Top of page
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
The following is a guest blog post by Travis Bickford, head of programs and communications at The Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). On August 28, 2005, it was 111 degrees in Baghdad. That kind of heat makes you conspiratorial, like “nah, this ain’t real” kind of heat. I’d only been in country a …
Posted in: African Americans, COVID-19 pandemic, Iraq War, Louisiana, Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
The following is a guest blog post by Candace Milburn, a liaison specialist for the Veterans History Project (VHP). You might ask, “What’s the meaning behind a ‘Go Box?’” To answer your question, the story began when former VHP Director Karen Lloyd shared that during her service in the Army, each service member was given …
Posted in: African American Heritage Month, African American History, African American History Month, African Americans, Black History Month, Cultural Heritage, Diverse Experiences in Service, Exhibits, Narratives, Oral History, Photographs, Serving: Our Voices, Storytelling, Veterans History Project, World War II
Posted by: Guha Shankar
Sixty-one years ago this month, on February 1, 1961, the “Friendship Nine” – a group of African American college students at Friendship Junior College - adopted an unorthodox tactic termed “Jail, No Bail” during their appearance on trespassing charges in a Rock Hill, South Carolina court. The group had been arrested the previous day for trying to get service at a segregated lunch counter in the city (in other words, they staged a “sit-in”). Rather than paying a fine for violating a public ordinance, as was the norm, they chose instead to serve out their sentence of thirty days of hard labor on a county chain gang. In commemoration of Black History Month, my post today (number 999 in AFC blog history!) reaches into the Civil Rights History Project collection to illuminate this facet of the civil rights era as recollected by veteran activists.
Posted in: African American History, African Americans, Black History Month, Civil Rights, Civil Rights History Project, Ernest Finney, Freedom Struggle, Friendship Nine, Rock Hill Nine
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
The following is a guest blog post by Nathan Cross, an archivist for the American Folklife Center. This African American History Month, the Veterans History Project (VHP) is pleased to announce a new resource designed to introduce VHP’s holdings related to the veterans of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-African American, all-female unit …
Posted in: African American Heritage Month, African American History, African American History Month, African Americans, Black History Month, Civil Rights, Cultural Heritage, Diverse Experiences in Service, Narratives, Oral History, Serving: Our Voices, Storytelling, Veterans History Project, Women's History, World War II