BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Archives -- Exhibit: Records of Rights

DC -- Natl Archives -- Exhibit: Records of Rights:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NARORX_131211_009.JPG: David M. Rubinstein, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, is co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private-equity firms, as well as a generous philanthropist. David M. Rubenstein, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, is co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms, as well as a generous philanthropist. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in 1961, Rubenstein decided to serve his country by getting involved in politics and government. After graduating from Duke University and The University of Chicago Law School, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments from 1975-76, and at age 27, he became President Jimmy Carter's Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy. He co-founded The Carlyle Group in 1987. Rubenstein has committed to dedicating the majority of his wealth to philanthropy, and has developed a passion for supporting cultural and historical institutions, including the National Archives and its Foundation. In 2007, Rubenstein purchased a rare 1297 copy of Magna Carta, and offered it for display at the National Archives. Through Rubenstein's support, this treasured document has been conserved for future generations. Rubenstein also has provided the Archives with a rare engraving of the Declaration of Independence. The National Archives and its Foundation honored these efforts in 2011, awarding him the Foundation's Records of Achievement Award. With further support from Rubenstein, the National Archives Museum was able to expand its exhibition space, opening a new visitor orientation plaza and the David M. Rubenstein Gallery. The gallery features Magna Carta, the English charter that inspired our own Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, which are displayed in the National Archives Rotunda. The Rubenstein Gallery also is home to a permanent exhibition exploring the evolution of rights in our democracy.
2. NARORX_131211_011.JPG: Records of Rights
3. NARORX_131211_043.JPG: Inspiration for Americans: On the eve of the American Revolution, Massachusetts adopted a seal depicting a soldier holding a sword in one hand and Magna Carta in the other. Magna Carta served to inspire and justify action in liberty's defense. The colonists believed they were entitled to the same rights as Englishmen, rights guaranteed in Magna Carta. They encoded those rights into the laws of their states and later into the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Just as Magna Carta could not be overruled by the king, the Constitution is the "Supreme Law of the Land." The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution ("no person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.") is a direct descendant of Magna Carta's guarantee or proceedings according to the "law of the land."
4. NARORX_131211_047.JPG: Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, June 13, 1866, first and signature pages
5. NARORX_131211_051.JPG: Equal Protection of the Laws: In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the Constitution was amended to abolish slavery, establish civil equality, and guarantee all men the right to vote. Ratified on July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," thereby granting citizenship to former slaves. It also stated that "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." With language echoing the Declaration of Independence, all Americans were not only created equal but were to be treated equally before the law. Racism, segregation, and disenfranchisement limited the effect of the 14th Amendment until the 1960s and beyond. Yet, over time its impact was deep and widespread. It has been cited by those on both sides of contentious social issues ranging from abortion to marriage equality for gays and lesbians.
6. NARORX_131211_053.JPG: Records of Rights: Citizens petition and protest, lawmakers draft bills, and courts make rulings. The passionate and continuous national debate about our rights is recorded in the original documents displayed here. In the 13th century, Magna Carta asserted in writing that fundamental rights exist and must be protected. More than 200 years ago, our revolutionary ancestors, influenced by Magna Carta, enshrined certain rights in our Charters -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights -- on display one floor above this gallery in the Rotunda of the National Archives. The debate about our rights continues in public laws, constitutional amendments, executive orders, judicial decisions, and other records preserved in the National Archives. These records document the expansion -- and sometimes the retraction-- of our rights. Shown here are Records of Rights -- significant moments in the ongoing struggle to define our rights, recorded in these original documents.
7. NARORX_131211_057.JPG: Equal Protection of the Laws
8. NARORX_131211_060.JPG: "To be true to one's own freedom, is in essence, to honor and respect the freedoms of all others." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
9. NARORX_131211_066.JPG: Remembering the Ladies
10. NARORX_131211_070.JPG: Remembering the Ladies: Women in the United States were not granted the right to vote until 1920. Nevertheless, as evidenced here, women were organizing and petitioning for equal rights since the country was founded. In the process, they redefined the opening words of the US Constitution -- "We the People" -- to include both sexes: * How did women communicate to the Federal Government before they could vote? * How did they win the right to vote? * What other rights did women have to fight for? The letters, photographs, petitions, and laws displayed here enable us to explore our collective past for the answers.
11. NARORX_131211_074.JPG: Repatriation oath of Louisa Fouquet McDewar, March 8, 1939
12. NARORX_131211_076.JPG: Repatriation oath of Bernice Eloise Fernandez, dated September 9, 1938
13. NARORX_131211_078.JPG: Citizenship Lost -- And Regained: The National Archives holds hundreds of repatriation oaths of American-born women. A 1907 congressional act stated that "any American woman who married a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband." In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled that by agreeing to a marriage a woman "had simultaneously given her consent to expatriation." Only through death or divorce could a woman repatriate -- limits that remained until the Married Women's Independent Nationality Act of 1922.
14. NARORX_131211_081.JPG: Marriage and Citizenship: Who is a citizen? The answer to that question has changed over time, as revealed in the records shown here. Until 1922, a woman's citizenship status was inextricably linked with marriage. Her citizenship status depended on that of her husband.
15. NARORX_131211_087.JPG: Conditions in the Workplace: Expanding Options: Lt. [Junior Grade] Harriet Ida Pickens [left] and FNS Frances Wills, shown here in December 1944, were the first African American WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) to be commissioned. Both were in the final graduating class of the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School of Massachusetts. Statistically, minority women -- single and married -- were more likely to seek employment outside the home than were white women. Their options were often restricted to factory or domestic work, and workplace conditions were often substandard. The factory jobs above, show examples of poor working conditions.
16. NARORX_131211_091.JPG: In the Workplace: The 20th century brought a dramatic increase in the number of working women and in the types of jobs they held -- opportunities created by two World Wars and economic necessity. Discover, through these photographs and documents, examples of women in the workplace.
17. NARORX_131211_094.JPG: Equal Pay for Equal Work: President Obama Signs Fair Pay Act: When Lilly Ledbetter discovered that she made 71 percent of what her male counterparts made, she filed a lawsuit that ultimately went to the Supreme Court. On January 29, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. It resets the statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit with each new discriminatory paycheck.
18. NARORX_131211_097.JPG: Adapting to Change: For Supervisors of Women: World War II created unprecedented opportunities for women to find work or secure better jobs. The need for nurses, factory workers, and other positions to support the war effort allowed more women than ever before to be in the workforce. This War Department pamphlet was circulated to guide supervisors "in adapting women to industrial work." When Working Women LIMIT her hours to 8 a day and 48 a week. Schedule short morning and afternoon rest intervals on arduous jobs. Have diet-balanced luncheons available -- and extra food on exhausting jobs. Provide ample clean toilets and rest rooms -- good plant ventilation free of dust, fumes, and drafts -- work seats and benches at proper height -- clean orderly surroundings -- safety devices on machinery. Insist on proper work clothing, safe shoes. Promote adequate local housing and transportation. And...
