Black History Guide: Civil Rights |
What records relating to Black History can be found at the 威尼斯人娱乐场 (NARA) in Civil Rights?
Many significant moments relating to Civil Rights have come through the response of the government. As the repository for permanent federal records, the 威尼斯人娱乐场 now holds these important documents, photographs, and other records.
Choose a records type to begin browsing, and click on the 威尼斯人娱乐场 Identifier (NAID) to go to the full records description in the 威尼斯人娱乐场 Catalog:
Textual | Photographic | Motion Pictures | Electronic
Textual Records
Record Group 12 - Records of the Office of Education
Title IV Case Files, 1965鈥�1970
Extent: 26 linear feet, 2 linear inches
This series is arranged numerically by project number. It consists of case files documenting the administration of the provisions of Title IV, PL 88-352, which provided money for civil rights educational activities. Each case file consists of a project proposal, evaluations of the proposal, notification of grant awards, and progress reports. The case file may also contain biographies of school personnel, information about a school district, or information about the organization sponsoring the training.
Grant Management Files, 1972鈥�1976
Extent: 10 linear inches
This series is arranged by state and thereunder alphabetically by name of the institution or school district. It contains grant and procurement requests submitted by various academic institutions to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, stating objectives, methods and cost projections for new and established grants. Narratives of grantee's proposals, justification for grants, and program accomplishments are included with the requests.
Office Files, 1928鈥�1980 [Commissioner of Education]
Extent: 506 linear feet, 7 linear inches
This series is arranged chronologically by year, generally in one-year blocks, and thereunder by type of file. These records include topics concerning racial balance in schools, segregated cafeterias, school district plans under the Civil Rights Act, student unrest, poor people's demands, desegregation plans, urban education, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), affirmative action, Operation EXCEL, civil rights compliance, and discrimination. This series also contains progress reports, legal documents, correspondence, and newspaper and magazine articles relating to desegregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Emergency School Assistance Program Case Files, 1971鈥�1973, documenting the period ca. 1965鈥�1973
Extent: 48 linear feet, 8 linear inches
These records were created to determine school district eligibility for grants under the Emergency School Assistance Program (ESAP), which aimed to confront needs produced by the desegregation of elementary and secondary schools.
Record Group 14 - Records of the United States Railroad Administration [USRA]
Subject Classified General Files, 1918鈥�1927
Extent: 239 linear feet, 4 linear inches
This series is arranged alphabetically and numerically, thereunder, in accordance with the United States Railroad classification scheme. It contains records (file P19-3) that concerned the controversy in the 1920s over the barring of African Americans from purchasing prepaid rail tickets and the reaction of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to this ruling, the improvement of conditions for Black passengers on southern railroads, and discrimination against African American passengers. Also included are records (file E38-30) that relate to the pay of Black trainmen, firemen, and switchmen.
This series is indexed by the series Index to Subject Classified General Files, 1918-1927
.
General Files of the General Counsel, 1918鈥�1937
Extent: 511 linear feet, 5 linear inches
This series is arranged numerically by file number. It contains records that document such matters as 鈥渃olored鈥� porters and Jim Crow Laws.
This series is indexed by the series Index to the General Files of the General Counsel, 1918-1937
(NAID 7348229).
Record Group 32 - Records of the United States Shipping Board
Dockets of the Secretary, 1917-1936
Extent: 394 linear feet, 7 linear inches
This series is arranged according to a subject-numeric system. In these dockets are reports about the purchase of ships by Marcus Garvey, a Black activist who organized the Black Star steamship line and the Black Cross Trading Company, Inc.
This series is indexed by the series Indexes to Minutes and to the Dockets of the Secretary, 1917-1936
.
Investigated Case Files of the Home Office, 1918-1926
Extent: 174 linear feet, 2 linear inches
This series is arranged in two groups. A file for Marcus Garvey, 1921鈥�1925 (#1494-15), includes correspondence, clippings, and reports about various ships. Another file, 鈥淐olored Cooks and Stewards,鈥� 1923鈥�1925 (#3436) gives information about the Colored Cooks and Stewards League and other labor organizations formed by Black cooks and stewards.
This series is indexed by the series' Indexes, 1918-1924
, and Indexes to Files for Involved Cases, 1918-1924
.
Record Group 35 - Records of the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC]
General Correspondence [Division of Selection], 1933-1942
Extent: 11 linear feet, 5 linear inches
This series is arranged alphabetically by subject. It contains correspondence related to the operations of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Divided into segments the series contains information related to African American participation in the camps and projects developed by the CCC. There are a number of index cards with the heading 鈥淣egroes鈥� and a few 鈥淐olored鈥� in the 鈥淧recedent鈥� segment of the index. The subjects most often covered in this correspondence are the enrollment of Black youths into the program, the employment of Black staff in the camps, and the location of Black camps. There was a degree of controversy over each of these subjects. Black organizations, including the National Urban League, wanted to ensure that Black youths were not discriminated against in the enrollment process. The letters also relate to reminding the CCC that African Americans should be involved in these projects and should not be excluded through 鈥渘egligence.鈥� Much of the correspondence about the locations of Black camps came from whites who did not want these camps to be located near their communities. In the 鈥淐ongressional鈥� segment of the index are some cards for Oscar De Priest, a Black Congressman from Illinois. The 鈥淧ersonal鈥� segment includes a few cards for African American leaders, such as Robert R. Morton, president of Tuskegee Institute and Claude A. Barnett, head of the Associated Negro Press.
