Primary Sources Collection: Black American Political Organizing in the 20th and 21st Centuries

This collection highlights selections from WBA? that focus on different African American political organizing strategies from the 1910s until the 2010s. The collection contains documents that capture Black Americans’ participation in political efforts, their interactions with government and legal structures, and their uses of community institutions, media, and cultural groups to mobilize for change. These materials can be woven throughout U.S. History survey courses and would also work well as a unit in an African American studies class. 
   

1900s/1910s

• Textbook Section: “Women’s Political Culture” in Vol. 2, Chap. 5 (covers WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union), Black church organizations)

1920s 

• Textbook Section: “African American Life in the 1920s and the Harlem Renaissance” in Vol. 2, Chap. 7 (covers the early work of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the UNIA (United Negro Improvement Association), and Black politicians running for office) 
• Images: “The New Negro Has No Fear” (1920) and The Crisis (1929)
• Voice: “Speak, Garvey, Speak!” (undated)

1930s

• Textbook Section: “Gender and Race in the New Deal” in Vol. 2, Chap. 9 (covers “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” movement and addresses educational segregation)
• Voice: “Please Help Us Mr. President”: Black Americans Write to FDR (1935)

1940s

• Textbook Section: “Origins of the Modern African American Civil Rights Movement” in Vol. 2, Chap. 10 (covers the “Double V” campaign, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Black workers’ work stoppages)
• Closer Look: Black Mississippians Resist Voter Suppression

1950s/1960s

• Textbook Section: “The Civil Rights Movement” in Vol. 2, Chap. 12 (covers struggles in the North, Midwest and West, in addition to the South, creation of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), grassroots efforts, federal response) 
• Image: Attack on Freedom Riders (1961)
• Voice: “We Were Prepared” (focuses on the 1950s)

2010s

• Textbook Section: “The Obama Years–Successes and Failures” and “Black Lives Matter” in Vol. 2, Chap. 16 (covers influence and impact of Obama, Black Lives Matter protests) 
• Voice: Black Women Organize #BlackLivesMatter
• Closer Look: Twitter and the Ferguson Uprising
• Closer Look: Dismantling of the Voting Rights Act

2020

• Textbook Section: “A Global Movement Rises in the Midst of a Global Pandemic” in Vol. 2, Chap. 17 (covers continued Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd)