Black History

Civil Rights Exhibit Opens at Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in New York

Hyde Park, NY — The opening of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum’s feature exhibit, “Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932–1962,” allows the library to share its extensive collection relating to Black American history. By highlighting these critical primary sources, the library’s team aims to inspire a deeper understanding of Black American experiences and a critical evaluation of the period.

Published

9 months ago

September 28, 2023

Oakland Post

A complete uniform on loan from the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum. Photo courtesy of Clifford Laube.

By Kristin Phillips
National Archives News

The exhibition showcases archival documents from across the library’s collections. It centers the historical voices of many Black community leaders, wartime service members, and other citizens who directly engaged the Roosevelt administration and pushed for progress.

“This exhibit looks critically at how Black Americans fared under the New Deal and throughout the Roosevelt administration, and how the Roosevelts worked with prominent Black American leaders and advanced the causes of civil rights,” said Supervisory Curator Herman Eberhardt.

The story emerges as one of Black Americans organizing and expanding national networks of political allies to create new opportunities for social justice and to find ways to combat Jim Crow segregation, widespread discrimination, and the harsh and often violent realities of racism in America.

From the Great Depression and New Deal through World War II and the postwar Civil Rights movement, “Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts” offers critical perspectives on, and candid assessments of, the administration’s policies and practices and of the Roosevelts themselves.

Records relating to educator, activist, writer, Presidential adviser, and the first Black woman to head a federal agency, Mary McLeod Bethune, on display in the new exhibit. Photo courtesy Clifford Laube.

“The FDR Library may not come to mind as a destination for studying Black history, but in fact there is tremendous documentation of Black perspectives, and evidence of government interactions with Black communities, preserved and made available here,” said Supervisory Archivist Kirsten Carter.

“There are countless and very moving testimonies of Black American experiences woven deeply throughout the archives. With this exhibition, the library has an opportunity to share and celebrate these primary sources, and hopefully to inspire new, original research.

The exhibit was developed over three years, in collaboration with a committee of distinguished scholars chaired by David Levering Lewis, a Pulitzer Prize–winning American historian and professor at New York University. It draws from archival collections at the Roosevelt Library and beyond.

The Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum loaned a complete uniform. Many political campaign and protest materials like buttons, fliers, signs, and newspapers came from private collections nationwide.

Many documents and artifacts in the exhibit are on display for the first time. One example is a letter from Mary McLeod Bethune, educator, activist, writer, Presidential adviser, and the first Black woman to head a federal agency. Her letter to FDR in June 1938 encouraged him to support a bill to increase federal funding for Black American education in the South. These materials provide evidence of the unrelenting efforts of many key figures of the early civil rights movement, such as Bethune.

Exhibits also document the racism and discrimination in American politics as well as the culture of the era, highlighting the contradictions inherent in fighting for democracy abroad while injustice persisted at home.

“Our hope is that this exhibition will spark civil dialogue and engagement, leading to an inspired change in our nation,” said Roosevelt Library Director William Harris. “We’ve seen examples of this throughout history with our nation’s courage to overcome the Great Depression and how the world joined together to overcome fascism during World War II.”

Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932–1962, is on display through December 31, 2024. For more information, visit the library and museum’s website. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum is on the eastern shore of the Hudson River, four miles north of Poughkeepsie, New York, midway between New York City and Albany. The library is easily reached by car, train, or plane.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024

Published

2 days ago

June 14, 2024

Oakland Post

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Statement on 80th Anniversary of D-Day

Representative Barbara Lee (CA-12) released the following statement on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. “80 years ago, one of the largest invasions in historical warfare—and the start to the end of World War II—took place. Today, we look back to the over 2,400 American lives lost on the beaches of Normandy, remember their stories, and honor their immense bravery.

Published

3 days ago

June 13, 2024

Oakland Post

“D-Day will forever live on in history. May we honor their lives and all who have served by investing in veterans’ health care, economic security, and opportunity when they return home.”

