Civil Rights Documents

In his book, The Underground Railroad, William Still tells the story of Henry Brown who escaped to freedom in a sealed box.  When the lid was rem...

Sol White published an account of his experiences as an African-American baseball player in his book, History of Colored Base Ball. Portions of that ...

This image, a page from the Congressional Record, reflects the final House debate on allowing slavery in the new state of Missouri.Although the words ...

Image of the Court Order to close Kent State University, signed by Judge Albert L. Caris. Click on the image for a better view.

Image of a letter sent to students by Kent State University instructor, Shiela Tabakoff, describing how the University dealt with the circumstances fo...

When the FBI arrested a group of men believed to be involved with the murders of Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, the Mississippi St...

For the first time since Reconstruction (of the South, following America's Civil War), Congress was considering legislation granting African-Americans...

When violence against African-Americans escalated during the 1960s, Jackie Robinson worried that harm would come to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After...

This image depicts the second page of a three-page telegram which Jackie Robinson sent to President Kennedy on the 15th of June, 1963.  In it, Ro...

This image depicts the last page of a three-page telegram which Jackie Robinson sent to President Kennedy during June of 1963.  He was urging pro...

Jacob Cook purchased slaves, then those slaves ran away.  Under America's "Fugitive Slave Law of 1850," he had the right to seek-out-and-find tho...

Benjamin Banneker, a free black, prepared an Almanac for 1792 which his publishers called "an extraordinary effort of genius." Banneker’s white ...