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Category: Women’s & Gender History

Harris smiling at camera with piles of papers on table in background

Boundary Crossing for a Better Future: Pauli Murray, Patricia Roberts Harris, and the 1982 Mayoral Election in the District of Columbia

Posted by: Ryan Reft

Forty years ago, Patricia Roberts Harris went down in defeat to Marion Barry in the 1982 mayoral election in the District of Columbia, yet, her campaign correspondence with legal scholar, feminist, civil rights activist, and unofficial political advisor Pauli Murray reveals the impact of gender on the outcome, the role of intersectionality in the lives of Black women, and the way defeats can lead to future victories.

Posted in: African American History, Politics, Women's & Gender History

Handwritten copy (with deletions crossed out and additions added) of the first few sentence of Jefferson

Race, Gender, and More in the AFL Records

Posted by: Ryan Reft

"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.

Posted in: African American History, Labor, Women's & Gender History