This excerpt is part of a larger exhibition from the Library of Congress. This excerpt demonstrates the ways World War II and the Cold War informed President Roosevelt’s and President Truman’s decisions to pursue civil rights legislation.
This text is a transcription of a meeting between A. Philip Randolph and Harry Truman in which Randolph encourages Truman to pass an executive order barring Jim Crow laws in the armed forces.
This pamphlet from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) explains their unsuccessful 1964 Democratic National Convention challenge in Atlantic City and the MFDP’s plans moving forward from the convention.
This text by bell hooks shares her experiences involving her upbringing, space, culture, family and more in order to reflect about her identity, community and aesthetics of Blackness. hooks also emphasizes freeing the creative spirit, supporting artistic expression and acknowledging social hierarchies, the African diaspora and cultural production.