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Category: African American History

Collage showing Terrell, home, furniture, and household items

CCDI Interns Explore the Power and Possibilities of Words with the Mary Church Terrell Papers

Posted by: Josh Levy

A new interactive art project and web interface, At the Table with: Mary Church Terrell, enables users to deepen and enrich their understanding of an influential civil rights activist, educator, and suffragist. The project treats the Mary Church Terrell Papers not as a static collection of documents, but a vibrant and dynamic repository.

Engraved portrait bust of Frederick Douglass, three-quarter view, hands folded.

Show Frederick Douglass some love: Transcribe his letters for Douglass Day on February 14

Posted by: Julie Miller

Library of Congress volunteer transcription program By the People, in collaboration with the Center for Black Digital History at Pennsylvania State University, invites you to join a Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon focused on letters from the Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress!

Map of the District of Columbia outlined in black.

Home Rule and Go-Go “Live! at the Library,” November 30, 2023

Posted by: Ryan Reft

Join us on November 30 for a “Live! at the Library” commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of home rule in Washington, D.C., with a panel discussion on the legacy of home rule moderated by Kojo Nnamdi and featuring journalist Tom Sherwood; The Drum and Spear Bookstore co-founder, Eyes on the Prize documentarian and civil rights activist Judy Richardson; and historians G. Derek Musgrove and Kyla Sommers. A performance by the D.C. Go-Go band Mambo Sauce will follow the panel discussion.

Reflections on Our First Twenty-First-Century U.S. Presidential Collection: Barack Obama Correspondence and Photographs, 1981-2012

Posted by: Josh Levy

The Manuscript Division recently acquired more than twenty Barack Obama letters, postcards, notes, photographs, and campaign ephemera, most dating from the 1980s. The letters confirm historian Meg McAleer’s fascination with materials emanating from a person’s early professional life.

Group of women wearing hats and coats standing outside of the White House.

New American Federation of Labor By the People Crowdsourced Transcription Campaign Launched

Posted by: Ryan Reft

A new By the People crowdsourced transcription campaign, “American Federation of Labor Records: Letters in the Progressive Era,” launched in late April. By taking part in the campaign, volunteers will discover how the labor union engaged with issues of race, class, and gender during the early twentieth century.