Record Group 40 - General Records of the Department of Commerce
Records of the Advisor on Negro Affairs, 1940-1953
Extent: 11 linear feet, 10 linear inches
This series is arranged in two sections: the first section is arranged by subject and the second section is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or office location. It contains correspondence and reports concerning African Americans in small businesses and reports from banks owned by Black investors.
The segment for 1918鈥�1922 contains a folder with the heading 鈥淣egroes鈥� with records relating to lynchings, World War I, discrimination, Black employment, publications about African Americans, and the employment of Blacks by the Department of Commerce. There are a few letters under the heading 鈥淣egro鈥� in the 1923鈥�1927 segment, including one from Robert R. Moton of Tuskegee Institute pertaining to the 14th census and another from R. J. Bryant about the rights of African Americans. Sections for 1928鈥�1950 contain records relating to - the Department鈥檚 Negro Advisory Council, the Negro Affairs Section, headed by Charles E. Hall, Negro problems, Negro chambers of commerce, the appointment of Eugene Knickle Jones (former executive secretary of the Urban League) as an advisor to the Department, Negroes and the Texas Centennial celebration, publications about Black newspapers and periodicals, African American participation in Civil Aeronautics Administration aviation programs, and Black businesses, in particular banks.
Record Group 46 - Records of the United States Senate
Various Papers, 1789-1982
Extent: 79 linear feet, 6 linear inches
These records contain a variety of documents not appropriately filed in any other series. The bulk of the records are "yeas and nays," or roll call votes, on measures brought before the Senate. Items relating to Black history include: the Cloture Motion for the Civil Rights Act of 1964
, and the Roll Call Vote Tally on S. 1564, the Voting Rights Act of 1965
.
Some of the records in this series have been digitized.
Committee Papers, 1816-2011
Extent: 9,765 linear feet, 3 linear inches
This series consists of records of the Committee on the Judiciary, 1861鈥�1901, committee papers; petitions, memorials, and resolutions of State legislatures referred to the committee; minutes of committee meetings, 1865鈥�1907; legislative dockets, 1861鈥�1896 and executive dockets, 1865鈥�1901. Records relating to Black history include: the Petition of Colored Citizens of McMinn County, Tennessee, Praying for Protection of Civil Rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, 03/02/1874
, and the Petition to the Senate Requesting the Judiciary Committee Grant a Hearing, ca. 01/1893
.
Some of the records in this series have been digitized.
Petitions and Memorials [Committee on Privileges and Elections], 1871-1944
Extent: 16 linear feet, 1 linear inch
This series contains petitions protesting discrimination against Black voters in elections and related mob violence, including petitions supporting a bill - S. 4252, 56th Congress (1899鈥�1901) - to prevent voting discrimination were also referred to the committee (files #53A-J29.1, #54A-J30.1, #56A-J33.1).
Records Relating to Race Discrimination, 1941-1943
Extent: 10 linear inches
This series is arranged by category, thereunder alphabetically by subject. It contains correspondence and other records of the committee's investigation of racial discrimination in defense industries, segregation of African Americans in military camps, denial of membership to African Americans in various labor unions, and riots in various cities resulting from alleged discrimination.
Record Group 146 - Records of the US Civil Service Commission [USCSC]
Records Relating to Participation in Voting Rights Program, 1965-1967
Extent: 21 linear feet, 4 linear inches
This series is arranged by subject. The Commission was given the responsibility of overseeing voter registration in key political subdivisions in the South after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The records include statistical reports of examiners, who were usually Federal employees in the affected state and who had been appointed by the Commission to examine applicants and list those eligible to vote. The lists indicate whether the voter was White or Black and literate or illiterate. Some of the records are reports of observers who watched newly registered voters casting their ballots.
Photographic Materials
Record Group 46 - Records of the United States Senate
Berryman Political Cartoon Collection, 1896-1949
Extent: 61 linear feet
This series represents one of the finest collections of graphic art dealing with Congress and American politics from the late 1890s to the 1940s. Clifford Kennedy Berryman was Washington's best known and most admired graphic commentator on politics in the first half of the 20th century. Several of the cartoons are untitled, but there are several that depict Black history such as:
- Untitled, 03/25/1948 - showing Southerners abandoning President Truman and the Democrats over the progression of civil rights
- Reconciliation, 01/22/1907 - relating to the Brownsville, TX riot by Black soldiers
- Record's White House Subscriber Interested, 01/08/1907 - relating to the Brownsville, TX riot
- Tillman - The Senatorial Brothers - Foraker, 01/13/1907 - relating to the Brownsville, TX riot
- A Bureau of Information, 10/09/1902
Some of the records in this series have been digitized.