19. NARORX_131211_100.JPG: "It's either that, or time off until a day nursery is organized!"
20. NARORX_131211_103.JPG: Suffragists: White House Protestors Jailed: In January, 1917, members of the National Women's Party, led by Alice Paul, began picketing outside the White House in support of woman suffrage, the first political activists to do so. The protestors were arrested and, in some cases, imprisoned in Virginia's Occoquan Workhouse. While in jail, many were mistreated; some went on hunger strikes and were force-fed.
21. NARORX_131211_106.JPG: Suffrage for All: "In Our Government.... A Large Majority Have No Voice" This printed memorial, or petition, pleads for Congress to recognize that "all discriminations on account of sex or race may be removed." Founded in 1866 by Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, the American Equal Rights Association demanded universal suffrage. However, as tensions grew between African Americans and women's rights activists, the group disbanded just a few years later. See highlighted text. Appeal to the Women of the United States: In 1876, on behalf of the National Woman Suffrage Suffrage Association, women's rights activists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton signed this appeal to dedicate the nation's second century to "securing justice to Woman." It asked women to gather signatures and send them in to make "... the largest petition ever yet."
22. NARORX_131211_113.JPG: "I know you are asking today, 'How long will it take?' Somebody's asking, 'How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?' Somebody's asking, 'When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over the South, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men?' .... How long? Not long, because they arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." -- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 25, 1965, Montgomery, Alabama
23. NARORX_131211_115.JPG: "Dear Mr. President" The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees all Americans the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Many Americans -- children as well as adults -- have exercised this right by writing to the President of the United States. In these letters to the White House, children voice their opinions about the violation of US citizens' civil rights.
24. NARORX_131211_118.JPG: Andrew E. Evans to President Truman, June 20, 1949
25. NARORX_131211_121.JPG: J. Tagliaru to President Truman, May 28, 1948
26. NARORX_131211_123.JPG: Barred from Playgrounds and Hotels: Many Americans wrote to President Harry S Truman to voice their opposition to racial segregation. Eleven-year-old Andrew S. Evans wrote regarding segregated playgrounds. Nine-year-old J. Tagliaru was very upset that 51 school children were not allowed into a Washington DC hotel because of the race of four of the children. In his letter, Tagliaru added two drawings to illustrate his displeasure and to depict his vision for a better society.
27. NARORX_131211_125.JPG: Records of Rights: America's founding documents are icons of human liberty. But the ideals enshrined in those documents did not initially apply to all Americans. They were, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir." In "Records of Rights," you can explore how generations sought to fulfill this promise of freedom. The Founders debated and Americans continue to debate issues such as citizenship, free speech, voting rights, and equal opportunity. National Archives documents capture many of these controversies and illustrate how Americans have sought to fulfill the promise of the founding documents.
28. NARORX_131211_128.JPG: " 'We, the people.' It's a very eloquent beginning... I was not included in that 'We, the people.' ... But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the people'." -- Barbara Jordan, 1974
29. NARORX_131211_132.JPG: "The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it." -- Chief Joseph, 1879
30. NARORX_131211_138.JPG: Bending Towards Justice: For generations, Americans of African descent were barred from exercising the rights guaranteed to all citizens, and our nation wrestled with the conflict between the promise of freedom and the realities of slavery and racism. * After declaring that "all men are created equal" in 1776, how could the United States justify slavery? * How could a nation that declared "all men are created equal" use slaves to build its capital? * How did African Americans win freedom within a slave society? * How did African Americans fight racism's legacy in the 20th century? Through these documents, discover the struggles to ensure full equality for African Americans and to live up to our nation's ideals.
31. NARORX_131211_140.JPG: Fighting for Freedom: During the Revolutionary War, African Americans joined the Continental Army to secure political freedom for the United States and their own freedom from slavery. Although some liberated themselves through military service, the institution of slavery remained intact. During the Civil War, thousands of African Americans joined the Union Army, again with the goal of gaining freedom from slavery for themselves, family members, and other enslaved people.
32. NARORX_131211_143.JPG: Discharge papers for Pvt. Cato Greene, June 5, 1783
33. NARORX_131211_147.JPG: Pension affadavit submitted by Cato Greene, June 6, 1820
34. NARORX_131211_149.JPG: Revolutionary War Veteran: Cato Greene -- captured in Guinea, Africa, and sold into slavery in Rhode Island -- fought in the Revolutionary War "to obtain his freedom." Greene's discharge papers record that he served in Rhode Island regiments for five years and was discharged from the Continental Army in 1783 by Gen. George Washington. He gained his freedom as a result of his service. Greene died in 1826 at the age of 86.
35. NARORX_131211_152.JPG: Slaves Build Capitol and White House: Ironically, the capital of our democratic nation was built largely by enslaved people. Constructing the new city required a great deal of labor. White laborers were in somewhat short supply, but enslaved Africans were relatively abundant. Hired out by their owners to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, slaved helped construct both the US Capitol and the White House. They served as bricklayers, quarry workers, sawyers, and more. The capital could not have been built without them. The Capitol's dome was adorned with the Statue of Freedom on December 2, 1863. Philip Reid, while enslaved, had devised the means by which the statue's plaster mold could be cast in bronze. Reid gained his freedom through the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of April 1862.
36. NARORX_131211_158.JPG: Slavery in a Democracy "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Despite these famous words in the Declaration of Independence, all Americans were not treated equally when that founding document was written. Thousands of men and women, brought here against their will from Africa, remained enslaved
37. NARORX_131211_159.JPG: Slave Records: One Family's History: This list of slaved owned by the Newcomb family of Virginia is from their family Bible. Included is the birth of Arrinia Curtis on February 15, 1809, just weeks before James Madison, one of the chief architects of the Constitution, took office as President. See highlighted text.
38. NARORX_131211_162.JPG: DC Emancipation: On April 16, 1862, Congress passed the "Act for the Release of Certain Persons Held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia." The bill ended slavery in the District and provided for compensation for its slave owners who were loyal to the Union and who emancipating their slaves. Twelve days later, Quintin Barker, a District resident, submitted this list of his slaves -- Amanda Wallace and her five children: Ellen, Joanna, Elizabeth, Emaline, and Winna.
39. NARORX_131211_165.JPG: Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, April 19, 1866
40. NARORX_131211_168.JPG: Paths to Freedom: The 13th Amendment ultimately brought an end to slavery in the United States. Prior to its ratification in 1865, however, enslaved people found other routes to freedom. Some escaped. Some staged armed revolts. Others purchased their freedom with money that they had earned and been allowed to keep. Still others were freed through the will of a deceased owner. In April 1862, an act of Congress freed those enslaved in the District of Columbia.
41. NARORX_131211_173.JPG: Heading North: In anticipation of large numbers of newly freed blacks flocking to Washington DC, the Federal Government established Freedman's Village. The plan was for a temporary settlement providing housing and work to assimilate the freedman. The reality was a semi-permanent home in Arlington, Virginia, for hundreds of people from 1863 to 1900. Others escaped from slavery and headed further north, as Georgia-born Fremont Adams did to Brooklyn, New York. As his compiled military service record indicates, he "came to the north for the purpose of Enlisting" in the Union Army. Adams enlisted as a private in the 1st US Colored Cavalry on March 23, 1865.