Washington, D.C. – Representative Barbara Lee (CA-12) released the following statement on the 80^th anniversary of D-Day.

“80 years ago, one of the largest invasions in historical warfare—and the start to the end of World War II—took place. Today, we look back to the over 2,400 American lives lost on the beaches of Normandy, remember their stories, and honor their immense bravery.

“My father, Lt. Col. Garvin A. Tutt, was a Buffalo soldier in the 92^nd infantry, a racially segregated and Black-only division that was instrumental in the success of Normandy and the Allied advance. Today and every day, I think of him and all of the brave servicemembers who sacrificed for our country, even when our country didn’t love them back.

“D-Day will forever live on in history. May we honor their lives and all who have served by investing in veterans’ health care, economic security, and opportunity when they return home.”

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U.S. Rep. Kamlager-Dove Leads Discussion on Improving Black Student Learning, Test Scores

Kamlager-Dove, who represents a district that covers parts of Los Angeles County, hopes that ideas shared at the event can be incorporated into models that can impact other regions across California, where Black students continue to fall behind their peers of other races and ethnicities.

Published

6 days ago

June 10, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) moderates a panel including Dr. Kortne Edogun-Ticey, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Education during Roundtable on Equity in Education for Los Angeles Unified School District (R to L) beside Kamlager-Dove Dr. Robert Whitman, Educational Transformation Officer, Los Angeles USD; Dr. Kortne Edogun-Ticey, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Education; Keith Linton, Founder, Boys to Gentlemen, Dr. Pedro Noguera, Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and LAUSD student Jonathan McGee. Photo by Lila Brown (CBM).

By Lila Brown, California Black Media

On April 8, U.S. Congressmember Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37) moderated a roundtable focused on Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) strategies to improve Black student performance in classrooms.

Kamlager-Dove, who represents a district that covers parts of Los Angeles County, hopes that ideas shared at the event can be incorporated into models that can impact other regions across California, where Black students continue to fall behind their peers of other races and ethnicities.

Discussions at the event centered on LAUSD’s Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) and other educational initiatives aimed at enhancing learning and boosting test scores.

“The Black Student Achievement Plan is unique in that it takes a community-centered approach to uplifting Black students,” said Kamlager-Dove during the event held at John Muir Middle School in Los Angeles.

“We must implement culturally responsive education in the classroom to challenge our students academically while giving them a sense of purpose,” she continued.

In 2023, nearly 70% of Black children in California fell below a passing mark on the state standardized English Language Arts exam, and only about 20% of those students were performing at grade level based on their scores on the math assessment test.

A variety of public education experts joined Kamlager on the panel, including Dr. Kortne Edogun-Ticey, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Education; Dr. Robert Whitman, Educational Transformation Officer at LAUSD; Dr. Pedro Noguera, Professor and Dean at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education; and Keith Linton, founder of the non-profit Boys to Gentlemen.

Jonathan McGee, a student who sits on the BSAP Student Advisory Council, also spoke during the panel.

The BSAP was approved by the LAUSD Board of Education in February of the 2020-21 school year. Funds have been earmarked to address the longstanding disparities in educational outcomes between Black students and their non-Black peers. Dating back to the landmark case, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional, positive outcomes for Black students continue to lag behind district and national averages for their non-Black counterparts.

Edogun-Ticey spoke about broader investments the federal government is making in education that directly impact Black students through The White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.

‘This administration did not shy away from the idea that we need resources for support which means billions of dollars in investment for HBCUs,” she explained.

BSAP strategies include partnering with Black families and local community; supporting the implementation of culturally and linguistically responsive and anti-racist practices; offering wrap-around support structures; and highlighting experiences that uplift the contributions of the Black community as motivation and models to develop positive Black student identity. Additionally, the BSAP provides increased staffing to support Black students’ academic and social-emotional needs.

“School districts across the country must push back against attacks on marginalized students by implementing programs like the BSAP, which should serve as a model for future initiatives,” Kamlager said.