In April 1968, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to support sanitation workers that were on strike. It was in Memphis on April 3rd that King would give his final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” The next day, on the evening of April 4th while at the Lorraine Motel, King was … Continue reading April 1968 Washington, D.C. Riots
All this month, the National Park Service is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the completion and dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. Here at the National Archives, we hold literally thousands of records related to the iconic landmark, including several thousand that are digitized and available in the online Catalog. The Lincoln Memorial is more than … Continue reading Lincoln Memorial Link Roundup
Today’s post was written by Allie Mackenzie Roberts. Roberts is an Audiovisual Preservation Specialist at the Richard Nixon Library. Richard Nixon successfully ran for the presidency in 1968 during a very tumultuous time in American history that included the Vietnam War and its protests, North Korea capturing a Naval vessel, the assassinations of Martin Luther … Continue reading “Listen, my friends”: Digitizing the 1968 Richard Nixon Campaign Speeches
This post was co-written by Audrey Amidon and Ashley Behringer. On the Streets of San Francisco Next on our summer tour of the National Archives’ non-textual holdings, we move on from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The city has featured prominently in 20th Century American culture and history, from the devastating 1906 earthquake, to the Haight-Ashbury district’s … Continue reading Summer Road Trip 2019: San Francisco and Yosemite National Park
On to…. Memphis! After much fun visiting “Pinckney Castle” in Charleston, South Carolina, it’s time we hit the road again! Along with everyone else, apparently. But really, what road trip is complete without some sort of traffic fiasco? It’s all part of the cross country touring experience, as you can see in the image 30-N-5523! … Continue reading Summer Road Trip 2019: Memphis and New Orleans
Washington, D.C. is no stranger to protests. Most are one-day affairs, consisting of a march or rally with some speakers and a musical guest or two. A handful, though, have been more long term, with protestors spending days or weeks camped out in our nation’s capital to fight for their cause. Two of the most … Continue reading Protest Camps in D.C.: The Poor People’s Campaign and the Bonus Army Marchers
This post was written by Criss Kovac. Criss Kovac is the supervisor of the Motion Picture Preservation Lab at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It’s not uncommon for NARA to receive less-than-perfect material for films created by federal agencies. One of the types of elements we sometimes receive is called a workprint. Workprints … Continue reading When a Workprint is the Only Print
This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on January 18, the anniversary of a march that Dr. King helped lead from Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church to the Selma Courthouse for the purpose of voter registration. The marchers were not allowed to register, but this was just one skirmish in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s … Continue reading From Selma to Montgomery: The Selma Voting Rights Movement
In 1990, editors at the Harvard Law Review elected their first black president in the journal’s 102-year history. The newly elected 28-year-old president was a law student and community activist. By that time, the lawyer-to-be had gained the respect of his peers and professors, all of who praised the student’s modesty, integrity, and drive to … Continue reading Topic Magazine: Spreading Information to Africa
“The question always comes when you live in a community that’s oppressed and people are living like we have to live in the black community, how do you get a handle on all these problems? And you solve them by trying to create in the citizens an awareness of a need for dramatic and drastic … Continue reading The People and the Police: Washington D.C.’s Police-Community Relations Program, 1968