42. NARORX_131211_175.JPG: Plan for "Freedman's Village" near Arlington Heights, Virginia, July 10, 1865.
43. NARORX_131211_178.JPG: Map of Washington DC, ca 1863
44. NARORX_131211_180.JPG: From Slave to Entrepreneur When Elijah King lost an arm after a gunpowder explosion, his owner -- Caldwell Carr of Fauquier County, Virginia -- freed him. King bought produce in Virginia and sold it in the District of Columbia. As this 1857 list shows, he ultimately acquired substantial property on 17th street.
45. NARORX_131211_184.JPG: Promised & Delivered
46. NARORX_131211_188.JPG: 1870: Fifteenth Amendment: On February 26, 1869, Congress passed this resolution promising that the right of male US citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged "on account of race, color, of previous condition of servitude." By February 3, 1870, three-quarters of the states ratified the 15th Amendment. While a great victory for black men, women were excluded. Furthermore, full delivery of the promise was postponed as some states took steps to limit or deny black men their constitutional right to vote.
47. NARORX_131211_193.JPG: Within 30 years after the 15th Amendment's ratification, many states had instituted ways to prevent African American men from exercising their right to vote. The Voting Rights Act was intended to "enforce the fifteenth amendment" in the face of such obstructions. It prohibits the use of devices such as literacy tests to hinder or block African Americans from voting, and empowers the Attorney General to seek the overturn of poll taxes. President Lyndon Johnson signed the act on August 6, 1965 -- nearly a century after ratification of the 15th Amendment. On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court declared Section 4 of the Act unconstitutional. From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/voting-rights-act-supreme-court_n_3429810.html The Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, the provision of the landmark civil rights law that designates which parts of the country must have changes to their voting laws cleared by the federal government or in federal court. The 5-4 ruling, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that "things have changed dramatically" in the South in the nearly 50 years since the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965. The court's opinion said it did not strike down the act of Congress "lightly," and said it "took care to avoid ruling on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act" in a separate case back in 2009. "Congress could have updated the coverage formula at that time, but did not do so. Its failure to act leaves us today with no choice but to declare [Section 4] unconstitutional. The formula in that section can no longer be used as a basis for subjecting jurisdictions to preclearance." The Voting Rights Act has recently been used to block a voter ID law in Texas and delay the implementation of another in South Carolina. Both states are no longer subject to the preclearance requirement because of the court's ruling on Tuesday. "Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions," Roberts wrote. "There is no doubt that these improvements are in large part because of the Voting Rights Act," he wrote. "The Act has proved immensely successful at redressing racial discrimination and integrating the voting process." In his bench statement, Roberts said that Congress had extended a 40-year-old coverage formula based on "obsolete statistics and that the coverage formula "violates the constitution." Congress, the court ruled, "may draft another formula based on current conditions." But given the fact that Republicans currently control the House of Representatives, many voting rights advocates consider it unlikely that Congress will act to create a new formula. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a wide-ranging dissent on behalf of herself and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, justifying the continued vitality of the Voting Rights Act's preclearance provision. "The sad irony of today's decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the VRA has proven effective," Ginsburg wrote. "The Court appears to believe that the VRA's success in eliminating the specific devices extant in 1965 means that preclear�ance is no longer needed." The court did not rule on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the preclearance requirement itself, which requires those affected states to have changes to their voting laws cleared by the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington, D.C., before they go into effect. Rather, the court ruled that the current formula that determines which states are covered by Section 5 is unconstitutional, effectively eliminating Section 5 enforcement, at least for the time being. "In the Court's view, the very success of �5 of the Voting Rights Act demands its dormancy," Ginsburg wrote. She said in her bench statement that in renewing Section 5 in 2006, Congress "found that 40 years has not been a sufficient amount of time to eliminate the vestiges of discrimination following nearly 100 years of disregard for the 15th Amendment." The provision has proven "enormously successful" in increasing minority registration and access to the ballot and preventing a "return to old ways," Ginsburg said. Even in jurisdictions where discrimination may not be overt, "subtle methods" have emerged to diminish minority turnout, such as racial gerrymandering. As for Section 4, Ginsburg wrote that "the record for the 2006 reauthorization makes abundantly clear [that] second-generation barriers to minority voting rights have emerged in the covered jurisdictions as at�tempted substitutes for the first-generation barriers that originally triggered preclearance in those jurisdictions." "Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan and I are of the view that Congress' decision to extend the act and keep the formula was a rational one," Ginsburg said. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas reiterated his belief that Section 5 is also unconstitutional, a position he took in his dissent from the Court's previous encounter with the Voting Rights Act in 2009. "However one aggregates the data compiled by Congress, it cannot justify the considerable burdens created by �5," Thomas wrote on Tuesday. The Obama Justice Department, believing the court might strike down Section 5 in the 2009 case, devised a plan to react to the ruling. A Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Voting rights advocates condemned the Supreme Court's ruling. "The Supreme Court has effectively gutted one of the nation's most important and effective civil rights laws," Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement. "Minority voters in places with a record of discrimination are now at greater risk of being disenfranchised than they have been in decades. Today's decision is a blow to democracy. Jurisdictions will be able to enact policies which prevent minorities from voting, and the only recourse these citizens will have will be expensive and time-consuming litigation." "Today's U.S. Supreme Court decision erases fundamental protections against racial discrimination in voting that have been effective for more than 40 years," Elisabeth MacNamara, president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, said in a statement. "Congress must act quickly to restore the Voting Rights Act." "Today will be remembered as a step backwards in the march towards equal rights," said Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "We must ensure that this day is just a page in our nation's history, rather than the return to a dark chapter." "The Roberts Court proved again that it will not be deterred by Supreme Court precedent, the realities on the ground in our nation; nor will it defer to Congress even when the legislative branch is granted clear authority by the Constitution to remedy our nation's long history of discrimination against racial and language minorities," said J. Gerald Hebert of the Campaign Legal Center. "The Court today declared racism dead in this country despite mountains of evidence to the contrary."
48. NARORX_131211_195.JPG: Controversial Bulletin: "Undemocratic" After two African-American soldiers stationed at Camp Funston, Kansas, visited a local theater in February 1918, Maj. Gen. CC Ballou issued Bulletin 35 stating that "colored members of his command... should refrain from going where their presence will be resented." In this letter to President Woodrow Wilson, journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett criticized the "vicious and undemocratic" bulletin.
49. NARORX_131211_198.JPG: Streetcar Eviction "Against the Rules" On February 1, 1864, Dr. Alexander T. Augusta, an African-American doctor in the Union Army, attempted to board a Washington DC street car. The conductor ejected Augusta because, he said, "it was against the rules for colored persons to ride inside." In this letter to CA Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, Augusta describes the "outrage committed upon me by the Conductor of Car No. 32, of the City Railway Co."
50. NARORX_131211_201.JPG: Discrimination on the Railroads: "Filthy and Inadequate" In this 1908 letter, President Theodore Roosevelt informed the Justice Department that the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Company was violating an Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) order to provide separate but equal accommodations to African-Americans. Roosevelt said that "accommodations furnished to colored persons... are filthy and inadequate" and directed the Justice Department to enforce the ICC order. William Chappelle, an editor for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, congratulated President Roosevelt for his action.
