Browse Projects
100% Complete
2 Total pages
5 Contributing members
Membership Application for the NAACP
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change.
100% Complete
2 Total pages
5 Contributing members
Flyer announcing mass demonstration in New York City sponsored by SNCC and CORE
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change. This flier announces a mass demonstration in New York City at the FBI Headquarters at 69th Street and 3rd Avenue on June 21st, 1965, sponsored by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
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2 Total pages
3 Contributing members
Handbill advertising a Youth Celebration of Brown v. Board of Education
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change. This handbill advertises a Boston event celebrating the Brown v. The Board of Education decision on May 17, 1954 and was sponsored by the NAACP Youth Council at the Huntington Street YMCA on Sunday May 27, 1954.
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2 Total pages
3 Contributing members
Handbill for a speaking engagement of Rev. Morris H. Tynes on Emmett Till
This flier, from a collection of documents related to the Boston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), provides insight into the Northern reaction to the violence against African Americans in the American South. On August 28, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally lynched in Drew, Mississippi. The murder and subsequent acquittal of the perpetrators were catalysts for a new determination among African Americans in the fight for civil rights. Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley said, "The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all!!!" In the same year, Lamar Smith, a farmer and World War I veteran, was shot and killed on the courthouse steps of Brookhaven, Mississippi, and George W. Lee, a grocery store owner and director of the local NAACP branch, was murdered in Belzoni, Mississippi, both in retaliation for encouraging Blacks to register to vote. The violence shocked the nation and inspired new action in the Civil Rights Movement across the country.
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2 Total pages
3 Contributing members
Handbill advertising a Brotherhood Reception for T.R.M. Howard, M.D.
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change. This handbill advertising a Brotherhood Reception for T.R.M. Howard, M.D., President Regional Council of Negro Leadership and President of the Negro Medical Association on February 15, 1956 at the Museum of Science, Boston. The reception was sponsored by B'Nai B'Rith, the NAACP Youth Council and the United Christian Youth Movement.
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2 Total pages
2 Contributing members
Handbill for an Alabama suffrage campaign
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change. This handbill urges residents of Alabama to register to vote in the Presidential Pre-Primary to re-elect the present Ward 9 Democratic Committee.
100% Complete
2 Total pages
2 Contributing members
Handbill advertising Negro History Week at Freedom House, Boston
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change. This handbill advertises a Negro History Week programming at the Freedom House in Boston. These activities were sponsored by the Boston NAACP Youth Council.
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2 Total pages
3 Contributing members
Flier announcing a public discussion on "Desegregation and the NAACP"
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change. This flier advertises a public discussion on "Desegregation and the NAACP" featuring Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers, Edward L. Cooper and Lawrence G. Brooks on Friday May 4, 1956 at the Quinn Auditorium of the Rindge Tech High School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The discussion was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Charles Street Form on Social Issues, Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
100% Complete
2 Total pages
2 Contributing members
Handbill advertising a Prayer Meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr.
The 2023 Black History Month theme, Black Resistance, celebrates African Americans who work to survive and thrive in the face of racial oppression. Historically this has been done through activism, community building, organizing, and network building. This collection of documents from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People serves as an example of that rich history of this work for change. This handbill announces a "Prayer Meeting and Song Fest" with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the United Methodist Church of Boston, Massachusetts on March 23, 1956. The meeting was sponsored by the Sigma Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the Interdenominational Ministers' Alliance of Boston.
100% Complete
9 Total pages
34 Contributing members
Interview of Sonia Sanchez, by Wanda Coleman & Nancy Shiffrin, November 17, 1986, Side 1
Please view the instructions for transcribing audio collections before beginning. Pearl Bowser (b. 1931) is a renowned African American film scholar, filmmaker, author, and film/conference programmer. She is widely recognized as an expert on the works of Oscar Micheaux, who is considered the first major African American filmmaker. Working as a researcher from the 1960s through the early 2000s, Bowser travelled the world interviewing actors, actresses, filmmakers, and scholars, including Lorenzo Tucker, Gordon Parks, Arthur Jafa, Edna Mae Harris, Toni Cade Bambara, and many others. As a programmer (1971-2012), she organized conferences and film festivals that focused on the rich, yet often obscure, history of African Americans in film. The audio in this project is from unique recordings of the interviews, conferences, and film festivals captured by Pearl Bowser. Some of the recordings may have lower quality and require close attention to understand the content, and some speakers may not be identified, or the recordings may not include the beginning of their remarks. If a speaker cannot be identified either by context in the recording or by notes from the project team, please list them as “unidentified speaker” in the transcription. Some of the recordings may contain sensitive or offensive language. For historical accuracy, our policy is to transcribe the language as it is presented in the recordings. See TC’s FAQ page for more information on transcribing sensitive language. All recordings are in the English language. The transcriptions created by TC volunteers will be used to make these unique and important recordings accessible to researchers, scholars, and the general public.
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3 Total pages
39 Contributing members
The North Star, Volume 1, Number 22
Frederick Douglass was born in 1808 as Frederick August Washington Bailey, the son of an enslaved woman and possibly her white enslaver in Maryland. Douglass emancipated himself at the age of 20. Over the course of his life, he shared his experiences of enslavement in three autobiographies. Douglass was a leader of the abolition movement, fighting against slavery through speeches and writings. He passed away in 1874 at his home in Washington D.C. The North Star, later called Frederick Douglass' Paper, was an antislavery newspaper published by Frederick Douglass. First published on December 3, 1847, using funds Douglass earned during a speaking tour in Great Britain and Ireland, The North Star soon developed into one of the most influential African American antislavery publications of the pre-Civil War era. The name of the newspaper paid homage to the fact that escaping slaves used the North Star in the night sky to guide them to freedom. The paper was published in Rochester, New York, a city known for its opposition to slavery. The motto of the newspaper was, "Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren." Published weekly, The North Star was four pages long and sold by subscription at a cost of $2.00 per year to more than 4,000 readers in the United States, Europe, and the West Indies. The first of its four pages focused on current events having to do with abolitionist issues; pages two and three included editorials, letters from readers, articles, poetry, and book reviews; the fourth page was devoted to advertisements. In the paper, Douglass wrote with great feeling about what he saw as the huge gap between what Americans claimed to be their Christian beliefs and the prejudice and discrimination he witnessed. This issue, published May 26, 1848, contains several anti-slavery essays, the speech of Lucretia Mott at the American Anti-Slavery Society, notices of anti-slavery activities around the region, and general advertisements.
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12 Total pages
8 Contributing members
Jim Vance's notebook used September 5, 2012
Jim Vance (1942-2017) was an American television news reporter in Washington, D.C. One of the first African American co-anchors of a major market newscast, Vance was the region's longest-serving television news anchor with more than 45 years at WRC-TV. He earned 19 Emmy awards, including the Emmy for Outstanding News Anchor in five different years. In 2007, Vance was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. Over his storied career Jim Vance covered major events including the 2012 Presidential Election. In September of 2012 Vance led coverage of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for WRC-TV. Learn about President Barack Obama’s presidential nomination acceptance speech when you help us transcribe this notebook used by Jim Vance. Help us transcribe this reporter’s notebook and get a glimpse into this historic event.
