"Comprised of more than 172,000 items, the AFL collection is a potential treasure trove, yet the work has only just begun. The field of labor history has much to gain by continuing to analyze these records through an intersectional lens," writes Mills Pennebaker, a fall 2021 Archives, History, and Heritage Advanced intern, who discusses her experience researching issues of race, gender, regionalism, and class in the recently digitized American Federation of Labor Records.
“Something must be done. We are producing educated and refined representatives, what for? They are denied their ambitions simply because of color. So I say let us gracefully go home where we can sit in any room we choose," Elizabeth Sykes wrote to Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Her letter discussed by 2021 Archives History and Heritage Advanced Internship (AHHA) intern, Sarah Shepherd offers a window into Black Nationalism of the early-20th century and an example of the kind of issues and themes explored by participants of the Library of Congress AHHA program.
Lanai Huddleston, Archives History and Heritage Advanced Internship intern in the Manuscript Division, winter 2021, discusses the history of sororities and debutante balls in the African American community found in the Dupree African American Pentecostal Collection and materials in it derived from the Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Theta Omega Chapter of Raleigh, North Carolina, a sorority that includes Kamala Harris, Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, and many other outstanding Black women.