51. NARORX_131211_206.JPG: Separate & Unequal: In the 1890s, some states began passing laws limiting the rights of African Americans. Voting restrictions increased during the first half of the 1900s. Poll taxes discriminated against poor blacks. "Understanding tests" required prospective black voters to "correctly" interpret a section of the state of US Constitution. African Americans were not allowed to vote in primaries. States also segregated African Americans into separate and unequal public facilities. In its 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana's racially designated train cars were constitutional. By World War I, so-called "Jim Crow" laws segregated the races in restaurants, theaters, parks, and hospitals.
52. NARORX_131211_208.JPG: Denied the Right to Vote
53. NARORX_131211_211.JPG: "Colored" waiting room, bus station, Monroe, Louisiana. 1961 [Oddly enough, the sign above both the door and the drinking fountain say "For Interstate and Colored Interstate Passengers." I read this as being for any interstate passenger, regardless of race.]
54. NARORX_131211_216.JPG: Violence: Murder on Christmas Day: As head of the Florida National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Harry T. Moore tirelessly protested lynchings and discrimination. He led a voter registration drive that added more than 100,000 African American voters. In 1951, on Christmas night, Moore's house was bombed -- killing him and his wife, Harriette. The attack shocked many Americans. Among those who expressed their outrage was Karl Schuppert of Reading, Pennsylvania, who insisted that President Harry S Truman not let the murder go "unsolved". Non-Violence: Boycott: On December 1, 1955, after a long work day, Rosa Parks took a seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The driver instructed her and three other African American passengers to vacate their seats for white passengers. When Parks remained seated, the bus driver called the police, who arrested and fingerprinted her. Afterwards, Montgomery's Women's Political Caucus called for a one-day boycott of city buses. It lasted more than a year. This February 24, 1956, report describes progress 11 weeks into the boycott. On December 20, 1956, the Supreme Court ordered Montgomery buses desegregated.
55. NARORX_131211_219.JPG: Finger prints of Rosa Parks
56. NARORX_131211_222.JPG: Report on progress of Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott
57. NARORX_131211_227.JPG: Attacked in Selma: On March 7, 1965, John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. State troopers attacked the marchers with bullwhips, clubs, and tear gas. Lewis was among 58 people injured. Mrs. E. Jackson of Brooklyn, New York, wrote this letter to her congressional representative asking him to "help these poor innocent people."
58. NARORX_131211_231.JPG: Marching for Justice: Hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered around the Lincoln Memorial to call for racial justice at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. As this program details, Marian Anderson sang and leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, Mrs. Medgar Evers, James Farmer, and Martin Luther King Jr. gave speeches. [Note: Myrlie Evers was invited but her plane was late so she never spoke.]
59. NARORX_131211_238.JPG: Injustice & Resistance: The struggle to secure the civil rights of African Americans began in the 18th century with Revolutionary War soldiers fighting for their freedom. It continued in the 19th century with antislavery petitions, and in the 20th century with the formation of civil rights organizations. During the 1950s and 1960s, the struggle gained momentum as marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and court challenges to segregation gradually dissolved the legal underpinnings of racial discrimination. Today, challenges persist and Americans continue to struggle to form a "more perfect union."
60. NARORX_131211_249.JPG: Marriage Rights? Petition for Divorce: Ann Alricks, resident of Washington DC, and mother of two infant daughters, was abandoned by her husband. As a married woman, however, he legal status remained tied to her husband's. She could not sign contracts, own property, or claim wages she earned. In 1804 she petitioned Congress to grant her a divorce and her independence.
61. NARORX_131211_253.JPG: Am I Not A Citizen? In an often-quoted letter to her husband, Abigail Adams reminded John Adams to "Remember the ladies... Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands." When Adams wrote that letter in 1776, married women were the legal property of their husbands. Women did not own their bodies, their wages, or -- in the event of a divorce -- even their children. The documents displayed here show some of the ways that the citizenship of women was defined differently than that of men.
62. NARORX_131211_256.JPG: Political Rights? Taxation without Representation: Amelia Bloomer resented the fact that she property "on which she is taxes without representation." She petitioned Congress to either relieve her from "this burden of taxation" or grant her the right to vote. Bloomer was living in Iowa at the time but spent most of her life in New York, where she had introduced Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Station to each other. Amelia Bloomer, whose name became associated with the loose-fitting trousers known as blooms, ca 1852.
63. NARORX_131211_259.JPG: Financial Rights? No Credit, Even for Champions: Before the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in 1974, it was difficult for married women to get credit in their own names. When applying for a loan, they could be asked about their intent to bear children or their birth control practices. Even tennis champion Billie Jean King, who supported her household with her ample winnings and put her husband through law school, could not get a credit card in her name. She highlighted text.
64. NARORX_131211_263.JPG: Reproductive Rights? Margaret Sanger: Margaret Sanger, a nurse whose mother was pregnant 18 times in 22 years, coined the term "birth control" and dedicated herself to the women's rights struggle. In 1916 she was arrested in New York for advocating and disseminating information about birth control. These two letters ended up with the Children's Bureau the following year. One requests statistics to defend Sanger. The other seeks information to combat birth control.
65. NARORX_131211_271.JPG: "I long to hear that you have declared an independency -- and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands." -- Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 31, 1776
66. NARORX_131211_273.JPG: Making Views Known: The First Amendment guarantees all citizens the right to petition Congress about a particular cause, issue, or grievance. During the 19th century, it was considered indecent for women to speak in public to a group (although some overcame this obstacle), so women often used their constitutional right to petition to express their views.
67. NARORX_131211_276.JPG: Petition from Jefferson Township, Richland County, Ohio, to Hon. GW Geddes for woman suffrage, 1884
68. NARORX_131211_279.JPG: Petition from the Women Voters Anti-Suffrage Part of New York, 1917
69. NARORX_131211_286.JPG: Different Views on Woman Suffrage These two petitions demonstrate how citizens tried to influence policy through written declarations about issues that mattered to them. The 1884 pro-suffrage petition from Jefferson Township, Ohio, distinguished "voters" from "women." The 1917 petition from the Women Voters Anti-Suffrage Party of New York urged the Senate "to pass no measure involving such a radical change [suffrage] in the government" while the nation was at war.
70. NARORX_131211_289.JPG: Ratified & Not Ratified
71. NARORX_131211_293.JPG: 1920: Nineteenth Amendment: In the 1860s, supporters for woman suffrage began to pressure Congress for the right to vote. The first woman suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878, and for the next 40 years it was reintroduced regularly, becoming popularly known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Finally, in 1919 Congress passed the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, which three-fourths of the states ratified by August 18, 1920. Some felt that the next step was full equality under the law. The first Equal Rights Amendment was proposed three years later.
72. NARORX_131211_300.JPG: The Equal Rights Amendment Drafted by Alice Paul, a leader in the fight for women's rights, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was introduced in Congress in 1923 as a way to end discrimination against women. The controversial amendment was reintroduced at every subsequent session of Congress for 69 years. Supporters believed it would provide full equality for women; opponents considered it unnecessary and some believed it destructive of the family. In 1972 the amendment passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. When the extended deadline for ratification arrived in 1982, the amendment was three states short of the required number of states.
