Civil Rights Resource Guide

American Memory Historical Collections

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

The collection consists of approximately 20,000 documents. It is organized into three "General Correspondence" series which include incoming and outgoing correspondence and enclosures, drafts of speeches, and notes and printed material. Search this collection, using the phrase "civil rights," to find items related to civil rights.

African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907

The collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review of African-American history and culture, spanning almost one hundred years from the early nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. It contains twelve items on the subject of Afro-Americans civil rights.

American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920

The collection comprises 253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920. It includes White and black, the outcome of a visit to the United States, by Sir George Campbell, M.P. Search this collection, using the phrase "civil rights," to find other items related to civil rights.

An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera

The collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. Rich in variety, the collection includes proclamations, advertisements, blank forms, programs, election tickets, catalogs, clippings, timetables, and menus. It also includes the Civil rights bill and West Point academy. Letter from Gerrit Smith to Frederick Douglass. Peterboro, June 27th, 1874.

American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States

This research guide includes information about African-American women’s involvement in the twentieth-century civil rights movement.

The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600-1925

The collection includes first-person narratives, early histories, historical biographies, promotional brochures, and books of photographs that capture in words and pictures a distinctive region as it developed between the onset of European settlement and the first quarter of the twentieth century. It includes twenty-two items related to civil rights. Search this collection, using the phrase "civil rights," to locate the twenty-two items related to civil rights.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875

The collection consists of a linked set of published congressional records of the United States of America from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875. Search this collection, using the phrase "civil rights," to locate items related to civil rights.

The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925

This compilation of printed texts traces how Southern African Americans experienced and transformed Protestant Christianity into the central institution of community life. It includes The barbarous decision of the United States Supreme Court declaring the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional and disrobing the Colored race of all civil protection : the most cruel and inhuman verdict against a loyal people in the history of the world : also the powerful speeches of Hon. Frederick Douglass and Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, jurist and famous orator. Search this collection, using the phrase "civil rights," to find other items related to civil rights.

The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress

The collection presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher. It includes a "Speech before the Civil Right Mass Meeting" in Washington, D.C.

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909

The collection contains 396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics. The collection includes twelve items on the subject of Afro-Americans civil rights.

The Hannah Arendt Papers at the Library of Congress

The papers of this author, educator, and political philosopher are one of the principal sources for the study of modern intellectual life. The collection includes a "Civil Rights" lecture.

Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s

This online presentation introduces a multi faceted man and some features of complex issues and events related to his life. The collection features a timeline that includes “Breaking the Color Line: 1940-1946."

The Nineteenth Century in Print: Books

The books in this collection bear nineteenth century American imprints, dating mainly from between 1850 and 1880. Currently, approximately 1,500 books are included. It includes the Opinion of Attorney General Bates on citizenship.

The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals

The collection presents twenty-three popular periodicals digitized by Cornell University Library and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress. The collection includes Civil Rights in Court. [The American missionary. / Volume 43, Issue 8, Aug 1889] and The U. S. Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Act. [New Englander and Yale review. / Volume 43, Issue 178, January 1884].

The Panoramic Photograph Collection

The collection contains approximately four thousand images featuring American cityscapes, landscapes, and group portraits. There are seventeen photographs in the collection on the subject of African American Civil Rights.

Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929

The collection assembles a wide array of Library of Congress source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition. The collection includes five items on the subject of Civil rights.

Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860

The collection contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States. Search the collection by full-text using the keyword "civil rights" to locate the thirteen documents relating to civil rights.

Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip

This multiformat ethnographic field collection includes nearly 700 sound recordings, as well as field notes, dust jackets, and other manuscripts documenting a three-month, 6,502-mile trip through the southern United States. The collection includes spirituals and religious songs such as This Little Light o’ Mine.

Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921

The collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. Search this collection, using the phrase "civil rights," to locate items related to civil rights.