Race, Voting Rights, and the Past: People, Moments, and Documents: Home

Martin Luther King., Jr., American Christian Minister and Civil Rights Leader

"Give Us the Ballot," a 1957 speech advocating voting rights for African Americans in the United States. King delivered the speech at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom gathering at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on May 17.

Audio of entire speech.

Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th U.S. President

Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise, March 15, 1965

Transcript of speech.

ProQuest History Vault includes multiple archival collections that document some of the most important and widely studied-topics in American history.

• Archival collections focus on the Black Freedom Movement of the 20th Century, Southern Life and Slavery, Women's Rights, International Relations, American Politics and Society with a strong focus on the 20th Century, and labor unions, workers and radical politics in the 20th Century.
  • Documents include federal government records, organizational records, internal memos, legal briefings, immigration records, personal papers, letters, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, etc.  

HeinOnline’s Civil Rights and Social Justice database

• Contains more than 650 titles from the United States Commission on Civil Rights
• Browse through a dedicated subcollection hosting nearly 1,000 congressional hearings
• Learn the process that went into passing civil rights legislation and their various evolving pieces with a curated list of nearly 50 legislative histories
• Discover nearly 1,400 books, reports, and publications on a variety of civil rights issues

Database information and LibGuide.