73. NARORX_131211_309.JPG: Title IX Equal Opportunity in Education: Passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX prohibited sex discrimination in education programs supported by Federal dollars. The number of girls playing sports in high school and college soon quintupled. Although Title IX guarantees equal opportunity, it did not guarantee equal spending. See highlighted text.
74. NARORX_131211_313.JPG: Civil Rights Act of 1964 Victory for Women and Blacks This document shows that Representative Howard Smith of Virginia introduced the word "sex," despite his previous opposition to the bill. Historians still debate his motives, but his actions resulted in sweeping change. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission characterized the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as "the most comprehensive and important of all Federal and state laws, prohibiting employment discrimination." -- Howard W. Smith From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Howard Worth Smith (February 2, 1883 – October 3, 1976), Democratic U.S. Representative from Virginia, was a leader of the conservative coalition who supported both racial segregation and women's rights. Early life and education Born in Broad Run, Virginia, on February 2, 1883, he attended public schools and graduated from Bethel Military Academy, Warrenton, Virginia, in 1901. He took his LLB at the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1903, was admitted to the bar in 1904 and practiced in Alexandria, Virginia. During World War I, he was assistant general counsel to the Federal Alien Property Custodian. From 1918 to 1922 he was Commonwealth's Attorney of Alexandria. He served as a judge 1922 to 1930 (he was often referred to as "Judge Smith" even while in Congress), and also engaged in banking, farming, and dairying. Congressional career He was elected in 1930 to Congress. He initially supported New Deal measures such as the Tennessee Valley Authority Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act. A leader of the conservative coalition, Smith led the opposition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) established by the Wagner Act of 1935. Conservatives created a special House committee to investigate the NLRB, headed by Smith and dominated by opponents of the New Deal. The committee conducted a sensationalist investigation that undermined public support for the NLRB and, more broadly, for the New Deal. In June 1940, amendments proposed by the Smith Committee passed by a large margin in the House, due in part to Smith's new alliance with William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor. The AFL was convinced the NLRB was controlled by leftists who supported the Congress of Industrial Organizations not the AFL in organizing drives. New Dealers stopped the Smith amendments, but Roosevelt replaced the CIO-oriented members on the NLRB with men acceptable to Smith and the AFL. Smith proposed the anti-Communist Alien Registration Act of 1940 18 U.S.C. � 2385, which became known as the Smith Act. It required resident aliens to register. It also banned advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government or its political subdivisions. CPUSA chairman Gus Hall, among others, was later convicted of violating its provisions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Yates v. United States (1957) that the First Amendment protected much radical speech, which halted Smith Act prosecutions under the Act. Civil rights As chairman of the all-powerful United States House Committee on Rules after 1955, Smith controlled the flow of legislation in the House. An opponent of racial integration, Smith used his power as chairman of the Rules Committee to keep much civil rights legislation from coming to a vote on the House floor. When the Civil Rights Act of 1957 came before Smith's committee, Smith said "The Southern people have never accepted the colored race as a race of people who had equal intelligence ... as the white people of the South." Speaker Sam Rayburn tried to reduce his power in 1961 with only limited success. Smith delayed passage the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One of Rayburn's reforms was the "Twenty-One Day Rule" requiring a bill to be sent to the floor within 21 days. Under pressure, Smith released the bill. Two days before the vote, Smith offered an amendment to insert "sex" after the word "religion", adding gender as a protected class of Title VII of the Act. The Congressional Record shows Smith made serious arguments, voicing concerns that white women would suffer greater discrimination without a protection for gender. Liberals -- who knew Smith was hostile to civil rights for blacks -- assumed that he was hostile to rights for women, unaware of his long connection with white feminists. House Rules Committee clerk's record of markup session adding "sex" to bill. In 1964 the burning national issue was civil rights for blacks. Liberals argued that it was the Negro's hour, and that women should wait their turn, but the National Woman's Party (NWP) found a way to include sex as a protected category, and thus achieved one of the main goals of the movement. The prohibition of sex discrimination was added on the floor by Smith. While Smith was a conservative who strongly opposed civil rights laws for blacks, he supported such laws for women. Smith's amendment passed by a vote of 168 to 133. Historians debate whether Smith's motivation was a cynical attempt to defeat the bill by someone opposed to both civil rights for blacks and women or an attempt to improve the bill by broadening it to include women. Smith expected that Republicans, who had included equal rights for women in their party's platform since 1940, would probably vote for the amendment. Historians speculate that Smith was trying to embarrass northern Democrats who opposed civil rights for women because labor unions opposed the clause. Smith asserted that he sincerely supported the amendment and along with Rep. Martha Griffiths was the chief spokesperson for the amendment. For twenty years Smith had sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment -- with no linkage to racial issues -- in the House. He for decades had been close to the NWP and its leader, Alice Paul, one of the leaders in winning the vote for women in 1920 and the chief supporter of equal rights proposals since then. She and other feminists had worked with Smith since 1945 trying to find a way to include sex as a protected civil rights category. Griffith argued that the new law would protect black women but not white women, and that was unfair to white women. Furthermore, she argued that the laws "protecting" women from unpleasant jobs were actually designed to enable men to monopolize those jobs, and that was unfair to women who were not allowed to try out for those jobs. The amendment passed with the votes of Republicans and Southern Democrats. Republicans and Northern Democrats voted for the bill's final passage. Smith had a part in temporarily blocking the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 because "Job Corps provision would allow coeducational and interracial job camps."
75. NARORX_131211_316.JPG: National Women's Conference, 1977 Plan for Action: More than 130,000 people -- including three First Ladies, several congresswoman, and Coretta Scott King -- attended the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas, in 1977. Topics included childcare, abortion, gay and lesbian rights, and the ERA. The outcome was a National Plan of Action for women's rights that is still being debated today. A counter-conferences, led by Phyllis Schlafly, a lawyer and activist, was held across town and drew approximately 30,000 people.
76. NARORX_131211_319.JPG: Beyond the Vote: Once suffrage for women was attained, female Americans were equal citizens under the law. Or were they? Major legislation did pass during the 1960s and 1970s that brought further guarantees of women's rights -- more than had ever been secured in such a short period of time. In the 1980s came the culmination of the struggle to pass a controversial amendment first introduced in the 1920s: the Equal Rights Amendment. However, women continue to fight for equal legal status, parity in pay, increased employment opportunities, and political representation.
