-ownership requirements.
Born to a prominent slaveholding family in South Carolina, the sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimké became two of America's most prominent female abolitionists. They also supported women's rights and were instrumental in linking the two crusades.
Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Citizenship and equal protection, 1868.
Semiannual 3rd (Jan. 1, 1867)-10th (July 1870). SERBIB/SERLOC merged record Daniel Murray Collection: 8th (July 1, 1869). Distributed to Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) libraries prior to 1940. No FDLP item number available.
Primarily letters received by Kitty Blackburn, a housekeeper on George Carter Blakemore's plantation near Berryville in Clarke County, Va., from her daughter, Sarah Maria Moore, a laundress in New Orleans, La., reflecting African American family life during Reconstruction.
Music associated with the Union side Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Music associated with the Union side Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Music associated with the Union side Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Illustrated Cover. Music associated with the Union side Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
The full text of Lincoln's 1863 proclamation.
Music associated with the Union side Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Music associated with the Union side Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Music associated with the Union side Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
The 1857 Supreme Court decision.
The 1857 Supreme Court decision.
In bound volumes: Instrumental sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Christy minstrels In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
lyrics by "gentleman of Baltimore" In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
Ethiopian serenaders In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
In bound volumes: Vocal sheet music registered in the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860 Record created through migration from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Database.
The 1870 amendment barring race-based denial of the vote.
The codified 1705 Virginia slave law.
Garnet's militant call for the enslaved to resist.
2,300+ first-person accounts of slavery and 500 photographs of formerly enslaved people.
2,300+ first-person accounts of slavery and 500 photographs of formerly enslaved people.
The landmark 1964 law banning discrimination in public life and employment.
1,200+ recorded interviews and transcripts with civil-rights participants.
The democratic constitution written by the 1868 Black-majority convention.
The 1655 Virginia court record in the Johnson v. Parker case.
1763 record of shareholders (including Washington) each pledging enslaved people for the drainage work.
The decision and transcript of the Supreme Court's most infamous ruling.
The complete text of the January 1, 1863 proclamation.
The order banning racial discrimination in the defense industry, won by A. Philip Randolph's threatened march.
~7,400 items: correspondence, speeches, and writings of Frederick Douglass.
~7,400 items: correspondence, speeches, and writings of Frederick Douglass.
~7,400 digitized items: speeches, correspondence, and writings.
Millions of digitized depositor and Bureau records.
Federal records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
1.7M+ digitized pages of Freedmen's Bureau records.
The statutory text of the 1850 act that endangered all Black Americans.
The court ruling sentencing John Punch to lifetime servitude.
Digitized facsimile of the first religious protest against slavery in the colonies.
The complete text of Jacobs's narrative, published as "Linda Brent."
The 2015 report finding police and courts were used to raise revenue from Black residents.
The original 1865 order announcing emancipation in Texas.
King's open letter defending nonviolent direct action.
The unanimous ruling striking down bans on interracial marriage.
Case summary, opinions, and oral-argument audio for the 1987 ruling.
The dictated life story of the abolitionist and women's-rights orator.
The complete text of Douglass's landmark 1845 slave narrative.
Brown's own account of his escape sealed inside a crate.
The law making a child's enslaved status follow the mother's.
Primary documents on the 1896 decision that constitutionalized "separate but equal."
Primary documents on the 1896 decision that constitutionalized "separate but equal."
Digitized copy of Wheatley's landmark 1773 poetry volume.
The "President of the Underground Railroad" recounts decades of the work.
~7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photographs documenting Parks's life and the movement.
~7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photographs documenting Parks's life and the movement.
The Crafts' first-person narrative of their disguised escape.
The founding nonviolence statement adopted at Shaw University in April 1960.
Wells's pioneering investigation and indictment of lynching.
The amendment abolishing slavery, ratified December 6, 1865.
The 1831 published "Confessions," recorded as Turner awaited execution.
Free scans of the early Crisis under Du Bois.
The full text of the 1776 Declaration — "all men are created equal."
The federal report blaming white racism and warning of "two societies."
The first U.S. naturalization law, limiting citizenship to "free white persons" — the comparison point for excluding free non-white people versus owning the enslaved.
A free scan of the movement's defining anthology.
Newly public primary-source archive of the 40-year study.
The movement's greatest primary source — hundreds of escapes in the freedom seekers' own words.
Rolfe's letter recording the 1619 arrival of the first Africans in Virginia.
Service records of ~179,000 men of the United States Colored Troops.
Audio recordings (1932–1975) of formerly enslaved people across nine states.
Audio recordings (1932–1975) of formerly enslaved people across nine states.
The 1965 law that finally enforced the Fifteenth Amendment.
The complete text of the most radical antislavery pamphlet of its era.
The complete annotated text of Douglass's 1852 Rochester address.
5,000+ digitized letters, interviews, and maps from the pioneering UGRR historian.