77. NARORX_131211_322.JPG: For and Against the ERA: "I am deeply concerned about the hearings currently being held [for the Status of Women Report] ... Many of these people who are asking to testify, especially the younger women, have never had an opportunity to express their views." -- Shirley Chislom [sic], 1971 Equal Rights Amendment Proposed: In 1923 Susan B. Anthony's nephew Congressman Daniel R. Anthony, introduced H.J. Res. 75 proposing an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Drafted by Alice Paul, the ERA sparked a long and divisive struggle. It was finally sent to the states for ratification in 1972 but was not ratified within the required time. Opposed to the ERA: One opponent of the amendment was Florence Kelley, a supporter of woman suffrage who spent decades chipping away at the inequalities women faced in the workplace. Kelley was concerned that the ERA would wipe away gains made on behalf of women through specific pieces of labor legislation that had improved and protected women's status. [The pamphlet] Waring! Look Out for the so-called Equal Rights Amendment It won't create It will destroy This Dangerous Amendment * WOULD Imperil Family Support: In the name of a spurious "inequality," it would either deprive the wife of the right to support from her husband or give the husband an equal right to be supported by his wife. * WOULD Deprive Widows of Protection: These provisions would be threatened: (1) Social Security benefits for widows; (2) support allowances during the settlement of the husband's estate; (3) possession of the family home free from creditor's claims. * WOULD Wipe Out -- (1) State Minimum Wage Laws for women, (2) Women's Hour Laws, (3) All other special legislation for women. * WOULD Prohibit the Enactment of any kind of special legislation for women, no matter how imperative such legislation might be.
78. NARORX_131211_326.JPG: Unidentified woman wearing "Stop ERA" badge. National Women's Conference, Houston, Texas, 1977.
79. NARORX_131211_329.JPG: For and Against Suffrage Beware of Nagging: This 1917 letter from the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage spells out its arguments against woman suffrage. They include states' rights, the threat of socialism, and the warning that granting women the right to vote would be "an official endorsement of nagging as a national policy." Rebutting "The Nonsense": This leaflet, "The Nonsense of it," written by abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higgins and circulated in 1865, presented a rebuttal to common anti-suffrage arguments and perceptions that defined women's roles and behavior during the 19th century. Among these arguments were such concepts as women are "sufficiently represented already," for example, or "entirely distinct from men," or "silly creatures." [Text of the letter from http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Memorial_from_Alice_Wadsworth_of_the_National_Association_Opposed_to_Woman_Suffrage ] Hon. Chas. E. Fuller, M.C., Washington, D. C. Dear Sir: Your attention is invited to the following facts: 1. The proposed Federal suffrage amendment positively destroys the right of the people to vote on the question of woman suffrage, as provided for in their State Constitutions, and allows woman suffrage to be forced on unwilling States by the Legislatures of other States. 2. This proposal is a violation of the present Constitution of the United States, which provides that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." 3. The people, through their State Constitutions, ratified by popular vote, have reserved the right to adopt or withhold woman suffrage by popular vote. 4. This proposal asks you to rob the people of this right; to repudiate your party platform which recognizes the right of each State to settle this question for itself by popular vote. Every principle of patriotism, every ideal of self-government, and your oath to defend the Constitution, urges you to vote against the attempt to obtain woman suffrage in spite of the expressed will of the people. Moreover, this amendment, in time of war, would immediately open up a new nation wide suffrage campaign in forty-eight States to secure its ratification. It would give suffragists and socialists the opportunity to annoy and pester every Legislator in the United States until a majority of the men in thirty-six Legislatures surrendered their judgment and principles to political threats and cajolery. It would mean that no Legislature in the United States could meet without being surrounded by suffrage pickets. It would be an official endorsement of nagging as a national policy. It would give every radical woman the right to believe that she could get any law she wanted by "pestering" her City Council, her Legislature, her Congressman or her President - no matter how the people voted, nor what national crisis existed. And if feminism can be put through by pestering, regardless of the will of the people, so can pacifism, socialism and other isms. Woman suffrage has been voted upon nineteen times in the last five years. Sixteen times it was defeated by popular vote. Three times, (in Montana, Nevada and New York) it carried as the direct result of the increased socialist vote. This fact has been demonstrated mathematically. Will you not defend the Constitution, your party platform and the rights of the people, rather than surrender to the futile threats and impotent dictation of the Woman Suffrage Machine and the Socialists, who are seeking this amendment precisely because they are not strong enough to carry woman suffrage in the majority of the States by popular vote? Respectfully yours
80. NARORX_131211_332.JPG: Alice Paul and others at National Woman's Party headquarters after ratification of the 19th Amendment, August 18, 1920.
81. NARORX_131211_335.JPG: Woman Suffrage is a Curse to Woman and a Danger to the State (sticker ca 1912)
82. NARORX_131211_338.JPG: Winning The Vote: Before 1920, a handful of states allowed American women full voting rights equal to those of men. Most women, however, were excluded from voting. The woman suffrage movement weathered deep schisms on how full suffrage could best be secured -- through the states of through a constitutional amendment. However, by 1916 all major suffrage organizations supported an amendment. On August 18, 1920 -- after decades or organizing, petitioning, marching, staging hunger strikes, and holding silent vigils -- a three-fourths majority of the states had ratified the 19th Amendment, extending full voting rights to women. Yet full enfranchisement was not a reality, many women remained voteless because of discriminatory laws.
83. NARORX_131211_349.JPG: Suffrage for All: "In Our Government.... A Large Majority Have No Voice" This printed memorial, or petition, pleads for Congress to recognize that "all discriminations on account of sex or race may be removed." Founded in 1866 by Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, the American Equal Rights Association demanded universal suffrage. However, as tensions grew between African Americans and women's rights activists, the group disbanded just a few years later. See highlighted text. Appeal to the Women of the United States: In 1876, on behalf of the National Woman Suffrage Suffrage Association, women's rights activists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton signed this appeal to dedicate the nation's second century to "securing justice to Woman." It asked women to gather signatures and send them in to make "... the largest petition ever yet."
84. NARORX_131211_350.JPG: Kaiser Wilson Have you forgotten your sympathy with the poor Germans because they were not self-governed? 20,000,000 American women are not self-governed. Take the beam out of your own eye.
85. NARORX_131211_353.JPG: Suffragists: White House Protestors Jailed: In January 1917, members of the National Women's Party, led by Alice Paul, began picketing outside the White House in support of woman suffrage, the first political activists to do so. The protestors were arrested and, in some cases, imprisoned in Virginia's Occoquan Workhouse. While in jail, many were mistreated; some went on hunger strikes and were force-fed.
86. NARORX_131211_368.JPG: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." -- Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus," 1883
87. NARORX_131211_370.JPG: Immigrant Case Files: Whenever travelers entered the United States,. filed for citizenship, or engaged in court actions, they left official records. For many, the government accumulated extensive files of memos, interviews, correspondence, photographs, and forms documenting detentions, alien registrations, citizenship proceedings, and legal challenges. These case files provide historians and genealogists with detailed stories of individuals whose rights were challenged -- and defended.
88. NARORX_131211_373.JPG: "Application of alleged American-born Chinese for preinvestigation," not dated.
89. NARORX_131211_376.JPG: Deposition from white witnesses attesting to Wong Kim Arc's birth in the United States, 1889
90. NARORX_131211_379.JPG: Citizen by Birth? Born in San Francisco in 1873, Wong Kim Arc traveled to China in 1895. Before he left, he filed this application for preinvestigation of his American citizenship. Nevertheless, he was denied reentry and was detained on a ship in San Francisco harbor. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that under the 14th Amendment, Wong was a citizen by birth and could not be excluded.
91. NARORX_131211_389.JPG: Yearning to Breathe Free: The United States is often described as a nation of immigrants. People from around the globe have been drawn here, creating a diverse, dynamic culture and a wealthy, democratic nation. At the same time, debates about the rights of newcomers have occurred since our nation's founding. -- How has the Federal Government regulated immigration? -- What rights could immigrants hope for as they entered the United States? -- How did immigrants attempt to defend their rights? Records created by Congress, government officials, private groups, and immigrants themselves -- and now preserved at the National Archives -- document these recurring questions and conflicts.
92. NARORX_131211_390.JPG: Documenting Immigrant Communities: Conducted every 10 years, the US census collects details about all people living in the United States -- including members of immigrant communities. Its pages provide a wealth of information for genealogists tracing family ties and for historians attempting to reconstruct the lives and settlement patterns of different immigrant groups.
93. NARORX_131211_394.JPG: Page from the census schedule for Lowell, Massachusetts, 1860
94. NARORX_131211_397.JPG: Immigrant Textile Workers: By the 1830s several textile mills were operating in Lowell, Massachusetts. By the 1850s they employed an increasing number of immigrants -- especially from Ireland. The newcomers fought discrimination, long hours, and demands to work faster. This 1860 Census volume documents female "mill hands" living in two Lowell boarding houses.
95. NARORX_131211_402.JPG: Communities Protest: A Chinese Community Objects: In 1910 the US Immigrant Service opened a new facility for processing immigrants arriving in San Fransisco. The Chinese community objected that Angel Island's location made it difficult to visit relatives and that inspectors were "exceedingly harsh" towards Chinese. This handbill asserted the "We must with one accord protest for the equal rights which were enjoyed by us." German Americans Oppose Restrictive Laws: In this 1890 petition, the North American Turner-Bund, a German-American society, protested "any and all the measures" that would change current immigration laws. They feared that new laws would limit immigration from their homeland. Despite the petition, the new year, Congress passed legislation that established the Immigration Service and expanded the list of who could be refused entrance.
96. NARORX_131211_407.JPG: A Chinese Community Objects: In 1910 the US Immigrant Service opened a new facility for processing immigrants arriving in San Fransisco. The Chinese community objected that Angel Island's location made it difficult to visit relatives and that inspectors were "exceedingly harsh" towards Chinese. This handbill asserted the "We must with one accord protest for the equal rights which were enjoyed by us."
97. NARORX_131211_410.JPG: German Americans Oppose Restrictive Laws: In this 1890 petition, the North American Turner-Bund, a German-American society, protested "any and all the measures" that would change current immigration laws. They feared that new laws would limit immigration from their homeland. Despite the petition, the new year, Congress passed legislation that established the Immigration Service and expanded the list of who could be refused entrance.
98. NARORX_131211_417.JPG: Assimilation and Relocation: Coping with Evacuation: After the United States declared war on Japan in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 creating zones "from which any or all persons may be excluded" -- the justification for evacuating and incarcerating about 120,000 citizens and non-citizens of Japanese descent to camps away from the Pacific Coast. This newspaper from an evacuation center in North Portland, Oregon, illustrates how internees tried to maintain normalcy. Japanese Americans Reach Out: In 1941, about 127,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans lived in the mainland United States. The President of the Japanese American Citizens League wrote the Immigration and Naturalization Service offering assistance with education programs "inculcating to the foreign born first generation ... an intimate and sincere appreciation for the things which make America great."
99. NARORX_131211_423.JPG: Defending Communities: Newcomers to America often settle among others from the same geographic or ethnic background. These communities provide an initial welcome, familiar faces, a common language, and a foundation from which to fight prejudice and build political influence.
100. NARORX_131211_424.JPG: Petition of Protest: "The Spirit of Liberty Breathes a Different Air, From This Law" In 1798, fearing that immigrants might bring French revolutionary ideals to America, Congress passed a law extending the waiting time for becoming a citizen to 14 years. This 1802 petition from "Aliens residing in the County of Lancaster in ... Pennsylvania" protested the law. Congress repealed it later that year. See highlighted text.
101. NARORX_131211_428.JPG: Regulation, Restriction, and Reform Ending Quotas: A 1965 amendment to the Immigration Act of 1952 abolished the system of country-based immigration quotas. New provisions for family reunification encouraged a surge of immigration from Asia and Latin America. Political cartoonist Gibson Crockett, who saw the law's passage as a triumph that ended past discrimination, sent this cartoon to President Lyndon Johnson. Amnesty: Congressional efforts at crafting comprehensive immigration legislation during the early 1980s failed. In 1984 and 1985, however, legislation including an amnesty program, agricultural provisions, and employer fines passed both the House and Senate. As this White House memorandum indicates, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law on November 6, 1986. See highlighted text. Restriction: The Immigration Act of 1924 imposed quotas by nationality, to determine who could enter the United States. People from the Western Hemisphere were exempt. Fewer southern and eastern Europeans, and more northern and western Europeans, were permitted entry. The annual ceiling was lowered from 387,803 to 186,437 immigrants, and visas with photographs were required.
102. NARORX_131211_433.JPG: Regulating Immigration: During our nation's early years, states and cities enacted most immigration regulation. After the Civil War, however, a series of Supreme Court rulings gave increased responsibility to the Federal Government to control immigration. As millions of people from around the world poured into the United States, Congress passed laws, approved processes, and established agencies to distinguish "desirable" from "undesirable" immigrants, to control who entered the country, and to determine who could become a citizen and who would remain an alien.
103. NARORX_131211_437.JPG: Early Laws Steps to Citizenship: The Naturalization Act of 1790 allowed "free white persons" who had lived in the United States for two years, and in a particular state for one year, to apply for citizenship. A "person of good character" could take an oath and become a citizen. Children of naturalized citizens under age 21 were considered citizens. Women could become citizens, but their citizenship did not mean they could vote. Later, Chinese, and eventually other Asians, were categorized as "non-white" and thus ineligible for citizenship.
104. NARORX_131211_439.JPG: No Idiots, Criminals, and Paupers: As detailed in this 1910 notice, individuals prohibited from entering the United States included "Idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons and epileptics" as well as "Criminals, polygamists, and anarchists." Also excluded were "Paupers and persons likely to become a public charge." Written for use at Ellis Island, this notice was revised for the Galveston, Texas, immigration station.
105. NARORX_131211_441.JPG: Lobbying for a Literacy Test: In this 1904 letter to the Commissioner General of Immigration, the Secretary of the Immigration Restriction League argued that a literacy test is "by far the best additional means" of selecting who could enter the United States. The Immigration Act of 1917 required prospective immigrants to read a passage in any of several languages.
106. NARORX_131211_444.JPG: Immigration Quotas Map: Look at the numbers on this map. Match them to the country shown on the legend to the right, which shows immigration quotas by country as set by the Immigration Act of 1921.
107. NARORX_131211_452.JPG: Some Excluded Some Welcomed
108. NARORX_131211_455.JPG: 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act: During the 1850s, Chinese laborers first came to the United States in large numbers to build the transcontinental railroad. By the 1880s, racism and fear of job competition fostered a vocal anti-Chinese movement in the western part of the country. In response, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stipulated that most Chinese could not enter the United States (there were exceptions for diplomats, merchants, students, and tourists) and that Chinese not born in the Untied States could not become citizens. Virtually all immigration from China stopped. The act was repealed in 1943.
109. NARORX_131211_464.JPG: 1884 Statue of Liberty: Deed of Sale: Holding high the flame of hope in New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty has welcomed generations of immigrants and became an icon for freedom. Designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, "Liberty Enlightening the World" was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States. This deed of gift marked the statue's presentation on July 4, 1884, in Paris. At the statue's base, Emma Lazarus's poem, "The New Colossus" speaks of the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
110. NARORX_131211_481.JPG: Americanization "How Are You, My Alien Friend?" During the 1920s, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) developed A New English System for New American Citizens, a curriculum that combined English-language exercises with lessons in American history and government. "We Need Your Loyalty, Art, and Labor" In the early 20th century, some companies offered language and citizenship classes, vocational education, and social work to help newcomers assimilate. In Pennsylvania, the Chester Shipbuilding Company published this special "Americanization Number" for its in-house magazine in 1919.
111. NARORX_131211_484.JPG: For And Against Mexican Workers: During the Great Depression, the Immigration and Naturalization Service received many complaints -- including this 1934 telegram -- that Mexican workers were taking jobs from American workers. A 1943 telegram to the Commissioner of Immigration, however, claims that Mexican laborers were "absolutely necessary to harvest vitally essential war crops" during World War II because of wartime labor shortages.
112. NARORX_131211_487.JPG: Arriving in America: New immigrants to the United States first had to successfully negotiate the process of landing and entering the country. Once admitted, they found that attitudes toward newcomers varied and ranged from sincere offers to help learn a language, get a job, or become a citizen, to outright hostility.
113. NARORX_131211_490.JPG: Hostility: Klan Women Press for Quotas: During the 1920s, the three million members of the Ku Klux Klan targeted recent immigrants as well as African Americans. In this letter to President Calvin Coolidge, Ohio "Women of the Ku Klux Klan" urged Coolidge to sign legislation that would become the Immigrant Act of 1924, which imposed quotas by nationality. Fearing "European Depravity": As immigration from Europe grew during the 1830s and 1840s, an anti-immigrant movement became increasingly vocal about fears that newly arrived "Foreigners" would remain loyal to European rulers and undermine American democratic institutions. This petition from citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, urged Congress to lengthen the waiting time before an immigrant could vote to 21 years. See highlighted text.
114. NARORX_131211_498.JPG: Cold War Crises: Refugees from Hungary: The Eisenhower administration established The Presidential Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief after the Soviet military crushed a Hungarian reform movement in 1956. As this memo describes, the Committee provided temporary housing at an old New Jersey Army base. More than 200,000 Hungarian refugees settled in Europe, Australia, South and Central America, and the United States. Controversial Boatlift: In April 1980, Fidel Castro permitted Cubans to leave for the United States from the port of Mariel -- leading to an exodus of over 130,000 people. This Coast Guard "Incident Memo" is among the earliest reports on the boatlift, which became controversial in the United States when Castro added prisoners, addicts, the mentally challenged, and homosexuals to the exodus.
115. NARORX_131211_503.JPG: Come To America! The American Emigrant Company, a private firm that promoted European immigration to the western United States, published a pamphlet to attract Swedish immigrants. It included ads like one from the Wyoming Development Company promising "60,000 acres of first class farmland."
116. NARORX_131211_506.JPG: Enticements Wanted: Immigrants: In 1862, during the Civil War, Secretary of State William Seward issued this circular to US diplomatic posts encouraging them to make it known that the United States welcomes "the industrious laboring man and artisan." Foreign-born men made up a large proportion of the Union Army, and aliens staked claims for land under the Homestead Act. See highlighted text. Texas: "Labor Paradise" To persuade emigrants to come to America, steamship companies routinely printed ads celebrating the wonders newcomers would find here. This ad printed in the Ottoman Empire around 1909 describes Texas as a "Labor Paradise" where "without any references and intermediation anybody can at once obtain work and money."
117. NARORX_131211_514.JPG: Leaving Home Why have people left their homelands and families to come to the United States? War, poverty, famine, persecution, or injustice pushed some emigrants out of their homelands. Many were drawn to the United States by a desire to marry, reunify a family, open a business, make money, or educate their children. For others, the impetus was the promise of political or religious freedom.
118. NARORX_131211_517.JPG: "We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing." -- Abraham Lincoln, 1864
119. NARORX_131211_519.JPG: The journey begins with England's Magna Carta, which inspired America's Founders to assert their freedom. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights -- enshrined above this gallery -- are milestones in the struggle for liberty. Generations worked to secure the freedom and equality these documents guarantee. "Records of Rights" features selected stories from the National Archives for those struggles and accomplishments.
120. NARORX_131211_526.JPG: David M. Rubenstein Gallery
121. NARORX_131211_529.JPG: Enduring Principles of Liberty: Magna Carta was written by a group of 13th-century barons to protect their rights and property against a tyrannical king. It is concerned with many practical matters and specific grievances relevant to the feudal system under which they lived. The interests of the common man were hardly apparently in the minds of the men who brokered the agreement. But there are two principles expressed in Magna Carta that resonate to this day: "No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice."
122. NARORX_131211_532.JPG: "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice." -- Magna Carta
123. NARORX_131211_535.JPG: Records of Rights 1297 Magna Carter: On June 15, 1215, in a field at Runnymede, King John affixed his seal to Magna Carta. Confronted by 40 rebellious barons, he consented to their demands in order to avert civil war. Just 10 weeks later, Pope Innocent III nullified the agreement, and England plunged into internal war. Although Magna Carta failed to resolve the conflict between King John and his barons, it was reissued several times after his death. Our display, courtesy of David M. Rubenstein, is one of four surviving originals of the 1297 Magna Carta. This version was entered into the official Statute Rolls of England. Centuries later, Magna Carta remains a powerful symbol of mankind's eternal struggle against oppression.
124. NARORX_131211_566.JPG: Magna Carta marked its 800th anniversary on June 15, 2015
125. NARORX_131211_571.JPG: "The democratic aspiration is no mere phase in human history ... It was written in Magna Carta." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941 Inaugural Address
Description of Subject Matter: Records of Rights
Permanent Exhibit
David M. Rubenstein Gallery
In “Records of Rights,” explore how generations of Americans sought to fulfill the promise of the founding documents. The David M. Rubenstein Gallery exhibition showcases original and facsimile National Archives documents and uses an innovative 17-foot-long touch-screen interactive table to illustrate how Americans have debated about and fought for rights like free speech, religion, and equality.
1297 Magna Carta: Begin your exploration of "Records of Rights" by viewing an original 1297 Magna Carta, on display courtesy of David M. Rubenstein.
Landmark Document: As you continue your journey through the "Records of Rights" exhibition, stop at the Landmark Document exhibition case, which features a 1790 broadside copy of the Bill of Rights. This broadside copy of the joint resolution proposing 12 amendments to the Constitution was published in New Hampshire, the fifth state to ratify the Bill of Rights on January 25, 1790. Virginia took the total over the three-fourths threshold with its ratification on December 15, 1791. Ten of the 12 proposed amendments were then appended to the Constitution.
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